Editor Tom Loghry’s outline for an Advent Christian reset.
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There it an important upcoming conference hat could help sort our Advent Christian identity….
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I am responding to those who asked questions and made pertinent comments about my previous post on ACV’s Facebook page. I do not have a Facebook account and was not able to respond on that platform. ..If faith is genuine and saving then when it is presented with the truth of Christ being the Great I Am, who, as the Word, became flesh, in order to save sinners, such faith will welcome this glorious truth and not oppose it.
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Loosening our grip on some of our distinctives would only amount to extinction if we are a movement, not a church. Movements must be steadfast in maintaining their niche points of concern, but churches need not…If the Advent Christian church shifted to positions of neutrality on certain secondary doctrines we would remain the church no matter the degree to which we redefine Advent Christian identity.
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I am writing this as an appeal to my fellow Advent Christians who personally hold to the full deity and humanity of Christ in his one person but who do not want to challenge those in our ranks who have no conviction regarding this teaching or who actually oppose it. Before I make the particular appeal let me state some assumptions and offer two points for you to consider.
In “In Defense of an Individual Translation,” Jefferson Vann explains why he is translating the Bible since so many good modern translations exist.
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We’re overwhelmed with labels these days. Political labels. Religious labels. Cultural labels. Even labels designed to describe human sexuality. Trust me, many of those labels are not flattering. As you read, I’m sure you can think of unflattering labels and names all the way back into your childhood. I know I can.
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A half-century ago during my college years, my Christian faith ran into a ditch. I made a profession of faith in 1965 and I hung around youth groups for a number of years. I even dived into Pentecostalism and its highly expressive versions of Christianity. But the ditch came in the form of hard questions about life and living. My understanding of Scripture was low. And my questions were large.
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Jefferson Vann shares a report on his Bible translation project.
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Paul’s exhortation that the believing husband is to love his wife rather than dominate her shows that the Gospel is to shape how the husband is to be in relationship with his wife. All notions that the wife’s submission to her husband is for his personal happiness, self-interest or to massage his ego do not stand under the weight of the text. She is not to sacrifice for him but he is to sacrifice for her. Headship and submission within a Christian marriage is fueled by Gospel grace and is a portrait of the covenant relation between Christ and the church.
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Four key events and issues could make it seem like things are dire. The situation may be critical. You be the judge. However, I’d caution you that God is at work even in the worst situations. If Jesus overcame the grave, then he can undoubtedly overcome our dilemma. These four issues include Dr. Matt Larkin’s departure from MTI and his role as Coordinator of Leadership Development, the discontinuation of the Maranatha Daily Devotional, the ongoing pastoral shortage, and the deficit of quality leaders for denominational leadership positions.
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In “When implication hijacks meaning” Jefferson Vann shares a pet peeve about modern Bible translation.
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Today for the final time I read the daily meditation from the devotional, Maranatha. For a variety of reasons this daily devotional, first published in 1944, ceased publication…
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In "A conditionalist translates 2 Peter" Jefferson Vann shares his translation notes on 2 Peter, with special reference to texts that imply conditional immortality.
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Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, and there is much to be thankful for. It’s always good to write down the things for which we are grateful be it in a journal or a more public place like a blog post. We can be thankful for things big and small, and writing them down helps me to ponder things that I too often take for granted. So, here’s my list:
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Lifeway Research indicates that 26% of SBC pastors are bivocational. I don’t know how many Advent Christian pastors maintain a marketplace job in addition to their role in the church. However, with the steady decline of Advent Christian church attendance, we must expect the number of bivocational pastors will only increase. For some, this could bring about a missiological revival and spur church revitalization. For others, it will be like palliative care.
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f we continue to encourage covocational ministry, more Christians will see it as a viable career path. A person can love their current vocation and see God’s call on their life to serve him by serving a local church simultaneously. Essentially, we open the door to otherwise qualified people who could have a call on their lives to serve but shut out that possibility because of perceived limitations bound by a full-time vocation-only model.
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If a church isn’t trained to hire pastors, then it is likely they will lack the skills necessary for hiring them. Mistakes will be made, which can have several undesirable impacts. Consider the church that, after six months, found a candidate, but when the candidate asked how much the church could offer in compensation, they responded with, “We won’t share that information until you accept the call because we don’t want a pastor who is greedy but trusts that God will provide.”
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The Advent Christian Church is not the only network or denomination struggling with finding called and qualified pastors. I remember sitting in a Church Revitalization class at Gordon-Conwell in South Hamilton when one of our Professors would bring in the ABC equivalent to Superintendents. Each one would provide some type of insight on church leadership or revitalization but would always take 10 minutes to pitch to eager seminary students why they should consider one of their many open churches in New England.
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The last article ended with a call for us to put everything on the table. If we are going to do that, then we need to understand exactly what we are as a denomination. The purpose of this article is to help us do that, but perhaps not in the way you would expect. Generally, when the question “what are we?” is asked, the answers revolve around common beliefs or relationships. But I want us to look at our structure, and particularly how our churches relate to one another and to the levels of our denomination, orienting what we are in relation to other types of denominational structure. Let’s begin, then, with an overview of the options.
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