Something is happening in the Advent Christian denomination. There has been a pain that we have been carrying within us, the sharp hurt of hopelessness, the heavy burden of futility, a bitter irony for a denomination conceived in hope. If as Bob Dylan says, “He not busy being born is busy dying”, until now it has seemed that we made the latter our business, sauntering our way to a denominational dustbin. There has been no reason to believe anything else.
Read MoreIs “No Creed but the Bible” actually faithful to the Bible? It is a simple question that can spur a lot of debate, but it is worth asking and trying to answer so that our churches and the denomination as a whole can become biblically stronger, healthier, and more unified. Here are 10 reasons we should pull a Frozen and “Let it go!” (If I had hair, I’d sling it back while I sang the song, but you will just have to imagine that for yourself!).
Read MoreI’m new to the denomination and have been working as the Director of Student Ministry at Oak Hill Bible Church in Oxford, MA for the last two years. I came in as a Southern Baptist, but through the mentorship of others I found inconsistencies in my view of anthropology and eschatology; I’m now a conditionalist. As my good friend Nathaniel now likes to say, “Erik is a Reformed Baptist Adventist” or in other words, “Erik is two parts jerk and one part confused.”(I'll let you figure out the formula) During my short tenure, I’ve noticed that we have several issues as a denomination that many have tried to fix, most will recognize that we still have a lot of work to do. In this piece, I would like to tell you what I’m looking for next week at Triennial as a new Adventist who plans to stay here awhile.
Read MoreAny observer of the American political scene would likely judge that the battle over same-sex marriage is a thing of the past; marriage has been redefined in the United States and religious conservatives, inasmuch as they disagree, have largely accepted this political reality. The new front for the battle of redefinition has been planted squarely upon the issue of gender identity, with efforts appearing across the United States to give persons access to the gendered bathrooms and sports teams that match the gender by which they identify. Coincidentally, the central headquarters for the Advent Christian General Conference and the location for the 2017 Triennial Convention are found in the state of North Carolina, a notorious battleground for this issue. North Carolina’s decision to reject what has been called the “Bathroom Bill” has caused many organizations to spurn the state and to refuse to host their company events there.
Read MoreI do not believe that there is the remotest chance that this proposed [Statement of Faith] will fail to pass at the Triennial Convention. I personally know of no one, for sure, that is planning to vote against it.*
We successfully passed the resolution for ACGC to officially embrace the NAE Statement of Faith and become a full member of NAE at the 1987 ACGC Convention (in Charleston, WV, of all places; at the time a bastion of A.C. non-trinitarianism).
Read MoreThese are excerpts from an informal email exchange between Dr. john H. Roller and Pastor Corey McLaughlin that have been edited and shared with permission in hopes of creating dialogue about the upcoming Triennial vote on the Statement of Faith. This statement is the same as that of the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE).
Read MoreTom Loghry: We’re here talking with Andy Rice and Derek Irvine, the dual-creative force behind the “younger pastors” phenomenon that is afoot in the Eastern Region of the Advent Christian denomination. Before getting to our questions about “young pastors”, would you each mind sharing with us just a little bit about yourselves?
Read MoreDo churches need to be revitalized?
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