Story by Heidi Wetmore
The Spencerville Adventist Academy (SAA) Honors Chorus was one of the 71 select musical ensembles recently invited to perform at the 28th annual Music for All National Festival, presented by Yamaha in Indianapolis. The festival showcased America’s finest middle- and high-school student musicians and music ensembles, hailing from 22 states and Puerto Rico.
Story by Jim Buchanan
People love Jesus because Jesus loved people," said José Cortes Jr., associate director of Evangelism for the North American Division Ministerial Association, at the Columbia Union Conference's Transformational Evangelism event. "Our problem isn’t with our message… But we need members who are filled with the love of God and the compassion of Jesus."
Watch more presentations from Transformational Evangelism here.
"You have people coming each week and sharing their most precious non-renewable resource each week--Time. Everything [in the church service] should be done with planning and purpose," said Emil Peeler, senior pastor at the Capitol Hill church in Washington, D.C., at the Columbia Union Conference's Transformational Evangelism conference.
Talking to pastors at the Columbia Union Conference's Transformational Evangelism event, Bill McClendon, vice president for Administration at the North Pacific Union Conference said, "You aren’t the one to do all the work of ministry, you’re called to lead an organization of believers and charge them to do ministry for the Lord."
Click here to see more presentations from the event.
"We are living in a post-modern post Christian society," said Carltom Byrd, Speaker/Director of the Breath of Life Television Broadcast, at the Columbia Union Conference's Transformational Evangelism event. "The trends are going to continue downward even though we can make statistics look however we want to look."
He also added, "If our system continues the way it is and we don’t have the growth we need to have, the system is not sustainable. So God told us to go. But more than that, we’ve got to go because it isn’t sustainable."
At Columbia Union Conference's recent Transformational Evangelism, Elizabeth Talbot, Speaker/Director for the Jesus 101 Biblical Institute, shared Changing the Culture of Your Church by Helping it Understand the Gospel.
"It is God who works, who transforms the heart. ...We just want to not make it difficult and help them make their next step," shared Tim Madding, lead pastor of Potomac Conference's Beltsville's Ammendale and Tech Road campuses in Maryland.
Watch Madding's presentation at Columbia Union Conference's Transformational Evangelism event below.
Pastor Cesar Gonzalez, a pastor in the Chesapeake Conference, recently shared his thoughts on ethical evangelism. This article doesn't necessarily represent the views of the Visitor staff.
Why don’t we talk about the ethics of how we do evangelism?
I live in the poorest county in the state of Maryland. The neediest children in the entire state live just a few blocks from my home, where I now sit comfortably writing these lines. I think of them often as I care for my own children who have warm, safe beds, plenty of clothes and abundant food.
"Spiritual growth and maturity are always gauged by application, by what people DO, not what they KNOW," said Mike Speegle, senior pastor at Chesapeake Conference's New Hope church in Fulton at Columbia Union Conference's recent Transformational Evangelism event.