ANN Bulletin - November 6, 2007 - unOFFICIAL ADVENTIST FORUM

Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do.
And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with
– even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department.
Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently. Romans 14.1: The Message

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#144068 - 11/07/07 02:26 AM ANN Bulletin - November 6, 2007
magilly46 Registered: 10/29/02 Posts: 178 Loc: BC	ANN Bulletin Adventist News Network Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters November 6, 2007 In This Issue: --------------------- * Urban population overtakes rural areas; Adventist Church focusing mission * Healthful living reduces cancer risk, study says * Kenya: elections planner caters to Adventists, Muslims * Taking church from pews to couches * 'Objective criticism' of religion deemed a human right * ADRA Update --------------------- ------------------------------------------------------- Urban population overtakes rural areas; Adventist Church focusing mission Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [Taashi Rowe/ANN] ------------------------------------------------------- Populations in urban areas now outnumber those in rural areas, United Nations Population Fund officials said in an announcement earlier this year. But as Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders create strategic plans, leaders say the church's presence in urban areas remains minimal. "When you see the raw statistics it's frightening," says Gary Krause, director of the world church's Office of Adventist Mission. "We're just not touching the cities." But he notes that the Adventist Church has started to fund more work in large cities than ever before. Much of the church's attention on big cities started in 2004 when the church collected a special offering called Hope for the Big Cities. The funds allowed the Adventist Church's regional offices around the world to make long-term plans for reaching the large cities. The Adventist Mission committee voted to put one-fifth of monies received from the world church between 2005 to 2010 toward church planting in urban areas. "We have not yet seen a tangible difference in presence," says Mark Finley, world church vice president for evangelism. "But there is a tangible difference in attitudes. Hope for the Big Cities has heightened profiles of cities so the church's world regions can develop strategic plans for those cities." Already there is promising growth. In a report on mission at the church's October business meetings, church leaders pointed to Lima, Peru where 1,800 new churches have been formed in that city this year. Finley points to Jakarta, Indonesia where more than 1,600 people joined the church in July after a series of small group meetings. Krause encourages every Adventist to get involved with mission in cities. "We can't sit here and tell people there is one way to plant churches because the way you do it in New York could be different in Dhaka, Bangladesh," he says. But he does have some advice, "Invest in people and make it long term." Finley agreed. "Mission must be more personal. People are looking for relationships ... cities provide an opportunity for the church to share the warmth, love, companionship and friendship of Christ." Church officials announced at the October meeting that the church's membership has grown to more than 15.4 million members, up by a million members since last year. Even though there is no significant trend of Adventist churches growing in cities, growth is happening -- in rural areas and on islands. "We're more comfortable in rural areas," Krause explains. "That's the way we've always done it." Many local church administrations around the world still focus on areas people are leaving -- small towns and rural areas, says Monte Sahlin, an Adventist Church researcher based in Ohio. One explanation for the church's ubiquity in rural areas and not cities, he says, could be that "as we have grown there is a tendency to focus more internally than to focus on mission." Even with an increase in funding, church leaders agree the church remains small in cities mostly because the urban environment presents unique obstacles to outreach. Sahlin says secularization is a major roadblock to mission in cities. "We never really learned how to convey the gospel to secular people. Generally we presupposed that people were well-rooted in a religion and we would build on that." Also, he notes that it costs more to do mission in cities than in rural and small town areas. "Often decisions on where to go with evangelism has to do with what's cheap," Sahlin says. "We go with a price tag instead of God's will." Sahlin says another challenge to the Adventist Church's mission to cities is the diversity. "There are so many different kinds of people you really can't have a single standard brand of worship style or method of presentation." Finley advocates a change of mind when it comes to diversity. While the diversity in cities can be seen as an obstacle, he says "with multicultural populations in large cities you can do world mission in a local city and reach people you may never have reached in their home country." ------------------------------------------------------- Healthful living reduces cancer risk, study says Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [Ansel Oliver/ANN] ------------------------------------------------------- A report on the link between cancer and diet, physical activity and weight is providing more evidence that healthful living fights disease. After a mega-study of 7,000 previous studies, scientists have offered 10 recommendations for avoiding preventable cancer, including maintaining a healthy weight and limiting consumption of red meat and alcohol. The report, released by the London-based World Cancer Research Fund (WCRF) on October 31, is the largest collection of data ever brought together on the subject, researchers said. Other recommendations include adequate exercise, eating a diet rich in vegetables, fruits and grains, limiting consumption of salty, processed food and avoiding sugary drinks. The study also said "the evidence that alcohol is a cause of cancer is stronger now than ever before." "This report is a real milestone in the fight against cancer, because its recommendations represent the most definitive advice on preventing cancer that has ever been available anywhere in the world," project director Martin Wiseman said in a media release. Leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church said the international Protestant denomination's emphasis on healthful living and celebration of life is now further backed by evidence. "It validates what we, as Adventists, have been saying about our health message," said Dr. Allan Handysides, Health Ministries director for the Adventist world church. The Adventist Church's health principles are rooted in the teachings of church co-founder Ellen G. White who wrote about the subject more than 100 years ago. Handysides noted that reactions to the new report were mixed. "The response, even to the massive amount of data, is similar to the response when the data on tobacco was first released," Handysides said, referring to reactions from food industry lobbyists and other critics. "It takes integrity to take news and process it with a balanced and fair mind," he said, urging church members to do the same. "The basis for our vegetarianism is the pursuit of health and not the pursuit of anybody else's agenda but our own," Handysides said. Trish Guy, manager of Adventist-owned Sanitarium Nutrition Service in Australia, welcomed the report and its recommendations. "As a nation, we are experiencing increasing rates of chronic diseases such as cancer, heart disease, diabetes, hypertension and obesity and studies have shown Australians are not eating adequate amounts of fruits and vegetables," Guy said. The current WCRF report was the result of five years of research. The WCRF was established in 1982 to research and raise awareness of the link between lifestyle choices and preventable cancers. ------------------------------------------------------- Kenya: elections planner caters to Adventists, Muslims Nairobi, Kenya .... [Philip Gai/ANN Staff] ------------------------------------------------------- Kenyans won't have to choose between worship services and civic duty during this year's presidential elections, according to remarks made by Samwell Kivuitu, chairman of the Electoral Commission of Kenya, during a press conference earlier this month. To accommodate the country's Muslims, Kivuitu said, the December Election Day will not fall on a Friday -- the Muslim day of worship -- as it did in 2002. Kivuitu also indicated government officials would consider Seventh-day Adventists in choosing an election date. The almost 600,000-strong Adventist community in Kenya requested that elections not be held on any religious group's designated day of worship after run-off elections in the country were held on Saturday in 2005, says Dan M'masi, Public Affairs and Religious Liberty director for the church in Kenya. Adventists in the country continue to actively lobby for religious liberty, and many hold government positions, he says. "We want our members to participate actively in elections," says M'masi, explaining that Kenya is in dire need of honest citizens who "vote by conscience, not bribery." He says the Adventist Church is sponsoring civic education programs to encourage church members to turn out in December. "We are serious about voting," says M'masi, "and now we will be able to without compromising the Sabbath." Religious freedom is relatively strong in Kenya, says John Graz, director for the Adventist Church's Public Affairs and Religious Liberty department. However, he adds, equally protecting both the country's Christian majority and its Muslim minority has posed challenges to the Kenyan government. ------------------------------------------------------- Taking church from pews to couches Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [Taashi Rowe/ANN] ------------------------------------------------------- Elizabeth Carter joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church two months ago after attending a home church in Pittsburg, Pennsylvania. Born into the Roman Catholic Church, Carter started attending the home service after working with the pastor on community service projects. "It's very informal and very relaxed and more like a group of friends sitting around talking. They just happened to be talking about God," Carter says of her experience at Adventist Pastor Andrew Clark's home. While it is unclear how many churches operate in homes, Clark is in the company of a growing number of people who read the Bible, pray and share their personal struggles -- often without a pastor -- from a couch instead of a church pew. Offering more closeness and nurture are reasons why home churches are growing in the Adventist faith, says Peter Roennfeldt, a 30-year veteran church planter based in Melbourne, Australia. "Some of our churches are not as relational as they should be," Roennfeldt says. "With home churches there is a real focus on Bible reading and taking the church back into the neighborhood of friends." "More and more Adventists are really going back and searching the scriptures to see what church was in the New Testament time." Many churches, Roennfeldt says, have become complex and time consuming and some congregants are looking for another model for witnessing. Last year, religion pollster George Barna estimated that about 20 million adults attend a house church gathering each week in the United States. And in a February, 2006 Time magazine article titled "Why Home Churches Are Filling Up," Allan Karr, a professor at the Rocky Mountain campus of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary, guessed that "three out of 10 churches founded today are simple." The exact number of Adventist home churches remains vague because, as Roennfeldt says, "people don't look for permission to start a home church. They simply start and so sometimes home churches are below the radar." Marti Schneider, director of programming for the Office of Adventist Mission, says she thinks there are very few Adventist home churches in North America. Though Adventists might not be rushing from the pews to their couches, there are Adventist church organizations that see home churches as an important part of the church's evangelistic toolbox. Some home churches eventually make the transition to a typical "church" setting. Stevanus Wijaya, an Adventist businessman in Jakarta, Indonesia, started giving Bible studies with members of the Chinese community in his home in 2001. While relying on informal coaching from volunteer pastors the church has grown to about 200 members and now meets as the Mt. Moriah Adventist Church in a traditional church building. With 80 percent of his members new converts to Adventism, Wijaya says he was careful to "consult the leader in the conference [and church pastors] if there were any questions on doctrine that I couldn't answer." Three years ago the church's Georgia-Cumberland region in the United States made provisions to incorporate home churches into the traditional church structure. There are now about a dozen home churches in that area. While meeting in homes with guidance from an Adventist pastor, they still decide meeting structure and lead their own services. Ed Wright, president for the region, says financial constraints helped push the conference toward embracing home churches. "If we really believe that lay people are spiritually gifted for ministry, we should utilize and celebrate their gifts," Wright says. Critics have said home churches can lead to isolation from the world church denomination and straying from Biblical teachings. Schneider understands the concerns and supports the Georgia-Cumberland region's approach to home churches. "We should create a structure to receive them [home churches] and find ways to connect with them," she says. ------------------------------------------------------- 'Objective criticism' of religion deemed a human right New York, New York, United States .... [PARL/ANN Staff] ------------------------------------------------------- Following intense debate at the United Nations over what constitutes religious defamation, U.N. special rapporteur for Freedom of Religion or Belief, Asma Jahangir, said "objective criticism" of religion is a human right. But, she said, there is a difference between criticism and outright defamation. Many religious people believe they alone have the truth, convinced that "[their] religion is better, is superior," said Jahangir, speaking to members of the U.N. Non-Governmental Organization Committee for Freedom of Religion or Relief at U.N. headquarters October 25. That mentality can lead to the defamation of other religions or belief systems, she said. Jahangir expressed concern, however, that in addressing defamation, officials not go so far as to include mere criticism of religion. If such an extensive definition of defamation was adopted, she cautioned, "social norms based on religion could not be debated. Defamation is an issue of civil law, not a violation of human rights," she said. Jahangir also critiqued blasphemy laws, which she said are used to silence dissent. "Religion can be used as a tool of fear, used against minorities, and to crush internal dissent," she said. Religion is sometimes compared to race, Jahangir added, and the provisions against racial hatred are then applied to religion. Such a comparison is unfounded, she said, because "religion is unlike race -- you cannot proselytize to change [your] race. There are serious differences." There is not yet consensus among U.N. member states on how best to approach defamation of religion issues, Jahangir said. When Jonathan Gallagher, liaison to the U.N. for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, asked how Jahangir planned to carry out her duties as special rapporteur, she called for broad support and research assistance. Jahangir has recently completed missions studying the issue of religious defamation in the United Kingdom and Tajikistan. Upcoming missions include Angola, Israel, India, and Turkmenistan. "While there are problems in every country, democratic norms lead to freedom of religion," Jahangir said. "In a closed society, restrictions on [religious freedom] result. Serious limitations on freedom of religion impact economic development." ------------------------------------------------------- ADRA Update Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [ANN Staff] ------------------------------------------------------- ADRA update: California wildfire, Caribbean flooding survivors to receive aid ... The Adventist Development and Relief Agency is joining local aid organizations to assist some 20,000 people who remain in shelters throughout Southern California after 20 wildfires destroyed more than 1,400 homes in the region and displaced up to 1 million residents last week. Immediate needs include food, water, shelter, hygiene kits, debris clean-up assistance and counseling services. ADRA has committed an initial $50,000 to fund the response efforts of its local partner organizations to meet the most pressing needs of survivors, many of whom are uninsured and have been left destitute by the fires. ADRA is also responding to flooding in Dominican Republic, Haiti and Mexico. Last month a tropical storm brought three days of nonstop rain to the island of Hispaniola, shared by the Dominican Republic and Haiti, causing floods that left more than 100 people dead. In cooperation with local partners, ADRA is providing food baskets to 400 families in the Dominican Republic and Haiti. The baskets will provide enough food for a family of six for up to two weeks. ADRA Mexico is operating 15 soup kitchens to serve flood survivors. It is estimated that more than 100,000 people have been affected by flooding in the country's southern states. [Nadia McGill/ADRA/ANN Staff] ------------------------------------------------------- Copyright (c) 2007 by Adventist News Network. 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring, Maryland, USA 20904-6600 phone: (301) 680-6306. To subscribe to this free bulletin, go to http://news.adventist.org/subscribe.html.en . Send comments and story leads to adventistnews@gc.adventist.org. ANN World News Bulletin is a review of news and information issued by the Communication department from the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters and released as part of the service of Adventist News Network. It is made available primarily to religious news editors. Our news includes dispatches from the church's international offices and the world headquarters. Adventist News Network is a registered trademark of the General Conference Corporation of Seventh-day Adventists. Unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. Reproduction Requirements: Reproduction of information in this article is encouraged. When reproducing this material, in full or in part, the words "Source: Adventist News Network" must appear under the headline or immediately following the article. The words "Source: Adventist News Network" must be given equal prominence to any other source that is also acknowledged. ANN Staff: Ray Dabrowski, director; Ansel Oliver, assistant director; Taashi Rowe, editorial coordinator; Elizabeth Lechleitner, editorial assistant. Portuguese translation by Azenilto Brito, Spanish translation by Marcos Paseggi, Italian translation by Vincenzo Annunziata and Lina Ferrara and French translations by Stephanie Elofer.
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