This Newsletter is produced by the Communication department of the London Seventh-day Adventist Church

Date Facilitators/Speakers Event/Theme Time

1 Alex Golovenko Embracing Diversity 11 am

5 Aroldo Anniehs Praying for newly elected team and leaders 7 pm

8 Alex Golovenko Revelations of the Lord’s Supper 11 am

12 Alex Golovenko Praying for our City: passion for London and its people 7 pm

15 Jessie Lopez Ignite your faith, renew your passion. 11 am

15 Jessie Lopez Being different with self-confidence from God 2 pm

19 Teresa Ferreira Praying for Community 7 pm

22 Choir Christmas concert Glory in the Manger 11 am

26 Clara Baptiste Praying for the Latter Rain 7 pm

29 Alex Golovenko Family Future with God 11 am

Schedule of events and speakers for DECEMBER 2012 London Seventh-day Adventist Church 805 Shelborne Street,

December 2012 Volume 8 Issue 12

November 24, 2012 London Church in session

voted goals and strategic directions toward our

Vision 2020

Leadership team will begin to implement these steps starting in 2013.

We invite all members, church family, volunteers to work together with

awareness of how each part fits into whole big picture of our Vision.

Revive & Transform: Revive the Sabbath School Classes and transform Bible Study Groups for discipleship

increase attendance of 7 adult classes to 100, involving 50% of our members start Sabbath afternoon Bible Study group for answering difficult questions

Revive the Family Life ministry and transform our Families for authentic life of worship Revive the Young Adults ministry, seeking transformation of disconnected to disciples

Revive outreach to Students at Western & Fanshawe by going to the Campus Revive Website Internet development, transform our portal into an Online Church.

Transform Women Ministry to involve and include all women of all ages in our church Transform the Mid-week Prayer Meeting, increase of attendance by members and inviting community to pray. Transform the Community Services toward building relationships with people we serve Transform Children Ministries and Adventurers to guide parents for spiritual growth Transform Personal Ministry toward intentional spiritual development of individuals Transform the Choir by building friendship, spirituality of people, professionalism, inspiring value, invite new people. Transform Pathfinders to become community serving ministry, training youth leadership

...continue on the following page

R

Education for Discipleship:

List of all children ages K-8 of families that are members of our church, and work toward having 50% of our

church children attend Adventist Christian Education, by September 2013

Invest in developing a multipurpose facility to house the Church School making it available by 2020

Offer support seminars for children in the Public School system on creation & ethics topics

Offer community classes for parenting, cooking, budgeting, tax-clinic, ESL.

Develop Small Groups and House churches for discipling adults, and have 50% of ALL members belong to a small group

or house church by the end of 2013

E Alignment within the church:

Annual NCD survey providing perspective on balancing alignment of all ministries

Unity among leaders and total support of projects. Synergetic coordination of all efforts.

Unity in diversity of our cultures

Having a diverse congregation assuring fair proportional representation of ALL cultures on the Board, and in

ministries

Encouraging mixed participation in ministry groups to avoid cliquishness

Cooperation with other churches in the district on projects.

Supporting projects to which we are invited by sister churches in the district.

Establishing communication with the North & Spanish congregations for planning and working together.

A

Community outreach and Evangelism:

Continue, strengthen and further develop community outreach through CHIP, “Out of Depression” Seminars,

Open House Community Service, VBS, Adventurers & develop “Stop Smoking” program

Develop a strategy for reaching generational Canadian population

Purchase professional video recording equipment for internet broadcasting

Invest in developing social media based spiritual forum

Connect with Native Aboriginal communities around London

Develop a Dialogue ministry reaching Muslim community

Develop a ministry for Karen people of Burma in London.

Identify unreached community in need of help and develop a relevant Mission project for our local London Community.

Having 50% of our members actively involved as volunteers in mission outreach projects in 2013.

Reconnect with young adults who left the church and make it a top priority.

Connect with all the viewers of It Is Written in London, and have Interest Coordinator.

Develop a Gospel-sharing ministry for people with major disabilities (blind, deaf.)

Prepare for planting a new church/Community centre in West-London-Byron area, or North-Fanshawe-Hyde Park

C

Healthy leadership and Management:

Leaders are held accountable for following REACH strategy and congregational goals.

Empowering all leaders for their personal spiritual and professional growth. Have each leader at-

tend a training seminar or a spiritual retreat for encouragement annually.

Provide leadership training opportunities annually.

Facilitate education of the Church members on the matters of women in service.

Transform Board meetings into leadership huddle, offering support and resources.

Transparency of decisions making and regular reporting to church members of actions. Preparing an annual report

of activities, spending, plans, and reflections from leaders for accountability and communication.

Involve each leader and their families in a Small Group or a House Church experience

Each leader should demonstrate soul-winning by example, leading at least one individual to Christ every year.

Annual evaluation of leaders, including the pastor, by members for empowering growth.

H

….More on Women in Ministry In October the World Church Annual Council voted

264:25 disapproving actions of three unions on ordain-

ing women in North Germany, Eastern and Western

United States (read the November issue). The North

American Division of Adventist church at its year-end

meeting November 3-6 set six strategic goals for the

near future, among which is one on further developing

and opening opportunities for women in ministry.

Goal # 3: “Expanding the potential and practice of

women clergy including better member education, in-

creased mentoring and [improved] recruitment, support

and affirmation from Church administrators.”

The matter is far from settled. One thing is to wait

for “Theology of Ordination” study, which will, hope-

fully, answer questions on the meaning of ordination.

Another thing is to grapple with gender diversity and

equality in God’s Kingdom and work of service to hu-

manity.

The Adventist Church in Netherlands had also met

and on November 11 two hundred of delegates voted

following action: “Considering the biblical principle of

the equality of men and women, the delegates in session

indicate that they reject the current situation of inequal-

ity in the church on principle. For this reason, and con-

sidering the context of Dutch society, they charge the

Executive Committee to vigorously promote this per-

spective in the worldwide church. As quickly as possible,

and no later than six months after the next session of the

General Conference (2015), equality between men and

women will be implemented at all organisational levels

of the church in the Netherlands”

While willing to wait until 2015 general Conference

session, Dutch believers are prepared to go forward re-

gardless of conclusions that may be reached.

Their decision was a result of the process that began

earlier in the year, before knowing what the Columbia or

Pacific Union delegates would vote in their session.

These actions show impatience of people, eager for

change, voting to act 3 years from now when nobody

knows exactly what the result will be of the study of

the Theology of Ordination. The Church may change

its policy language and use more biblical terminology

about the induction of those who serve.

The eagerness for change is understood, as it is

prompted by the long delay of putting into practice the

advice of one of our pioneers. Ellen White wrote back

in 1895: “Women who are willing to consecrate some

of their time to the service of the Lord should be ap-

pointed ... They should be set apart to this work by

prayer and the laying on of hands. In some cases they

will need to counsel with the church officers or the

minister; but if they are devoted women, maintaining a

vital connection with God, they will be a power for

good in the church.” (Review and Herald, 9 July,

1895, p. 434)

Here in North America another Union, the North

Pacific Union (Alaska, Idaho, Montana, Oregon, and

Washington ) comprising wide spectrum of Adventist

traditions from extremely conservative to liveral, dur-

ing their regularly-scheduled quarterly meeting on No-

vember 14 moved toward dealing with this matter.

The Executive committee members voted to engage

Northwest membership in a discussion on gender-

inclusiveness in gospel ministry. They approved a mo-

tion to 1) inform and educate Northwest members of

the rationale toward biblical church leadership without

regard to gender; 2) engage and encourage constituents

in structured conversation and discussion on women in

ministry; and 3) call a special session of the NPUC

constituency to address ministerial ordination without

regard to gender.

The motion was presented in response to extensive

reports provided by an Ad Hoc Committee on Women

in Leadership which met during 2012. No date was

specified at the meeting for a proposed constituency

session, but that will be determined by the end of 2012

At the Pacific Union, following the action taken in

August on November 15 seven more women pastors

were voted for ordination, number of ordained women

pastors now stands at 21.

What Adventists do have is a theology of change.

It’s called the “Present Truth,” the understanding that

things are not static, that God reveals more and more

as people mature in their understanding of Gospel.

While in Canada things are quiet about women in

ministry, the change is inevitable.

North American church leaders met

together November 3-6 to reflect on

growth and plan for further advancing

the work. President Dan Jackson in

opening address challenged leaders to

become very serious about fellowship,

Jackson built his message on the parable

of the meal in Matthew13: 33: “The

kingdom of heaven is like leaven, which

a woman took and hid in three measures

of meal till it was all leavened,” empha-

sizing the connection between “meal,”

or fine flour, and the expression of com-

munity in Israelite history, a beautiful

symbol of commonness, of fellowship,

of connection. He asserted that inau-

thentic, judgmental Christianity is to-

day’s leaven, saying, “one of the issues

here is that genuine fellowship is often

lacking in our churches and confer-

ences ... it is not seen and experienced

in the way we treat those who disagree

or in the way we treat one another in the

home, in the school, in the church and in

the work place – and it is killing us. It

turns people off.” The appeal for loving

relationships to be our experience is

most urgent today.

The Executive Secretary Alex Bryant

of North American church reported that

every day, on average, 108 people join

the Seventh-day Adventist church in

North America. There are 1,154,428

Seventh-day Adventists worshipping in

5,413 churches and 773 companies

across the North American Division as

of June 30, 2012. Among these 352,000

belong to ethnic groups worship in lan-

guages other than English. The cultural

diversity is ever increasing.

More than 450,000 people joined the

Seventh-day Adventist Church in North

America since the year 2000, but the

rate of growth has declined in the past

couple of years to 1.35%.

Certain disparities were noted. While

Adventists here are living longer, young

adults are often “missing in action” from

church activities. TAs compared to the

rest of the world North American

churches have lower percentage of

young adults. While 6% of the popula-

tion in the U.S. and Canada is between

the ages of 25 and 34, only 3% Advent-

ist members fall into that category.

Another disparity is that while Sev-

enth-day Adventist membership in

North America is 60% female, only 14

of 214 executive-level positions in con-

ferences and unions leadership are filled

by women.

Interesting news from around the world Angus T. Jones, a teen-star (19) of

the CBS sitcom Two and a Half Men,

is causing media storm, as he was

recently baptized at the Pacoima Val-

ley Crossroads Seventh-Day Advent-

ist Church in the San Fernando Valley

area. Christianity Today published

an interview with the actor. Since

age 10, Jones has played the charac-

ter Jake Harper for nine seasons—

eight of those as Hollywood's highest

-paid child actor, making roughly $8

million annually. He shared that he

had recently a “Wake up call” that

live is not about “smoking weed and

doing acid.”

As an actor he sees himself as a

“paid hypocrite.”

Media says that him “slamming

'Two and a Half Men,' and urging fans

to stop watching 'filth,' is biting the

hand that feeds him. A former costar

Charlie Sheen compares Angus’ con-

version with “Hale-Bopp-like melt-

down,” making a reference to the 39-

member Heaven's Gate cult that com-

mitted mass suicide in the hope of

being transported to an alien space-

ship following the Hale-Bopp comet

in 1997, comparing the Adventist

church to that cult.

Adventist authors have generally had great difficulty breaking into the Evangelical market.

This year an evangelical magazine Outreach read by large numbers of Evangelical pastors

across the United States is featuring an ad featuring Seventh-day Adventist pastor and tele-

vision evangelist Doug Batchelor, with his book “A World of Wonders.” 366 pages daily de-

votional is “19 years in the making” and is available from the www.afbookstore.com

Now the books is available on amazon.com, christianbook.com, and is gaining popularity.

Besides making a good holidays present, and an interesting morning read, time will show if

it would dispel the bias against the Seventh-day Adventist authors in the evangelical market.