Friday Night Exploration

As well as being the senior pastor of New Hope I am also the pastor for young adults. On the second Friday of January I hosted a group of young adults (10 of them) at my house for a light supper and a time of questions, sharing, and biblical exploration. We met at 7 p.m. and discussed non- stop until 9:30 p.m. The issues at this session centered around salvation, its assurance, and how it relates to last day events.
This is a regular feature on the second Friday of each month. The purpose is to give young adults opportunity to ask any questions they like about the Bible, life, culture, Adventism, and so on.
Our next time together is Friday, February 9 at 7:00 p.m. I will be out of town but Pastor Kumar has agreed to host the discussion at my house: 1717 Priscilla Dr., Silver Spring, MD 20904. Phyllis will again host a light supper.
If there are subjects you want to talk about it would be helpful to let me know in advance so I can do some advance study. You can list the subjects here as part of this blog or just email me at jdavidnewman@gmail.com.
Come and try this out for yourself

Preaching topics

Glen has suggested the following topics worthy of discussion:
1. Handling difficult Bible passages
2. How to read and study your Bible
3. Modern Bible Translations and the KJV
4. What is the Born Again experience?
5. Exploring the SDA 28 Fundamentals (or one of them)
6. Theology 101: What is Arminian-Weslyan Theology and What is Reformed-Calvinism Theology
7. How does the General Conference work and how do we effect decisions and policies of the world church?

Some topics are best left for a small group study and others for a large group such as in the worship service.

Here is my first question: What subjects would you like me to preach on? They could be as narrow as one specific topic such as What happens when you die to broader topics such as Living free from Anxiety or How can I know the future? or How do I know when God is speaking to me? Remember it is hard to go into depth in a sermon because worship is basically for praising God and being inspired to go back to the work place all pumped up, hence the need for stories in the sermons. But I could run a week night series that focused more on teaching certain things such as some of the items of Glen's list.

Please let me know.

New Hope Classes

This post is for members and attenders at New Hope. Each month I offer Entrance to New Hope which is for people wanting to join New Hope. This class is mandatory even for transfer members so it is always well attended. However, we offer three other classes onece a quarter on Sabbath afternoon and these are not well attended. In fact, we haven not offered them in almost six months because we get no takers. These classes are 1. Grwoing your devotional life, 2. Discovering your spiritual gifts, 3. Witnessing effectively for Jesus. One would think that people would be beating down the doors to grow in these areas but that is not so.

What are we doing wrong? How can we change things? How do we get people to take these very important classes?

Newman Interview

Check out the interview that was conducted by Dr. Julius Nam, asst. professor of religion at Loma Linda University on myself. http://www.progressiveadventism.com/

Movies you like

Last night Phyllis and I went to see the movie Freedom Writers. What an inspiring film of a young teacher wanting to make a difference in her kid's lives. Everyone should see this movie. I am planning a series on a week night which centers around inspirational movies about people who came out of great adversity and made a difference in their life or someone elses. Homeless to Harvard; October Sky; Johnny Lingo, are just three that come to mind.

What recommendations do you have for a series like this? I would show the film and then enter into a discussion afterwards about its relevance and the viewers could do differently to make adifference. I was just reading about Mr Holland's Opus but I have never seen that film. Please give me your suggestions.

Young Adult Service

Our second worship service at 12:15 pm is composed largely of young adults. There has been some discussion about making it more young adult friendly, such as edgier music, sermons topics more diretly related to young adults, video taping the service, streaming video the service. And so on. I need to hear from the young adults. What do you think? And more important how many of you would be willing to help plan and direct that kind of service in music, singing, drama, making of of video clips, ushering, and so on? Let's see how many people are reading this blog.

Bible--Casebook or Codebook?

When you read the Bible how do you approach it? How do you decide what to practice and what to discard? Take the following quiz and see how you come out. Look at what to do next at end of the 20 commands.
Write a "T" (today) beside each of the following statements that you believe should still apply to Seventh-day Adventists today.
Place a "NT" (not today) beside each statement that you believe no longer applies today. Do not answer according to what is practiced today but what you think the practice should be.

1. Whoever curses his father or mother shall be put to death (Exodus 21:17).
2. You may eat all you want from your neighbor's vineyard [garden] as long as you don't carry any produce away in a container (Deut. 23:24).
3. If a woman bear a male she shall be unclean seven days, but if a female she shall be unclean two weeks. If she bears a male she must wait 33 days to be purified from her bleeding but if a female 66 days (Lev.12:1-5).
4. He whose testicles are crushed or whose male member is cut off shall not enter the assembly of the Lord (Deut. 23:1, NIV).
5. Do not eat any meat with the blood still in it (Lev. 19:26).
6. Do not cut the hair at the sides of your head or clip off the edges of your beard (Lev. 19:27).
7. Do not degrade your daughter by making her a prostitute (Lev. 19:29).
8. Rise in the presence of the aged, show respect for the elderly and revere your God (Lev. 19:32).
9. When a man is newly married, he shall not go out with the army or be charged with any related duty. He shall be free at home one year, to be happy with the wife whom he has married (Deut. 24:5).
10. If men get into a fight with one another, and the wife of one intervenes to rescue her husband from the grip of his opponent by reaching out and seizing his genitals, you shall cut off her hand; show no pity (Deut. 25:11, 12, NIV).
11. "But the priests (ministers) . . . are to wear linen clothes; they must not wear any woolen garment . . . they must not wear anything that makes them perspire" (Ezek. 44:15, 17, 18).
12. When you fast put oil on your head and wash your face (Matt. 6:17).
13. Men everywhere should raise their hands in prayer (1 Tim. 2:8).
14. Women should dress modestly, with decency and propriety, not with braided hair or gold or pearls or expensive clothes (1 Tim. 2:9).
15. A woman must not teach or have authority over a man; she must be silent (1 Tim. 2:12).
16. The church elder must not be given to much wine (1 Tim. 3:2).
17. Provide for widows over sixty who have been faithful to their husbands but do not help those under sixty (1 Tim. 5:9-11).
18. Greet everyone with a holy kiss (Rom. 16:16; 1 Cor. 16:20; 2 Cor. 13:12; 1 Thess. 5:26; 1 Peter 5:14).
19. Women must cover their heads when they pray (1 Cor. 11:5, 13, 15).
20. If your right hand causes you to sin cut it off (Matt. 5:30).

How many of you will practice all 20 today? If you do not, how did you decide? Does anything go when using the Bible or are there some core principles to guide us? What principles do you use that help you decide?