Here is a video on my flood post from earlier. It is interesting.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Friday, February 17, 2012
Why do we need Adventist Ed
Why Keep Adventist Ed?
We like to brag that we are the second largest parochial school system in the world. And we have reason to brag. If I were to poll my pastor/youth pastor peers, I can guarantee that they would like to have the amount of hours discipling students that we, as Adventists, have with students that go to our schools. The trade off of student's being able to do evangelism on public school campuses pales in comparison to the foundation that 6 hours a day, 5 days a week can build in students taught by Christian teachers.
A book came out a few years ago, How to Kill Adventist Education by Shane Anderson, as well as a book by George Knight, The Apocalyptic Vision and the Neutering of Adventism that came to similar conclusions. While I didn't agree with all of their findings, I do agree that we as Adventists have a reason to exist. We do offer something to the 'body' of Christ, which is his Church (all denominations.) The Christian world would be worse off if Adventists didn't exist. Just as it would be worse off if Baptists, Lutherans, or Methodists cease to exist. Our distinctness adds value to the picture of God that is portrayed to the world.
Adventist Education, in my mind, is the key to holding that together in North America. Think about it, without Adventist Education my fear is that the church will cease to exist. In other words if all our schools closed today I don't think we'd have a church for my grandchildren to go to. The friends and peers that are made in school last a life time, if those relationships: friends, spouses are not Adventist or tied to the church somehow, all of the sudden we cease to exist...
Next...some ways to improve on the system.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Go Big, until we go home
Those of you who get this blog know that I'm excited about Adventist Christian Education. I'd like to start a series of posts about how we fix the system before it's too late. Some posts may sound like rants, some may be musings about how we could improve. At the end of the day however, I hope that the reader knows that I want Adventist Christian Education (K-12) to endure. It really is a great institution.
Go Big...
Right now in my church it costs our church around $10,000 for each student, each year that they go to our school. That number doesn't even include the tuition that the student pays. That is a lot of money invested in to students. Now, I'm not complaining but guess what my youth budget is? Its somewhere south of $10000 when you include all the Sabbath School expenses, VBS, etc. I have over 80 students that attend my church on a regular basis K-12 and of those kids only 8 go to the school. Do the math...We are spending over $80,000 on the 8 kids who go to the school out of our budget and $10,000 on the 70 who don't go to the school.
Some would say that is going big, and to some degree I would agree with them. I wonder how many churches face a similar problem? I hope they do. Because far to many of the churches in my area are choosing to not fund their children at all. That HAS to change if we are going to keep any semblance of Adventist Education...
Next, why do we need Adventist Education
Go Big...
Right now in my church it costs our church around $10,000 for each student, each year that they go to our school. That number doesn't even include the tuition that the student pays. That is a lot of money invested in to students. Now, I'm not complaining but guess what my youth budget is? Its somewhere south of $10000 when you include all the Sabbath School expenses, VBS, etc. I have over 80 students that attend my church on a regular basis K-12 and of those kids only 8 go to the school. Do the math...We are spending over $80,000 on the 8 kids who go to the school out of our budget and $10,000 on the 70 who don't go to the school.
Some would say that is going big, and to some degree I would agree with them. I wonder how many churches face a similar problem? I hope they do. Because far to many of the churches in my area are choosing to not fund their children at all. That HAS to change if we are going to keep any semblance of Adventist Education...
Next, why do we need Adventist Education
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
What's the Plus side for God in this story?
I was working on a study for my 5-8th grade bible study group today...We are going to be going over the Great Controversy. Now in my opinion it is hard to argue the rift between Good and Evil, God and Satan. It is hard to argue the existence of Satan. (I won't go into my challenges with using Isaiah 14, and Eze. 28 as proofs of Satan's rebellion) Anyways the belief statement ties the flood into this story and it got me thinking, how was the flood a win situation for God in the Great Controversy theme? Seems to me that the flood could have been used as proof that God was a tyrant that just wanted to get his own way?
Now I'm a believer in miracles and even in God's intervention in nature. But could the narrative about the flood be God trying to save people from an upcoming natural disaster, wanting to save everybody?
I'm not going to bring any of this up with the kids, but I'd love to hear some feedback. How does the flood make God look good? Or how does it play into the Great Controversy theme? Isn't it just like the kid who is losing at checkers so they decide to knock over the board to get a new game?
Sorry to sound sacrilegious.
Benji
Now I'm a believer in miracles and even in God's intervention in nature. But could the narrative about the flood be God trying to save people from an upcoming natural disaster, wanting to save everybody?
I'm not going to bring any of this up with the kids, but I'd love to hear some feedback. How does the flood make God look good? Or how does it play into the Great Controversy theme? Isn't it just like the kid who is losing at checkers so they decide to knock over the board to get a new game?
Sorry to sound sacrilegious.
Benji
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