NEWS ABOUT THE NORTH AMERICAN DIVISION
SUNDAY, JULY 2
NEWS
Young Seventh-day Adventists Celebrate Canada Day By Helping Local Food Bank
In a gesture intended to give something back to the city that has welcomed thousands of Seventh-day Adventists visiting Toronto, 250 young adults from the Church's community service training event, Impact Toronto 2000 (IT2000), helped Toronto's Daily Bread Food Bank pack boxes of food on Canada Day, July 1.The Adventist youth from 37 countries celebrated the national holiday by helping out at the Daily Bread Food Bank, located at 350 Lakeshore Boulevard West and run by local Seventh-day Adventist churches. The food bank feeds 50,000 children a month, according to Groups Coordinator Sandra Chignell. "Service is key in our event," says IT2000 service event organizer Scott Shalk of Berrien Springs, Michigan, "and this is an excellent way for us to start giving to the community."
The Impact Toronto 2000 youth will be working and performing in local communities from July 1-8.
—Photo by Dick Duerksen
—Lynn McDowell
Director of Communications, IT2000
(416) 460-7626, (403) 391-8730
HAPPENINGS
Good Knight! Seminary Professor Challenges World Church
In a penetrating speech Sunday afternoon, George Knight, professor of Church history at Andrews University Theological Seminary in Berrien Springs, Michigan, encouraged delegates to make plans for the Church's future. "Success will not come about by accident, but will be the product of deliberate thought, planning, and action," he said.Knight's speech, titled "If I Were the Devil!" was the first of five "Windows on Mission" that General Conference President Jan Paulsen initiated for this Session. Delegates broke into small groups after the speech to discuss challenges and opportunities facing the Church.
Some of Knight's more memorable lines:
- The first thing on my agenda would be the upcoming generation of Adventists. If I were the Devil, I would put my best energies into getting the Church to reject the ideas and plans of the coming generation. That shouldn't be too difficult since, in most areas, they don't dress like their elders, sing like them, or even think like them. When I get older people to frown on guitars, I will, at the same time, help them forget that early Adventists didn't allow organs in their churches. While I take a shot at their so-called drama, I will help their elders forget that Jesus used fictional stories such as the rich man and Lazarus, and that Ellen White used the term "drama" to refer to what we think of as soap operas.
- If I were the Devil, I would get people to believe that there is only one way to do something and that everybody has to do it that one way.
- If I were the Devil, I would make pastors and administrators the center of the work of the Church.
- If I were the Devil, I would undermine the importance of the local congregation.
- If I were the Devil, I would create more administrative levels and generate more administrators.
- If I were the Devil, I would get Adventists fighting with each other. Any old topic would do—worship styles, theology, dress standards.... Anything would do for my purposes, if I were the Devil. After all, if the Adventists were busy shooting all their bullets at each other, they wouldn't have many left over for me."
—Adventist News Network
http://www.adventist.org/news/
EXHIBITS
Resource Centers: Tools You Can Use
There is a large variety of resources the Church offers to constituents. Many resource centers are represented at the Session exhibition hall to educate attendees about their services. The booths of just some of the many organizations in the exhibition hall are pictured below.
 Review & Herald Publishing Association http://www.rhpa.org/ |
 Pacific Press Publishing Association http://www.pacificpress.com/ |
 Trust Services http://www.willplan.org/ |
 Adventist Risk Management http://www.adventistrisk.org/ |
 Adventist News Network http://www.adventist.org/news/ |
 Ellen G. White Estate http://www.whiteestate.org/ |
 Religious Liberty http://www.irla.org/ |
 Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries http://www.tagnet.org/nso/ |
Upcoming Exhibit Feature: More resources within the North American Division.
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SESSION SNAPSHOTS
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Sections:
"What, from your GC Session experience, will you take home to share with your church?"
