Pastor’s Nexus

“Denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance.

So annealed into pop culture are the five stages of grief–introduced in the 1960s by Swiss-born psychiatrist Elisabeth Kübler-Ross based on her studies of the emotional state of dying patients–that they are regularly referenced without explication.”

“Five Fallacies of Grief: Debunking Psychological Stages”, Scientific American – Official RSS Feed

Include young adults in church, women in ministry, says Adventist Church president: “Pastors play an important role in including young adults in church life and encouraging women employed in ministry, Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, said in a live September 13 telecast.”

Global Mission Issues Committee Grapples With Challenge of Dual Allegiance
Seventh-day Adventist missiologists and church leaders met recently to wrestle with the ongoing challenge of church members who retain non-Christian practices and beliefs from their former religions. This discussion was the focus of the Global Mission Issues Committee that met in April, at the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.

World Church: Church Leaders ‘Healing Relationships’ at the Heart of Retention, Reclamation
Acceptance is at the heart of retaining and reclaiming members in the Seventh-day Adventist Church, church leaders agreed when they voted on a document called “Conserving Membership Gains-An Appeal.” The document was born out of earlier reports at the church’s Council on Evangelism and Witness (CEW) [see ANN article 'World Church: Keep 'Counting Your Sheep,' Church Leaders Say"] that stated that 28 percent of those who leave the Adventist church do not disagree with the church’s teachings but felt an “absence of belonging and [a] lack of meaningful engagement in the local congregation and its mission.”

World Church: Keep ‘Counting Your Sheep,’ Church Leaders Say
Seventh-day Adventists have little trouble tallying up new believers when they first enter the fold of church membership. But if fledgling Adventists get lost or tangled in temptation over the months and years that follow, who is out looking for them?