Adventist Ministry

Show Notes Welcome to the Best Practices for Adventist Ministry podcast. While much of pastoral ministry may seem ordinary there is a mystical element that permeates every aspect. It all begins with the origin story of a pastor which we refer to as the ‘call to ministry’. In 2015 we featured the origin stories of a dozen pastors at the CALLED Pastors Convention in Austin. We’re going to share three of those stories today. But the thing is, that mystical quality, the call to ministry, never stops with the origin story. So today we won’t stop with the origin stories, we’re going to get updates from those same pastors as we trace the mystical call to ministry. Here’s the guests on this month’s show in order of appearance: Act One: Richie Halversen Richie Halversen stood at the crossroads between life and death one more time. “I got caught up in substance abuse and lived a very selfish lifestyle. At the bitter end I ended up in jails, institutions. That last time I was in the treatment center I came to a…

Welcome to the Best Practices for Adventist Ministry podcast. I’m Dave Gemmell. Tell me, is a call to ministry static, or can it change? After about four decades of ministry, I've come to believe that a call to ministry is fluid. Perhaps I can compare it to the river that flows behind my house. I can take a picture near my house, or I can move miles upstream and take another picture or move miles downstream and take more pictures and every picture will look different. And yet it’s the same river. That's kind of like what a call to ministry is. Even though it looks different in different times of our ministry, it’s the same calling. About six years ago for a feature for the CALLED convention, I interviewed pastors about their call to ministry; snapshots. We're going to play some of those today. But we're also going to move a half a dozen years downstream and take other pictures as we update those calls to ministry. Here’s the guests on this month’s show in order of appearance: Act One: Jamie Pombo I had the…

Welcome to the Best Practices Adventist Ministry Podcast. I’m Dave Gemmell. What words come to mind when I say ‘church board?’ Some may say Waste of time. Church Fight! Never Ending. Nit picky. Other’s might say: uplifting, Unifying, Productive, Fun. How would you like to move your church board from the first group to the second? You’re in luck. Today’s title is 3 tips for Church Boards. I’ve gathered tips from experts and interspersed them with powerful tips that came when I asked Adventist Pastors in an online group to share. and they really delivered. Here’s the guests on this month’s show in order of appearance: Tip #1, Be Prepared Andre Goncalves of Dallas First Church of Seventh-day Adventists believes that having the right people on the church board makes all the difference. It starts with the organizing committee and the nominating committee. Another person who is essential is someone who has the skills in keeping minutes. Why are minutes important? Karnik Doukmetizian, General Counsel for the…

Welcome to the Best Practices Adventist Ministry Podcast. I’m Dave Gemmell. Our world was just clobbered by the worst pandemic in over a century, slaying hundreds of millions, triggering economic hardship, exacerbating social unrest, and revealing worldwide inequities; yet also providing an opportunity for monumental discoveries that will take a generation to fully understand. As the fog of COVID-19 slowly lifts, I’d like to share three discoveries that were featured at the EHuddle evangelism conference held virtually in the peak of the pandemic. In Act One, Kevin Wilson pastor and TikTok star, tells how and why he puts so much energy into this creative platform. Kevin is the Associate Pastor of Youth and Young Adults at Oceanside Seventh-day Adventist church and also liked by four million as the crossculturechristian on Tik Tok, as well as CrossCultureChristian on YouTube at the intersection of chai, faith, and life. In Act Two Pastor Allareece Collie tells the story of how her church's agility and…

Welcome to the Best Practices Adventist Ministry Podcast. I’m Dave Gemmell. There's an old slogan from a wristwatch company that says "It takes a lickin', but keeps on tickin'. Today we call that resilience, a must have quality for pastors. Pastors take lickins, from church conflict, to health challenges to personal loss. But in the tumbles of ministry, why are some pastors crushed by lickens and why do other pastors keep on tickin? Or why do some pastors get bitter, and others get better? In Act One, Tricia Payne shares her story of resilience through a life-threatening medical accident. Tricia is the lead pastor of the Kona Gardens Seventh-day Adventist church in Detroit. Get to know Pastor Tricia a little better by going to her website, Tricia Wynn Payne | The Fight for My Life. There you can learn more about her story in her new book entitled The Fight for My Life. In Act Two you’ll meet Shawn Brace who got pushback when he began to lead his church into a new vision of church as a body of believers who…

Welcome to the Best Practices Podcasts. I’m Hallorin. Murial Ruckheiser said, the universe is made of stories, not atoms. Stories tell us where we’ve been, where we are, and where we’re going. They tell us who we’ve been, who we are, and who we are becoming. They are the connective tissue between generations. The repository of history’s greatest lessons. The most amazing communicator in human history is Jesus, hands down, and he had the most important message to communicate. And how did he do it? With stories. This episode we focus on the power of story telling in three acts. In Act one, one of America’s greatest storytellers and teachers of the craft, Dick Deurksen, with insights on how to catch stories. Dick is an author, publisher, photographer, his book Storycatcher is must read. You can find more about Dick on his website, storycatcher.world. You can listen to his full presentation from CALLED convention here. In Act Two, we meet Dr. Wesley Knight, Pastor of Revision church in Atlanta, professor of…

Welcome to the Best Practices Adventist Ministry Podcast. I’m Dave Gemmell. George Patton once said “I don't measure a man's success by how high he climbs, but how high he bounces when he hits bottom. ” He was of course talking about resilience, a core quality of effective pastors. There are only two kinds of pastors. Those who have been knocked down and those who will get knocked down, maybe soon. Pastors get knocked down by material loss, loss of health, loss of dreams; but in the tumbles of ministry, why do some pastors stay down and others get up again? And why do some pastors grow weaker and others grow stronger? Today three pastors tell their unique journeys of resilience. Dan Martella is the administrative pastor of the Paradise Seventh-day Adventist church. In this podcast he relives his journey of losing almost everything in the Paradise fire. There's more to Dan's story. We're putting together a documentary for the next CALLED convention. Tarizina Barbalo, Pastor of three churches, one of which is…