Annual Council Diary 2015—TMI's New Meaning

On Sunday, Andressa Duarte goes to the local radio station and records Bible stories for children, It is the first day of a busy week for the 13 year old. She has daily evangelism tasks. Tuesday she visits nursing homes, Wednesday is for social justice, Thursday she preaches in her home, Friday she holds a small prayer group, and Sabbath she invites kids to go to church with her.


This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://spectrummagazine.org/article/2015/10/10/annual-council-diary-2015%25e2%2580%2594tmis-new-meaning
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The haunting phrase appears…“He wanted to earn stars for his crown in heaven.”

This is so telling isn’t it? Action motivated by pride and greed. Is this what a we are teaching children about life’s goals? This can’t be the way of Christ as we are told to serve for God’s sake only. We will never gain favor by inviting someone to church and we never serve to gain favor.

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Wow, 13. Now that is inspiring!!!

Thanks Bonnie

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Give the kid a break!
If I do something my parents ask me to, with promise of a reward, is that pride or greed? Not at all. Children are mostly concrete thinkers and adults are way too quick to judge.

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That kid should be ordained! How many ordained ministers have achieved that goal in only four years? His crown will be so star-studded it will be too heavy for his head!

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Elaine
Perhaps the Pastor Training Program at Andews could take Lessons from this person.
Perhaps Evangelism needs a new look.
Fewer Scary Beasts.

EDIT-- Ted wants TMI, but he and Silver Springs are unwilling to give credit where credit is due and allow for gender-less Pastoral recognition.
Difficult to have it both ways when we recognize “KIDS” without gender, but when they become 18, we segregate them out by gender and Males are the ones that get all the approval, and the Women become 2nd class citizens in the church.

EDIT-- Recognition. The Bible says 1. One plants. 2. One Waters. 3. One Reaps. 4. It is the action of The Spirit that allows all 3 actions to occur.
So WHO gets to wear the Star?

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Seriously?!!! Every one of those stars represents a soul saved!!! What is prideful and greedy about that?

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how many stars in H.M.S. Richards crown ? The star attraction in heaven will be the scars that Christ bears, each one for you and me. This star craze could be the start of a second fall, counting stars and arguing over who earned what. tom z

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I don’t think “stars in our crowns” for soul winning is even Biblical. I can’t find any text that says that.

In fact, I haven’t found a text about stars in our crowns at all. If you can find it, please post it.

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What is the message TW is trying to give us here? A thirteen year old shouldn’t go to school, but be busy every day of the week in fulltime evangelism (of course, never with the chance to be recognized for her calling by this church)? Certainly, when you read his call of abandoning theological research (in my view a direct attack on our our theological schools) by suggesting that a plain reading of the Bible and Ellen White is sufficient to understand what we need to understand, such a story makes sense. It is sad that this girl’s life has been cut short.

Mateus bringing 979 people to baptism by the age of 15 to gain a more brilliant crown also worries me somewhat. It is wonderful to see children being successful. And yet this doesn’t mean the theological reasoning is a success. The implications of the story in many ways is not inspiring, but raising lots of questions, amidst all rejoicing.

My suspicion: what is called TMI here will make OCDs in our church more so, F32s feel like total failures. And when it comes to the Holy Spirit and the latter rain (I liked the Freudian spelling slip in the article reign instead of rain), I still maintain we cannot produce the rain - try as we may. But when it comes, we will be surprised that something quite different from what TW describes will be the hallmark (John 13:35).

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There is a dismaying discordant dissonance to President Ted Wilson’s presentation.

We are all "blown away " by young Andressa Duarte’s prowess in preaching and her eager energy in evangelism. Where does she find time for her schoolwork?

The dismaying, despicable, disastrous, undeniable deal, is that even if Andressa eventually earns a Doctorate in Divinity, under Wilson’s dispensation she will ETERNALLY be marooned at the lowest level of ministry.

"Many quotations from various books by Ellen White followed"
Elder Wilson, the dominant disciple of the Headship Dogma is also an ardent, addicted, aficionado of EGW, endowing her every pronouncement with ABSOLUTE AUTHORITY.

By cravenly conceding to her every utterance, he is in direct denial of the Pauline edict that NO woman should have authority over a man— in this case himself!

In a damaging, divergent, discrepancy, he dispassionately denounces all other Adventist women using the same texts he ignores when deifying EGW.

We exult with Wilson in the birth of his granddaughter Hannah, but regret that by his insights, she will always be a second class citizen, never the full equal of her male siblings and cousins! Wilson’s female relatives put on “a brave face” when the family patriarch discounts their validity with his damaging, depressing chauvinism.

TOTAL MEMBER INVOLVEMENT is laudable when our mission is to evangelize the planet, however Paul is explicit and emphatic when he denies practical participation to half our membership. How can women possible evangelize when they are ordered to “be silent”?

A DISPARITY OF DISCORDANT DISSONANCE INDEED!

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