Librarian-Historian to Participate in Panel Discussion at Mystic Seaport

Next week, on June 1st and 2nd, the Librarian-Historian, Nick Kersten will participate in a scholarly panel discussion at the Mystic Seaport, Mystic, CT, as the museum is reinterpreting part of their exhibit. The current Mystic Seaport grounds are built on what was once the SDB community of Greenmanville, a shipbuilding community founded by three Greenman brothers. On the grounds of the 'living' museum, all three brothers houses are preserved, as well as the Greenmanville Seventh Day Baptist church. Though the museum has included brief notes about the Greenman's SDB faith, they are looking to expand the Greenmanville portion of the museum to include more information about their faith and how it influenced their participation in the social issues of their day--especially the abolition movement.

The Greenmanville church, founded in 1850, was a headquarters of sorts for the abolitionist movement in that area, and included in it's statement of faith an article condemning slavery. (It reads, "11th--that Slavery is a violation of the principles of Christianity and therefore a sin against God.") The original records of the church are currently a part of the museum's library, the G.W. Blunt White Library. (A copy of the records are also a part of the Historical Society's archive.)

Please pray for successful panel discussions as Nick represents the Historical Society and Seventh Day Baptists, and that the final result of these meetings will faithfully represent both the history of Seventh Day Baptists and that of the Greenmanville community for future visitors to the Seaport!

Youth Issue hits the Web!

This year’s edition of the SDB Youth SR can now be viewed on-line.

Dakota Watt, our intrepid Beacon editor, gathered some great articles from Gabriela Alonzo, Amanda Brown, Timothy Lawton, Emily Watt and Rachel King. Also included are a couple of tributes to Weston McNeilus from Dodge Center, who recently succumbed to a rare form of cancer at age 20.

PLUS: more tidbits and teasers for our annual Conference, restoration of our oldest SDB meetinghouse, and why is Alexander Hamilton on the $10 bill??

Click here to read the latest News for and about Seventh Day Baptists.

Dodge Center ordains Billy Edwards

Towards the end of the Sabbath, May 22nd, peopled gathered at the meetinghouse of the Dodge Center SDB Church to ordain Billy Edwards. His ordination council had been held February 13.
Following a time of worship and praise, Pastor Dale Rood greeted those gathered, read scripture and affirmed the prior action of the ordination council and the church.
Pastor George Calhoun, from Milton, WI, presented the ordination sermon, noting towards the end that Billy's calling and ministry is in counseling which he is doing through Nehemiah Family Services there in Dodge Center.
Rev J. Paul Green, who was the COM Dean while Billy was in seminary and taking Summer Institutes, presented the charge to the candidate and I, (Gordon Lawton) presented the charge to the church.
Pastor Calhoun led out in the prayer of ordination and Pastor Rood welcomed Billy to the ministry. Billy closed the service with a Benediction.
A reception followed in the Church social hall where an ordination certificate was presented.

Top: Billy Edwards
L: Billy and Pastor Dale Rood
R: Sheila and Billy Edwards

A 'Dead' day at the Museum

Looking for something “cool” to do on a hot Sunday in Wisconsin, Janet and I decided to head to the Milwaukee Public Museum to take in the traveling exhibit of the Dead Sea Scrolls. A generous church friend had asked if we were interested in going and sent me a check to cover the admission cost. Thank you, Laura!

Now, no one cared to tell us that it was also commencement day for Marquette University (so 2,000 graduates and their families were vying for parking spaces downtown…). But once we settled in to a nearby parking garage we were soon learning all about the history of the Qumran community near the Dead Sea, and the “chance” discovery of the first of many Biblical and extra-Biblical scrolls found in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Probably the most interesting was the very faithful reproduction of the 24-foot scroll of Isaiah. A young Bible scholar (and trained photographer) John Trever–also the first American to see the scrolls–was given permission to photograph that precious document in 1948. And he had to do it under some adverse physical and technical conditions. Those pictures remain as the most detailed images of the original.

Janet loved the fact that some later manuscripts (upon which many Bible translations relied) were the same as these more ancient finds. God had preserved the integrity of His Word.

I’m not sure where the display heads next, but if you’re in the Milwaukee area you still have a couple of weeks to see it. I heard other people say that the Milwaukee exhibit surpassed the one hosted in Chicago, with much more information and “build-up” before presenting some of the actual scroll fragments. It was an interesting and faith-affirming day at the museum.

Limited Time Offer!

As many of the loyal readers of the blog are aware, the Historical Society keeps SDB-related materials for our archives, so that they will be available for generations to come for study and reflection. What some of you might not know is that the Society also has SDB-related materials that are donated to us that we redistribute back to interested SDB's and SDB churches!

Recently, the Society received a large collection of SDB Yearbooks from the middle part of the last century. Some of the volumes are a bit scuffed up, but they all are full volumes, with no pages missing and would be good for completing a collection with a hole in it! The collection included yearbooks from 1920-1957, 1960-1964, 1966-1970, and 1972. Because the Society's own collection of yearbooks during this period is complete (and our back-up sets are too!), we are offering these yearbooks to anyone interested for a limited time on a first-come, first-served basis. If you or your church is looking to complete your own collection of Seventh Day Baptist Yearbooks, please contact us by email (sdbhist@seventhdaybaptist.org) or by phone (608) 752-5055, to make arrangements for the yearbooks you desire to be sent to you! Please note that depending on the number of volumes you would like or how you would like them sent, you may need to be prepared to pay for the postage of the items.

Any yearbooks remaining by the end of our coming General Conference sessions will be 'filed' permanently away where they will be difficult to recover, so let us know soon if you are interested!

Successful Historical Society Meetings!

This past weekend, May 15 and 16, the Seventh Day Baptist Historical Society held its Board of Directors and Society Annual meetings at the SDB Center in Janesville.

The Board of Directors (pictured above during the 2009 meetings--Janet Thorngate, Salem, WV; Judy Parrish, Battle Creek, MI; Norma MacLuskie, Newport News, VA; Ruth Burdick, Seattle, WA; and Paul Green, Milton, WI) held their meetings after the Sabbath on the 15th and before and after the Society's Annual meeting on Sunday the 16th. The Board reviewed all the business of the Society for 2009 and so far in 2010, set priorities for the remainder of 2010 and 2011 and began setting out a strategic plan for 2011 to 2015. In addition to this review of the Society's business, the Board also prepared a budget and conducted performance reviews of the Society's employees. Though the meetings are always filled--reviewing all the Society's work in a few short hours is tough--the meetings were a productive time of fellowship and work.

The Society's 2010 Annual Meeting was held at 2:00pm on Sunday the 16th. At the meeting, the Society formally inducted 12 new life members (!), as well as adopting the 2009 Annual Report, which will be printed in the 2010 General Conference Yearbook. Updates were given for the members in attendance about the ongoing work of the Society. In addition, the Society voted to adopt a new vision statement: "Remembering our past to inform the present and envision the future." The Society voted to make a revised version of the Society purpose statement the Society's new mission statement. Elections for officer positions, the re-election of Janet Thorngate for a 5-year term as a director of the Society, and the 2010-2011 nominating committee were also held. A brief presentation was also made about the SDB presence at the World's Columbian Exposition of 1893, and how history is often the cobbling together of scraps of information. A time of fellowship followed the meeting.

We are grateful for the support of Seventh Day Baptists for the continued ministry of remembering our history. We thank those of you who prayed for our meetings--your prayers were answered! Please continue to pray for the work of the Society in the months ahead. If you would like to be added to an email list to receive specific prayer items for the Society's work, please send us an email (sdbhist@seventhdaybaptist.org) with your request to be added!

Conference speakers named

At the risk of upstaging our own June Sabbath Recorder (available on-line early next week, Lord willing) here's a preview of President Paul Andries' list of Conference speakers he has lined up:

• Morning Bible Studies
Monday: Pastor JoAnne Kandel, Hebron, Pa.
“Diverse Ministries for Diverse Needs”
Tuesday: Minister Dusty Mackintosh
Seminary Student, Thornton, Colo.
“We’re Stewards of the Ministry, Not Lords”
Wednesday: Pastor Kory Geske, Battle Creek, Mich.
“Jesus: The Example of Ministry”
Thursday: Pastor Derrick Thomas, Guyana SDB
Member at Queens, N.Y.
“The Ministry of Mentoring”
Friday: Pastor David Taylor, Mitchellville, Md.
“Senior Servants: The Voice of Reason in Ministry”

• Evening Services
Sunday: Pastor Helmer Umana, Arlington, Va.
“The Ministry Is the Lord’s”
Monday: Pastor Ericessen Cooper, Brooklyn, N.Y.
“The Lord Calls to the Ministry”
Tuesday: Pastor Steven James, Verona, N.Y.
“Off the Sideline, Into the Game”
Wednesday: Pastor Dale Rood, Dodge Center, Minn.
“The Seasons of Servanthood: Knowing When to Step Down”
Thursday: Minister Jamaal Fyffe
Seminary Student, Toronto, Canada
“Young People in Ministry”
Friday: Pastor Alvin Bernard, Decatur, Ga.
“Servants Minister to God”

• Sabbath Worship
Pastor Paul R. Andries, Washington, D.C.
“When God’s Servants Realize the Blessings of Shared Ministry”


Our annual General Conference meets July 25-31 at Evangel University in Springfield, Missouri. You may register on-line at our website, or see the May Sabbath Recorder for registration forms.

Link for Radio Debate fixed (I hope)

There were a bunch of frustrated people yesterday, trying to listen to the second installment of the radio debate "Saturday or Sunday: Which Day is the Christian Sabbath?"

The web-link to hear WNYG radio was changed, and we weren't notified until late afternoon on Wednesday. Apparently the webmaster for "Iron Sharpens Iron" was also in the dark since the link at the top of their page went to the old URL.

Lord willing, you should be able to listen to Rev. Rod Henry and Dr. Sam Waldron have their first point-counterpoint discussion today at 6:00 pm (eastern). Again, go to www.sharpens.org and click on the brown box at the top of the page. That should take you directly to the radio stream. In case there are problems, click here or type http://www.unored.com/canticonuevo.asx into your browser and listen in. (If you click in before 6:00, you will hear some Spanish programming; "Iron Sharpens Iron" is the station's only English-speaking program.) They will NOT be taking calls today or tomorrow.

May the Lord receive the glory and honor for this media outreach for the Sabbath and Seventh Day Baptists.

New Link for Online Sabbath Debate!

This is just a quick note to let everyone know that today's portion of the Sabbath debate on the the radio program "Iron Sharpens Iron" has been changed! If you'd like to listen to the debate, please click either the title of this entry, or type: http://www.unored.com/canticonuevo.asx in your browser (or click the address above)!

As was the case with Pastor Rod Henry's presentation last night, the entire presentation will be available on mp3 after the completion of the presentation. Listen and get the "Sunday as the Christian Sabbath position."

Open your Bible, click the link, and get informed!

The Sabbath that Jesus Kept

“The Sabbath that Jesus Kept” is the theme for this year’s Sabbath Renewal Day, sponsored by the Tract and Communication Council. Pastor John Pethtel, chair of our Sabbath Promotion Committee, gathered this year’s support material. Those packets have been mailed to the churches.

Many of our SDB churches plan to celebrate Sabbath Renewal Day this coming Sabbath, May 15. If you haven’t received the worship materials, there is still time to have them e-mailed to you. (There are no printed bulletin covers this year.)

If you’d like the Renewal Day packet of Word documents, please contact us at media@seventhdaybaptist.org and have a blessed Sabbath—this and every week!

Radio program starts today!

Well, today's the day! We are anticipating and praying for the first of four programs on radio station WNYG-1440. "Iron Sharpens Iron," hosted by Chris Arnzen, will present "Saturday or Sunday: Which Day is the Christian Sabbath? A Debate Between Baptists."

Today at 6:00 p.m. (Eastern time), our own Rev. Rod Henry will present the case for the seventh-day Sabbath. On Wednesday, Dr. Sam Waldren will talk about the Sunday-keeping perspective. Both men will be on the air Thursday and Friday.

The program will be streamed live on the web. For instructions on how to tune in, see our blog entry of May 7.

Rez Connection looking for more helpers

The Rez Connection project for June is still looking for last-minute participants.

The mission to Native Americans in South Dakota has four adults and three youth planning on participating, with another four adults considering it.

Mission coordinator Patty Petersen would love to have more join in. The mission is for one-to-three weeks beginning on June 13. More details are in the March and April Sabbath Recorders.


The photo shows Pastor Chet Marks helping Native American school children to pot marigold seedlings, developing their interest in gardening. (The kids’ faces are obscured for their protection on the Web.)

Patty’s phone number is 720-320-3418. and her e-mail is ppetersen57@hotmail.com.

Radio debate moved to Tues-Friday

Due to a scheduling conflict, the radio debate “Saturday or Sunday: What is the Christian Sabbath?” between Rev. Rodney Henry (from our church in Thornton, Colo.) and Dr. Sam Woldren of the Midwest Center for Theological Studies has been moved to May 11-14. (That’s Tuesday thru Friday instead of Mon–Thurs.)

The radio program is called “Iron Sharpens Iron,” hosted by Chris Arnzen in New York City. Chris broadcasts the only English-speaking program on WNYG, a station that’s part of the “Radio Cantico Nuevo” Spanish network.

If you’re in the New York City area, tune in from 6:00-7:00 p.m. each evening to station WNYG, 1440 on the AM dial. The broadcast will also be live-streamed from their station. Here’s how you can listen:

Go to www.sharpens.org. After reading about the program’s participants, click on the box near the top of the page that invites you to “Click Here to Listen Live.” When you get to the radio network’s site (www.rcnam.com), you’ll see four options of radio stations. Make sure you click on the circle that says “Long Island, 1440AM.” Your computer should load the player program and you can start listening.

You will hear some Spanish if you tune in early, but Lord willing, "Iron Sharpens Iron" will be on at 6:00 p.m. Eastern. Rod Henry will be featured on Tuesday, Sam Woldren on Wednesday, and both men engaging in an informational debate on Thursday and Friday. All of the programs will take calls from listeners.

If you can’t listen to the program live on the internet, you can go to www.sharpens.org and download an MP3 recording of the programs. You can also go to that webpage and download last week’s interview (April 28) by Kevin Butler and Nick Kersten about Seventh Day Baptists.

Please be in prayer that the Lord will honor and bless these great opportunities!

Time to Pray

From the National Day of Prayer website:

Why Pray?
Prayer has always been used in this country for guidance, protection and strength—even before we were a nation or a handful of colonies. The Pilgrims at Plymouth relied on prayer during their first and darkest winter. Our founding fathers also called for prayer during the Constitutional Congress. In their eyes, our recently created nation and freedoms were a direct gift from God. And being a gift from God, there was only one way to ensure protection—through prayer.

(Click on the link above for more background on prayer.)

And from Jean Jorgensen on Facebook:

No ocean can hold it back.
No river can overtake it.
No whirlwind can go faster.
No army can defeat it.
No law can stop it.
No distance can slow it.
No disease can cripple it.
No force on earth is more powerful or effective than the power of prayer.
—Linn Carlson, DaySpring writer


Please join together on this National Day of Prayer and lift up our country and our leaders before the Throne of Grace.

Could Jordan River dry up next year?

from Daniel Estrin, Associated Press

QASR AL-YAHUD, West Bank — Christian pilgrims who flock to the Jordan River to immerse themselves in the water where Jesus was baptized may have nothing left to dunk in next year.

A team of Israeli, Jordanian and Palestinian environmental scientists says large stretches of the biblical river could dry up by 2011. And much of what remains is nothing but a canal of sewage, they said in a report released Monday.

"You can almost jump across this river. In other places, you don't need to even jump — you can just cross it. It's ankle deep," said Gidon Bromberg, Israeli director of Friends of the Earth Middle East, the organization that commissioned the report. "You struggle to see the water."

Sadly, it is one of the efforts to save the river that has helped doom it, the report said. Israel and Jordan have agreed to stop dumping waste into the river and instead treat it in plants expected to be up and running in both countries in 2011.
But if no wastewater enters the lower Jordan — the river's largest section — then no water will flow in it at all, the report notes.

According to Christian tradition, John baptized Jesus in the Jordan River. Typical of the region's conflicting land claims, both Jordan and Israel maintain the New Testament baptismal site stands on their soil, and the sites face each other on either side of the Jordan.

For entire article, click here.

Women's Board meets in Tomah, WI

The SDB Women's Board met at Perkins Restaurant in Tomah, WI, on the evening of May 1st after the North Central Association Women's Retreat. This is a point roughly half-way between Dodge Center, MN, and Milton, WI, and some Board members not present at the retreat were able to drive to this point for the meeting.
Action items included the following:
(1) Approval of the new Women's Board logo (to be unveiled at Conference)

(2) Voted that $10,000 of income from the Larry Graffius fund be given to COM for ministerial education.

(3) Voted to help raise funds for ministerial education...fundraising campaign to be developed with other Boards and Agencies through our Alliance in Ministry.
Other topics of discussion included SCSC, Tuition Fund, the Robe of Achievement and the Conference Women's Banquet.

Women's Board President Althea Rood

Religious Freedom panel criticizes current, past administrations

by Robert Marus, Associated Baptist Press

WASHINGTON (ABP) -- A bipartisan federal panel charged with monitoring religious-freedom questions worldwide blasted current and past administrations--Republican and Democratic alike-- for underemphasizing religious liberty in foreign policy.

In releasing its annual report on April 29, the independent United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) took particular aim at President Obama--for a perceived softening of his rhetoric on religious liberty and for failing to name an ambassador for international religious freedom.

The report also re-suggested the same 13 nations the panel recommended last year to the administration to be deemed “Countries of Particular Concern,” or CPCs, for particularly egregious violations of religious freedom. They are Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, Iraq, Nigeria, North Korea, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.

In addition, the panel named 12 nations to a “watch list” for countries in danger of crossing over into CPC territory under the terms of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, which established the commission. They are Afghanistan, Belarus, Cuba, Egypt, India, Indonesia, Laos, Russia, Somalia, Tajikistan, Turkey and Venezuela.

Critical of inaction
The report was highly critical of the three administrations--those of Obama, George W. Bush and Bill Clinton--that have operated since the panel came into existence for not doing enough to take advantage of its recommendations.

“USCIRF’s mandate is to delve into the human-rights ‘hot spots’ of the world where freedom of religion is being obstructed and trampled, and to offer policy solutions to improve conditions in that small but critically important point of intersection of foreign policy, national security, and international religious-freedom standards,” the report said.

“Regrettably, that small point seems to shrink year after year for the White House and the State Department. This is a deepening problem despite the fact that religious freedom should be increasingly more important as one of the core considerations in foreign policy and national security.”

For example, the report noted, neither the Bush nor Obama administrations designated as CPCs five countries the commission has repeatedly recommended for such status: Iraq, Nigeria, Pakistan, Turkemenistan and Vietnam.

In addition, the nations that have been deemed CPCs by the State Department have rarely received any additional U.S. sanctions as a result. Instead, U.S. officials have chosen to simply remain with sanctions already placed on those countries for other reasons--an option the law that created the designation allows, but one that USCIRF members say the State Department has over-used.

For the full story, click here.