SDB photo to appear on PBS Special!

Several months ago, the Historical Society was contacted by Sarah Colt Productions, looking for a photograph credited to our collection. They were in the process of preparing a documentary to be shown on PBS, and wanted to include the photograph in their program. After searching for the initial photograph, which was apparently misattributed to our collection, we were able to find a photograph (at left) that they were interested in including in the documentary of the Little Prairie (Nady), Arkansas SDB church, from the early 20th century. We were happy to send them the photograph and release it for use in the documentary.

That documentary, God in America, will air over the next three nights, October 11, 12 and 13th, on your local PBS station. Check your local listings for the times closest to you, and keep your eyes our for a picture of SDB's!

The trailer for the series:

CLT to meet at Center

The Coordinating Leadership Team—comprised of executives from the various SDB agencies and the president of the SDB Women’s Society—will gather October 8-10 at the Seventh Day Baptist Center in Janesville, Wis.

Ron Ochs, a member of both of the recent Conference ad hoc committees, will spend much of Friday with the CLT to discuss leadership training and implementing performance evaluation procedures. The Team will also discuss denominational activities, new contacts, communication issues and future plans.

We would appreciate your prayers for safe travel and good meetings.

"Fear Not," but some still do

A challenging piece by Robert Dilday, managing editor of the Virginia Baptist Religious Herald.


"Perfect love," wrote the Apostle John, "casts out fear."

For Christians, that simple maxim would seem to be an easy formula for stress-free living. But 2,000 years after those words were written, many disciples of Christ still find their lives dominated by fear -- and worse, many Christian leaders believe, their response to it often is indistinguishable from that of the society in which they live.

“What shocks me... is that many Christians have bought into fear as a thoughtful reaction to terrorism, to immigration, to health care and to many other important issues,” Drew Smith, an ordained Baptist minister who is director of international programs at Henderson State University in Arkadelphia, Ark., recently blogged.

Bill Shiell, pastor of First Baptist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., observed many Christians “are informed primarily by forwarded e-mails and relentlessly repetitive information, rather than the good news of Christ.”

“The phrase ‘do not be afraid’ is used 365 times in the Bible for a reason,” said Shiell. “The faithful are often the most susceptible to fear.”

For the rest of the article, click here.

October SR available on-line

The October 2010 Sabbath Recorder shares a Conference delegate's report to her local church, an update on post-forest fire Camp Paul Hummel (that you regular blog readers already know about), and praying for a heart for missions reopens some old spiritual wounds. It's on-line here.

October is Pastor Appreciation Month

There was a little note in the September Sabbath Recorder, at the bottom of the Pastor Profile page, that reminded us about October being Pastor Appreciation Month. This is not required but is a nice thing to do.

It is easy to forget to say "thank you" and "you are appreciated." The designation of October for this is only one of the reminders we have. Anniversaries of your Pastor's service to the congregation, ordination, accreditation, marriage or other significant event give an excuse to say "we appreciate you."

Ideas can be found on line by searching "pastor appreciation ideas" or other similar searches.

As you consider how to show your appreciation you may want to know how long your pastor has served as a pastor, your pastor's ordination date or year of accreditation. Contact the Center on Ministry (com@sdbministry.org) for these dates and other ideas about showing your appreciation for your pastor.

Of Ice Cream and Hospitality

David Wilkerson, Executive Director of the Associated Baptist Press, offers this nostalgic and practical look at his homemade ice cream.


At our house, hospitality is dished out by the spoonful.

Homemade ice cream has been a staple in the ministry of hospitality my wife, Melanie, has practiced since we were married nearly 33 years ago. An ice-cream freezer was one of our first purchases as newlyweds. We’re now on our third freezer, having replaced the electric motor once or twice as well.

Although summer officially ends in September, our aging freezer doesn’t know the difference. For us, the offseason for homemade ice cream runs from about Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day -- with room for exceptions. We’ve been known to serve homemade ice cream with a fire burning in the fireplace.


UPDATE: The ABP website has been hacked and malware warnings are in place. I'll keep this post up for now, and try to provide you with the correct link once their site is free of problems. Our (and their) apologies!
DON'T Click here for the rest of the story.

Prayers or Pancakes? IHOP sues IHOP

As heard on NPR yesterday:

In a lawsuit of biblical proportions, it's "Praise the Lord" versus "pass the pancakes."

IHOP, the International House of Pancakes, is suing IHOP, the International House of Prayer, for using its signature acronym, which confuses the public. Not only that, some church IHOPs serve food, and the church plans a $150 million headquarters in Grand View, Missouri, right across the road from an IHOP of the pancake persuasion.

Update from our Boulder Camp

This special and personal update on Camp Paul Hummel, outside of Boulder, Colo., came last week from Ana Petersen. Her father is the camp's caretaker. We rejoice in the great news!

Dad and I made it up to Camp today. As you enter the camp and drive to the lodge, there is no evidence that a fire was even near the area. However, if you walk straight up from the upper cabin toward the towers, the fire came to within about 100 feet of the building.

The firefighters fought an incredible battle and won, which included orange slurry sprayed from above, large trees cut down in strategic spots, and a long and winding fire line that they dug by hand. The fire raged through a large part of the property through the undergrowth, leaving the tops of the tree untouched. The firefighters followed many of our trails and roads which created breaks for them to enhance.

We did a little hiking around the property, and saw the burn areas are very sporadic. Starting from the South Meadow to the road near the towers is scorched with many burned trees. However to the east and north all the way to the building area there are no burned trees. From the towers south and west–all the way to the archery range–is extensively burned. The practice range and picnic tables did not burn. The firemen said there were a few of the large animal targets left, but not very many unfortunately.


There are still spot fires smoldering all over the burn area. A crew of about a dozen firefighters from Poudre Canyon is still roaming the property putting those spots out. We heard that there is still a great danger from some of those fires that follow the root system of a tree and come out somewhere else where the wind whips it up and starts to burn again. Although the fire raged all around and right up to the tower building, we couldn't see any burn evidence on the buildings or the towers. The cables in the air burned, but not all the way through. All the power and telephone poles to the lodge are still up.

We still have an amazing piece of property with most of our trees still vibrantly growing. Thank you all for being prayer warriors this week! It is truly a miracle that stopped it from coming any closer, or from a different direction.

Keep up the prayers until all the little spots are out and all the emergency responders are called home. All across Sunshine Valley up towards Gold Hill, there were spots flaring up from the wind as we watched. The crews started fighting them almost immediately because they are all over the place, but we should not forget that the little battles continue.