Arkansas ranks No. 1 in religious liberty; Sanders warns 'lack of community' poses major threat

By Jon Brown, Christian Post Reporter Wednesday, July 15, 2026

Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders recently spoke to The Christian Post about the importance of religious liberty. | MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images

Republican Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders, whose state was ranked first in the nation for religious freedom this year, said that increasing alienation and loss of community among Americans pose grave threats to religious liberty in the United States.

Sanders’ office announced Tuesday that Arkansas scored this year’s top spot for religious liberty in the First Liberty Institute’s Center for Religion, Culture & Democracy’s Religious Liberty in the States index, which evaluated 50 legal protections across 20 safeguards states can adopt to uphold religious freedom.

Earning a score of 89.2%, Arkansas joined Tennessee this year as the only two states to receive the index’s first-ever “excellent” rating.

During a Tuesday phone interview with The Christian Post, Sanders attributed Arkansas’ recent distinction to multiple legislative accomplishments, which she described as a “collective” agenda to promote religious liberty.

She highlighted last year’s enactment of Act 677, which prohibits state and local governments from penalizing anyone for operating according to their sincerely held beliefs about biological sex and marriage. She also pinpointed the Conscience Protection Act she signed in 2023, which expanded the protections of Arkansas’ Religious Freedom Restoration Act by prohibiting the state government from discriminating against religious organizations because of their religious identity.

Sanders, who has served as governor of Arkansas since 2023, expressed pride that her state has been distinguished for “something that is very foundational to our country.”

“What makes America so special and unique is that we are the greatest country because we’re the freest country, and our first and most fundamental right to freedom is our religious freedom and religious liberty,” she said.

A New Economy | Social Documentary | Economy | English

Religious fundamentalism is a ‘plague,’ pope says

Junno Arocho Esteves

Nov 19, 2019

CATHOLIC NEWS SERVICE




Pope Francis greets Father Guillermo Marco, Muslim leader Omar Abboud and Rabbi Daniel Goldman, co-presidents of the Argentine Institute for Interreligious Dialogue, Nov. 18, 2019, in the apostolic palace of the Vatican. (Credit: CNS photo/Vatican Media.)


ROME - Interreligious dialogue is an important way to counter fundamentalist groups as well as the unjust accusation that religions sow division, Pope Francis said.

Meeting with members of the Argentine Institute for Interreligious Dialogue Nov. 18, the pope said that in “today’s precarious world, dialogue among religions is not a weakness. It finds its reason for being in the dialogue of God with humanity.”

Recalling a scene from the 11th-century poem, “The Song of Roland,” in which Christians threatened Muslims “to choose between baptism or death,” the pope denounced the fundamentalist mentality which “we cannot accept nor understand and cannot function anymore.”

“We must beware of fundamentalist groups; each (religion) has their own. In Argentina, there are some fundamentalist corners there,” he said. “Fundamentalism is a plague and all religions have some fundamentalist first cousin.”

According to its website, the Institute for Interreligious Dialogue was founded in Buenos Aires in 2002 and was inspired by then-Cardinal Jorge Mario Bergoglio as a way “to promote understanding among men and women of different religious traditions in our city and the world.”

The pope welcomed the members of the institute who are in Rome to reflect on the document on “human fraternity” and improving Christian-Muslim relations, which was signed Feb. 4 by Francis and Sheikh Ahmad el-Tayeb, the grand imam of al-Azhar and a leading religious authority for many Sunni Muslims.

Community Joins Together to Celebrate 15th Anniversary of ABMDR

The ABMDR Board of Directors following the award ceremony
Crystal-year Gala attended by hundreds special awards conferred on longtime supporters



LOS ANGELES—Match for Life, the annual Gala of the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry (ABMDR), celebrated the 15th anniversary of the organization. More than 400 supporters, reflecting a cross section of the Los Angeles Armenian community and including church and community leaders, elected officials, and representatives of various health organizations, attended the jubilant event, which was held on the night of August 10, 2014, at the Glendale Hilton, in Glendale, California.

Featuring a distinguished roster of speakers, the Gala served as a pan-national occasion to salute 15 years of ABMDR achievements, and also honor numerous individuals and organizations for their extraordinary support of its mission. The Gala was made possible by the major sponsorship of Glendale Adventist Medical Center.

Following a cocktail hour and silent auction in the foyer and terrace of the hotel’s Glendale Ballroom, the evening’s main program began inside the hall, with opening remarks delivered by ABMDR Board member and Mistress of Ceremonies Taleen Khatchadurian.

As she welcomed the guests, Khatchadurian acknowledged the presence of several dignitaries and community leaders, including Archbishop Hovnan Derderian of the Western Diocese; Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian of the Western Prelacy; Rev. Joseph Matossian of the Armenian Evangelical Union of North America; Eghia Mansuryan, representing the Consulate of the Republic of Armenia in Los Angeles; former First Lady of Armenia and ABMDR Honorary Chair Dr. Bella Kocharian; Los Angeles City Council member Paul Krekorian; Glendale Mayor Zareh Sinanyan; Burbank Mayor Dr. David Gordon; Glendale City Council members Ara Najarian and Paula Devine; Glendale City Treasurer Rafi Manoukian; Talin Mangioglu, representing California State Senator Carol Liu; Mary Hovagimian, representing Congressman Adam Schiff; Mary Manoukian, representing California State Assemblyman Mike Gatto; Rita Hadjimanoukian, representing Los Angeles County Supervisor Michael Antonovich; Glendale Adventist Medical Center President and CEO Kevin Roberts; Ramella Markarian, also representing Glendale Adventist Medical Center; Glendale Memorial Hospital President Jack Ivie and Vice President of Business Development David Mauss; Dr. Neena Kapoor of Children’s Hospital Los Angeles; Zaven Kazazian of the Glendale Sunrise Rotary Club; Mr. and Mrs. Robert and Arpi Barsam of Saint James Armenian Church; Armenian American Medical Association President Dr. Serineh Melidonian; Dr. Zarmine Naccashian of the Armenian American Nurses Association; Cochlear Transplant Program Chair Salpi Akaragian; Armenian Relief Society Central Executive Board Chair Vicky Marashlian and Western Region representatives Rita Hintlian and Jasik Jarahian; the Western Diocese Ladies’ Auxiliary Committee; the Western Prelacy Ladies’ Auxiliary Committee; and the Armenian Cycling Association, represented by Jacques Merdkhanian, Armen Hagopian, Artin Shaverdian, and the Nazarian family.




The Gala Committee

The event’s invocation was performed by Archbishop Hovnan Derderian, who subsequently was presented with the 2014 ABMDR Humanitarian Achievement Award, in recognition of his key role in the Western Diocese’s longtime support of the Registry. As he accepted the award, Archbishop Derderian said, “The Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry has been and continues to be a blessing in the life of our community, where we all see the dire need for leadership, sacrifice, and the sharing of divine gifts among people. The ABMDR is a divine mission. Those who become shareholders in this mission are those who become the holy hand of God.”

Taleen Khatchadurian next introduced ABMDR founding members Mark Geragos, Esq., Dr. Frieda Jordan, Dr. Bella Kocharian, and Dr. Sevak Avagyan.

“This organization has thousands of shining facets, not the least of which are its more than 26,000 registered potential donors and 20 facilitated transplants,” Dr. Jordan said as she took the podium. “We sparkle as the Caucasus region’s only Stem Cell Harvesting Center. We shine worldwide as members of top medical associations, presenters at major professional conferences, and – coming up this October – hosts of the prestigious European Federation of Immunogenetics and Histocompatibility meeting in Yerevan for the second time.”

“In this special Crystal Anniversary year, we thank all of you for bringing the spark and sparkle to our work on behalf of ethnic Armenians everywhere who need our help,” Dr. Jordan continued. “With your support, our future is crystal clear.”


From left: Dr. Sevak Avagyan, Dr. Bella Kocharian, Dr. Frieda Jordan, Arch. Hovnan Derderian, Diana Artunian, and Mr. and Mrs. Zareh Sinanyan.

On her part, Dr. Bella Kocharian, ABMDR’s first-ever registered donor, said, “As a physician, I have always been deeply aware of the need for a donor registry dedicated to helping save Armenian lives. And as an Armenian, I remain absolutely in awe of our Registry, considering not only its extraordinary achievements in the past 15 years, but the fact that it has quickly become a genuinely pan-Armenian institution.”

Also delivering remarks was ABMDR Executive Director Dr. Sevak Avagyan, who shared with the audience some of the most recent milestones achieved by the Registry’s lab in Yerevan, in terms of diagnostics, research, cord-blood banking, and pioneering autotransplantation procedures. Dr. Avagyan went on to make a special Crystal-anniversary appeal for grassroots and major benefactor support, “so we can continue our critically important tissue-typing work and provide vital diagnostics for our Armenian patients who cannot afford it,” he said.

The ABMDR Humanitarian Achievement Award was likewise conferred on Archbishop Moushegh Mardirossian and Armenian Consul General Dr. Sergey Sarkisov. Accepting the award on behalf of the latter was Eghia Mansuryan of the Consulate.

As he accepted the Humanitarian Achievement Award, Archbishop Mardirossian said: “On this historic night, we express our thanks and gratitude to the Armenian Bone Marrow Donor Registry’s army of volunteers, who in the past 15 years have served a divine purpose, by helping bring the gift of life to so many. They are the real heroes of this initiative, who have committed themselves to the Registry’s life-saving cause. You have, and continue to be, a blessing for so many of our brothers and sisters, among them little children and young adults fighting life-threatening illnesses. You have brought hope not only to them, but their families. We congratulate you on the 15th anniversary of this worthy service and wish you decades more to come.”

From left: Dr. Sevak Avagyan, Fr. Razmig Khatchadourian, Arch. Moushegh Mardirossian, Dr. Bella Kocharian, and Dr. Frieda Jordan.

Other individuals who were honored during the evening were ABMDR founding members Diana Artunian, Michelle Seyranian, Stepan Vartanian, Frank Melkonian, Dr. Carolann Najarian, and Alvard Petrosyan, as well as the organization’s present Board of Directors, all of whom received the ABMDR Leadership Excellence Award. Delivering remarks on behalf of the Board was Dr. Varoosh Alaverdian, who expressed profound delight at witnessing the continued growth and worldwide outreach of ABMDR.

In addition, Dr. Jordan made a surprise announcement to recognize the invaluable service of longtime supporters Teresa Hacopian, Dalida Keuroghlian, and Carmen Lukassian, while the 2014 Gala Committee, chaired by Naz Atikian, as well as Dr. Vergine Madelian, Fimi Mekhitarian, and Iline Boghoskhanian were honored for their tireless efforts in ensuring the success of the annual flagship event.

The ABMDR Volunteer of the Year Award was presented to Marilyn Bazarian, Dee Chorlian, and Hratch Postik; the Team of the Year Award was presented to the USC Armenian Graduate Students’ Association; and the ABMDR Special Pride Award was conferred on Hratch Lukassian and Ashot Manukian.

The Gala also featured a Crystal Candle Ceremony, during which the numerous Crystal Candle sponsors symbolically lit the candles placed on their tables. The ceremony was followed by a moving speech delivered by Alique Topalian. A childhood cancer survivor considered “the true spark that started ABMDR,” Topalian, now 20, said, “Every single person in this room has made this mission possible by contributing to it. This is our fight. This is our cause. I thank my parents and the leadership and volunteers of ABMDR, who have worked so hard to make it a success. I know its next 15 years will be even more successful.”

From left: Alique Topalian, Dr. Bella Kocharian, Michele Seyranian, and Dr. Frieda Jordan.

The Gala was made all the livelier by several musical performances, featuring violinist Artashes Mnatsakanyan and singers Mister X (Arthur Hakobyan) and Anushik Hakobyan.

In the concluding segment of the event, a large Crystal-anniversary cake was cut to the delight of the audience, and the winners of the 2014 ABMDR Lottery were announced following a drawing by the young ABMDR Angels.

Established in 1999, ABMDR, a nonprofit organization, helps Armenians and non-Armenians worldwide survive life-threatening blood-related illnesses by recruiting and matching donors to those requiring bone marrow stem cell transplants. To date, the registry has recruited over 26,000 donors in 20 countries across four continents, identified 2,481 patients, and facilitated 20 bone marrow transplants.

For more information, call (323) 663-3609 or visit abmdr.am.

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Activist who taught Obama to be community organizer is retiring

BY TINA SFONDELES Staff Reporter/tsfondeles@suntimes.com June 2, 2013 8:54PM





Greg Galluzzo is retiring after a lifetime as a Chicago community activist. He mentored Barack Obama during his days as a young community organizer on the South Side of Chicago. He also started the Fiesta del Sol festival in Pilsen. | Sun-Times Media

ARTICLE EXTRAS

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Updated: June 3, 2013 2:13AM


The man who taught a young Barack Obama how to be a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago recalls his ability to talk to anyone, from the very poor to the very rich.

At 69, Greg Galluzzo is weeks from retiring — or at least not getting paid — from the Gamaliel Foundation, the training and consulting organization he has directed since 1986. Galluzzo, also the creator of the United Neighborhood Organization, managed to stay behind the scenes during his 41-year community-organizing career, which he says is the sign of a good organizer.

“We’re not supposed to be in the spotlight,” he said. “We’re suppposed to create the scenario so the indigenous people of the community are our leaders.”

But there are those in the community-organizing world who take a different and very public path. Galluzo met Obama in 1985, and remembers him at age 21 as “a hardworking man, very willing to learn, a man with incredible integrity and a man who was comfortable no matter who he was talking to.”

“He really embraced the community, and the community embraced him,” Galluzzo said. “I think it was one of the more formative moments in his life where he became proud of his own ancestry because the people made him proud.”

Galluzzo met with Obama weekly for a year, teaching him how to raise money for his community organization and how to design community strategies.

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P.S.

According to the words above G. Galluzzo met Obama in 1985, and Barack was 21.  Obama supposedly was born in 1961;  So in 1985, Obama would have been 23 or 24 years old, not 21.  

Keep Sunday Special's Latest Leaflet

Keep Sunday Special has released a new leaflet about our campaign and the reasons that we think Sunday should be special. Click here to see it! If you would like us to send you some leaflets to share with friends, colleagues or others then please get in touch.

http://www.keepsundayspecial.org.uk/Web/

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Community Emergency Response Team

The Community Emergency Response Team (CERT) program helps train people to be better prepared to respond to emergency situations in their communities. When emergencies happen, CERT members can give critical support to first responders, provide immediate assistance to victims, and organize spontaneous volunteers at a disaster site. CERT members can also help with non-emergency projects that help improve the safety of the community.

The CERT course is taught in the community by a trained team of first responders who have completed a CERT Train-the-Trainer course conducted by their state training office for emergency management, or FEMA's Emergency Management Institute (EMI), located in Emmitsburg, Maryland. CERT training includes disaster preparedness, disaster fire suppression, basic disaster medical operations, and light search and rescue operations.

Over the next two years, the CERT program aims to double the number of participants, with over 400,000 individuals completing the 20 plus hours of training. Train-the-Trainer sessions will be held in all 56 states and territories over the next year to expand the program throughout the United States.

Learn more by visiting the CERT homepage.

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Church a growing young congregation committed to living Christian faith

Originally Published: 10/27/2012 Share


Bruce Posten
Reading Eagle

On the second Saturday of every month, they wear jeans and T-shirts to worship not in a church but at the GoggleWorks.

They then proceed to volunteer at social service agencies or go out on Reading's streets and serve food and drinks and talk about Jesus.

They are mostly quite young: 20s, 30s and 40s.

This is the heart of their Saturday, their day of worship at the city's 4-year-old Grace Outlet Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The soul of their mission: "Connect the Disconnect."

"We know that there are so many people in Berks who desire to help Reading, and we want them to know that we have that desire, too," said Amy Newman, 30, of Shillington, a nurse and mother of two children, whose husband, Roland, 34, is a family physician with St. Joseph Medical Center at its Sixth and Walnut streets campus, the former Community General Hospital.

The Newmans are among a growing young congregation of Seventh-day Adventists who have made a commitment to worship in the city and serve those in need in a way they believe allows them to live their Christian faith.

"We live in a time when there is a deconstruction of religion, almost to the point that some people have difficulty even saying the name of Jesus," said Roland Newman. "But the truth of Jesus is boiled down to the practicality of Jesus, who taught: Do unto others as you would have them do unto you."

"We are theologically conservative, but we are not traditional," said Jason Foster, 34, one of two church pastors, the other being Kris Eckenroth, 35, both of Hamburg.

Eckenroth said since the church started in November 2008 with about 20 to 30 weekly worshipers, the attendance numbers have grown to more than 100.

"Our age range is pretty widespread, from infant to 80, but mostly we are attracting a lot of young adults," Eckenroth said.

In fact, Eckenroth estimated that about 65 percent of the membership, before they came to Grace Outlet, no longer had been attending a church or were among the unchurched.

To what does he attribute the attraction of this relatively new congregation, renting space at the GoggleWorks?

"Jesus never becomes more real than when you are serving people and you do something intentional and make the effort to become part of a community," he said.

"The way I would describe it is that all of us, and that includes many denominations and not just ours, are susceptible to being in a rut," Foster said. "We are not moving away from the roots of what we believe, but, unfortunately, we sometimes get used to doing something a certain way and then attach a value to it, which really doesn't have anything to do with our core beliefs. An element of stagnation then sets in."

To avoid that stagnation, Grace Outlet steers clear of fixed formats for worship and mixes musical selections that range from traditional to contemporary.

"We don't necessarily want people to know what's coming next," Eckenroth said. "We will even change the direction of our seating for service. It's not that we're so committed to change for the sake of change, it's just that we want people to remain open and be interactive."

In that vein, church members embrace social action and variety: They conduct a Jeans Sabbath where congregation members dress down and hit the streets and provide food or deliver flowers; serve breakfasts at the Opportunity House shelter; and visit such places as the Olivet Boys and Girls Club, the Children's Home of Reading, the Animal Rescue League and the Villa St. Elizabeth, a city senior housing facility.

"What attracted us to the church is its energy, vibrancy and the willingness expressed to serve," said substitute teacher Lauren Penkala, 25, of Exeter Township, married to her state trooper husband, Stephen.

"We are both public servants and believe it's important to be active in your community," she said.

Heather Wlasniewski, 28, of Schuylkill Haven, Schuylkill County, a full-time mother, and her husband, Andy, also 28, an insurance adjuster, said they had a history of jumping around to several Seventh-day Adventist churches.

"We first came here one time in September 2009, and then my dad passed away in October," Wlasniewski said. "Upon learning of his death, Grace Outlet sent us a huge bouquet of roses. I just knew here is where we needed to be."

Another elementary school teacher, Meggan Shobe, 27, of Mount Penn, pointed out two features that drew her to Grace Outlet: "My husband and I came here and immediately felt a strong sense of family and belonging.

"We also wanted to come to a place where we felt needed and we could make a difference."

"For me personally, I'm not as interested in religion (as an institution), as I am in Jesus and having a meaningful relationship with him," said Erich Mace, 30, of Wyomissing, a chemical engineer, who attends Grace Outlet with his wife, Erin, 26, a second-grade teacher.

"Good acts are fine, but it is knowing Jesus and having a relationship with him that gives the greater meaning on the way to discovering that a practical Jesus is real in people's lives," he said.

"I grew up in a more traditional Catholic family and then moved to a nondenominational church, but I always had a lot of questions about God that just weren't being answered," Erin said. "Religion was more about rules and fears than it was about having a relationship."

Contact Bruce R. Posten: 610-371-5059 or bposten@readingeagle.com.

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A Global Community – The Sign Of His Coming

Commentary by Roger Oakland
www.understandthetimes.org

 Over 400,000 churches have now participated in Rick Warren’s Purpose Driven program. Quite obviously, millions of Christians have bought into the idea that the details of Christ’s return are none of our business, and we must help usher in a new reformation to eradicate the global problems facing the earth. According to Rick Warren, we accomplish this only if we all work together.

This togetherness/community mindset is the same message that [occultist] Alice Bailey referred to as “right human relations” and the same one the emerging church hopes to convey to the people of the world. A personal, individual relationship with Christ is considered self-centered,6 because it doesn’t focus on the global, common good. Communal spirituality is seen as the only path to the world’s survival. Listen to today’s new reformation thinkers:

The church is only an anticipation of the full, promised community of the whole world … the church itself is not a goal of God’s creation.7—Walter Brueggemann, An Emergent Manifesto of Hope

The Church, in all its expressions—Catholic, Evangelical, Pentecostal, Protestant and many others—has 2.3 billion followers.… Let’s use the grassroots network that is already on the ground. It’s time to lay aside our prejudices and work together.8—Rick Warren, Forbes magazine 

We are emerging into a new era of Christian faith as a “living color” global community. … It is immediately clear that this kind of emergence must lead to a convergence … a kind of relationship that has never before existed.9—Brian McLaren

Unfortunately, the “global community” so often spoken of in the emerging church camp is disguised language for a world-wide religious body that incorporates all belief systems. As [New Age leader] Neale Donald Walsch said, it’s a “global movement … which makes no one else wrong for the way in which they are doing it.”

The rate at which this global unity is developing should tell us that the return of Christ could very well be near. But not everyone who professes the name of Christ is going to be ready. Jesus Himself asked, “[W]hen the Son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?” (Luke 18:8). As in the parable of the ten virgins (Matthew 25:1-13), many will not be ready when the Lord returns. Many will have fallen asleep.

Do you remember what Jesus told the disciples when they asked Him, “what shall be the sign of thy coming, and of the end of the world?” (Matthew 24:3) He did not tell them the whole world would be experiencing a spiritual revival, turning to the Gospel. Rather he said:

Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. (Matthew 24: 4-5)

Jesus warned that in the days before He came back, there would be such a great falling away that “many” would be deceived. The word many in Greek means a vast amount or multitudes. In fact, the majority of the signs Jesus said to expect dealt with spiritual deception. He even forewarned there would be false appearances or manifestations of false Christs that would be associated with lying signs and wonders (Matthew 24:23-25).

The apostle Paul also issued Jesus’ warning about a time of deception that would dupe the whole world:

For the mystery of iniquity doth already work: only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out of the way. And then shall that Wicked be revealed, whom the Lord shall consume with the spirit of his mouth, and shall destroy with the brightness of his coming: Even him whose coming is after the working of Satan with all power and signs and lying wonders, And with all deceivableness of unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the love of the truth, that they might be saved. And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie. (II Thessalonians 2:7-11)

Notice how Satan’s deceptive plan operates. As with the temptation of Eve in the garden, he will first call into question what God has said, influencing many to reject the Bible as the inerrant Word of God, or to get lost in strange interpretations of the Bible, pulling verses out of context. Next, he will undermine the Word of God as taking second place to experience. After all, doesn’t God want everyone to be happy and to “love” all? This love typically translates into accepting everyone and their strange beliefs as well. Ultimately, deception means rejecting the truth of God’s Word for a lie all the while thinking that God is being served.

Certainly, the words of warning Paul wrote to the church at Corinth regarding Satan’s seductive plans are very relevant today:

But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtlety, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ. For if he that cometh preacheth another Jesus, whom we have not preached, or if ye receive another spirit, which ye have not received, or another gospel, which ye have not accepted, ye might well bear with him. (II Corinthians 11:3-4)

Many have forgotten these basic warnings found in Scripture regarding the last days when another gospel and another Jesus will be presented to a deceived world.

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White House and FEMA Recognize Individual & Community Preparedness Champion

The White House Seal

In this newsletter issue devoted to CERT people and programs in the eastern states, we feature an Individual and Community Preparedness Award winner from New York City, John Solomon.

The White House’s Champions of Change series and the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s 2011 Individual and Community Preparedness Awards recognized the achievements of individuals and organizations that help make our communities safer, stronger and better prepared to manage any emergency situation. Among the honorees, ceremonies at the White House and FEMA headquarters paid tribute to CERT member, the late John D. Solomon of New York.

Mr. Solomon received, posthumously, the John D. Solomon Preparedness Award.
He was the first recipient of this prestigious award created by FEMA in his honor. The award will be presented each year as part of the Individual and Community Preparedness Awards to a distinguished organization, program, or individual who has made a profound impact on ensuring our nation is more resilient.

Mr. Solomon was an active CERT member, author and relentless advocate for citizen preparedness. “John was a beloved, dedicated and passionate CERT member who worked hard to ensure that everyone is prepared for emergencies,” said Herman Shafer, Director of Community Outreach in the New York City Office of Emergency Management. “John was an excellent journalist and a great New Yorker. He devoted his life to serving others and challenged us all to do better and to give more. We are proud to have his legacy live on.”

In New York City, the John D. Solomon NYC CERT Award for Exemplary Service in Emergency Preparedness Education is now presented annually to a NYC CERT member who best embodies John’s enthusiasm for volunteerism and purposeful engagement to make their communities
better prepared for emergencies.

As a writer, John’s blog, In Case of Emergency, Read Blog: A Citizen’s Eye View Of Public Preparedness was launched in March 2008 as research for a book he was writing on emergency preparedness from the vantage point of a father, husband and son interested in helping safeguard his family and community. His body of work, until his untimely death in November 2010, was striking in its reporting, analysis and engagement in preparing the public and informing professionals in the public and private sectors.

John reported from conferences he’d helped to organize as well as those he had not. He devised legislation to incentivize the sale of emergency supplies via “tax holidays,” evaluated how government and non-profit disaster relief organizations were using social media tools, celebrated others’ initiatives by calling them to the attention of policy makers and conducted contests to foster citizen preparedness. He videotaped leaders in the preparedness community for their tips on readiness including an interview with FEMA Administrator Craig Fugate which they taped just two months before John’s death.

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At European Pastor’s Conference, a call for relevant community ministry

Aug. 31, 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States

ANN staff

Seventh-day Adventist pastors in Europe say a renewed emphasis on relevant, relational outreach will connect with communities there, despite the region’s growing secularism.

The enthusiasm for simple, creative approaches to evangelism came during the European Pastors Conference last week in Rogaska Slatina, Slovenia. Sponsored by the Adventist Church’s Trans-European Division, the conference is held every five years and highlights spiritual growth, continuing education and fellowship.

Bertil Wiklander, president of the church’s Trans-European Division, speaks at the European Pastor’s Conference in Rogaska Slatina, Slovenia, last week. Wiklander said “Making God Known in Europe,” the conference’s theme, is the church’s “great challenge and calling.” [photos courtesy TED News]

Some 1,200 pastors, their spouses and lay workers rallied around the theme, “Making God Known in Europe” during four days of lectures, workshops and worship. Thousands more followed the conference via livestream and social media.

In his keynote address, Trans-European Division President Bertil Wiklander told attendees that while many Europeans deny their need for God, such a lifestyle is ultimately “dysfunctional.”

“To make God known in Europe is our great challenge and calling,” he said.

Other presenters urged pastors not to confine their ministry to the pews. Dennis Meier, a pastor from Hamburg, Germany, referenced metaphors from Matthew 5 in his presentation. “As Adventists, we tend to be more comfortable with the metaphor of the light on the hill than the salt of the Earth,” Meier said.

“With our established buildings and our structured worship times there is a danger of us becoming isolated,” he added.

When pastors minister outside church walls, they need to be aware that their efforts and motivation will likely face scrutiny, said Adventist world church Vice President Lowell Cooper.

“A trustworthy God will never be made known by untrustworthy people,” Cooper said in a presentation that highlighted the significance of humility, integrity, respect and accountability in pastoral ministry.

Derek Morris, editor of the church’s Ministry Magazine, said he found a lecture by Biblical Research Institute Director Artur Stele particularly compelling.

“I grew up in Europe, so I am aware of some of the challenges they are facing with postmodern, post-Christian people,” Morris said.

“[Stele] talked about how the New Testament uses more than forty words to describe sharing the good news about Jesus and mentions fifteen different places, such as the market place, cafe, temple, by the river, someone’s house. So the message is to share Jesus in every way and in every place,” he said.

Secular Europe is not unlike the environment the Apostle Paul faced ministering to Greco-Roman culture in the 1st Century, said Adventist recording artist and Pastor Wintley Phipps.

“I think Paul left us a theological heritage that we have lost sight of – that revealing Christ to the world around us, in us, is the true purpose of the church,” Phipps said.

A musical performance at the European Pastor’s Conference.

Veteran Adventist evangelist Mark Finley challenged church members not to let fear of failure hinder efforts to share Jesus. “I’d rather try and do something great for God and fail, than do nothing for God and succeed,” he said.

European Adventists launched at least two new pilot outreach projects this year. In February, Bible stories came alive for community members who visited a three-dimensional exhibit in Reykjavik, Iceland. The church’s display traced Biblical history from Creation to Jesus’ resurrection.

Later, in Hungary, Adventists launched a health club and Bible university to respond to basic physical and spiritual needs. Leaders in the country also hosted “Jesus7,” an outreach series broadcast on television nationwide that they say offered lasting answers amid financial instability in the country.

Now, pastors in the region are calling for increased support for more such innovative approaches to evangelism.

“Those who try new methods need confidence and trust and a platform where they can share their experiences,” said Janos Kovacs-Biro, Trans-European Division Ministerial Association director.

“We need a lot of encouragement from church leadership,” Kovacs-Biro said, adding that health, the Sabbath rest and social justice issues such as human trafficking and domestic violence can be effective ways of connecting with a secular audience.

Training seminars for pastors to learn these new methods of outreach and service should be among church administrators’ top priorities, he said.

--with reporting from tedNEWS

Source: © 2012, Adventist News Network

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Kristy Smith: Instead of a church service, community service

1:58 PM, Aug 29, 2012


Written by
Kristy Smith

Put your action where your faith is.

That wasn’t the message preached Aug. 26. Rather, it was the one acted upon that day in place of formal worship by members of Coldwater Free Methodist Church. Instead of attending their usual 10:45 a.m. contemporary worship service, individuals, couples and families gathered at 10 a.m. to kick off a special “Love in Action” morning of community service.

Love in Action followed on the heels of a spring, church-wide study of Rick Warren’s “40 Days of Love” and Tom Holliday’s “The Relationship Principles of Jesus.” The preaching, teaching and small study groups helped introduce and prepare the hearts of the congregation for more relationship-based service.

“We’ve been taking the church through the umbrella theme of ‘radical renewal’ and this is part of it,” said Pastor Nelson Brandymore. “Usually ‘radical’ is thought of as synonymous with ‘extreme’ but for us, ‘radical’ means to grow deeper with our roots into Christ. We’re just setting up Love in Action and letting God use the stuff of everyday life to do His work in us and through us.”

Back in June, Brandymore asked Lindsey Karbon, 20, a student at Trine University, to find community work assignments and to coordinate sign-ups for them. “I already had a head start because I participated in a servant camp back in middle school, so I knew places in the community that need help,” Karbon said.

Church members committed during August to various work sites, including nursing homes, the community hospital, a domestic violence shelter, a pregnancy center, a school, local parks and at least one area business. Random acts of kindness were encouraged along with positive interacting and pre-arranged maintenance assignments.

Before dispatching his congregation to do good on Aug. 26, Pastor Brandymore prayed with them. “Lord, we’re simply learning to be your servants. All we have tried to do is put it together and the middle is up to you. Bring across our pathways anyone you think needs to experience our love.”

Bob and Justine Hostetler signed up to engage in painting and gardening at Branch County’s Shelterhouse for victims of domestic violence. Their two children, Salena, 11, and Tate, 9, accompanied them.

“It’s fun to help people and show those in our community that we care,” Salena said.

Justine Hostetler said she appreciated the chance to encourage her children to think beyond themselves and more about others. She said she likes how volunteering together strengthens family ties and said it reinforces that “God blesses us not so we can be selfish with what He gives us, but so we can share it with others.”

At Lakeland Elementary School, shelving needed to be moved into the library and hundreds of books put into place. Church members Terry and Sue Andress said they were excited to help with the project. Sue, who serves as Responsibility and Thinking Process Coordinator at Lakeland, enjoyed the opportunity to bless her school and its students.

“This is an answered prayer for me,” she said. “While some people may think I am a nice person, hopefully they will realize it’s because of the Jesus in me.”

Handing out bottled water in Parkhurst Park, Leah Horn, 20, summarized the Love in Action experience: “It’s nice to be volunteering in the community because that’s where we’re called to be as a church.”

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Gamaliel and the Barack Obama Connection

Photo (Courtesy) http://goodjesuitbadjesuit.blogspot.com/2009/10/young-barack-obama-former-jesuit-named.html

by Gregory A. Galluzzo

President elect Barack Obama has throughout his political career made repeated references to his time as a community organizer on the South Side of Chicago. It is important that we all understand the connection between Barack and Gamaliel. In l980 Mary Gonzales and I created the United Neighborhood Organization of Chicago.

In l982 we decided that we needed some expertise from someone who had done faith based community organizing. A person who had worked as such an organizer in Illinois and in Pennsylvania approached me about joining our organizing team. His name was Jerry Kellman. Jerry helped Mary and myself become better organizers. While he was working for us, he connected with a group called the Calumet Community Religious Conference (CCRC) operating on the South Side in the South Suburbs of Chicago, and in Indiana. CCRC had been formed in response to the massive shut down of major industry and the resulting job loss and all of the concomitant social tragedies.

Jerry and I reached an understanding that we would support his work in the South Suburbs so that he could become director of his own project. It was Jerry Kellman who put an ad in the New York Times about an organizing position in the Chicago area. Barack responded; Jerry interviewed him and offered him a position. Barack accepted. Almost at this very time, Jerry propositioned an old friend of his to return to Chicago from Texas and work with him in this new organizing venture. His friend was Mike Kruglik. Mike and Jerry were the first mentors of Barack in organizing.

CCRC, which spanned communities in Northwest Indiana, the South Suburbs and parts of the City of Chicago proved to be unwieldy. Jerry and I decided to split it into three parts. Barack would work to found a new independent project in the South side of Chicago, Mike Kruglik would be the director of the South Suburban Action Conference and Jerry Kellman would develop organizing in Northwest Indiana. At that point Jerry asked me to become Barack’s consultant.

And at this time we were just creating the Gamaliel Foundation. I met with Barack on a regular basis as he incorporated the Developing Communities Project, as he moved the organization into action and as he developed the leadership structure for the organization. He would write beautiful and brilliant weekly reports about his work and the people he was engaging.

When Barack decided to go to Harvard Law School, he approached John McKnight, a professor at Northwestern and a Gamaliel Board member for a letter of recommendation. When Barack was leaving he made sure that Gamaliel was the formal consultant to the organization that he had created and to the staff that he had hired.

Barack has acknowledged publicly that he had been the director of a Gamaliel affiliate. He has supported Gamaliel throughout the years by conducting training both at the National Leadership Training events and at the African American Leadership Commission. He has also attended our public meetings.

We are honored and blessed by the connection between Barack and Gamaliel.

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Gregory Galluzzo, a former Jesuit priest, is the Executive Director of the Gamaliel Foundation. In 1980 Galluzzo co-founded, along with his wife Mary Gonzalez, a Chicago Latino activist organization called the United Neighborhood Organization (UNO). Today, Ms. Gonzalez is the Gamaliel Foundation’s Director of Western Territory. UNO, also modeled after Alinsky’s methods, is known for using aggressive organizing and confrontational tactics to push for change.
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Previously posted here on:

WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 26, 2011

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A Q&A Loma Linda Adventist Pastor Randy Roberts

The long-time Pastor looks back on the his church and community.

By Gina Tenorio

April 27, 2012

Loma Linda and Redlands has changed a lot in the 25 years since Pastor Randy Roberts, senior pastor at Loma University Seventh-day Adventist Church, settled into the area to minister to the community.

Roberts heads one of the largest Adventist congregations in the world. As time has passed, both the church and community have changed. In a two-part interview, we talk to the Pastor - who ministers to the spiritual needs to roughly 7,000 members of the church - about his work, the church and the community.

Part two will run Saturday.

How long have you been in the ministry?

Just overall, about 30 years in some branch there - of either pasturing or chaplaincy or teaching. But overall, about 30 years.

How many at Loma Linda University Seventh-day Adventist Church?

Almost 12 years.

Are you a Loma Linda native?

No. My family is originally from Texas, although I grew up outside of this country. I grew up in a lot of Latin American countries. Quite a few. My dad was a pastor also. In that day and time (we) tended to move a lot. I was born on Columbia, South America. We lived in Columbia, Venezuela, Curacao, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Guatemala and Mexico; Quite a few places.

Did you always know you wanted to be a pastor?

Fairly early on, probably mid-teen years, yeah, something like that.

Was it because it was logical you would follow in your father’s footsteps?

I’m sure that the fact that my dad was a minister had an affect on that, no question, but I had deeper sense that that’s where God was leading me, guiding me, calling me.

What do you find the most fulfilling about what you do?

Being able to have a positive influence on people’s lives, moving them maybe in a more God-ward direction; being able to share with them a vision of a God of love; A god who has a big heart; A God who desires a forever friendship with us. I think some of those things are part of the same package of wanting to make a difference in people’s lives in a positive way for God.

Do you live in Loma Linda?

We live in Redlands. But I’ve lived Loma Linda/Redlands a little over 25 years. I worked first at the Chaplain's office in the (Loma Linda University) Medical Center. I was there a little over seven years. And then I taught at the School of Religion at the university. I was there for 6 1/2 years or so. And I’ve been at the church since.

How important do you think the Adventist church and Adventist community is to Loma Linda?

There are a lot of us as Adventists in Loma Linda just by sheer numbers. But I hope that we’re important in a greater sense than just our numbers. I hope we’re important because this specific church and other churches are making a difference in the community. We’re trying to be cheerful neighbors and helpful neighbors. We’re trying to reach out and touch them in ways related to health, in ways related to needs for food, money, clothing, shelter, whatever or spiritual needs, a deeper and better understanding of God. We strive to be a church that, if it was gone, would be missed and not an isolated, insulated group of people.

But a group of people involved in their community, loving their community and trying to be a positive influence on the community.

There have been a few figures on the size of the population of Adventists in Loma Linda. Does the church track that? Pastor Roberts answered that the church does not, but he did make some observations on the subject:

I think it has changed over time. If you go back 20 years, maybe 25 years when (his family) first moved here, I would say that Loma Linda was probably heavily weighted in the Adventist direction. If you drove up here on Anderson (Street) up to Lawton and that whole subdivision up here, my guess would have been that most of the people would have been Adventist. Not all, but most of them. But then when the building boom came, buildings were going up everywhere. There were new subdivisions were built south of Barton (Road) and on Mission Road and on all these other areas all around, not just Loma Linda, around this area and certainly in Loma Linda.

Then I think many, many other people moved in and this became, as is true down this corridor, a bedroom community to people working more down in the LA and Orange County direction. The housing was cheaper. Then I think the percent, because of the growth that came into Loma Linda, I suspect that the percentage of Adventists went down pretty significantly. That’s all anecdotal. That’s just my observation.

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Cooper: White Dove Cafe in Collegedale features Christian contemporary music

published Saturday, February 18th, 2012

by Clint Cooper

You may have heard of The Bluebird Cafe in Nashville, but are you aware of The White Dove Cafe in Collegedale?

The latter is an adult, coffeehouse-style, contemporary Christian music venue tucked into a room, the Connection Corner, at Collegedale Community Church.

It began in the spring of 2010 and is offered 7-9 p.m. on the third Friday of each month.

Tom Hayes, church life pastor of the congregation, said when he lived in Nashville he visited The Bluebird Cafe and appreciated how it allowed unknown and well-known songwriters to play their music.

"It's a sharing music space, especially for musicians who are not professional," he said of the Collegedale venue. "It's for songwriters who have a testimony, a poem, who want to share a song they've written."

Hayes said he and co-founder Jentry Tillman aren't looking for up-and-coming stars -- Kathy Mattea, Garth Brooks, Dierks Bentley, Kenny Chesney and Taylor Swift played The Birdbird before they were discovered -- but to allow songwriters to share and others to socialize, ask questions and enjoy themselves.

"It's very laid-back," he said. "We don't want it bigger. We want it intimate."

Hayes said the room is set up -- in round tables with candles -- for 35 to 40 people and has attracted an average of 20 to 35 per session.

The area has a public address system, he said, and is geared toward an acoustic piano or guitar.

Though most of the music is contemporary Christian, Hayes said, songwriters can share secular numbers.

"We're not holding them to [Christian]," he said. "It can be a mix but with an inspirational style."

Though the congregation is Seventh-day Adventist, Hayes said, songwriters and listeners do not have to be. And visitors are not given a denominational pitch or hounded with literature, he said.

"We're encouraging any musicians -- anybody who wants to come and share music," he said. "We do not want to make it intimidating. We encourage talk, [and] people can ask questions. It's a community sharing program."

Hayes said coffee, hot chocolate, cookies, pretzels and other light refreshments are available.

He said he had no specific long-range plans for The White Dove Cafe but hoped it would continue to offer an evening of Christian fellowship with a changing group of artists.

"We want to keep it fresh, keep it moving," Hayes said. "We'd love for everybody to come."

The next White Dove Cafe will be March 16.

Musicians interested in performing are asked to call the church office at 396-5464.

The church is at 4995 Swinyar Drive on the hill overlooking Collegedale City Hall.

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