Seventh-day Adventists were born in mid-C19th America, and their church music originally reflected both their roots and beliefs (the evangelical hymns of the time leavened with a large number expressing their belief that Christ’s return was imminent) and their humble origins (unpretentious buildings and musical instruments). As their missionaries carried their message abroad, they taught…… Continue reading Tensions Over Worship Music within SDAism: A Global Church Wrestles with both Inter-generational and Inter-cultural Issues
Category: Trajectory of Adventism
Twenty-First Century Adventism: The Impact of The Decline of The Church in The Developed World and Its Rise in The Developing World
I will begin by showing you the dramatic changes that have taken place in recent decades in the global distribution of all Christians, and of Adventists in particular. I will then compare and contrast the Adventist statistics with those of the other major religious groups that emerged, as we did, in the U.S. during the…… Continue reading Twenty-First Century Adventism: The Impact of The Decline of The Church in The Developed World and Its Rise in The Developing World
Review of ‘Adventist Mission in the 21st Century’
This book, edited by the chair of the Department of World Mission at Andrews University, home of the Adventist Seminary, with contributions from 30 scholars, administrators, pastors, teachers, and laypersons involved in cross-cultural missions and drawn from all continents, assesses the state of Adventist missions and the issues facing them. The book is divided into…… Continue reading Review of ‘Adventist Mission in the 21st Century’
SECT-STATE RELATIONS: Accounting for the Differing Trajectories of Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses
Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses shared common roots; both began as apocalyptic sects with premillennial expectations; both rejected political participation as contaminating and distracting from their God-given purpose; both expected to be the object of persecution from the state; and both held theological positions that put them out of step with demands of the state,…… Continue reading SECT-STATE RELATIONS: Accounting for the Differing Trajectories of Seventh-day Adventists and Jehovah’s Witnesses
The Future of Seventh-day Adventism
Early in 1984 I was asked to speak at the annual conference of the Association of Adventist Forums, the umbrella organization for all the Adventist Forum chapters both in the USA and beyond and the publisher of Spectrum Magazine. Since Adventism in the USA had been passing through a series of crises that had resulted…… Continue reading The Future of Seventh-day Adventism
Ronald L. Lawson Ph.D., Professor Emeritus, Queens College, CUNY 