CAN'T STOP SHARING
The articles in the latest Review are great--especially "The Neighbor in My House" and "Honest to God" (Aug. 19, 2004). I was going to send them to my e-mail friends and family but each article was so good I had to send the whole magazine. Keep up the good writing about challenging topics that confront us all in today's world. I share these with my friends and family who are Christians, but not Adventists, and even those who are neither.

I also loved the article, "Meeting Them in Their Culture" (July 8, 2004). Our church has become much more accepting of other cultures; I am now proud to share these articles with those who know little about Adventists. What a way to witness. Thanks for this empowerment tool. I will continue sharing the Review with others.

Aileen Butler

I read the article, "Honest to God" by Keith Trumbo, and was deeply impressed by it, and by the quality of his narrative, as well.

I recently wrote a book entitled Deep Therapy in the Fast Lane, by Restin Wells (my pseudonym), that deals with major issues of co-dependency, duality, and idol worship, in a deep, life changing way. I was raised an Adventist and went to Forest Lake Academy. Nevertheless, I had a breakdown as a young, married adult and left the church and came back after a tumultuous conversion experience.

Ever since I've dedicated my life to leading others to the Great Healer.

Sheila Ashlin

ENLIGHTENED SINNERS?
In "Humanitarian Ministry: A Biblical Perspective" (August, 2004), Susan Willoughby reminded me that "the way we live as Christians . . . is the true measure of our understanding and appreciation of the gospel commission." I have usually thought of "medical missionary work" and "humanitarian ministry" as "entering wedges" by which we find people where they are, help them at their point of felt needs, win their confidence, and gain access to their heart; after which we may invite them to follow Jesus and His truth.

I appreciate Willoughby's holistic view of ministry. However, I believe that the mandate to take care of the physical, social, emotional, and economic needs of the people is subordinate to the evangelical mandate to teach them all the things that Jesus commanded us. Obedience to the social mandate will prepare people to hear the gospel expressed in the form of doctrines.

While focusing on humanitarian ministry, Willoughby did not diminish the role of preaching. We are told that it pleased God to save people "through the foolishness of the message preached" (1 Cor. 1:21, NKJV). To keep the proper balance we should stress the fact that humanitarian ministry without doctrinal preaching falls short of the goal. If we do not teach "all things" we may end up with just well-fed, literate, socially adjusted, and clothed sinners.

Carlos G. Martin
Southern Adventist University
Collegedale, Tennessee

FRONT PORCH MINISTRIES
Thanks for the good article, "Door-to-door for God" (Aug. 2004). In addition to the publishing ministry of the Michigan Conference (mentioned in one of the sidebars), other conferences in North America have student literature programs as well. Some conferences run year-round programs, such as Colorado's Campion Academy, under the direction of Joe Martin, who has just started his fifteenth school year MagaBook program. In the Southern Union several conferences have year-round programs as well as summer programs. In the Pacific Union each of the conferences have MagaBook leaders with excellent programs. The North Pacific Union also has a good summer magabook programs. The Family Health Education Services all have student programs during the summer and during Christmas break.

I'm aware of student programs in Canada and from Northern New England to the Hawaiian Islands. Some of the big sellers are the MagaBook, More Choices cook book, Peace Above the Storm (Steps to Christ) and The Great Controversy to name a few.

Felix Castro
Administrator/Director of Sales
Pacific Press Publishing Association

I enjoyed reading Bonita Joyner Shields' article. It isn't often that the literature ministry is featured in the Review.

I spent five summers as a student literature evangelist in the United Kingdom, and can vouch for a range of educational benefits that supplemented my classroom instruction.

As the Publishing Ministries director for the Trans-European Division, I am happy to report that more than 50 students from Africa and India and 14 from Eastern Europe are presently enjoying good success with printed page evangelism in Norway.

Currently, Jehovah's Witnesses and Mormons appear to be growing faster than our own church in many "Western" countries. Could it be that their stronger emphasis on door-to-door visitation is producing this higher growth rate?

In 2002, more than 67,000 baptisms around the world resulted from initial contacts by literature evangelists. This ministry is still effective in many regions.

It is a matter of paramount importance that the church finds ways to revive doorbell evangelism--especially in those territories where the church is struggling to survive.

John Arthur
Publishing Ministries Director
Trans European Division

If a student has an interest in canvassing during the summer, he or she should contact their local conference. Someone will be able to answer any questions.

Here in the Georgia-Cumberland Conference our students sold nearly $400,000 worth of MagaBooks in 2003, and gave out more than 100,000 Bible lessons.

Eugene Juhl
Publishing Director
Georgia-Cumberland Conference

"Door to Door for God" was a classic. It reminded me of when my two daughters, Charlene and Kathy Sloan, colporteured in North Georgia during the 1960s. They had an old Chevrolet with no reverse. We dubbed it, "Forward ever; backward never!" How they managed to drive all over the countryside with that car is still a mystery to me.

One day I took their car to the bus station in downtown Atlanta and forgot its affliction. When I went to go home I had to solicit the help of a two gentlemen to push me out of the parking space. After I thanked them they said they had forgotten where they parked their car, so I thought the only Christian thing to do was to drive them around until they found it. We drove around and around until they got out and continued their search on foot. I hope they had success; Atlanta is a pretty big place to misplace your automobile.

Ruby Sloan Sill
Dayton, Tennessee

REACHING EVERY CULTURE
I am constantly amazed at the efforts the Adventist Church makes to reach out to the various cultures ("Meeting People in Their Culture," July 8, 2004). It disturbs me, however, that there is a huge culture that it is neglecting--the hip-hop culture. We send missionaries all over the world. We train them in the language, dress, and specific mannerisms of the particular people they are targeting; but the church is not doing the same for the millions of young people caught up in the hip-hop culture in the United States.

Hip-hop is more than just rap music, and it's here to stay. It's a lifestyle that permeates popular radio and television. It saturates the advertising market and has practically taken over sitcoms and sports. Very few people have been unaffected by hip-hop. So why doesn't the church as a whole address it? A few pastors, mainly those who grew up in the 1980s, are taking steps to deal with this issue, but they face many obstacles.

Many people refuse to support those who are engaged in Christian rap ministry. While our young people are bombarded with secular rap's twisted messages, we do not provide them with an alternative. While the church openly supports the veggie-meat industry, we fail to provide "veggie-rap" for those who are deeply rooted in the hip-hop lifestyle. We don't support hip-hop clothing that promotes a Christian message. At least four clothing lines that cater to youth are either struggling or have given up because they have no backing in their local church or within their conference. We put our efforts into supporting Worthington, Boca, and Loma Linda food products; 3ABN, Sky Angel, and CAN; but these stations have no programming that reaches out to many in desperate need of the gospel.

NEWS FLASH: those who listen to Jay-Z, Beyonce, Kanye West, Nelly, and T.I. are not interested in hearing hymns, Your Story Hour, Adventures in Odyssey, etc. Before they can change their heart or change their listening habits, they must first be introduced to Jesus in a manner that attracts them.

I hope the church will change its pattern of neglecting our young people before it's too late. The reason so many youth are leaving the church is because the church is not relevant to their situation. Until we change, we will continue losing youth by the bunches to the hip-hop culture we are failing to evangelize.

That's my two Lincolns.

E. L. Jones, Jr.
WTBC Radio

REFLECTIONS ON GOD'S WRATH
I'm writing to respond to Angel Rodriguez' column, "God's Wrath" (Aug. 12, 2004). We have been struggling with this issue in our Sabbath school class for the past several months, and it was exciting to see an article on this very subject in the Adventist Review. I appreciate Pastor Rodriguez' views, and before last week I would have been in complete agreement with him. But there is another way to look at this subject.

God's wrath throughout the Bible is a means for God to turn His people around--a tool for conviction and conversion. But God's wrath in Revelation 16 seems incompatible with a loving God. The scene in Revelation takes place after the judgment, and probation is closed. Since there is no longer an opportunity to change, what's the point? If God pours out these afflictions on the lost, He seems mean. This is not the loving and caring God I have gotten to know and trust. There must be another explanation.

In the New International Version of the Bible, the word "wrath" is used 197 times. Of these, "anger" and "wrath" are identified separately at least 15 times (Daniel 9:16 is an example). So God's anger and wrath may be separate issues, although they are usually both present at the same time. As a parent, it's easy to get angry when someone is mistreating my child. With all the bad things happening to people, I can handle the image of an angry God. But what does God do with His anger? What is wrath? Humans view wrath as uncontrollable anger, but this is not the biblical definition of God's wrath.

In the Old Testament, many references are made to people turning away, God pouring out His wrath upon them, and bad things happening. In Revelation we have the warning of God pouring out His wrath full strength: "He, too, will drink of the wine of God's fury, which has been poured full strength into the cup of His wrath" (Rev. 14:10, NIV). Who else drank this cup? Matthew, Mark, and Luke all described the scene in Gethsemane where Jesus asked His Father to take away the cup, if at all possible. What is this cup? What is God's wrath full strength?

Ellen White described the final scenes of the crucifixion: "The wrath of God against sin, the terrible manifestation of His displeasure because of iniquity, fill the soul of His Son with consternation. . . . But now with the terrible weight of guilt He bears, He cannot see the Father's reconciling face. The withdrawal of divine countenance from the Savior in this hour of supreme anguish pierced His heart with a sorrow that can never be fully understood by man. So great was this agony that His physical pain was hardly felt. . . .

"Christ felt the anguish which the sinner will feel when mercy shall no longer plead for the guilty race. It was the sense of sin, bringing the Father's wrath upon Him as man's substitute, that made the cup He drank so bitter, and broke the heart of the Son of God" (The Desire of Ages, p. 753). We must not forget that none of us would be alive if not for the sustaining power of God. Jesus died from a broken heart because His Father separated from Him and no longer sustained Him.

God's wrath--His "strange act"--is separating from those who refuse to be connected with Him. The fact that He has to do this makes Him angry--not at sinners, but at sin itself.

The texts referenced in Rodriguez' column fit this perspective. I thank God for the people in our class who understood this point and would not let us move forward in our study until we had the opportunity to pray, study, and understand more fully the loving, gracious, and caring perfection that is God.

Ron Lee
Englewood, Colorado

WORSHIPPING TOGETHER
While I understand and share some of the expressed concern behind Bill Knott's editorial on age-segregated worship ("We Gather, Together," Oct. 9, 2003), I am dismayed and saddened at the way he seemed to cast blame on our evangelical friends ("age segmentation in worship, like many other things we have imported from our evangelical friends, is proving a lasting blessing to almost no one") and not look deeper for the reasons these services may be helpful and, at times, necessary.

Generally speaking, many Adventist congregations filled with adults are not youth-friendly and are inflexible in their approach to worship styles and order of service. If Adventist youth and young adults have the opportunity to connect with their Lord in a way that is meaningful and spiritually enriching to them, apart from a traditional service, they need that opportunity made available to them.

Actually, the issue of worship styles crosses age barriers. As a high school youth leader for the last 12 years, I have taken my students to many spiritually impacting conferences and camps. In my ministry there was room for a melding of both--occasional age or style specific services and then a coming together as the corporate body in worship with openness, incorporating some of what is spiritually beneficial to everyone. We need what each member of the body has to offer the whole; total segregation is not good for anyone.

As to the matter of whether "imports" from the evangelical world are a curse or blessing, it was an evangelical program of Bible study--Bible Study Fellowship International--that gave me seven years of the most comprehensive, life-altering small group bible study that I have ever been a part of. It was a blessing beyond compare to anything I have ever found in the Adventist church and I will be eternally grateful to what that part of the greater body of Christ gave to me. I hope to bring that emphasis "home" someday as a blessing to my dearly loved Adventist congregation.

Jodie Howell
Orlando, Florida