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MINISTRY NEWS
Annual FAF Conference to feature world-renowned apologist Robert Bowman
Robert Bowman, author and noted apologist coming in February.
This next year’s Former Adventist Fellowship Conference in Redlands, California, will feature Robert Bowman as a guest speaker. The conference, held this year on the weekend of February 13-15, includes a public meeting on Friday evening at 7:00 which offers insights about Adventism and about ministry to people caught in new religions. This year Rob Bowman will speak at the Friday evening meeting as well as to the conference attendees on Saturday.
In 1984 Rob began working as a researcher and editor at the Christian Research Institute (CRI) under Walter Martin. Today he is the director of research at the Institute for Religious Research (IRR); prior to working with IRR, Rob was the manager of Apologetics and Interfaith Evangelism for the North American Mission Board which is an agency of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Paul Carden, executive director of the Centers for Apologetics Research, worked in the 1980’s with Rob at CRI under Walter Martin. Paul says that today Rob is arguably the foremost Christian apologist in the world. He has authored close to sixty articles and a dozen books, and his most recent books reflect his concern with doctrines that tamper with the deity of Christ or with the person of the Holy Spirit. He has written extensively on Jehovah’s Witnesses and Mormonism and also on the Word of Faith movement.
We have also run one of Rob’s articles, “The Bible Is Absolutely Reliable”, in the Summer, 2012 issue of Proclamation! You may access the article online HERE.
Inrig and Ratzlaff to teach from Revelation
If you haven’t yet decided to attend the 2015 FAF conference, we urge you to do so! Besides our guest speaker Rob Bowman, our keynote speakers again this year will be Gary Inrig and Dale Ratzlaff teaching Bible studies from the book of Revelation. Our desire is to learn what Revelation actually teaches in the passages Adventism uses to support its unique doctrines.
Subjects will include the seal of God and the mark of the beast, the Three Angels’ Messages, judgment and hell, the “commandments of God” and the “faith of Jesus” which is the “spirit of prophecy”, the 144,000, and the millennium. You may register by mail or online HERE.
Year-end needs explained
At the same time that we are planning for the annual FAF Conference in Redlands, California, we are facing the reality that our summer income has been low. While a summer drop is typical, it appears that the general economy is affecting the ability of Proclamation! readers to give. We are appealing to you, our partners in this ministry, to give us feedback and to join us in praying that God will raise up donors to continue this work.
We share at the bottome of the page part of a letter written by Nikki Stevenson, wife of board member Carel, after the annual Life Assurance Ministries board meeting held on November 15, which she posted in several online venues.
Our mailing list consists of just under 30,000 addresses. Of these, most have been added by means of people giving LAM names of Adventists, many of whom have attended Loma Linda University or have been lay leaders or clergy in Adventist churches. These are names from whom we seldom if ever hear, but we do hear from those who have found the magazine in relatives’ homes, from those who had anonymously received the magazine for years before realizing that the gospel exposed Adventism as heretical, and from others who have been Christians for years but have been helped by the articles and doctrinal explanations in Proclamation! Because of the need for anonymity as Adventists question their religion and seek truth, we have been committed to mail this magazine even to those who do not respond because we know it sometimes takes years before one is able to make contact with anyone for help and support.
Nevertheless, we are considering some options as we seek to alleviate this year-end shortfall. We solicit your input as we consider these options:
1. Print and mail three issues per year and put one, probably the summer issue, only online.
2. Print and mail two issues per year to the full mailing list, and print and mail the other two only to those who have specifically requested the magazine or who donate—a list closer to 4,000–5,000 names.
3. If you wish to continue receiving the printed magazine and have not contacted us, please mail the enclosed response envelope with a note that states you wish to continue receiving it. We want to provide the printed magazine for those who read it.
4. It is worth noting that if everyone on our full mailing list gave $5.00 per year, there would be ample funds to print and mail our four issues per year.
5. If you have not been contributing to Life Assurance Ministries, we ask you to prayerfully consider whether or not God might be asking you to do so, even on a small scale.
We do not take the gifts to LAM for granted; we know many of you are giving at a sacrificial level, and we pray that God will pour out His blessings and provision on you. Please pray with us for God to provide what is needed for the work He wants us to do.†
Dear Friends of Life Assurance Ministries
On November 15, 2014, the Life Assurance Ministries (LAM) board met for their annual meeting in Redlands, California. In discussing LAM finances, Richard Tinker (LAM president and designer of Proclamation!) revealed that again this year he and Colleen Tinker (Proclamation! editor) have gone without personal income for the last three months to ensure that we all receive our printed issues of the magazine. Income always drops during the summer and fall, but the Tinkers have chosen not to take their designated stipend in order to have enough money to pay for the printing and mailing of the magazine for several reasons:
1) They continue to receive many requests for the magazine, emails from questioning Adventists, phone calls from those in transition, and requests to join the online forum.
2) They continue to need printed issues for questioning Adventists from both remote areas of North America and from less developed countries where internet access is limited.
3) God has not released them from this work and continues to reveal the need for it in the lives of those He is calling into freedom.
The board discussed the fact that LAM resists soliciting donations because Adventism solicited intensely. Many former Adventists, however, have stated that they want to be informed of LAM’s needs. Therefore, we are again letting you know that there is a great need for donations in order to print and mail this year’s fourth issue of Proclamation! as well as to be able to pay Richard and Colleen before the holidays!
Please know, however, that the entire board is grateful for the shared vision and support that former Adventists have consistently offered to LAM.
Sincerely,
Nicole Stevenson
Copyright 2015 Life Assurance Ministries, Inc., Camp Verde, Arizona, USA. All rights reserved. Revised January 3, 2015. Contact email: proclamation@gmail.com
New Venue for Former Adventist Conference in Southern California
The 2015 Former Adventist Fellowship Conference held in Redlands, California, will be held at a new venue. The Anchor Bible Church is a church plant in Redlands just a few hundred yards from the city limits of Loma Linda.
The pastor, Todd Barnett, was eager to host the conference and wants his members to understand how to minister to Adventists.
Located at 215 Park Ave, #3, in Redlands, The Anchor’s pastor and leadership team extended their invitation to us to hold the conference in their church with much anticipation of this new ministry opportunity.
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VOLUME 15, ISSUE 4