Click through a collection of leadership and ministry blog posts!
-
Do You Like Your Coworkers?
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president Do you like your coworkers? Maybe you have a mystery coworker who helps themselves to others’ lunches. I read about an individual who was always finding their lunch stolen and decided to take action. They made their lunch as normal but added a few extra ingredients; things like ghost…
-
A Walking Miracle
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president Have you ever seen a miracle? Maybe you have known someone who has been healed of a serious illness. Maybe you have had God’s miraculous deliverance from an accident. Maybe you have watched a miracle unfold right in front of you. Early in my pastoral ministry, I was involved…
-
It’s Not A Fad
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president There are so many fads that come and go in one’s lifetime. One fad that I remember hearing about was seeing how many people could fit into a telephone booth. Of course, we rarely see phone booths anymore, but you can still go online and see pictures of people…
-
Are You a Cancer?
By Jennifer Bullion, Washington Conference Children’s and Women’s Ministry director I’m ashamed to say it, but I think about cancer probably more often than most people my age. After a three-year battle with colon cancer, my mom died when she was 41 and as I approach the big 4-0 this year, I’m not going to…
-
Words from the Dictionary
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president Reading the dictionary is most likely not on the top of your reading list. It certainly isn’t on my stack of books to read. However, let’s take a look at two words that are instructive for this week. Commemoration: a ceremony or celebration in which a person or event…
-
Picking Through the Crumbs
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president Our Australian shepherd has an intense stare. She uses this stare on different occasions. At times she will come up, sit at your feet, and just look at you with a longing that cannot be denied. She knows how to work that stare. As she is sitting there staring…
-
Famous Follies
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president Do you know what a folly is? The definition is “a costly ornamental building with no practical purpose.” There are a number of these that dot the landscape in England and Europe. They were built mainly for a show of wealth and little else. Some are quite ornate and…
-
The Three Sisters: Cultivating Harmony in God’s Garden
By Ernesto Hernandez, Washington Conference Media director Part of our garden at home is dedicated to preparing a lot where we will cultivate a milpa, a traditional farming method I learned while working on my grandfather’s crops as a child. The milpa is an ingenious system that utilizes the Three Sisters—corn, beans, and squash—planted together…
-
Wind or Warmth?
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president There is a very old Aesop fable that featured the sun and the wind arguing over who was stronger. While they are in the midst of this argument, they saw a traveler walking on the road. The traveler was wrapped in a warm cloak. They agreed that whoever…
-
Harvest Time
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president It is an odd time of the year to write about harvest time. For most of us, we are just starting to plant seeds inside to prepare to transplant later in the spring. We are just now eagerly looking forward to getting our gardens started and watching all that…
-
You Can Hurt Here
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president There is a saying about the English people; they have a stiff upper lip. It is considered an attribute by many. It is the ability to display fortitude and stoicism in the face of adversity. They are also a people who exercise great self-restraint in emotion. The origins of…
-
An Old Hymn
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president Recently a church I was attending had an amazing rousing song service. It was a true blessing to me. The songs were all from the hymnal and were old well-known songs. I like both new and old songs. Yes, even songs that are not in our hymnal. What made…
-
Gluing Justice and Grace
By Nestor Osman, Washington Conference Youth, Club Ministries, & Summer Camp director One goal for professionals in youth ministry is to understand new generations and the main differences from former generations. These differences have multiple aspects and approaches; religious culture and theology are among them. Historically, the Seventh-day Adventist Church was characterized as the “People…
-
Our Singing Savior
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president Being a new grandpa is one of the great joys of my life right now. Visiting my new granddaughter is something that I do every chance I get. Recently while visiting I was holding her, and she started to stir a little. So, I stood up and started to…
-
Let the Letter be Written
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president Letter writing is really a lost art in this day of text messages, social media, and video calling. New technology makes communication really great in many ways. It is enjoyable to be able to Facetime with my parents back in Kansas. Seeing their faces while we talk is a…
-
I Did It Again
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president This morning I did it again. As I started to write in my journal, I wrote the date down and wrote 2023 instead of 2024. I am sure I am not alone in having done this multiple times already this year. Someone posted that their only New Year’s resolution…
-
Start with a Bang
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president 2024 is here! It started with a bang. Yes, there were lots of fireworks going off all across the area. The thundering booms and flashes of light announced the new year. But that is not the bang that I was thinking about. On the first day of the year…
-
Reflections
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president My favorite landscape pictures are those of reflections. You know, where a mountain is perfectly reflected in a lake, or when the clouds in the sky are reflected in a pool of water. There is something about those types of reflections that are tranquil, peaceful, and healing to the…
-
Aluminum Tree
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president Every year I hear friendly debates about Christmas trees. Some will only have a tree if they have personally received a permit to cut a tree down in the forest. For them, it is a family adventure to drive to the mountains, tramp through the snow and woods to…
-
Highway to Nowhere
By Doug Bing, Washington Conference president In Baltimore, Maryland, there is a stretch of highway that was built many years ago that was never completed. There were grand plans for the highway to connect other highways and make it easier to get around. People were displaced from their homes in order to build it, and…