The Dutch Adventist Church asked me to do a quarterly column running through the Fundamental Beliefs of the Adventist Church. I plan to discuss one or two of the fundamentals per quarter. As you might guess from the picture of the egg, this column discusses the Trinity and God the father. Click on the image to […]
Monsters are hot. It seems that networks are producing more and more monster shows: Penny Dreadful, The Walking Dead, and The Vampire Diaries, just to name a few. Monsters have escaped the fetters of the horror genre and broken free into blockbusters. Even classical works are being rewritten by mixing monsters with century’s old texts, […]
The Dutch Adventist Church creates a magazine, Contact, that goes to about 3000 people who are interested in the Bible. As some of these people have been receiving this magazine for quite a few years, the editors wanted to have a recurring theological column, meant for the long-time readers. This article should match the theme of the […]
A while back I visited the Church of the Advent Hope in Manhattan, New York. Advent Hope is an awesome ‘multi-ethnic’ community that clearly has it’s head screwed on straight. Their mission is probably one of the hardest in the church: inner city ministry to the majority culture. But they seem to be doing pretty well, and […]
The Dutch Adventist Church asked me to do a quarterly column running through the Fundamental Beliefs of the Adventist Church. I plan to discuss one or two of the fundamentals per quarter. Here is the first, about the preamble and the Bible. Click on the image to download.
Refugees are a hot topic at the moment. The first Advent (the Dutch church magazine) of 2016 was about refugees, and included a title article by me ‘Op de vlucht’. The article discusses the topic of refugees, immigrants and aliens from a biblical perspective. Subsequently Spectrum Magazine published it online to highlight their first edition of 2016, […]
The Dutch Adventist church decided to translate and publish the book on women’s ordination that I wrote for the Trans-European Division. There should be a copy for every household in the Union, about 4000 in all. As far as I am concerned, the book looks a lot better in Dutch. With a better cover and […]
The Dutch Adventist church recently asked me write a short booklet on biblical hermeneutics. It was meant to be about 6000 words, easy to understand for any member, that will be distributed in Holland: one for each household. The timeframe was ridiculously short: writing, designing, printing and distributing within three weeks! But, we made the […]
After the General Conference last year, Adventist Today contacted me. They wanted a retrospect on the meetings from various viewpoints. I suggested an article that even I thought was pretty out of the box. The article would be entitled ‘How Forbidding Incest Ruined the Church Manual.’ This was based on my reflections on the changes […]
For Christmas this year, I preached on the various myths that Christians have surrounding the Christmas narrative.
In September I spoke at the European gathering of the One project. The theme was Miracles of Healing, and I was asked to speak on the healing of the demon-possessed man in Mark 5. You know the one: ‘Legion, for we are many’. The sermon is up on YouTube. Check it out!
[This blog post is part of series on metamodernism and awesomeness. If you don’t know what metamodernism is, read this first, otherwise you may be left in the dark. I’m developing some thoughts here, and reactions are more than welcome.] Pete is an adventist. Pete believes in heaven. Pete believes Jesus lives there now, and will come soon to […]
Every five years or so the British Adventist church publishes an evangelistic magazine called Focus. This year they asked me to write an article about why I am an Adventist. That’s a very hard question, and the best answer I could come up with is ‘I like to believe that there’s a God.’ That was a […]
The theme of the Dutch Adventist church’s autumn edition of Advent was ‘The church of the future’. I reworked my That’s So Meta article from Adventist Today to fit the magazine. If you speak Dutch, you can read it here!
[This blog post is part of series on metamodernism and awesomeness. If you don’t know what metamodernism is, read this first otherwise you may be left in the dark. I’m developing some thoughts here, and reactions are more than welcome.] Pete is an Adventist. Pete believes in prophecy. Pete believes in the prophetic task of […]
About a year ago I took part in a talk show on the Hope Channel. Read about it here. A few days ago I shared the first episode, today I found the second one. It’s about the fight between good and evil. Enjoy!
Almost a year ago The Hope Channel UK invited me to take part in a religious talk show called Faith Talks. Together with Pastor Patrick Johnson, then pastor of Newbold Church, now working at the Trans-European Division, we talked about being a perfect Christian, or more precisely how unobtainable that idea is. While the show […]
Almost 25 years ago Nelson Mandela was released from prison. He has been an inspiration for many people, and I am sure he will remain one for generations. In 1993 his contribution to society was honoured, when he won the Nobel prize for peace, together with F. W. de Klerk. Mandela’s mission was founded in love […]
The Dutch Seventh-day Adventist Church publishes a quarterly magazine Advent, which gets sent to all its members. The June edition was on respect, equality and human rights and I wrote the main article. It is called In zijn beeld: discriminatie en gelijkwaardigheid (In His Image: Discrimination and Equality). You can get the article in Dutch, or read […]
I arrived home today to find an exciting bit of post: three copies of the latest Adventist Today. It is apparently the GC Session Special. It’s twice as thick as usual, and has been sent to all the GC Session delegates, as well as the normal subscribers. The exciting part is that it contains an article […]
The meaning of life, for a Christian, is taking care of the earth. God’s primary wish for humankind is being a faithful steward to the earth and everything on it. Sadly, when we talk about stewardship we often talk about money and tithes. But what’s up with the world? When I was at Newbold College I was […]
This last year has turned into my annus mirabilis for publications. In the last six months I published my PhD, a theological book on the New Testament, and a number of articles. Yesterday, I just received a copy of my book on ordination that I wrote for the Trans-European Division: Ministry, Mission and Ordination. I am the first to […]
The Dutch Seventh-day Adventist Church publishes a quarterly magazine Advent, which gets sent to all its members. One of my many tasks for the church, is that I am the editor-in-chief of the magazine. The most recent edition (march 2015) contained two articles by my hand: one on Easter and one on the environment.
The ordination of female pastors has been a hot topic in the Adventist church in the last years. The excitement is growing now that the General Conference is getting closer. Sadly, I am not a delegate the the General Conference so I will have no vote in the matter. For the record, I wholeheartedly support […]
Met enig regelmaat schrijf ik een gastblog voor het Nederlands Bijbelgenootschap. In de veertigdagentijd vroegen zij of ik iets wilde schrijven over het evangelie van Johannes. Het is altijd een uitdaging om iets te vermakelijks schrijven voor zo’n breed lezerspubliek, maar de volgende zinnen uit Johannes 16 gaven mij goede inspiratie: ‘Nu spreek ik nog […]