WHY IT MATTERS

From The Editor

By Eric Ollila | Communication/IT/Media Director Alberta Conference

The Alberta Adventist News (AAN) Magazine & the weekly eNews

Recently I had the opportunity to visit the Yellowknife Seventh-day Adventist Church in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories. It was amazing! The land, the scenery, and the people were beautiful! It was a highlight for me so far this year.

While I was there, the critical importance of our Conference publications (AAN & eNews) connecting our churches, schools, camp, ABC Bookstore, nursing home, and administrative office impressed itself on me. There is much geographic space in the Conference of Alberta and the Northwest Territories. It is physically impossible for us, with such a vast landscape, to stay connected without effective communication channels and mediums through which we regularly share. The Alberta Adventist News (AAN) Magazine and the eNews are those official mediums.

I remember when I attended Seminary at Andrews University, one of my professors (Dr. Merlin Bert) shared the keys that made the early Sabbatarian Adventists successful. The early Sabbath-keepers were a small group of people, scattered all over North America (and the world), and they believed a message that was not popular. To say they faced challenges, would be an understatement. However, they persevered, and they thrived. They were able to stay connected, encouraged, and they grew.

The key elements that held them together were the following:

1. Faith in Christ

2. Regular Bible study & prayer

3. Itinerate & Biblical preaching

4. Soul-winning

5. Weekly worship that included testimonies and lively music and singing

6. Breaking bread together

7. Annual Camp Meetings & other large spiritual gatherings

8. Periodicals It is this last point,

PERIODICALS, that I want to highlight here. George Knight has an excellent book called Earliest Seventh-day Adventist Periodicals. Provided in the book, is a republication of the full versions of the early publications. Furthermore, the author highlights the importance each periodical played in developing the emerging identity of what would become the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

What stood out to me from Knight's book and my class with Dr. Bert, was that periodicals and publications of early Sabbath-keepers served as the connecting link between members of the scattered flock. The regularly published papers helped the individual members and groups stay connected all the while they were separated physically by rugged geography and vast distances.

Why it matters is this: the AAN Magazine and the weekly eNews publications of the Alberta Conference are key connectors for our entire Alberta Conference family. Are all the members of your local congregation aware of and receiving them?