Violet Greene, a longtime Allegheny West Conference member, recently turned 110 years old. Greene celebrated her June 4 birthday at the Hyde Park Health Center in Cincinnati where she resides.
Tara Groves, activities director at the center, says that she baked bread every week until she turned 100 years old. She added, "Violet is very spiritual and believes that God has blessed her with long life because she honored her mother and father."
Story by Allegheny West Conference Staff
Mamie H. Clemons, the “prayer warrior” of the Hillcrest church in Pittsburgh, recently received the National Council of Negro Women (NCNW) Legacy Award from the Rankin/Mon Valley, Pittsburgh, Pa., area NCNW. The organization held a luncheon this spring at the Hosanna House in Pittsburgh.
Clemons was one of five women who received the Legacy Award. Legacy awards are presented to women who show the spirit of civil rights leaders Mary McLeod Bethune and Dorothy I. Height. Bethune was the founder of the NCNW, and Height was the fourth elected national president of the NCNW. She served until 1998, when she became chair and president emerita.
Story by Tim Allston
According to “American Congregations at the Beginning of the 21st Century,” a Duke University 2006-2007 National Congregations Study, the percent of regular adult participants younger than age 35 in the average congregation dropped from 25 to to 20 percent.
In his July 2008 Ministry magazine article, “Reaching Out: Making a Difference With Young Adults," A. Allan Martin, the teaching pastor of a young adult ministry at the Arlington church in Texas, cites Paul Richardson of the Center for Creative Ministry, with headquarters in College Place, Wash. Richardson reported that the median age for the Seventh-day Adventist community in North America, "including the un-baptized children in church families, is 58 … Among native-born white and black members, the median age is even higher."
The frightening implications of this figure are seen when that median age, 58, is compared to the median ages of the United States and Canada, respectively, which are 36 and 37!
Story by Allegheny West Conference Staff
It’s not often someone walks into a church and says, "If there is a baptism anytime soon, I want to be in it." But that's exactly what Susanne Riddle did. Riddle had been listening to the Amazing Facts radio broadcast for more than a year when, she says, the Holy Spirit convicted her to begin obeying what she had learned. After several attempts she found a Seventh-day Adventist church.
Story by Allegheny West Conference Staff
Pastor John T. Boston, II, and the Columbus Central church family are forging a new path for ministry in the Allegheny West Conference (AWC). After one year of praying and planning, Boston and Sergio Romero, AWC multicultural/church growth director, flew to Campeche, Mexico, and drove Pastor Roman Lopez and his wife, Karina, back to Columbus. Pastor Lopez now serves as the pastor for Hispanic ministries at Central.