Greg Boyd Reacts to Adventists via Good News Tour
This past weekend, the Oakridge SDA church sponsored the Good News Tour out of Redlands. One of the featured speakers was Greg Boyd. He is senior pastor of the 4,000 member Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul, Minnesota. He holds an M.Div degree from Yale Divinity School and a Ph.D from Princeton Theological Seminary. His church is affiliated with the Baptist Church.
Dr. Boyd founded an organization called Christus Victor Ministries which is based on the idea that the Christian faith can be both intellectually compelling and spiritually fulfilling. He believes that when believers think critically their faith will be more coherent and well-grounded.
The name for his ministry comes from a revival of a theology found in the early Christian church which focused on the cosmic battle between Christ and Satan. He believes Christianity has often led people to conceive of God and his kingdom through the myth of redemptive violence. Boyd believes that Christ came to reveal God’s character and his reign. God’s character of self-sacrificing love must be seen in contrast with the enemy’s character of power and force and a presentation of these truths should be the bedrock of evangelism.
And he has never read Ellen White. At least not until now.
Greg Boyd blogs:
This last weekend I was in Vancouver Canada participating in The Good News Tour. This is a traveling conference that celebrates, proclaims and defends the beautiful character of God as revealed in Jesus Christ. Some of you might recall the controversial poster I talked a lot about last year which depicts Jesus washing the feet of world leaders, including Osama Bin Ladin. The poster was created by Lars Justinen and The Good News Tour is the ministry that sponsored it. (You can view and purchase the poster here. Incidentally, I feature the poster in chapter 7 of my new book The Myth of a Christian Religion which will be available in a couple of weeks).
Anyway, I had an absolute blast at this conference. The folks who sponsor The Good News Tour really get – I mean really get – the unfathomable beauty of God’s love. It’s the central passion of their life and it permeates the very fabric of their being. I’ve rarely heard the magnificence of God’s perfect love presented so profoundly. It’s always refreshing to be around folks like this.
. . .
One last word: I have to confess that I have always tended to associate Seventh Day Adventists with legalism. Well, I hereby publicly repent of this assumption. Each of the presenters in this conference, along with the church that sponsored this conference (and the wonderful pastor of this church, Manuel Silva) are members of the Seventh Day Adventists Church, and believe me, these folks are as free of legalism as anyone could possibly be! In fact, one of the objectives of The Good News Tour is to bring the Good News of God’s transforming love to Seventh Day Adventists and everyone else who may be entrapped in legalism.
Which just goes to show how dumb our labels and stereotypes are.
