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Ted Wilson’s Dissertation on Ellen White’s Method for City Evangelism

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Today, Ted Wilson, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, will begin preaching an evangelistic series called “Revelation of Hope” in New York City. This is the model event—NY13—for of a new “Mission to the Cities” focus by General Conference leadership. Initiated by a sermon in 2011 and connected to Elder Wilson’s Revival and Reformation agenda, this three week-long event draws upon Wilson’s experience working as a pastor in New York in the 1980s and working on a dissertation on Ellen White’s blueprint for urban ministry. According to an Adventist News Network story evangelist Mark Finely stated: “This will be looked on as one of the most significant turning points within the modern-day Seventh-day Adventist Church. . . .”

Much of the intellectual force for this evangelism focus on NYC appears rooted in Norman Clair Ted Wilson’s dissertation, “A Study of Ellen White’s Theory of Urban Religious Work As It Relates to Seventh-day Adventist Work in New York City” which he submitted in partial fulfillment of his doctoral work at New York University in 1981. Summarizing his argument, Wilson writes, “As leadership, expertise, and programs are developed in New York City, then the city could become the “symbol” which White referred to and become the urban religious model for use in other cities around the world.”

A Study of Ellen White’s Theory of Urban Religious Work As It Relates to Seventh-day Adventist Work in New…

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