A Strategy for Revitalization and Growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Iceland

The Topic This dissertation analyzes the growth pattern of the Adventist church in Iceland from its inception about a hundred years ago to the present and presents an objective portrayal of the future possibilities of church growth on the island and develops a practical strategy of revitalization of the church. The Purpose The proposed strategy presented in this project aims at increasing the quality of life of the Icelandic Adventist churches, raising their self-identity and sense of mission, and strengthening their ability to reach the community and to grow. The Sources A Biblical theological rationale for this program is set forth as well as an overview of the counsel of Ellen G. White for its accomplishment. A review of literature of main sources on church growth and revitalization is presented with principal emphasis on the School of Church Growth, spearheaded by Donald McGavran and his associates, and literature on recent developments and responses of churches to the change in the philosophical environment in a postmodern era is also reviewed. The historical analysis of the growth pattern of the Adventist Church in Iceland from its inception to the present is based on church membership records, minutes of the conference executive committee, reports from conference constituency meetings and on two unpublished Seminary papers prepared on early history of Adventism in Iceland and a D. Min. dissertation on Adventist church growth in Iceland from 1950 to 1980. Further, the future model strategy for the revitalization and growth of the work among the above churches is based on that of the Natural Church Development by Christian A. Schwarz and associates who have successfully constructed a valid evaluating instrument and quality index applicable to churches using world wide survey data as a reference. Conclusion In view of the present less than ideally functioning local Adventist congregations in Iceland with respect to local leadership and lay evangelism, a renewal of their vision is of paramount importance. They are in need of a change of operational paradigm from that of settled pastors in churches and minimal involvement in evangelism and must alter their present perception of the impossibility of success in outreach. They need to learn from the strengths of the early program of the church to visibly identify with society and to engage in an authentic contribution to its well-being and to conduct a vigorous, church based program of evangelism and outreach. They must also shun its weaknesses which were lack of lay involvement and training and a relegating of primary care of members as well as evangelism and outreach almost solely to the pastoral staff which contributed to its stagnation and later decline

Secret Affairs

Originally published in 1995. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was paralyzed from the waist down, but he concealed the extent of his disability from a public that was never permitted to see him in a wheelchair. FDR's Secretary of State was old and frail, debilitated by a highly contagious and usually fatal disease that was as closely guarded a state secret as his wife's Jewish ancestry. The undersecretary was a pompous and aloof man who married three times but, when intoxicated, preferred sex with railroad porters, shoeshine boys, and cabdrivers. These three legendary figures—Franklin Roosevelt, Cordell Hull, and Sumner Welles—not only concealed such secrets for more than a decade but did so while directing United States foreign policy during some of the most perilous events in the nation's history. Irwin Gellman brings to light startling new information about the intrigues, deceptions, and behind-the-scenes power struggles that influenced America's role in World War II and left their mark on world events, for good or ill, in the half-century that followed. Gellman had unprecedented access to previously unavailable documents, including Hull's confidential medical records, unpublished manuscripts of Drew Pearson and R. Walton Moore, and Sumner Welles's FBI file. Gellman concludes that while Roosevelt, Hull, and Welles usually agreed on foreign policy matters, the events that molded each man's character remained a mystery to the others. Their failure to cope with their secret affairs—to subordinate their personal concerns to the higher good of the nation—eventually destroyed much of what they hoped would be their legacy. Roosevelt never explained his objectives to his vice president, Harry Truman, or to anyone else. Hull never groomed a successor, and Welles kept his foreign assignations as classified as his sexual orientation. Gellman tells the dramatic story of how three Americans—despite private demons and bitter animosities—could work together to lead their nation to victory against fascism

Collaborative Governance: Emerging Practices and the Incomplete Legal Framework for Public and Stakeholder Voice

This article describes the broad range of processes through which citizens and stakeholders collaborate to make, implement, and enforce public policy. First, it briefly reviews collaborative and new governance. Second, it describes deliberative democracy; collaborative public or network management; and appropriate dispute resolution in the policy process. These three separate fields are part of a single phenomenon, namely the changing nature of citizen and stakeholder voice in governance. Third, it describes how these new forms of participation operate across the policy continuum. Fourth, it briefly reviews existing legal infrastructure for collaborative governance primarily from the perspective of federal administrative law. I conclude that we need to revise our legal infrastructure to facilitate collaboration in a way that will strengthen our democracy

Ottoman intervention in Tripoli (1835) and the question of Ottoman imperialism in the 19th century

This thesis is a study of the relationship between the Ottoman central administration and North African periphery, and more specifically, Tripoli in the first half of the 19th century. The region was ruled by a local dynasty of Anatolian origin, Karamanlıs, virtually independent from the Sublime Porte for more than a century. After the outbreak of the unremedied internal upheavals in the 1830s, Ottoman center took the initiative to eliminate the ruling dynasty, thus stabilizing the region in 1835. The stability of the region was a top priority because of the Ottomans’ increased suspicion of further European encroachment after the French aggression in Algeria. Nonetheless, there were also other competitors preying on the Tripolitan territory, thus Ottoman action could be best understood as active participation in an inter-imperial competition. The process, however, shows us that the establishment of the central authority was the last resort. Before coming to that point, Ottomans worked hard to ensure a noise-free continuation of the Karamanlı Dynasty. The last part of the study attempts to make sense of Ottoman presence in the Tripoli after the intervention. It demonstrates that some elements of the so-called Ottoman orientalist attitude that came about in the late 19th century were taking root earlier. Nonetheless, it finds the use the terms such as colonialism and even orientalism problematic because the Ottoman imperial presence in Tripoli had never been officially defined as colonialism. Alternatively, the term “imperial repertoires of power” is utilized in accounting for the center-periphery relations in the period in questio