Adventist Voices by Spectrum: The Journal of the Adventist Forum

Akeem Ambrose is the elementary P.E. teacher and athletic director at Crawford Adventist Academy in Toronto, Ontario. In this conversation he explores the transformative power of sports in Adventist education. Akeem shares the origin story and vision behind the Ontario Adventist Sports Association, and challenges the traditional hierarchy of learning by championing the gym as a space where A-grade...

Gerald Chipeur, KC, is a lawyer based out of Calgary, Alberta. In this conversation he reflects on his continuing four-decade legal career, exploring the intersections of administrative law, religious freedom, and constitutional interpretation in Canada. Sharing how the Canadian government interacts with religious citizens through regulation, and human rights. Gerald gives personal and faith-based...

Pastor Rhoda, who serves in Vancouver, British Columbia, shares her path to becoming a female pastor in the Canadian Adventist Church, from her background in education to her calling into ministry. She explores the significance of representation in leadership, the distinction between ordination and commissioning, the power of inclusive language in worship, and the importance of reexamining biblica...

Peter Noteboom, the current General Secretary of the Canadian Council of Churches and Co-Chair of the Canadian Interfaith Conversation, shares his experiences and perspectives on ecumenism, emphasizing the importance of unity, peace, and love in the Christian faith. He highlights that the Christian witness can be strengthened when individuals deeply engage with their own denominational traditions....

Kyle Hausmann-Stokes talks about his new film, My Dead Friend Zoe, which explores his own experience as a U.S. Army veteran and draws attention to the ways that violence and mental health issues impact friendships and families.  I first met Kyle on a humanitarian effort to help migrants several years ago and continued to admire his creative talents and how his personal values drive his work. The f...

Jocelyn Bell is the editor and publisher of Broadview, a Canadian faith-based magazine and media organization. With roots dating back to 1829, Broadview is the oldest continuously published magazine in North America. Broadview covers national and international issues related to spirituality, justice, and ethical living. Jocelyn reflects on the publication’s rich history while also addressing the m...

Zach Lambert is the lead pastor and co-founder of Restore, a church based in Austin. He emphasizes the importance of building inclusive communities where everyone feels valued, shifting the spiritual focus away from belief statements to a centering on Jesus. Zach encourages Christ followers to assess faith by its fruits, in both personal and communal introspection. He also advocates for a holistic...

Rev. Dr. Ross Lockhart is dean of St. Andrew’s Hall and professor of Mission Studies at Vancouver School of Theology. He is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church in Canada. Noticing that fewer and fewer people are interested in Christianity, Ross uses his doctrinal research to ask, "What, then, does church mission look like?" He shares that as Canada moves further toward secularization w...

Terry Shaw, president and CEO of AdventHealth (revenue $21 billion), shared with Spectrum why his Climate Resilience Plan improves whole-person care. He also explained why government funding of health and humanitarian work is essential.  Reflecting on his 40-year career with the now 100,000 employee network stretching from Florida to Colorado, he shared how an internship inspired him and how his f...

Thandazani Mhlanga is a pastor in the British Columbia Conference, and also serves as a hospital chaplain. Through his passion for humanity he notices how Canadian society has mastered the art of virtue & moral signaling. This mismatch of saying the right thing but not doing the right action shows that the church may not be ready to embrace all people. Thandazani reflects on Jesus’ sermon on the m...

Dr. Melodie Roschman is a writer, academic, and the daughter of an Adventist pastor. Her ongoing research focuses on the intersection of popular culture and gender with right wing American Christianity. In our conversation, she reflects on her experiences as a young queer woman growing up in the Adventist church in Canada, as well as the links she sees between her personal experience and research....

Paul Llewellyn is the president of the Adventist Church in Canada. Coming from a teaching & youth ministry background, he shares about how the most important jobs of the church are the local pastors and teachers. Paul highlights the need for cultural understanding in ministry, along with the challenges of the Church in Canada being a small but significant part of the North American Division. Descr...

David Hayward pastored in Eastern Canada for 30 years. During which he noticed a growing desire to be more open about spirituality and to empower people away from spiritual dependency. This evolved into his creator's title of NakedPastor. Called such because David seeks to tell the naked truth, no matter how vulnerable it feels. During our conversation he shares more about the role of open dialogu...

Dr. Loren Agrey is the current president of Burman University, located in central Alberta, Canada. He shares about his journey from being a teacher, to a principal, then into higher educational teaching and academic administration and ultimately to now leading the only Adventist university in Canada. Dr. Agrey highlights the immeasurable resolve of early Adventists in starting the school, along wi...

Spectrum is excited to launch a new podcast series called Adventist, eh? With host Kevin McCarty. This Canadian based series seeks to engage in conversations about the spiritual and cultural landscape of the Great White North. Guests include Adventists and non-Adventists who bring various unique views on what it means to be religiously minded in Canada.  Kevin is a staff member at Spectrum who is...

JustLove Collective's co-leaders, Chris Blake, retired pastor and educator, and Dr. Dilys Brooks, campus chaplain at Loma Linda University, share the beginnings of this movement to bring about social change through the context of Adventism. They note how Jesus' life was filled with both love and justice, a model that is rooted deeply in neighborly love. JustLove Collective is a non-profit, interna...

Amy Leach discusses her new book, The Salt of the Universe: Praise, Songs, and Improvisations (Farrar, Straus & Giroux 2024). We discuss freedom, fundamentalism, and the Ellen White/Ted Wilson prohibition of pickles.  Leach grew up in Texas and earned her MFA from the Nonfiction Writing Program at the University of Iowa. Her work has appeared in The Best American Essays, The Best American Science...

From Australia, Signs Publishing Book Editor Nathan Brown talks about his latest book, Do Not Be Afraid, the Adventist adult daily devotional for 2025. Inspired by Jesus’s repeated comforting words and his own graduate research, Brown “reminds us that even in a world drowning in fears, we can rise above them and live lives characterized by courage and confidence.” We also explore his two decade ca...

A BFA graduate of Southern Adventist University, Darcie Denton is a 25-year-old artist from the Chattanooga area who has had three solo shows and exhibited various works throughout the U.S. Her artwork revolves around themes of sacredness, memory, gratitude, and beauty, and she explores these through paint, print and other traditional media, as well as video documentation of her life experience. A...

Daniel Weber was the Communication Director of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America and is now chair of the Dept. of Visual Art, Communication and Design at Andrews University. We debate about the value and propriety of Adventists making public declarations about their political views, particularly candidate support. In addition, we discuss the history and meaning of Adventist social...

Hot off the co-publication of our article with the Miami-Herald on 3ABN, its author, Alva James-Johnson, an award-winning journalist, talks behind the scenes on the story as well as how she become a reporter. We learn about her first publication for Insight magazine, her early work as a beat reporter, why she teaches at Southern Adventist University now, and why she thinks that seeking truth as an...

Retired teacher Janice Jensen, a longtime supporter of Spectrum (Advisory Council), recently published a memoir about losing her nine-year old son to drowning and how that changed her in many way, including her beliefs. Now a grief-recovery volunteer faciliator, Janice talks about heartbreak and how she supported her daughter and devastated husband as they struggled to rebuild their lives together...

I talk with Greg Kewdar about his film Sing Sing which will probably be nominated for the Academy Awards. It stars Coleman Domingo plays Divine G, an innocent man incarcerated at the New York prison. He is part of the longstanding Rehabilitation Through the Arts program and it's the men who create in this space that bring the story of conflict and redemption to life.

I interview journalist Eliza Griswold about her just released book, “Circle of Hope: A Reckoning with Love, Power, and Justice in an American Church.”She embedded for several years with four pastors in Philadelphia and shares on their personal and public struggles as they pursue their radical Christian vision while dealing with the realities of misogyny, racism, and attendance decline. Griswold is...

Erik VanDenburgh, president of the Hawaii conference speaks to me while driving a truck and 26 foot trailer to Gillette, Wyoming, to attend the International Pathfinder Camporee. He shares interesting details about the logistics involved in getting over 250 youth and support staff from the islands 3,400 miles across sea and land. A former youth leader, VanDenburgh explains why experiences like thi...