2009! Year of Evangelism?

The GC has dubbed 2009 the Year of Evangelism. So here's some wishes for the new year from Mark Finley, Shawn Boonstra, and Doug Batchelor--three of Adventism's best known evangelistic people.

Boonstra on the Boob Tube

Adventism has its own honest-to-goodness televangelist, Shawn Boonstra. A friend of mine living in the Los Angeles Metroplex says that Shawn Boonstra was on KCAL 9 TV last Sunday morning (competing with Joel Osteen on the Fox affiliate).

Boonstra gets Gangsta in LA

Boonstra, who took over It Is Written after Mark Finley had "other stuff to do" at the GC (Finley's a vice-president), has apparently getting some face time in Los Angeles. Sources close to the situation (i.e. Southern California Conference of SDA's) reveal that Shawn Boonstra is going to be the speaker for a massive campaign to turn Southern California Adventist green (it's a real color, I'm not even kidding!). The campaign called cLAim is a ramped up revelation seminar-type thing that sources say will cost $1 million. I wonder how much it costs to get Boonstra on KCAL 9.

My friend who spotted Boonstra on the Tube says that his message was part of a series entitled "In Tables of Stone", which unsurprisingly is about Adventism's favorite topic--besides the three R's: Revelation, Remnant and Revelry (meat, jewelry and dancing)--the 10 Commandments!

Boonstra reportedly told a story about some Russian guy who kidnapped a girl. Everyone was outraged that the guy would do such a thing. So that's how we know that postmodernism is wrong. There ARE absolute moral values because everyone just KNEW that it is wrong to kidnap a girl and make her your captive. Postmodernism says that everything is relative, and that one person's morals are just as good as someone else's. But we KNOW that it's not true because of the story of the Russian guy. And that's why we should follow the 10 Commandments!

I wonder how well a message like that is going to go down in LA. Shawn Boonstra is obviously not gangsta. He's not really fly for a white guy. He can't lean like a cholo.

I guess he does have the "in" of being a TV star...kind of. So that should get him a little respect in Hollywood at least. And come to think of it, there are probably lots of people in LA who can identify with a message about tablets and stone--those Californians... It'll be interesting to see how the Million Dollar Man does next year in the hood. Stay tuned!

Meanwhile, enjoy these screenshots my Cal Pal got for me:

Shawn Boonstra

Shawn Boonstra is from Canada. He is a Canadian evangelist, eh? But he is the speaker / director for It Is Written, which is based in the United States. Boonstra's face has been on Television screens around the world.

Shawn Boonstra is really serious about the gospel going to ALL the world. According to the It Is Written website, "upcoming efforts include a major effort in Los Angeles in 2009, continued outreach in the Arctic, Kalahari and other remote locations."

This guy spends big bucks to get to those hard to get to places. No Eskimo or Bushman left behind! His motto is "speak softly, and wear a loud tie."

[Requested by fellow Frisian, David Hamstra - one stra to another, eh?]