We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to everyone who made Angel Tree possible this Christmas. Because of your thoughtfulness and generosity, many of our students/student families experienced a warmer, more joyful holiday season. We extend a special thank you to the Lake Union for their generous support and partnership. We are deeply grateful for your continued giving and support of Belong Ministries and for walking alongside us throughout the academic year to serve and uplift our students at Andrews University.
Charmed into Righteousness
The Truest Friend
Speaker
Dwight K. NelsonDwight Nelson served as lead pastor of the Pioneer Memorial Church on the campus of Andrews University from 1983 to 2023. During his time at Pioneer he spoke on the “New Perceptions” telecast, taught at the theological seminary and has written books, including The Chosen. He and his wife, Karen, are blessed with two married children and 2 granddaughters.
Offering
Saturday, January 09, 2016
Program:
As We Begin
What a Friend We Have in Jesus • Robert Hobby
Praise
He Is Exalted • Shout to the Lord • Amazed
Prayer
Don Dronen
Welcome New Media Ministries Director
Richard Parke
"By the Word of Their Testimony"
Korollos N. Abdelmalak with Rodlie Ortiz
GROW Groups Video
Keith Wakefield
Children's Story
Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners • Dale Wood
Worship in Music
Jesus, Lover of My Soul • Gilbert Martin
Sermon
“Charmed into Righteousness: The Truest Friend” • Dwight K. Nelson
Connect Card, Tithes & Offerings
Hymn
Jesus, What a Friend for Sinners • 187
As We Depart
Jesus, My Joy • Theophil Forchhammer
More In This Series
“Charmed into Righteousness: The Truest Friend”
Reinhold Niebuhr: "On the whole, people do not achieve great moral heights out of a sense of duty. You may be able to compel them to maintain certain minimum standards by stressing duty, but the highest moral and spiritual achievements depend not upon a push but upon a pull. People must be charmed into righteousness.” (Leaves from the Notebook of a Tamed Cynic 75)
Ellen White: "You cannot but be charmed with the matchless attractions of the Son of God." (Christian Education 76)
- Romans 5:6-8, 10
- The Timeline of the Good News
- God loved us and Christ died for us:
- “While we were still .” (v 6)
- “While we were still .” (v 8)
- “While we were still ” (v 10)
- Three timelines, one truth: God us we were lovable.
- Walt Mueller: “. . . for digital natives living out their lives in the online world, the identity options from which to choose are virtually limitless. Kids [and adults] are able to perform through a growing multitude of social media sites by choosing the words they post (true and false), and by posing and photo-shopping themselves into images that don’t come close to who they really are. As media critic Quentin Schultze has observed, ‘The digital world suffocates virtue by allowing us unbridled freedom to be all things to all people . . . to give ourselves over to the highest bidder or to the most persuasive master’” (YouthWorker Journal Jan/Feb 2015 pp 16-17).
- Michael Horton: Psychiatrist Keith Ablow warns of “‘the toxic psychological impact of media and technology on children, adolescents and young adults [and not so young adults], particularly as it regards turning them into faux [false] celebrities—the equivalent of lead actors in their own fictionalized life stories. . . . On Facebook, young [and not so young] people can fool themselves into thinking they have hundreds or thousands of “friends.” They can delete unflattering comments. They can block anyone who disagrees with them or pokes holes in their inflated self-esteem. . . . Using Twitter, young [and not so young] people can pretend they are worth “following,” as though they have real-life fans, when all that is really happening is the mutual fanning of false love and false fame’” (or-di-nar-y: Sustainable faith in a radical, restless world 60).
- The Father loved us and Christ died for us we could spiritually photoshop ourselves into an acceptable, attractive state.
- Ezekiel 16:4-10, 15, 22
- Romans 3:10-18
- God loved us and Christ died for us:
- The Truth of the Good News
- Desmond Ford: “With the gospel, it’s the opposite. It must be true because it’s so good! The word ‘God’ is just a contraction of the word ‘good.’ The word ‘devil’ is just an expansion of the word ‘evil.’ God is good, ‘gooder’ than we could ever think, just as we are ‘worser’ than we ever thought. You have to keep the two at equipoise. God is better than we ever considered. We’re worse than we ever suspected.” (Right With God Right Now 83)
- John Peckham: “Scripture presents God as affectionate and loving, devotedly interested and intimately concerned about humans, affected by the world in feeling joy and delight in goodness, yet sorrow, passion and intense anger at evil, alongside profound compassion and the desire to redeem humans. While none can overpower God, he is affected by worldly events because he has willingly opened himself up to reciprocal love relationship with creatures. . . . God enjoys and is deeply affected by reciprocal (though asymmetrical) relationship with humans” (The Love of God: A Canonical Model 189).
- Romans 5:10 TEV: “We were God’s enemies, but he made us his through the death of his Son. Now that we are God’s , how much more will we be saved by Christ’s life!”
- John 15:13, 14—“Greater love has no one than this: to lay down one’s life for one’s . You are my if you do what I command.
- Steps to Christ 100: “The relations between God and each soul are as distinct and full as though there were not another soul upon the earth to share His watchcare, not another soul for whom He gave His beloved Son.”
- p 74—[Jesus is our] “ and Saviour still.”
- p 78—“. . . what a friend [we have] found in Jesus . . .”
- p 93—“Prayer is the opening of the heart to God as to a .”
- p 103—“He [God the Father] is [our] friend.”
- p 122—“Jesus is our .”
- May 24, 1905 letter: “My dear child Mabel—O that we all realized that true happiness is found in taking Christ as our and friend. . . . He loves you and will be your .” (Letter 147 1905)
- Adventist Home 204—“[Jesus] knows the burdens of every mother’s heart and is her friend. . . . He is woman’s friend today and is ready to aid her in all the relations of life.”
- Mind, Character and Personality 2:491 (in a letter to an aged Christian)—“Just rest in [Jesus’] arms and know He is your Savior and your Friend, and He will never leave you or forsake you.”
- How to grow this friendship through prayer: https://www.pmchurch.tv/newwaytopray
“Best Friends Forever and Ever”
Belong Ministries Thanks You
Fellowship Dinner
Pioneer Commons
We are having fellowship dinner on Sabbath following the second worship service in the commons. Visitors are welcome!
Offering for January 24, 2026
Michigan Advance Partners
The Conference leadership is tasked with guiding the churches in proclaiming the gospel in their areas. They do this in at least four ways. First, they provide pastors and specialized personnel like Family Ministries. Second, they encourage conference-sponsored evangelism activities done through pastors and members. Third, the conference supports and supervises Adventist schools. Fourth, they collaborate with the local congregations to build churches, schools, and other facilities.
For much of this work, the Conference depends on the local church and its members for their financial contributions, as the tithe only covers the salaries of the pastors and other specialized conference ministries and personnel. To finance the remainder of these projects, most conferences collect an offering once per month. The name for this offering may vary in some conferences, but it is generally called Conference Advance. While each giver must decide for themselves how much to give, it is recommended that each of us give the equivalent of 1.2% of our income. When this offering is collected, the local treasurer will then forward it to the conference.
Thank you for your committed support to the conference initiatives through your giving and for not becoming “weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up” (Gal. 6:2, 9, ESV).
May you receive the bountiful blessings of God today.
—North American Division Stewardship Ministries
Something in Common back in the commons!
Hello, church family. After moving from room to room as space allowed, Something in Common is returning to our roots and will meet in the Commons again starting this week. Something in Common focuses on relationships: with God, with others, in marriage, and in parenting, featuring a variety of speakers and topics. Our current series, Vertical Marriage, wraps up next week. If you’re interested, come check us out.
Love on the Move
God's Hands 4 Kids, a PMC Grow Group outreach to our community serving foster, adoptive, kinship and guardianship families partnering with Berrien County Department Of Health and Human Services. As a gift to the families served by them and as a gift to the community of ministry leaders and professionals, we will be providing Hope for the Journey, a video conference on Trust Based Relational Intervention - trauma, on Sunday afternoons in February here at PMC. It is produced by Show Hope. For more information and to register go to our website GH4K.org
Honduras Mission update
Honduras Mission: Our 20 person Youth Mission Team sang, camped, taught, laughed and prayed. They also conducted a day camp for about 60 children, built a two car garage, led 19 worships, set up a security system, and provided food for 60 families. Thank you for your prayers and support for Pioneer Youth Missions.
With This in Mind...
Forgiveness, a key aspect of the Christian experience, promotes mental and physical well-being. Research shows it reduces emotional tension, psychological conflict, and even psychosomatic pain. Dr. Karen Swartz of Johns Hopkins notes that anger triggers the body’s fight-or-flight response, raising heart rate, blood pressure, and disease risk. Forgiveness, by contrast, fosters peace and lowers depression, anxiety, and stress. As Scripture reminds us, “Judge not, and you will not be judged; condemn not, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven” (Luke 6:37). Go ahead! Enjoy peace of mind.
Adventist Seniors of Michiana (ASM) January Meeting
DINNER FOR SENIORS Sunday, January 25, from 1 to 3 PM, Andrews Academy invites all senior citizens (55 or better) to a banquet at the Academy, to thank us and give us a report on how our support has been a blessing. Bring your appetite and your checkbook, and come enjoy the program and food they are preparing for us.
Master Guide Toolbox!
Please join us for the next Master Guide Toolbox event at the Andrews University Seminary, February 6-7, 2026! Share with your friends, colleagues, students or in your newsletters! If you have any questions, please contact Cheryl Logan at cjhlogan@gmail.com. Spread the word!
Introducing Parent Circle: A Sabbath Space for Growing Together
Parent Circle is a new discipleship space where parents of kids ages 4–12 connect, study the Bible, and grow together while their children are in Sabbath School. The resource area features a lending library, as well as support for completing youth and children’s ministry certifications. Join us on any Sabbath, anytime from 10:30-11:30 AM.