For your safety, Pioneer Memorial Church offices are now closed until further notice. Pastors and staff continue to work remotely to serve your needs. Read more regarding the COVID-19 Pioneer response here.
Out of His deep love for humanity, God changes our lives and asks us to move His love into our community and world. We are uniquely positioned at Andrews University to share the story of God’s love from the residence halls to the farthest parts of the earth. We accomplish our mission by engaging people across generations to be disciples of Jesus through the process of Connect. Grow. Serve. Go.
We have volunteer teams that help you to serve the church and the neighborhood in a variety of ways. The best place to serve is where you’re using your God-given gifts, talents, and passions the most.
Your financial gift helps support ministry here at Pioneer. From local to global ministry, keeping our facility safe and clean, to outreach and family growth activities, it all provides a space to worship, learn, and grow together. We invite you to Give Purposefully, Give Faithfully, and Give Joyfully.
Sabine Vatel serves on the pastoral team of Pioneer Memorial Church on the campus of Andrews University. She oversees Discipleship and Grow Group ministries. Her many interests include generational studies, people's stories, and one day speaking Spanish fluently. She finds joy in helping individuals connect to God and each other.
Join the pastors of the Pioneer Memorial Church as they embark on their summer series "Road Trip." This week Pastor Sabine asks the question so many of us face in not only our spiritual walk, but our entire life journey: "Are we there yet?"
Sometimes life throws a sign in your face that says "Road Closed". Where do you go from here? Is this the end of the journey is it just an opportunity to get back on track via an unexpected detour.
We're heading into summer, and with that comes new opportunities for Grow Groups!
Grow Groups will meet from June 22–August 3 (just 6 weeks) and will be held online only again this session. Meeting online allows us to seek friendship as well as social, mental, and spiritual engagement together in community, while prioritizing health and safety. Going digital also allows participants who live outside of our local area to join our groups!
If you're interested in leading, please register your group today!
In no way was The Tent normal this year. After all, nothing has been! That is not to say, however, that it was not a win for the Kingdom of God. Although it was online only, God came through in a mighty way! With about 200 different video clips the whole thing came together against all odds. There were decisions for baptism and people tuning in from all over the world!
This was the 7th year of The Tent. Some of our preachers this year were in the first grade when this all began. That year, Pastor Dwight came to Ruth Murdoch Elementary School and asked the 1st graders which of them would like to preach when they were Junior High students. Well, some of those kids preached last week! These messages were driven by the Holy Spirit as they profoundly spoke to events that took place after the messages were even recorded.
It was not just the speakers who did well this year. Micah Leiterman and Marco Sciarabba Badenas welcomed guests every night with intros that were fun and engaging! What was awesome about their video clips was the way that these two students not only wrote the scripts but they filmed and edited the clips together.
The students came together in an incredible way to make the music as well. Each student created their videos for music individually and these were edited together to create music as a team. We had an incredible team of seminary students who helped bring all of this together, and we also depended upon the musical genius of Chuck Reid who did our fine-tuning.
What was most amazing about The (Virtual) Tent was the seamless way all of these pieces made a whole. This is what the Holy Spirit longs to do with us as a church! Imagine what God could do with a church connected to Him! The (Virtual) Tent is a call to action. This is a picture of what God can do in the worst of circumstances with people who are listening to His voice.
We are saddened to inform you that due to COVID-19 FLAG Camp will be canceled this summer. Thank you to each who has applied to be on staff. Please apply again next year for the summer of 2021. We will be working to make next summer a great and safe experience!
COVID-19 Updates
For your safety, Pioneer Memorial Church offices are now closed until further notice. Pastors and staff continue to work remotely to serve your needs.
This week I learned of our world church headquarters appeal for prayer throughout the global Seventh-day Adventist family. Originally timed to end during the recently-postponed General Conference session in Indianapolis, our church leaders are calling us to now focus 100 days of praying (March 27-July 4) on behalf of the global coronavirus pandemic. There could hardly be a more urgent need for earnest praying!
A pastor friend of mine, Jim Moon, pointed out a two-verse juxtaposition I'd not noticed before: "When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a pestilence among My people, if My people, who are called by My name, will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land" (2 Chronicles 7:13-14). While everyone knows the beloved prayer call in v 14, few of us connect it with the preceding divine action in v 13. "A pestilence among My people" certainly could represent a global pandemic like the coronavirus COVID-19. While Satan is the originator of destructive calamities, what more faith-appropriate response is our collective prayers to the One who can deliver this nation, this world, these people, from the grips of pestilence.
So let's join together in humbling ourselves before God and praying and seeking His face—that our world might be saved and our faith community might yet be mobilized to share the glad tidings of Jesus' soon return.
- Pastor Dwight
Love on the Move
Over the summer and fall of 2019 Pioneer underwent significant physical renovation—including a new roof and a major Sanctuary makeover. During the same time congregation leaders engaged in multiple conversations about our missional renovation—how does a faith community like Pioneer seriously engage and impact the people around us for Christ? From this dialogue emerged a fresh new expression of our Pioneer mission: "Love on the Move."
