Mountain View Conference | Seventh-day Adventist Church

Time Change: Why are Churches Moving the 11 O’clock Worship Service?

By Debra McKinney Banks

Visit a Seventh-day Adventist church these days, and it is no longer guaranteed that the service will start at 11 a.m. No one really knows the history of when or where the 11 o’clock Sabbath worship time began. Plausible theories from pastors and historians posit that during more agrarian times, farming families needed to tend to the livestock and finish the chores before attending church. Whatever the reason, most people don’t maintain that farming lifestyle anymore. Today some pastors have discovered that holding Sabbath services at non-traditional times—either before or after 11—are becoming more of a necessity to meet the missional needs of their flocks.

Unlikely Gas Station Encounter Leads to Baptism in West Virginia

John Peña, 57, standing outside the Seventh-day Adventist church in Spencer, West Virginia. The church is among 35 that received Thirteenth Sabbath funds to organize evangelistic meetings in 2015. (Andrew McChesney / Adventist Mission)

Story by Andrew McChesney, adventistmission.org

One evening, a technical glitch disrupted operations at the gas station where John Peña was working in West Virginia.

The timing couldn’t have been worse.

Parkersburg Pathfinders Reach Peers With Health Expo

Pathfinder Nathan Zill teams up with his father, Victor, conference treasurer, to talk about the benefits and hazards of sunshine during the children’s health expo

Story by Valerie Morikone

The Parkersburg (W.Va.) Pathfinder Club recently conducted a children’s health expo for 250 students, grades K-5 at the Franklin Elementary Center in Parkersburg. Using colorful banners, the Pathfinders manned eight stations across the school’s gymnasium, offering games, quizzes and activities.

Charleston Girl Starts Swim Class

Kristiana Hoffman instructs one of her students during a swim class. Photo by Laura Hoffman

Story by V. Michelle Bernard

Kristiana Hoffman, a 12-year-old from Charleston, W.Va., wants to be a missionary when she grows up. In January she started practicing.

After reading that 10 people die each day from drowning, Hoffman came up with a plan to help teach children to swim while introducing them to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Hoffman, a member of the Mountain View Conference’s Charleston (W.Va.) church, started taking swimming lessons at age three, and recently hosted swim classes for the community at a local pool.

Sixteen Teams Place First at Columbia Union Pathfinder Bible Experience

Members of the Charleston Pathfinder club participate in the Columbia Union Conference Pathfinder Bible Experience event at Blue Mountain Academy. Photo by Lilac Martinez

Story by V. Michelle Bernard / Photos by Lilac Martinez

Sixteen Pathfinder Bible Experience (PBE) teams from the Columbia Union Conference will continue on to the North American Division finals in Chicago April 21-22.

Those sixteen teams from nine Pathfinder clubs placed first at the Columbia Union PBE event March 18 at Pennsylvania Conference’s Blue Mountain Academy in Hamburg, Pa.