Potomac Church Recognizes Filmmaker Martin Doblmeier

Committee impressed that someone who is not an Adventist would be so dedicated to promoting one of the church’s “vital instruments of evangelism.”

Story by CPC and Visitor Staff

Wright, CPC pastor, presents the 2014 Henry M. Wright Education Innovation Award to filmmaker Martin Doblmeier.

Last Sabbath, members of the Potomac Conference’s Community Praise Center (CPC) in Alexandria, Va., presented the 2014 Henry M. Wright Education Innovation Award to filmmaker Martin Doblmeier. Doblmeier has made three films about Seventh-day Adventists, most recently, The BLUEPRINT: The Story of Adventist Education, which will begin airing on PBS stations next month.

According to Ronnie Mills, leader of the church’s Home and School Department and chair of the Adventist Education Day Committee, the award, sponsored by the Community Praise Church, is “given to an individual or institution that has had a significant positive impact on Adventist education.”

He said, “The committee was impressed that a non-Adventist would dedicate his talents to promoting one of the vital instruments of evangelism in the church—Adventist education. Also his new film will bring awareness to countless people regarding our remarkable education system.”

Doblmeier said it was a great honor to receive the award. “Adventist education has a wonderfully rich tradition, and I am grateful to have played a small part in letting that story be more widely known,” he said.

The award was named after Wright, who has pastored the church for 20 years, in recognition of his support of Christian Adventist education. The award, which is not annual, was first bestowed in 2012 upon the late Stewart Bainum, Sr., founder of the Commonweal Foundation, and Choice Hotels International and his daughter Barbara Bainum, current Commonweal.