Story by Wilona Karimabadi / Adventist Review
Tuesday’s first late-evening General Conference business session addressed two items on the clarification of election and ordination for elders who are female and deaconesses. The discussion, which lasted almost until the close of the meeting, was filled with numerous questions and comments from assembled delegates, both in person and via Zoom videoconferencing.
Story by Benia Jennings
The mission at New Jersey Conference's Willingboro church is “[to serve] the community with love and compassion.” On Martin Luther King Jr. Day, they were able to do just that.
Story by Cecily Bryant
Barry Brooks, Sabbath School superintendent of Allegheny West Conference's Southeast church in Cleveland, and his team represent success that grew out of adversity. The COVID-19 pandemic led this group to lean on Jesus and think outside of the box. Their combined efforts and dedication produced a creative and spiritually vibrant online Sabbath School.
The team consists of Brooks, his wife, Denise, their daughter, Brittni, and fellow church members Janviere Lavender, Elva Battle, Charity White and Reuel White. Whether their efforts involve planning, teaching or enhancing the online experience or hand-delivering Sabbath School lessons, other members say the result of their teamwork is excellence.
Story by ANN Staff / Image by Tor Tjeransen/ Adventist Media Exchange
Paul Douglas has been re-elected as the Treasurer of the General Conference of Seventh-Day Adventists (GC). Douglas was first elected to the position during the 2021 Spring Meetings, in Silver Spring, Maryland, after Juan Prestol-Puesán retired.
Story by Maryellen Hacko/ANN
On Tuesday morning at just about 9:30 am at the 61st General Conference Session, GC Secretary Erton Köhler, accompanied by Undersecretary Hensley Moorooven, GC associate secretaries Claude Richli, Gerson Santos, Karen Porter, Gary Krause and Elbert Kuhn, alongside Director of the office of Archives, Statistics and Research (ASTR) David Trim, and VividFaith manager Fylvia Kline, presented the Secretariat Report, which celebrated the mission work executed across the global Adventist Church over the past seven years.
Story by Debra Anderson
It is not uncommon to find church leaders struggling to find ways to go beyond the premises of the church to minister. In the Potomac Conference, however, pastors, principals, teachers and office workers are being challenged to do just that—to extend themselves “Beyond the Walls.” For the last year, congregations around the conference have been intentional in living the gospel of Jesus by reaching out to help those in their local communities.
Story by Maryellen Hacko, ANN
Story by LaTasha Hewitt
The conference’s Pathfinder Ministries Department recently hosted a Teen Leadership Training (TLT) retreat at the Mt. Aetna Retreat Center in Hagerstown, Md. More than 30 TLT trainees, 14 TLT mentors and nine staff members gathered for a weekend of training and activities that included a bonfire vespers, indoor and outdoor games and team challenges.
Participants left inspired and equipped. “The program has encouraged me to adjust how I view myself and how I can be a part of spreading the three angels’ messages,” shares TLT trainee Zora Wills from Genesis church’s Jaguars club.
Story by V. Michelle Bernard
This past weekend, the Ohio Conference Hispanic Ministries Department welcomed 155 new members to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. "No one I have spoken to has a memory of us ever baptizing this many people in a single day," says Bob Cundiff, conference president. "As such we feel it is an unprecedented event in our territory."