News

During General Conference Session Adventist Community Services and impact! st. louis Team Help Support Recovering Tornado Victims
Multiple levels of Adventist Community Services are joining forces with impact! st. louis, an initiative of the General Conference Youth Ministries department, to offer some relief to those still wrestling with the ramifications of the May 16 tornado. The Spanish church has been set up as a distribution center for food and other essential items. This and other community service efforts are running concurrent with the 62nd GC Session taking place downtown on July 3-12, 2025.

Healing Hands, Missional Hearts: Adventist Healthcare Systems Unite at GC Session 2025
At the heart of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s mission lies a deep commitment to healing — not just of the body, but of the whole person. That commitment was on display at the 2025 General Conference (GC) Session in St. Louis, Missouri, where the five healthcare systems in the North American Division (NAD) united to present a compelling witness to medical ministry as an extension of gospel work.

St. Louis Residents Invited to Experience the Power of Prayer During GC Session
The theme of the 62nd General Conference Session is “Jesus is Coming, I Will Go!” This is the clarion call to illuminate the entire world with the three angels’ messages and the everlasting gospel. Like any city, St. Louis, Missouri, the session’s host, needs Jesus’ light, so several organizations, ministry leaders, and young people partnered together to implement a special week of prayer. Karen Glassford, director of the GC’s Digital Strategy for Mission, has been leading this initiative. She indicated this wasn’t the first time this type of community week of prayer has been activated.

Adventist Camps Mark 100 Years with First General Conference Session Exhibit in the North American Division Booth
For the first time, Adventist camp ministry is being featured with a dedicated exhibit at the General Conference (GC) Session, highlighting 100 years of summer camps shaping young lives. Tracy Wood, Youth Ministries director for the North American Division, said this year marks a century since Adventist camps began in 1925 in Australia, with the second recorded camp held a year later in Michigan. “It started with boys by a lake learning about nature and earning honor badges long before Pathfinders even existed,” Wood said. “Now it’s a global ministry.”

A Tapestry of Faiths: North American Division’s Fifth Prayer Breakfast Sparks Unity in Mission
On January 18, 2024, roughly 110 local faith and civic leaders attended the fifth Religious Freedom Prayer Breakfast hosted by the North American Division (NAD) and organized by its Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL) department. The event commemorated Religious Freedom Day (Jan. 16) and coincided with Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Jan. 15). Attendees experienced a religious freedom-themed keynote, special musical selections, and prayers focusing on religious freedom, peace, unity of spirit, and personal responsibility.

David Anthony Johnson Inspires Pacific Union College Students at Martin Luther King Jr. Service
The Pacific Union College (PUC) Church resonated with powerful words as David Anthony Johnson addressed students during a special Martin Luther King Jr. Community Service Day. The event, held in the sanctuary on Thursday morning, Jan. 11, 2024, as part of the Community Speakers Series, was dedicated to honoring King’s legacy.

Patmos Chapel Celebrates 70 Years of Ministry
“The Lord has brought us a mighty long way.” That was the testimony of members and friends of Patmos Chapel Seventh-day Adventist Church in Apopka, Florida, as they celebrated the church’s platinum (70th) anniversary on September 22, 2023. More than 650 members and friends crammed into the church’s edifice to worship and praise God for His guidance over seven decades and to ponder what God has in store for the Patmos’ future.

When We Answer the Call to Help “The Least of These”
Who are the least of these? And who is called to serve; and what does that service look like when perhaps there are other life situations that make it challenging to help? And can our church serve as a conduit for understanding what help looks like and how everyone can be involved? Those are the questions we are asking ourselves within Adventist Community Services. While our traditional avenues for providing help will continue — operating food pantries, providing clothing to those that need it, and running community gardens — we are also looking to expand the ways we define help as well as the type of help we provide in the communities we serve.