Though the theme for the 2022 Year-End Meetings for the North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists (NAD) is “Together in Mission,” the church leaders gathered were also together in worship each morning. These worship sessions began with hymns, Scripture, and special music before the sermon, each day presented by a different speaker.

Daniel’s Way

On Friday, Oct. 28, Bradford Newton, Pacific Union Conference president, focused on the story of Daniel and what it teaches us about prayer. Newton pointed out that the book of Daniel says that he prayed three times a day, and had for most of his life. Psalm 55:17, he added, says to pray “morning, noon, and night.”

“This is the pathway to a meaningful connection with God,” Newton said. “And part of our development of faith is spiritual discipline — praying even when we don’t want to. This becomes more difficult the older we get because making choices for change is more and more challenging.”

Referencing the lion’s den in which Daniel spent a night, Newton asked the group, “Do you have a lion in your life right now? A lion of problems you’re dealing with in your conference, or personal lions roaring? They can get pretty loud, and sometimes we wonder how we’ll make it another day.”

So how do we combat this? Newton’s solution: “Do it Daniel’s way. Pray.” He made it out of the lion’s den without a scratch, and so can we, Newton concluded.

Live by Faith

“What do you do when God doesn’t answer how you want Him to? When your hopes are crushed by the devil? When you’ve worked hard and played by the rules and yet don’t have the desired results? What do you do when, despite your best efforts, things don’t turn out well?”

These questions, posed by Pierre Omeler, Atlantic Union Conference president, during his worship talk on Sunday morning, Oct. 30, illustrated how Habbakuk was feeling.

“He had prayed and prayed about violence and wickedness in society and among God’s people, and God said nothing,” Omeler said. “This is where we find him at the beginning of his book. He was crying out to God again, and God essentially said, ‘You haven’t seen anything yet. It’s about to get worse.’”

Omeler pointed out that Habakkuk struggled with how such a powerful God could tolerate injustice and violence. “In Chapter 3, though, we see Habakkuk counting his blessings, recalling the goodness of God,” he added. “The situation hasn’t changed, but Habakkuk has.”

Though there are realities we will never understand this side of Heaven, Omeler pointed out, we must trust in the power of the living God.

Just Go

On Monday, Carlos Craig, Southwestern Union Conference president, did not mince words. He read the story of Jesus’ ascent to heaven, putting emphasis on Acts 1:11 where the disciples are asked, “Why are you standing here looking into the sky?”

“We have not done what God asked us to do,” Craig said bluntly. “God said, ‘So send I you,’ not ‘So send I this handbill.’ Why are we just standing around waiting for something to happen? We’re not called to sit in offices or attend meetings; we’re called to go and inspire those who lack hope.”

Craig shared a story about how he met a young guitarist who seemed overly cocky, and Craig put it upon himself to bring the boy down a peg or two. When he approached the young man, the young man shared he had known Craig at summer camp as a camper, and when he was bullied by his cabinmates, Craig had prayed for him and brought the presence of God into the young man’s life. “I’m here at these meetings to support you because you changed my life,” the boy said to Craig.

“Part of the great plague of the church is criticism,” Craig said. “We’re called to model God’s love to people. That’s all. We don’t have to grab the church manual and try to change people, we just need to love them. And to do that, we must go.”

Craig concluded, “At some point, we have to live — not just preach — the gospel. I have faith that the outpouring of the Holy Spirit is just around the corner. We just have to go there.”

What We Have Seen

“If you were in a crowded place and someone screamed, ‘Hallelujah! I’ve been healed!’ wouldn’t you go see what happened?” asked Ken Denslow, Lake Union Conference president, during his worship talk on Tuesday morning.

Denslow was sharing the story of Peter and John going to the temple and, when the beggar asks for money, the disciples instead pray for God’s healing on the man. When healing came, the man was so overcome, he couldn’t help but shout about his experience to anyone who would listen.

“When a crowd had gathered, Peter began to talk about his friend Jesus who could give new life and healing to everyone,” Denslow said. “Peter was an uneducated, simple man, and yet he preached not to a receptive crowd, but a hostile one. The only explanation for his holy boldness was that he had been with Jesus, who had given him the Holy Spirit.”

“The compulsion to tell your story comes only to those who have felt the power of Christ first-hand,” Denslow said. “That’s what happened with Peter and John, and that’s what can happen with each of us. It is my desire to be a born-again, spirit-filled, story-telling witness, who can do nothing but echo the words of Peter: ‘For we cannot help speaking out about what we have seen and heard.’”

— Becky St. Clair writes from Angwin, California.