News Articles

Throughout the years I’ve heard several myths about pastors. With October (and Pastoral Appreciation Month) getting ready to start, I thought I’d do a little pastoral myth busting.

For four weeks, in an unprecedented event, the Northeastern Conference (NEC) hosted the Abundant Living Evangelistic Series right in the parking lot of the conference headquarters in Jamaica, New York. Led by Oswald Euell, NEC executive secretary, and assisted by Winston Stephenson, NEC assistant to the president for evangelism, as well as pastors from the NEC churches located in and around Queens, the series ran July 14-August 10, 2019. At the conclusion of the series, 105 people were baptized, and a new mission was formed — the City Seventh-day Adventist Mission.

When Kiana Roat, former principal of Green Bay Adventist Junior Academy in Wisconsin, approached Pathfinder area coordinator Becky Zeismer last year with the idea of collecting sleeping bags no longer needed after Oshkosh, the two had no idea what to expect. And no one imagined the extraordinary outpouring of goods received. “I was hoping we’d get a few sleeping bags, but I was overwhelmed with the amount of food!” said Zeismer.

Alex Dorival, 112 at the time, was seated in his favorite pew as Jeffrey Thompson and Ruben Joseph did tag preaching at New Generation Adventist Church on Sabbath, April 20, 2019. A week of energetic preaching was brought to a climax with four people led to Christ by the two pastors who exchanged pulpits, but preached the final sermon together at New Generation and Fort Lauderdale Adventist churches.

On June 19, Breath of Life released its first sharing book, FREE: Revisiting God’s Plan for Oppressed People. The pocket-sized volume points readers to a deliverer who is concerned about the social, economic, and political circumstances that oppress bodies and suppress voices of millions of people in America and around the world.

Christian Record Services for the Blind (CRS), a ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America, has extended access to its proprietary online library to all of the divisions outside North America. This includes several different reading formats, including audio streaming, large electronic print and refreshable Braille.

Two siblings and star high school tennis players went to court to defend their right to compete in the state championships while keeping their Sabbath. On Aug. 6, 2019, Paul and Iris Chung sued the Washington Interscholastic Activities Association in federal court on behalf of their children, Joelle and Joseph.

Buford Griffith, executive secretary and director of Family Ministries and Religious Liberty for the Southwestern Union Conference, and Carmen Griffith, director of Southwestern Union’s Women’s Ministries and Ministerial Spouses Ministries, received the 2019 North American Division (NAD) Family Ministries Distinguished Service Award on July 20 during the annual Family Research and Practice Conference on the campus of Andrews University.

On Sept. 5, 2019, W. Derrick Lea, director of Adventist Community Services Disaster Response reported that ACS DR is prepared to help in the southeastern U.S. after Hurricane Dorian whipped through parts of coastal Georgia and the Carolinas. Already, one Adventist-run shelter has opened up.

The Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary Chapel on the campus of Andrews University was full during the afternoon and early evening on September 4, the first day of the North American Division’s 2019 enditnow Summit on Abuse. This is the division’s third summit, which broadcast over two days in English and Spanish — and the first to be held on a university campus.