News Articles

On Nov. 1, a luncheon was held in honor of the 2023 recipients of the Adventist HealthCare Lucy Byard Scholarship for nursing. Adventist HealthCare (AHC) leadership, along with church leaders, friends, family and colleagues, came to celebrate the four deserving students who received a total of $60,000 to complete their studies.

An initiative that distributes diapers twice a month in San Bernardino recently celebrated a milestone of 1 million diapers distributed since the program launched 15 months ago. Leaders estimate the program has saved local residents $250,000 during a time that for many people has been financially difficult due to surging inflation. The initiative is coordinated by Loma Linda University Health in partnership with several community groups.

Breakout session one on Friday, Oct. 27, 2023, allowed each union to report on their discussions during the past year on the points raised during the 2022 year-end meeting. Topics included online church, educator remuneration, and membership data collection. A new breakout on pastoral ministry commenced on Sunday, Oct. 29, with recommendations coming from the groups on Oct. 30, as well as robust discussion of the issues related to the topic.

Following worship on Tuesday, October 31, the sixth and final day of the 2023 North American Division Year-End Meeting business session, during which many ministry departments gave their reports, began with a passionate presentation by Dwain Esmond, associate director and editor of the Ellen G. White Estate. He shared with the group his latest evangelism initiative, Back to the Altar. A variety of other ministry department reports followed.

Academics, theologians, religious freedom experts, students, and church members gathered on the campus of Southern Adventist University on October 20-21, 2023, for a North American Division conference “Reconstructing Religious Liberty in a Time of Religious and Secular Extremes.” The two-day event, organized by the NAD Public Affairs and Religious Liberty ministry team, featured five keynote speakers: David French, Samuel Perry, Tobias Cremer, Leslie Pollard, and Ivor Myers.

On October 29, day four of the North American Division’s 2023 Year-End Meeting, NAD executive secretary Kyoshin Ahn and team delivered an eye-opening secretary’s report. Their presentations defined the state of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America, emphasized secretariat ministries’ disciple-making efforts, and inspired hope for the church’s future.

The North American Division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church acknowledges communication is more than a method — a sacred connection process designed to redirect our attention to Christ. This ethos was upheld at the 2023 Society of Adventist Communicators convention in Springfield, Massachusetts, where 248 people attended the three-day event in October, gathering to fulfill the convention’s annual theme “Purpose. Passion. Partnership.” 

On the final day of the 2023 North American Division Year-End Meeting, Bettina Krause, associate director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty and editor of Liberty magazine, presented the NAD’s proposed statement regarding the Doctrine of Discovery.

The breadth and diversity of the North American Division (NAD) ministries and institutions was on full display Monday, Oct. 29, as Seventh-day Adventist church leaders gathered for the fifth day of the 2023 NAD Year-End Meeting. Because these meetings are also publicly live-streamed, this was a chance for not just church leaders, but church members at home to see their tithe dollars at work.

The Oakwood Adventist Academy Mustangs boys varsity basketball team, after being denied a Sabbath accommodation in the finals for the 2021-2022 state championships, forfeited their semi-final game. Fast forward to the 2022-2023 season and the team is back in the tournament and able to play. Watch what happens at the March 2023 finals; and what lessons the team learned.