News

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.”

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.

Growing Young Certified Speakers to Help Local Adventist Churches Love Next Generations Well
This spring, more than 30 Adventist church members, leaders, and innovators from across the North American Division (NAD) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church convened at Fuller Youth Institute in Pasadena, California, to complete the Growing Young certified speaker training and participate in the Growing Young Adventists (#GYA) cohort summit.

Long-Time Religious Liberty Advocate, Author, and Editor Passes Away
Roland R. Hegstad, an Adventist minister, public speaker, author, and editor, passed to his rest on June 17, 2018. He was 92. Hegstad, a graduate of Walla Walla University, became an expert in international religious liberty. His work took him around the globe, to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, beginning in the mid-1960s. In 1959, at age 32, Hegstad accepted a call to the General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church as associate editor of Liberty magazine. Within months, he was promoted to editor. Hegstad edited Liberty for 35 years until his retirement in 1995.

NAD Leader Becomes Highest Ranking Seventh-day Adventist Chaplain in U.S. Navy Reserve
The associate director of the North American Division Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries (ACM) was recently selected for promotion to captain for the United States Navy Reserve. Furthermore, Johnson is now the third African-American Seventh-day Adventist to hold the rank in the United States Navy Chaplain Corp, following Captain Herman Kibble and Admiral Barry Black.

“Suffer the Little Children …”
Recent events in the United States have brought the news of young children being separated from their parents as they cross our borders. The Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America joins other faith-based groups in expressing concern over these actions.