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At the 2022 General Conference Session, NAD Secretary and Treasurer Elected to Serve New Term

Kyoshin Ahn and Randy Robinson will serve the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America for the 2022-2025 term.

During the evening business meeting on June 8, at the 2022 General Conference Session in St. Louis, Missouri, North American Division (NAD) executive secretary Kyoshin Ahn and treasurer Randy Robinson were elected to their positions when the delegates voted to approve the nominating committee recommendations for all 13 division secretaries and treasurers. The two are slated to serve the 2022-2025 term.

"I am humbled to have this opportunity to serve in this great division, in this leadership role," said Ahn. "We have so many committed members in this division, I look forward to serving with them, spreading the eternal gospel across the North American Division territory and around the globe."

GC division secretaries

NAD executive secretary Kyoshin Ahn, and his wife You Mi Kim (right), are introduced with the other division secretaries voted at the GC Session evening business meeting on June 8. Photo by Pieter Damsteegt

Ahn continued, encouraging church members and leaders in the division to "commit ourselves once again to the mission that God has placed on us. Let us make sure that we are immersed in the grace and mercy that God provides to us."

Before being elected NAD secretary in August 2020, Ahn served as NAD’s undersecretary since February 2016. Previously, he worked at the division as an associate secretary from 2013 to 2016. During the past two decades, Ahn has assisted in church plantings for Korean congregations across the division, conducted seminars, trained local church clerks, and held evangelistic campaigns.

He began his pastoral ministry in 1995 in the Potomac Conference, and served there until 2001. He was then president of the Korean Churches Association in North America from June 2001 to October 2005. Before coming to the NAD, Ahn served almost eight years (2005-2013) as executive secretary for the Illinois Conference.

He graduated with a bachelor’s degree from Sahmyook University in Korea, followed by a Master of Divinity from Andrews University Theological Seminary in Michigan, U.S., and a Ph.D. in New Testament and Early Christianity from Vanderbilt University. Ahn is the first Korean American elected to serve as NAD secretary. He is married to You Mi Kim, and together they are the parents of two adult children.

GC division voted treasurers

NAD treasurer Randy Robinson (left/center) and his wife Denise, are introduced with the other division treasurers voted at the GC Session evening business meeting on June 8. Photo by Pieter Damsteegt

"It's a privilege to serve," said Robinson after the vote. "I love the guys that I'm working with. They are incredible administrators. They love the Lord, and they want the mission of the church to go forward. I'm just very privileged to work with them and to serve in the area of treasury. I'm just very, very grateful and very, very humbled."

Robinson, who has served as NAD treasurer since November 2018, added, "I'm thinking about the times we live in, and the things I see happening — to be in leadership at that moment in the church is incredibly challenging, humbling, and it takes a lot of the Lord's grace to be able to get through this. I'm just looking forward to that challenge."

Sharing words of encouragement, he reminded, "God is good. God will lead His church and we are His humble servants. We'll work together to communicate the gospel to the people ... and hopefully He'll come soon."

Robinson, born and raised in the San Francisco, California, bay area, is a fourth generation Seventh-day Adventist. He has served as treasurer of the Illinois Conference, Oregon Conference, Southern Union Conference, and presently the North American Division. All told, he has served in church treasury employment since 1983.

He attended Adventist elementary schools in the San Francisco Bay Area, attended Monterey Bay Academy, and then earned a bachelor's degree from Pacific Union College. Directly out of college, Randy was employed as a business intern by the Nevada-Utah Conference. Robinson married his college sweetheart, Denise Halez, in June of 1983. Together, they have two adult sons.

Ahn and Robinson join NAD president G. Alexander Bryant as the leadership team of the North American Division, a territory with more than 1.2 million members in the countries of Bermuda, Canada, Guam, Micronesia, and the United States.