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 few years ago, someone asked people whether they’d rather break a bone or break their phone,” Esmond shared, “and 46 percent said they’d rather break a bone, and the 54 percent who eventually said their phone took a while to decide. Technology is doing something to us.”

After laying out the lists of negative effects of excessive technology use, Esmond introduced Back to the Altar, an initiative to encourage family worship participation in families across the church. Currently around 37 percent of people have family worship on a regular basis. Esmond wants to see that rise to 70 percent.

“Back to the Altar is a whole-family worship curriculum with age-appropriate study materials for every member of the family,” Esmond explained. “Can a church that worships at 37 percent effectively proclaim a worship message? Can we proclaim what we don’t do? I don’t think so.”

Comments from those in attendance were supportive; one commenter urged Esmond and his team to consider single moms in their ministry.

Children’s Ministries

Gerry Lopez and Sherri Uhrig, associate director and director of children’s ministries for the NAD, announced via video report that a new series of Sabbath School lessons are in the final stages of development for all ages, beginner through youth.

“The new curriculum introduces children to Jesus by bringing the wonderful stories and lessons of the Bible, including a clear Adventist worldview and the 28 fundamental beliefs, into their 21st century lives,” Uhrig explained.

The first set, birth through three years, will be released by the General Conference in 2025, with each group being added sequentially annually through 2028.

Attendees were enthusiastic about the presentation, with commendations given for the NAD Children’s Ministries for their efforts in seeking input from churches during development, and for creating specific materials for babies.

Higher Education

Andrea Luxton, associate director for higher education and executive director of AACU (Association of Adventist Colleges and Universities) talked about AACU partnerships, including a joint marketing effort. Together the 13 NAD higher education institutions have hired a marketing expert and put together a website where visitors can learn more about all of the schools. 

“Because of this effort, this year more than 250 students who have never been on any of our campuses will enroll in our schools,” Luxton reported.

The second partnership is CAREOnline, a combined online courses platform with over 357 unique courses in 100 subjects. More than 700 students have enrolled in this program thus far.

“As higher education in the nation deals with challenges post-COVID, and with changing demographic, social, and economic trends,” Luxton concluded, “we need to increasingly work hand-in-hand with each other and hand-in-hand with all of you as lay members of this division to leverage our immense strength and opportunities.”

Following the video report, G. Alexander Bryant, president of the NAD, asked Debleaire Snell, Breath of Life speaker/director and Oakwood University church pastor, to pray “a prayer of fortitude and courage” over the leaders of NAD universities and colleges. 

“This is not just a prayer for survival, but please cause our schools to prosper and multiply to expand and grow in ways that exceed what we can think or ask,” Snell prayed. 

Adventist Education

Adventist Education for the North American Division showcased the August 2023 educators’ convention in Phoenix, Arizona, with a video report. Thousands of teachers across the NAD attended this event which included 300 breakout sessions with presenters all focused on Adventist education. 

“While professional development is happening all the time and is most effective at the school level, this once-every-five-year event is one of those inspirational experiences,” said Berit von Pohle, director of education for Pacific Union Conference, in the video report. “Our teachers are learning about the best in teaching, all within the context of Adventism.”

Several education leaders and teachers shared their thoughts on the convention, each passionately positive. 

A motion was entertained to accept all four reports into record, which was seconded and carried.

Doctrine of Discovery

The NAD’s proposed statement regarding the Doctrine of Discovery, focused on North America’s Indigenous Peoples, was presented next. [CLICK HERE to see a separate report on the Doctrine of Discovery statement.]

Information Technology Services (ITS)

Via video report, Milton Sand, director of ITS at the NAD, shared some projects their department works on to support IT departments across the division. This includes not only traditional IT support for everyday operations, but also the NAD Cloud and the North American Division Technical Standards Committee (TSC).

The NAD Cloud, Sand reported, supports a vast array of platforms and services which allow churches, schools, and other church entities manage their donations, tithe, membership data, payroll, student and teacher records, and retiree services, among others. 

The TSC partners with union IT directors to provide leadership to all IT departments scattered within the territory, creating new IT policies, standards, and best practice guidelines.

“The aggressive landscape and rapidly changing compliance requirements are putting a lot of pressure on our small IT teams across the field, putting our organizations increasingly at risk,” Sand reported. “Our current IT support model is no longer sustainable. We need new strategies for efficient, secure, and relevant IT operations.”

Communication

“The office of communication at the NAD seeks to follow the division’s mission statement by conveying an inspirational story about the Adventist Church in North America,” said Kimberly Luste Maran, director, via video report. “This falls into three categories: brand caretaking, storytelling, and mentoring.”

Maran’s team cares for the NAD’s visual identity, providing resources and guidelines online for entities across the division. They also manage the division’s website and corporate messaging, share important information from the NAD, and handle the division’s presence on social media, as well as producing Adventist Journey magazine and the NAD NewsPoints e-news service. 

They are also largely responsible for ensuring the annual Sonscreen Film Festival and the Society of Adventist Communicators convention take place. Both provide opportunities for students to engage with professionals in the field, for student and professional work to be highlighted, and for professionals from around the world to network.

In addition to collaborative project creation on digital media, this fall Sonscreen launched a streaming platform with original content, student films, professional films and series, and much more. Look for everything at www.sonscreen.com.

“These programs give our high school, college, and university students creative opportunities, networking opportunities, and job opportunities,” Maran said. 

Policy Agenda

Judy Glass, treasurer for the NAD, brought eight finance recommendations to the group, one of which (remuneration for Adventist educators) had been voted the day prior [link to treasurer’s report summary article coming soon], leaving seven to vote on during this session. They were as follows:

1. AIM charges to the unions for 2024 — just under $150,000
2. eAdventist membership allocations for 2024 — $270,000
3. Resource Development Fund - $250,000 from NAD; $250,000 from unions
4. Hispanic Building Fund allocation — just over $1 million
5. Regional Capital Reversion Fund — goes to three regional conferences each year on a rotating basis; in 2024 it is Central States, Lake Region, and Northeastern conferences for a total of just under $1.5 million
6. Oakwood University — just over $7 million from the NAD and regional conferences
7. Special Assistance Fund - frozen since 2015; proposed adjustment from 1 percent contribution to 0.8 percent.

Bryant commented that they are currently looking at unfreezing the Special Assistance Fund in order to support immigrant communities. They plan to bring a recommendation before the group during YEM 2024.

All recommendations were moved, seconded, and carried.

General Policies

Jorge Ramirez, undertreasurer for the NAD, brought forward the recommendations for changes to various policies. All but one was for minor adjustments for the sake of clarity and were moved, seconded, and carried; the final garnered discussion and comment prior to voting.

Policy L65 was incorrectly voted into the manual two years ago, combining two sections: one regarding ordination; the other regarding the commission credential. 

“We don’t have the authority to change this language,” Bryant pointed out. As most divisions don’t have the commission credential, changing the wording of this policy inappropriately asks other divisions to honor the credential issued only by the NAD. “Instead of just taking it out, we wanted to bring it here and admit we made a mistake,” Bryant said. 

A lengthy conversation ensued with many comments arguing against removing “commissioned” from the policy. Many came forward and urged administration to leave the policy as-is, citing a minimization of women as a result, and increased lack of respect of female pastors by immigrant communities, making pastoring in these areas extremely difficult.

One young female pastor from Florida stepped forward and shared her personal experience serving for two years in a predominantly immigrant church.

“To them, the NAD policies don’t matter as much as those from their previous division,” she said. “So when I look at commissioning and its spiritual component within a union or division level, I recognize that my church members will still wield against me that there is no spiritual function in my position. And that pains me.” 

Though she recognized there wasn’t much to be done that moment, she also recognized her call, and that of many other young women. “For many of us, our fulfillment of that calling may have to be outside of our institution.”

Bryant acknowledged the comments and thanked all those who spoke. “This is pain we all feel,” he stated. “The issue we have before us today is the commission credential. Let’s keep fighting without imposing on another division authority we don’t have. Let’s clean this piece up and keep trying to advance equality on all fronts.”

The vote was taken via voting card, and while it was not unanimous, the majority vote was to accept the change to the policy wording. Bryant again assured the group that conversations would continue regarding women’s ordination and equality, and reiterated that the issue of acknowledging commissioned pastors was a matter of further education of the church in North America, which he committed to pushing forward.

Consent Agenda

Ramirez moved on to the consent agenda, bringing to the group the remaining 2023 calendar, as well as those of the next five years and the calendar of offerings for 2024 and 2025. Four non-material policies were also considered. All were moved, seconded, and carried.

Women’s Ministries

“We encourage NAD women to pray daily for the holy spirit to guide their decisions and plans, to grow in their leadership skills, and to serve well in their homes, churches, workplaces, and communities,” said DeeAnn Bragaw, director of Women’s Ministries for the NAD in their video report. 

In a 2022 survey, they asked women across the NAD about the relevance of women’s ministries’ current resources and asked what they most need to lead and serve. 

“That data has driven our processes to update and create our resources,” Erica Smith, assistant director, said.

They also talked about Gorgeous2God, a platform specifically for teen girls, on which the most popular feature is the confidential Q&A “Ask Me Anything” online section. The success of this was so great, and saw so many teen boys asking questions, that the department launched A Rugged Journey, a website specifically for teen boys.

Data Analytics

“Every day, everywhere, data serves as a torch bearer,” said Paul Hopkins, director of the data analytics department at the NAD, in a video report. “Unveiling truth previously shrouded in mystery, our department is a beacon in the vast ocean of data. Here to demystify, quantify, and shine a light on insights beyond what meets the eye.”

Their department creates surveys, collates results, analyzes data, and “distills vast data into digestible visuals,” explained Hopkins.

Their most recent NAD study is on the topic of tithing, examining questions such as why people don’t give prescribed amounts, what other methods people use to tithe, and how church attendance and routine relates to tithing. The full report will be released when it is completed, but the section on pandemic tithe spikes and possible long-term tithing linkage indicators was provided at the end of the video via QR code [CLICK HERE to view this report, it is a large file and may take several moments to load].

Special Presentation

Mark Finley, retired Adventist evangelist, shared what he has been doing. He and his evangelism team have begun church planting in their new community, focusing on building multiple manageably sized congregations of 200-250 rather than one mega church. Two years ago, the tithe in their first church was $40,000/year; today it is $650,000/year.

Finley also talked about his pastor retreat center and school of evangelism, all provided free of charge to pastors, funded through his YouTube preaching ministry. He also is now regularly appearing on radio across the nation, thanks to a relationship built with a Christian radio leader.

“I see God working in so many ways, and it’s exciting,” Finley concluded. “For every breath I have and with everything God gives me, I want to spend the rest of my life working to reach lost people.”

Sabbath School 

A brief video highlighting past Do It Together conferences, free online training for Sabbath School superintendents, teachers, and leaders, was shared at the final YEM business session. These training events occur three times each year; the next virtual event is February 2-3, 2024.

Closing

In conclusion of the day’s session, and therefore the 2023 year-end meeting, Bryant made a few remarks.

“The challenges we have in spreading the gospel will never be met by our strategic plans, our resources, our wisdom, our talents, or our abilities,” he said. “My personal commitment is to pray more. The needs of the day and challenges of the hour require more. Even Jesus, when He knew the challenges were greater, He prayed more because He knew the challenge of tomorrow was greater than the challenge of today, and He was going to need more power. Let’s challenge every member to get involved in the mission Jesus has called us to. Everyone can do something.”

Together, as they’ve done several years in a row, attendees sang “I Then Shall Live,” a commitment through song to live for God and further the mission to the best of their abilities.

— Becky St. Clair writes from Angwin, California.