Pastor's Pastor

Annual Council and the Adventist pastor

The church hopes to give strong support to both the hurting North American conferences and the worldwide work.

Floyd Bresee, Ph.D., is a former secretary of the General Conference Ministerial Association, and continues to pastor and preach in Oregon, where he and his wife, Ellen, live in retirement.

I was walking nonchalantly through a gift shop at the Grand Canyon in Arizona. Looking up, I saw, filling the wall just in front of me, one of the ugliest paintings imaginable. It looked as though the artist had haphazardly thrown huge gobs of odd-colored pigment at the wall.

Shrugging my shoulders, I continued through the shop, looking at the geegaws designed to attract a tourist's attention. Some minutes later I looked up again and saw, across the room, the most colorful and inspiring depiction of the Grand Canyon I've ever beheld. It was the same painting, but that which appeared ugly close up became beautiful when viewed from a distance.

We've all had times when things in the church didn't appear as beautiful from where we were standing as we'd like them to be. It's important to look at things from a greater distance once in a while, to get a broader view, to see the church as a whole. Annual Council offers such an opportunity.

As I sat in meeting hour after hour at this year's convocation (October 2-9), I tried to slip my feet into the shoes of the typical Adventist pastor. What might in spire you? Here are four things about the 1990 Annual Council that may help you see the beauty of your church:

1. Soul-winning success. Final, official figures are now in for the five years of Harvest 90. Our goal was to baptize 2 million souls. We actually baptized 2,490,105, averaging about one per minute by the end of the quinquennium. As of June 30, 1990, world membership stood at 6,442,595.

2. Soul-winning plans. Global Mission, our special emphasis for the next decade, stresses three objectives all of which apply to every church. These were explained in a document shared with the Annual Council:

"Seek. We will seek to enter new [areas] in a strategic manner that will make our mission truly global. The General Conference will be especially involved in reaching the 1,800 unentered [areas] with a population of 1 million or more. ... Every department and layer of church organization, down to the individual member, will be invited to participate as [the areas] are broken down to ethnolinguistic groups, cities, communities and the neighbors next door.

"Reap, We will encourage each local church to set its own baptismal goal. The total of these goals will form the basis for the world church's goal.

"Keep. We will emphasize nurturing of members, reclaiming the inactive, and increasing church attendance."

3. Unity. Some came to the 1990 Annual Council with a sense of foreboding. The conferences of the North American Division had requested that the amount of tithe they are required to send to the unions, division, and General Conference be reduced. But much of this tithe goes to support the work over seas. Would North America turn its back on world missions? North America's conference presidents answered with a united emphatic no.

To support the larger organization, conferences have been passing along 20 percent of the tithe they receive from their membership. Up to now, 4.1 percent of their total tithe intake has been returned to the conferences, the unions and so forth retaining 15.9 percent. The action voted at this Annual Council will gradually increase the "rebate" until by 1995 it amounts to 5.1 percent. How ever, as the official action reads, "it is hoped that this can be accomplished through savings from streamlining and cutbacks rather than the reduction of assistance to the overseas divisions." The General Conference and North American Division together expect to reduce their operating expenses for 1991 by approximately 10 percent ($2.5 million).

Through the increasing of the percentage of tithe returned and the reducing of operating expenses, the church hopes to give strong support to both the hurting North American conferences and the worldwide work.

4. Spiritual renewal. Never have I been so moved by the devotional speakers and overall spiritual emphasis of Annual Council as I was this year. The last morning of the session we gathered in small groups and shared our need and yearning for a greater infilling of the Holy Spirit. Pastor, please accept this invitation to join us in that experience.


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Floyd Bresee, Ph.D., is a former secretary of the General Conference Ministerial Association, and continues to pastor and preach in Oregon, where he and his wife, Ellen, live in retirement.

December 1990

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