Adventist Pastors from North America Gather for Convention
By AT News Team, June 30, 2015: If you are looking for an Adventist pastor in any town across North America this week, you may not find one. The 60 local conferences in the denomination’s North American Division (NAD) employ a total of about 3,000 pastors and a news release reports that 5,500 people are attending the Pastoral Family Convention in Austin, Texas, Sunday evening (June) through noon Wednesday. Although, because spouses and children are also participating, the number of pastors gone from local communities may be difficult to accurately estimate.
The opening session on Sunday evening focused on prayer and helping the pastoral families find spiritual refreshment. Pastor Wintley Phipps, a well-known gospel singer in the United States sang the powerful hymn “How Great Thou Art,” and shared some thoughts based on his day job as senior pastor of the Palm Bay Adventist Church in Florida.
“It is God’s dream that we reflect His character,” Phipps told the crowd. “This is the very foundation of our call to ministry. … Christianity without Christlikeness will always result in death. Christlikeness is the will of God for the people of God.”
A team of young musicians and praise leaders led the thousands of voices in singing praise songs. The speakers were Dick Duerksen, an Adventist minister who is known as a professional storyteller and works for Maranatha Volunteers International, and Pastor Wesley Knight, senior pastor of Mount Olive Adventist Church in Atlanta.
Over the next three days hundreds of seminars on many practical topics will be presented for in-service education. There will be an entire track in the Spanish language, and sessions for pastors’ wives and children. It was planned by the NAD Ministerial Association as a time to re-energize the entire family.
Wednesday afternoon a number of the pastors and their families will drive the two hours to San Antonio where the denomination’s General Conference Session begins on Thursday. Only about 50 are delegates from the NAD, but many others are interested in observing the decisions that will be made there. Although North America has relatively little representation at the world conclave, the decisions it makes could have greater impact on the Adventist faith in the United States and Canada than anywhere else.
I hope no Adventists are needing to be funeralised over the next three days. With 20 Adventists dying a day in North America that could be a problem. No doubt the local Catholic priest will be prepared to offer the last rites.
What a thought…. In “Journeys to Wisdom – A Festschrift in Honour for Michael Pearson” (Newbold Academic Press 2015) – an Adventist Pastor working in Ireland tells the story of burying a (former?) Adventist within a completely Catholic setting – sort of the opposite of your suggestion. (Weiers Coetser: Reflections on the Erupting Space of Close Grave). Worth reading.
But of course your observation is valid. I once was a back-up for ministers on a convention – just in one city…. And got 3 funerals in a row.
Bill, your comments show your ignorance of Roman Catholic doctrine. RC priests do not knowingly provide sacramental services to a person who is not Roman Catholic. No priest would knowingly provide the Sacrament of the Sick (the accurate name) to a SDA.
Yes, they do, in an emergency situation, provide in situations where they do not know the religion of the person. In that case the sacrament is only provided provisionally. IOW, under RC doctrine it is only provided if the person is RC and it is not effective if the person is not RC.
Sometimes a sense of humor is required for complete understanding.
That meeting of the NAD Pastors, et al must have been very expensive. Will Dan Jackson tell us how much it cost us?
Anyone know? Shouldn’t we be informed since transparency should obviously prevail?
You could make an inquiry. Your questions sound a lot like John 12:4.