Exploring the 2025 General Conference Session Agenda
by Loren Seibold | 6 June 2025 |
The 2025 General Conference Session agenda is out—and it’s a 94-page book.
This document feels a bit like the credits at the end of a movie, or that software fine print that you click without reading: you know there is some important information there, but it’s not easy to figure out which bits are important.
But for those who are interested in more detail without having to read it all yourself, here are what seemed to me to be highlights. (If you want to read it, the general agenda starts here.)
Theme
“Jesus Is Coming, I Will Go” struck me right away as an awkward phrase, one that requires some parsing. Adventists will know what it means, but I’m not sure a stranger would. On first reading, it sounded like, “Jesus is coming, so I’m getting out of here before he shows up.”
Committees
The General Conference (GC) runs on committees.
The steering committee evidently plans and executes the GC session. The two standing committees are the Church Manual committee and the Constitution and Bylaws committee. Elder Wilson is chair of two of the three.
The most significant committee isn’t selected yet: the nominating committee. It’s selected at the beginning of the session, and immediately gets to work. It isn’t clear just how it’s chosen or who will chair it, but I think we can assume that it isn’t going to just be names thrown out from the floor. Regional groups nominating people from their division, perhaps?
This page lists 16 departments that need to elect officers and staff. (Not everyone in the building is elected here—some departmental associates are elected at the Executive Committee meeting in the autumn.) Of course, the GC president will be the one many folks will be most interested in, which is why his nomination usually comes first.
New fields
Adventists also love offices. We measure success, at least partially, by the number of new offices we can open and staff with pastors, so many of whom seem eager to get out of a parish and sit behind a desk.
The following new union conferences and union missions will be presented for approval:
- South Sudan Union Mission
- Split: Northern Luzon Philippine Union Mission and Southern Luzon Philippine Union Mission
- Split: Southwestern Philippine Union Conference and Southeastern Philippine Union Mission
- Split: Mid-Ghana Union Conference and North-Central Ghana Union Mission
- Split: North-East Cameroon Union Mission and West-Central Cameroon Union Mission
- Split: Costa Rica Union Mission and Nicaragua Union Mission
This means six new union offices, which will probably mean new conference offices in some of these places, too. Lots more offices, so Jesus can come sooner!
Interestingly, Sudan is one of the places that the United States has banned travel from.
Lots and lots of reports…
…from the president, the secretary, the treasurer, the auditor, but also such items as
- Three Angels’ Messages Report
- I Will Go Strategic Plan 2025-2030
- General Conference Session Witnessing Initiative
- Seventh-day Adventist International Bible Commentary
- Biblical Research Institute
- Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists
Document changes
The Constitution & Bylaws changes appeared to me to be mostly wording, not philosophy. You can read them for yourself if you really think you need to.
The changes to the Church Manual are more extensive and more interesting. A few highlights:
- A new, much longer introduction to the section on ministry. It seems to be saying that ministers should get their laypeople to do more of the work—but it also mentions the importance of pastors in administrative offices, which is said to model the example of Jesus and his disciples. I wonder: where did Jesus have his office?
- Many people don’t realize that each division can add a supplement to the Church Manual “not in any way modifying it but containing such additional matter as is applicable to the conditions and circumstances prevailing in the division.” I wonder: shouldn’t this apply to fields that ordain female pastors?
- The provision for a standing nominating committee, rather than a yearly one, remains. Also here is a rule that
“The returning of a faithful tithe is a prerequisite for holding church office. The pastor or chair of the nominating committee shall work with the treasurer to develop a process by which only members eligible to hold office are nominated. This should be done in such a way that maintains as much confidentiality as possible.”
Good luck with that confidentiality part. I’ve never seen a church committee that can keep a secret.
- A new section on membership records addresses the problems of locating memberships or duplicate memberships. It includes a section on “redemptive membership review”: that is, going through the records and finding inactive members, with the intention of improving “pastoral care based on the foundation of accurate membership records.” Naturally, Hebrews 10:25—church attendance—is mentioned.
- Beefing up membership records and transfers:
“Careful consideration should be given by the granting church and the receiving church to ensure the members in the process of being transferred are living in harmony with the fundamental teachings and related practices of the church.”
This is a reminder that your church has to decide whether to transfer a member who you don’t think is a good Adventist. The document is careful to specify that for most things, you can’t explain why you did or didn’t; you can only transfer or deny the transfer:
“Qualifying statements are out of order except when the pastor or board of the granting church has factual or proven knowledge that the member has been involved as a perpetrator of child abuse.”
- There are many pages devoted to stronger statements on offerings, stewardship, and money generally—more than any other topic. I don’t see much that is surprising here: they want to strengthen the idea that generosity to the church is a strong component of spirituality. You can read through all of it should you be unable to get to sleep some night.
- Starting on page 77, a welcome encouragement not just to evangelize, but to make disciples. Do you think that will temper the enthusiasm of the evangelists whose goal is only to announce the number of baptisms they got, and be long gone when they disappear?
- Church business meetings are allowed to meet on Zoom.
- A new Adventist Youth Ministries “pledge”:
“Loving the Lord Jesus, I promise to take an active part in the youth ministry of the church, doing what I can to help others and to finish the work of the gospel in all the world.”
The youth will undoubtedly find this inspiring.
- Finally, an amended section on dissolving or expelling an entire congregation for apostasy. An excerpt:
“Where serious problems such as apostasy, refusal to operate in harmony with the Church Manual, or rebellion against the conference persist, earnest efforts should be made to avert the need for expulsion. The pastor should seek to deepen the spiritual life of the church through preaching and personal visitation ministries. The conference should encourage a series of revival meetings to lead the members to renew their covenant with their Lord. If these efforts are unsuccessful, the pastor, in cooperation with the conference executive committee, should counsel with the church and its leadership, seeking to bring healing and reconciliation and to preserve the church. Such remedial measures are preferable to permitting the deterioration of relationships, which could lead to expulsion of the church. However, if all efforts to preserve the church fail, the conference executive committee should give careful study to the question of expulsion.”
Is this a response to an anticipated concern? I don’t think it’s been done often, but it strikes me as a process that could easily be abused by a certain kind of conference officer.
In conclusion…
A lot of this seems like busy work of minor importance. My friend Admiral Ncube has suggested that there could be some strategic planning at an event like this—though perhaps it is too big and cumbersome a meeting for that kind of work. But you’ve got to wonder why we spend millions to bring people from all over the world so someone can stand at the microphone to change “a” to “the” (or vice versa) in a clause in policy that almost no one will read. Aren’t there better ways to do this?
Though these things take the most time, they aren’t what makes the meeting important. What makes it important is people getting together. The atmosphere. The old friends. It’s about who you see, and what you hear in the hallways. At times, it can feel like a sort of pep rally for Adventists, and such events are community building.
Adventist Today will be there—perhaps we’ll see you!
Loren Seibold is a retired pastor, and executive editor of Adventist Today.
