Pennsylvania Members Vote Plans to Move Conference Office

Story by Tamyra Horst

On Sunday, October 11, 2020 delegates to the Pennsylvania Conference Special Constituency Session voted plans to move the Pennsylvania Conference office to a new Mission and Evangelism Center headquarters that will be located on the campus of Blue Mountain Academy (BMA) in Hamburg, Pa.

The new Mission and Evangelism Center will feature an efficient office space layout with individual offices, conference rooms for pastor, teacher, committee and board meetings, something that must take place off-site at the current location. It will also provide offices and classrooms for the CORE Evangelism Training School for young adults.The center will be equipped with space to film and edit videos and to livestream events, enabling a stronger connection with members across the state and resources to create evangelistic videos to reach the Pennsylvania mission field with the message of Jesus’ soon return. Its location on the campus of BMA will enhance the partnership between the school and the Conference, as well as with Adventist WholeHealth Network, also located at the academy.

“We are excited about the doors God is opening to enable the Conference to have a modern, debt-free building to better serve God’s mission,” states Gary Gibbs, president. “We believe the new Mission and Evangelism Center will further the mission and ministry of the Pennsylvania Conference, enabling us to more effectively unite together to fulfill His mission to reach everyone, everywhere.”

The new facility will be located in the building where the BMA health food store is located. The Conference will use approximately 13,000 square feet of the underutilized 36,600 square foot building, leaving plenty of room for the store and BMA industries which employs twenty-eight students. Construction to renovate the building is expected to take approximately 12 months once permits are granted.

The current office was built in 1926 as a personal residence with eight bedrooms. The Conference purchased it in 1951. The conference has had several unsolicited offers to purchase the current office building. The funds for investing in the new Mission and Evangelism Center are coming from the sale of the current building, depreciation, restricted donations, and Union grants, allowing the conference to move into the building debt-free.