Seventh-day Adventist

On Wednesday, June 19, the administrations of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and its North American Division (NAD) forwarded, to the boards of Pacific Press Publishing Association and Review and Herald Publishing Association, a request for the two organizations to consider a merger in the near future. The proposal comes in response to church administrators’ analysis of the current publishing mission setting along with related distribution systems. It builds upon the work of several commissions/groups that, over the past several years, have studied the challenges and opportunities arising from rapid technology changes in publishing, as well as changes in how society accesses information.

A. Allan Martin, PhD, didn’t mince words. A former professor at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University (Mich.) and a current young adult pastor at a thriving church in Texas, Martin hit the members of the Columbia Union Conference Executive Committee with stark numbers: some 60 to 70 percent of young people leave the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Over the course of three days, some 700 Columbia Union pastors and their spouses gathered in Baltimore for the union’s first pastors convention in nine years. Themed “iAbide” with the tagline “Strengthen, Renew, Replenish,” convention organizers set out to do just that.

Minutes away from the main convention hall where hundreds of pastors are attending iAbide, the Columbia Union pastors convention in Baltimore, some 20 women sit down for a simple dinner at a restaurant. A green salad graces their plates, followed by vegetable kabobs set on a bed of quinoa and finished off with a dessert of ice cream, berries or a combination of the two. The women chat and laugh, tease each other and share sage advice. These women are not just pastoral spouses (although some are). They are pastors, pastoral interns, chaplains, conference administrators and Bible workers who minister throughout the Columbia Union.

Charles McMillan, PhD, director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory and president of Los Alamos National Security, LLC (LANS), was named alumnus of the year by his alma mater, Washington Adventist University (WAU) during alumni homecoming weekend, April 12-14. The Los Alamos Lab, based in New Mexico operates the lab for the National Nuclear Security Administration. McMillan was the guest of honor at the annual alumni awards banquet held in Bethesda, Md., April 13.
 

Most longtime singles have had to endure intrusive but well-meaning inquiries into their marital status, not only from adorable kindergartners but also grandparents, parents and caring church folk. One Adventist single offers her candid opinion about being single in the church today, and what she learned from hosting her first singles event.

Last Sabbath Dave Weigley, president of the Columbia Union Conference, honored former United States congressman Rep. Roscoe Bartlett at Chesapeake Conference’s Frederick (Md.) church where Bartlett is a member. Bartlett, 86, represented Maryland’s Sixth District from 1993-2013.

During the 2008-09 school year, the Columbia Union Conference claimed 5,853 students in its 101 K-12 Seventh-day Adventist schools. By the time the 2012-13 school year rolled around, overall enrollment dropped 11 percent to 5,232, and 12 schools closed. What’s going on here?

During the 11 o’clock service on Sabbath, January 5, Brenda Billingy, senior pastor of Allegheny East Conference’s (AEC) Metropolitan church in Hyattsville, Md., looked from her chair on the podium to the back of her church and wondered, “Why is the [Columbia] Union president here?” She soon found out. Her associate pastor, Marquis D. Johns, had planned a surprise ceremony, that included Columbia Union president Dave Weigley, executive secretary Rob Vandeman and treasurer Seth Bardu, to celebrate her ministerial credentials that had been recently revised to indicate that she is an ordained Seventh-day Adventist minister.

John Konrad, Vice President and General Manager of Washington’s contemporary Christian music station, WGTS 91.9, passed away this morning after a short illness.