Focusing on historical milestones or “stones of remembrance” during Black History Month The amazing story of the Israelites crossing the flood-staged Jordan River through God’s miraculous power is found in Joshua 3-5. The Jordan River was the only physical barrier between them and the long-awaited promised land. The culmination of this journey offered relief from...
Category: News
Regional Conference Summit Postponed Until 2022
The Regional Conference Summit-which was scheduled originally for March 5-7, 2021 in Dallas, Texas, has been re-scheduled for the spring of 2022. The Summit was to have been the culmination of the issues that were raised as part of the virtual Regional Conference Convocation held back in July of 2020. Each evening, preceding the nightly...
What’s Next-A Preliminary Look at Post-COVID-19 Ministry
For the first time, there seems to be the beginnings of the thought that there may be a return to a semblance of normalcy sometime this year. There is a vaccine and IF everything goes right with the distribution (a big “if”), maybe there could be a return to something resembling normal sometime this year....
ORCM/Oakwood School of Theology Career Fair
The Office for Regional Conference Ministries (ORCM) and the Oakwood University School of Theology collaborated on the 3rd Annual ORCM/OU School of Theology Career Fair on January 19. The idea, said the ORCM three years ago, was “to get people who have jobs (the Regional Conference leaders) in front of people who were looking for...
2020 Regional Conference Tithe Report
The Regional Conferences of the North American Division were blessed by God to receive approximately 191 million dollars in tithe in 2020. That compares with approximately 195 million dollars in 2019. That means that even though the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in an unprecedented closing down of the economy, unemployment unseen since the Great Depression and...
Why I Would Invite A Non-SDA Pastor to Preach in My Church
It pops up each year around this time-at least, for the past several years. The Pastors Evangelists and Leadership Conference (PELC) has a long-standing tradition of inviting non-Adventist Pastors to speak at one of the evening worship services. Of late, this seems to be a problem for some. Everyone has the right to their own...
Office for Regional Conference Ministries and Regional Conference Retirement Plan Collaborate On Oakwood Academy Gift
At the weekly staff meeting of the Office for Regional Conference Ministries (ORCM), the subject of the recently completed third and final building phase of Oakwood Adventist Academy (OAA) came up. The third phase involved the building of a facility that would house Grades 9-12. Some of the staff had attended this historic event and...
Pastor Chanda M. Nunes Receives Historic Call as Lead Pastor for Pacific Union College Church
On July 1, 2020, Pastor Chanda Nunes made Black Adventist history by becoming the first African-American female Lead, or Senior Pastor, of an institutional church in the North American Division. An institutional church is a church that is connected to an institution-often, an educational institution-often a college or a university. Almost always, those churches are...
PELC 2020
2020 has been a year of uncertainties. This year filled us with highs and lows on every level as we have been taken from one extreme to the next. The arrival and devastating effects of COVID-19 continued economic disparities among various ethnic groups, politically instability at multiple levels of government, the unfortunate and hateful attacks...
The Need to Look in My Mirror
It is my personal belief that Pastors should remain publicly non-partisan in political matters. First of all, our job as Pastors is to take the gospel “to every creature”-which means, to everyone and to everywhere-in blue states and red states. We live in a very polarized country. If as a Pastor, we take a partisan...