Huntsville First Church
On August 16, the Huntsville First Church Midday Prayer Meeting Group had a different type of meeting during Prayer Meeting time. After the normal song service and prayer time, the group listened to Office for Regional Conference Ministries (ORCM) Executive Director, Elder Dana C. Edmond give a presentation entitled, “The History of And the Continuing Need For Regional Conferences”.
Elder Edmond began his presentation by first explaining what ORCM does–how it coordinates the collective activities of the nine Regional Conferences and their affiliates in the Pacific and North Pacific Unions and Bermuda; how it subsidizes entities such as Breath of Life, Message Magazine, and United Youth Congress; coordinated the historic summit meetings between the Regional Conference leadership and the leadership of Africa and the Inter-American Division; and led out in the building of the two story, 32,000 square feet, 9 million dollar Charles E. Dudley, Sr. Center for Regional Conference Ministries.
He explained that two of the major reasons why Regional Conferences were still needed was because, first, they were still the best way to reach people of color. Elder Edmond shared that the Lord had blessed Regional Conferences to do that at a level where they had grown four times faster than the rest of the church in North America.
The second reason given was that having Regional Conferences allowed Black people to control their own resources. This allowed the Dudley Center to be built debt-free.
After the presentation, the group carpooled over to tour the Dudley Center. Elder Edmond and Benton Hampton, the curator of the Joseph W. McCoy Cultural Center took the group through the building.
The visitors from First Church were greatly impressed with the structure-in particular, the Regional Conference History Museum, which is one of only 2 Adventist African-American History Museums in the country, and the Cultural Center.
The group left saying that they wanted to bring others to the Dudley Center so that they too could have the same experience that First Church had and rejoice in seeing what God had done and is doing for Regional Conferences.