Dec 21, 2017
Rob Appel
Executive Director
Last month I wrote about the benefits of having a Conference of churches, the Seventh Day Baptist Conference of churches! The fact that we can reach further, and do more, when we have a larger pot of spiritual gifts, experiences, perspectives, and resources for Kingdom work, is a huge reason for the pooling of our resources.
I stated that we had 32 member churches that had not supported the work of the Conference in 2017, and, although this was the fact, we continue to provide services to these churches. It brings me to this conclusion: we do not have 100% inclusion in the budgets of the churches of the Conference. Somewhere along the line we have been lost in the budget decisions of the local church. This could be due to the fact that there has been a treasurer change, a lack of seeing the benefits of the Conference, or simply just an oversight.
I communicated last month some of the benefits that the Conference provides. I will not print that list again here. However, I must communicate that the work of the Conference from 2015-2018 has been more and better than I have seen it in the past 25 years! This speaks highly of the work that John Pethtel, Nick Kersten, Clint Brown, Ron Ochs, Jenni Wangsness and Jeremiah Owen are doing! Their collaboration in the Kingdom work has been inspiring to me. So how do I get you to see their efforts and get you on board with partnering with their labor?
I also want you to know that the work of the General Council, the Coordinating Leadership Team, the Councils, the Missionary Society, the many sub-committees and the Standing Committees (Christian Social Action, and Faith and Order) are operating in a state of cooperation and teamwork. I have to state for the record, “In a way that I have never witnessed in the many years that I have watched our Conference operate.”
So it is a bit confusing to me that while we are in a time in our long history that we have such cooperation, communication, and mutual trust, that we would be struggling to meet our budget and opportunities that we could, and should, be partnering together. But that is what is happening.
Our mission is to equip our churches to actively advance God’s Kingdom.
To those churches that have been supporting the work of the Conference, please accept my big THANK YOU! You know who you are and I do appreciate your support and encouragement.
You are a blessing!
To those that have had the Conference slip off your radar, we need your help in our ministry
endeavors. With many of your annual meetings coming up this month, may I suggest that there be a discussion on your church’s support to the SDB General Conference? We have been challenged to plant a church somewhere in the USA and Canada. We cannot do this without the full Conference of churches involved in this endeavor. We can do so much together — but we cannot do it alone.
We invite your congregation to join us as we seek to serve King Jesus faithfully! God bless you all!