MARTIN W. FELDBUSH: Good morning and welcome to the General Conference session on this beautiful morning of Friday, July 1, 2005. [Prayer in English.]
JOHN GRAZ: Mr. Chairman, dear brothers and sisters, it is a pleasure for me to introduce Dr. Lynn Jost and Mrs. Jost. Dr. Jost represents the Mennonite World Conference governing council and also serves as member of the national leadership board of the Mennonite Brethren Church. Brothers and sisters, you know that Mennonites and Adventists have always had good relations. And we appreciate your presence among us. We welcome Dr. and Mrs. Jost.
LYNN JOST: Thank you, John. In the name of Jesus Christ, our risen Savior and Lord, I bring you greetings on behalf of the Mennonite World Conference. This represents 1.3 million sisters and brothers in a global community of 95 national Anabaptists Christian churches from 51 nations. Greetings from our president, Nancy Heisey, and executive secretary, Larry Miller. As your sisters and brothers we pray God’s richest blessing on your gathering for the fifty-eighth session of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists here in St. Louis. Our prayer is that through these sessions you will grow in three distinctive Christian qualities that we share with you: the qualities of peace, praise and purpose.
May you represent God so clearly that the world will find God’s love irresistible. As Jesus’ followers, may we share Christ’s good news with God’s world. May God bless you richly.
HAROLD W. BAPTISTE: The business session of the General Conference is now open. The first item that we have to present before you is a report from Undersecretary Larry Evans.
LARRY R. EVANS: Mr. Chairman, we wish to complete the report from the caucus groups that met last night by adding the following names, which should be seen on the screens shortly. I move the recommendation to add the following names: Bert Beach, Ted Ramirez, Calvin Rock, Ardis Stenbakken, G. Ralph Thompson, Robert Sweezey. [The motion was seconded and voted.]
Mr. Chairman, we would ask that those individuals report immediately to room 276, where the Nominating Committee is convening.
Next we are going to call on Elder William Johnsson from the Adventist Review; he has a special presentation at this time.
WILLIAM G. JOHNSSON: Ladies and gentlemen, for 120 years the Adventist Review has been the medium by which the record of the General Conference session is kept. We publish daily bulletins. Those of you who are delegates have already received the bulletin supplement. This is something different this year. We have gathered together all the reports from the departments and services into one volume, and you should have already received that.
From here on, day by day we gather materials and go to press each night, and the following morning you will receive another bulletin. These bulletins are free to all delegates. They will be handed out to you morning by morning, except tomorrow morning. Those who are not delegates may buy these bulletins. This year we have a wonderful group of young people who are helping us sell these bulletins, and here is one. This is Lisa Poirier. She is one of our bulletin young people. Pastor Paulsen, I would like you to meet Lisa Poirier.
JAN PAULSEN: Thank you, Lisa, for giving me the first copy of the first bulletin, and I will read it with great interest.
HAROLD W. BAPTISTE: Thank you; give them a hand again. I will now call on Matthew Bediako, the secretary of the General Conference, to present his report.
MATTHEW A. BEDIAKO: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Once more I want to welcome all the delegates, special guests, protocol guests, and spouses who are here this morning. I want to give thanks to our heavenly Father, who has granted us traveling mercies to assemble from all over the world.
I would also like to express special appreciation to Congressman Roscoe G. Bartlett, who used his influence and took time off from his busy assignment to work with us on visas for delegates. [Special mention was made of a number of individuals who worked on the visa problem.]
I want to appeal to the delegates who made a promise to the counselors who interviewed you. I hope you will fulfill those promises to regain the good name of the church in some of these countries. In some places we had to send the General Conference Financial Statement to prove that we have the resources to sustain you while you are in this country.
I would like to give a little explanation about the report that I will be bringing this morning. It contains the full report from all the departments, all the divisions, all the services as we have them. I will just give an overview of the report, without going into the many details. [Elder Bediako presented his associates at the General Conference level and at the division levels. He then presented the Secretariat report. After presenting the report, he moved its adoption. The motion was seconded and voted.]
Every Wednesday afternoon I chair the appointees committee, where we invite individuals to leave their homes, their culture, and their families and go out somewhere in the world to work. Recently it has dawned on me that some of these people leave their homes, their families, and do not come back. They die in their workplace. This morning I have invited a young woman who went with her parents to Palau. Unfortunately her father, mother, and brother were murdered. She herself was mistreated and was left to die; only her guardian angels saved her life.
I would like to invite Melissa to come to the platform. Melissa de Paiva represents children whose parents have made the ultimate sacrifice and who have come home alone. Melissa wants to be a missionary in Palau. I’d like to invite Mrs. Paulsen to present these flowers.
KARI PAULSEN: I’ve been asked to give Melissa this arrangement of flowers. She’s a flower in herself, and I think one of the most beautiful flowers the Lord ever made, both on the outside and inside. And we give her these flowers as a small token of our love and our prayer for her future.
MATTHEW A. BEDIAKO: Thank you, Melissa.
There’s one person who has worked for 17 years at Secretariat. She has served as a consultant. She’s everything to Secretariat. She has given me a letter that at the end of August she will be retiring.
Elaine Robinson has been working behind the scenes day and night. I need to apologize to her; she didn’t want to come up here, but I feel strongly that she needs to be recognized. And I want my wife to present flowers to Elaine for the assistance she has given to Secretariat, the immense help we have received from her. Thank you, Elaine, and God bless you. We also have a plaque to express our appreciation to Elaine. And the undersecretary will present it.
LARRY R. EVANS: The plaque reads, “Presented to Elaine A. Robinson at the 2005 General Conference Session in St. Louis, Missouri, in Special Recognition in Gratitude for Your Professional Contributions and Dedication as Assistant Secretary of the General Conference and for 30 Years of Steadfast Commitment to the Work of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, From January 1, 1960, to August 31, 2005.” Elaine, we are very pleased to present this.
HAROLD W. BAPTISTE: A wonderful report has come from Secretariat. I want to call on Bert Haloviak to present the report from Archives and Statistics, which is part of Secretariat.
BERT HALOVIAK: The six-page printed report before you is not only available to the delegates but will also be printed in the Adventist Review report of this session. As we reflect upon our statistical growth during the past half century, I believe it is the God-given spirit of care for the needy of the world that helps account for our remarkable growth. We began this half century with 972,000 members in 1954, fifty years ago. And our membership at the end of 2004 was 13,936,932, almost 14 million.
There is a very sobering side to this subject. Although more than 5 million new believers joined our community during the past quinquennium, more than 1.4 million left our community. The bottom line for this quinquennium is that for every 100 accessions, more than 35 others decided to leave.
That total is considerably more than the 24 subtracted for every 100 added that we reported at our 2000 session. It meant that while 2,765 joined us each day, 821 left. Our net growth was only 1,641 daily, with a resulting annual growth rate of 4.9 percent, the lowest since the 1960-1964 period.
A subtitle to this quinquennium might be the quinquennium of church membership audits. During the past five years a majority of the world divisions have undertaken the painful responsibility of church audit. The resulting careful look at local church membership records has shown a decrease in the verifiable baptized membership of more than 800,000 during this quinquennium. Nevertheless, despite what the audits suggest, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is poised for a period of major growth within the near future, now that our membership roles are more accurately reflected. We are the inheritors of the blessings that God has poured upon our predecessors, and continues to give in the advancement of the kingdom.
HAROLD W. BAPTISTE: We want to thank Secretariat very much for the very comprehensive report they have presented to us.
I now call on Robert Lemon to present the Treasury report.
ROBERT E. LEMON: [Elder Lemon presented his associates at the General Conference level and at the division levels.]
Donald E. Robinson is our senior in Treasury. Don has been at the General Conference the longest. Don has served as both undertreasurer and associate treasurer of the General Conference. He will be retiring. Don has served for 44 years in Treasury work.
Dennis Keith is one of our associate treasurers. Dennis is also retiring. Dennis has had 35-plus years of denominational service. He has served overseas as an interdivision worker.
Gary DeBoer, who was an associate treasurer, has retired during this quinquennium. Gary got bored after being retired, so he is back working, but he is working at Pacific Press at this point.
Robert Rawson, who has served so many years in leadership positions in the world field, served as General Conference treasurer from 1995 to 2002, and has retired during this quinquennium.
Donald Gilbert retired in 1995. We want to thank all of you for your service.
During this quinquennium we have had, unfortunately, two former treasurers of the General Conference, Elder Lance Butler and Elder Kenneth Emmerson, pass away. We, with their families, grieve their passing, but we praise the Lord that we do not grieve as those who have no hope. We look forward to that day very soon where we can all be reunited.
[Elder Lemon then introduced the Treasury report and a five-year summary of the General Conference Financial Statement. He reported that the total revenue coming to the General Conference per year, averaged over the past five years, was $152 million, made up of $74 million in tithe, $50 million in offerings, $9 million in donations, and $19 million in investment income, restricted funds, and fees for services.]
STEVEN G. ROSE: [Elder Rose explained how this $152 million is spent. He stated that 57 percent of the total expenditures are spent as appropriations to the divisions and to General Conference institutions.]
Over this period the expenses have been relatively consistent. However, you will notice that the General Conference administered funds in the year 2000 were considerably higher than they have been for the remaining four years.
The reason for that is the expenses that were incurred in the General Conference session in 2000 in Toronto, Canada. There also have been some increases in the Interdivision Employee or the Missionary Program.
In the other classification of expenses, in 2004 there was a transfer of property back to Loma Linda University, which showed up as an expenditure of $6.8 million. It was to account for the transaction even though there were no funds that were exchanged. This property had been held in the General Conference Quasi Endowment Fund.
Moving to the General Conference administered funds: these are 10 percent of our total expenses on an average basis. Global Mission, Disaster and Famine Relief, and Thirteenth Sabbath projects funds are included under the appropriations section, as they are passed on to the various divisions, and include such items as Adventist Television Network, Sow 1 Billion, Go One Million, General Conference session expenses, Ministry magazine, and the mission quarterly.
The cost of operating the General Conference headquarters has averaged approximately $28 million per year during this quinquennium. This is 19 percent of the total expenses. It includes the costs of various services and ministries provided from the world headquarters, including the cost of staffing and operating the office complex. The cost in 2004 was 2.04 percent of tithe or 1.5 percent of total worldwide tithe and offerings.
Net assets, or what we commonly know as net worth, increased from $169 million to $199 million during this quinquennium. Working capital and liquidity have remained above the 100 percent of policy recommendations throughout the quinquennium.
ROBERT E. LEMON: Let’s take a look at a few significant items that have affected us during this quinquennium. Just before the 2000 General Conference session, the Spring Meeting voted a new tithe-sharing formula that reduced tithe from the North American Division from 10.72 percent to 8 percent and increased it from the other divisions from 1 percent to 2 percent. The net result was approximately a $12 million a year decrease in the budget for the General Conference. However, because of the blessings of the Lord, there has been a strong increase in tithe each year.
Over the period of the past 75 years there has been a considerable shift in giving patterns, particularly as they relate to mission offerings. The mission offerings are those funds that come through the General Conference budget for the strengthening of the work in parts of the world where we don’t have any work or have very little. For the past 25 years the mission offering has remained within a couple million dollars of $50 million. We praise the Lord for the faithfulness of our members in giving, but the mission offering has not captured the imagination of our membership as it should.
The total mission offering and local offerings back in the 1930s were close to 85 percent of tithe. In 2004 that number was down to a little more than 40 percent.
Also on the issue of the mission offering, project giving has been on the increase, and we praise the Lord for the funds going to these special projects. Those who give to those projects give with the expectation and the desire that the fruit of those projects will be maintained and increased. One of the big problems with such heavy dependence on project giving is that we tend to have very short attention spans. Often the emphasis moves to other projects.
We need to increasingly focus the resources of the General Conference on major unentered areas. We need to increase the participation of women and young people in the life and leadership of the church. We need to strengthen Adventist education and focus on the mission of Adventist education. We need to continue our mission of mercy to a hurting world through our health message and institutions and through our humanitarian outreach.
The Lord has blessed in a tremendous way during this quinquennium. We praise the Lord for His blessings, that the Lord has even greater blessings in store for each of us as we remain faithful.
Mr. Chairman, that is the Treasury report, but we will still need to deal with the audited statement. I would move acceptance of the Treasury report. [Because of time constraints, the report was tabled to be taken up at the next session.]
HAROLD W. BAPTISTE: We have an important announcement concerning tomorrow’s meetings. On Sabbath morning the doors will be opened at 6:30 a.m., and there will be a musical program that begins at 8:30 a.m. Everybody is encouraged to be within the dome in the convention center by 9:00 a.m. to avoid possible conflict with an Independence Day parade that will be marching around here during the Sabbath hours. Many of the streets will be closed during the event.
KOREL NOWAK: [Benediction.]
HAROLD W. BAPTISTE, Chair
DOUGLAS CLAYVILLE, Secretary
BILL BOTHE, ATHAL TOLHURST,
FRED THOMAS, and CLAUDE SABOT, Proceedings Editors
Session Actions
58th General Conference Session, July 1, 2005, 9:30 a.m.
GENERAL CONFERENCE SESSION - 2005-NOMINATING COMMITTEE-ADDITIONAL MEMBERS
VOTED, To add the following as members of the standing Nominating Committee for the 2005 General Conference Session:
Beach, Bert B
Ramirez, Ted
Rock, Calvin
Stenbakken, Ardis
Sweezey, Robert
Thompson, G Ralph
SECRETARY’S REPORT
VOTED, To accept the report of the General Conference Secretary, Matthew A Bediako.
STATISTICAL REPORT
VOTED, To accept the statistical report from the Director of Archives and Statistics, Bert B Haloviak.
TREASURER’S REPORT
A motion was made to table this item. The vote was taken by a show of hands and it was,
VOTED, To accept the motion to table the Treasurer’s Report until the afternoon business session.
Adjourned
Harold W Baptiste, Chairman
Douglas Clayville, Secretary
Larry R Evans, Actions Editor
Janet C Upson, Recording Secretary
