Annual Council: Headquarters Operations Review Voted

Leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church voted Oct. 10 to establish a commission to review "ministries and services" performed by the world church headquarters and report back in less than six months on how operations can be improved or streamlined. October 10, 2004 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States Mark A. Kellner/ANN

Peter Kunze, Euro-Africa Division treasurer, studying an Annual Council document. (Photo: Ray Dabrowski/ANN)

Leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church voted Oct. 10 to establish a commission to review "ministries and services" performed by the world church headquarters and report back in less than six months on how operations can be improved or streamlined.

The 37-member panel will be called the "General Conference Ministries and Services Review Commission," and is due to report back to the church leadership in April 2005.

Introducing the resolution, Pastor Harold Baptiste, a general vice president of the church, told delegates: "Today, the Seventh-day Adventist world organization consists of 13 world divisions, 101 unions and 521 conferences and missions around the world. Questions repeatedly arise: Do the ministries and services performed by the General Conference in 2004 adequately meet the needs of the world field in the best way possible? Is the church being efficient and cost effective? Might there be alternative ways of accomplishing the ministries and services which would better serve the needs of a rapidly growing and changing world church?"

Pastor Jan Paulsen, world church president, in remarks at the beginning of the Oct. 10 business session, said the idea had come from world church executives: The proposal was "an issue in response to what has come from the world church leadership, that we look again at the question of the ministries and the services that the GC offers to the world church. This is also potentially quite far reaching," he said.

Although delegates ultimately approved the measure, floor discussion included items of concern to many.

Pastor Harald Wollan, secretary of the church's Trans-European region, said, "The proposal we have in front of us states we need to look at what is most cost-effective to the world church. I think this is necessary for all we do."

However, Wollan added, the world church often relies on support from the headquarters to help accomplish its mission. A "strong" headquarters can help promote church unity as well, he said.

"If we reduce the numbers of personnel in the departments, this will in one way or another, affect the perception of the unity of the church with the programs that are promoted throughout the church," Wollan said.

Pastor Laurie Evans, president of the church's South Pacific region, welcomed the new commission: "We shouldn't be afraid of it, if we enter into it with openness and transparency," he said.

Several delegates noted the brief amount of time available to the commission, but Baptiste said this would motivate members to work. Pastor Ulrich Frikart, head of the church's Euro-Africa region, said he hoped the commission would have access to earlier, similar studies of headquarters operations.

Dr. Peter Landless, associate health ministries director at the world headquarters, echoed the comments of several others, when he said, "Review and reappraisal is essential. Transparency would inform that this is not merely limited to services and departments, but to the entire [headquarters] administration as well."

Commission members were named and approved in a separate vote on Oct. 12. Along with the 13 presidents of the church's world regions, three of five lay member positions and five pastoral positions, were named.

Field pastors who are members of the panel are: Dalbir Masih of Britain; Leonardo Grant of Inter-America; Ephriam M. Parulan of Southern Asia-Pacific; Kwame Boakye Kwanin of West-Central Africa; and Dae Sung Kim of Northern Asia-Pacific.

Lay members named so far are: Rita Zirimwabagabo of East-Central Africa; Elizabeth Ostring of South Pacific; and Juan Fernando Hidalgo of Inter-America.

Along with the regional presidents, nine church district leaders were also named to the panel: John Wari of East-Central Africa; Mario Brito of Euro-Africa; Julo Palacio of Inter-America; Max Trevino of North America; Eric Monnier of South America; Vladimir Krupsky of Euro-Asia; Saustin Mfume of the Southern African-Indian Ocean region; L.C. Colney of Southern Asia; and Siegfried G. Mayr of Southern Asia-Pacific.

Pastor Baptiste will chair the committee, with world church general vice president Gerry D. Karst as vice-chairman. Vernon E. Parmenter, associate secretary of the church, is secretary of the committee; undertreasurer Steven Rose will represent his department, and Michael G. Ryan, world church vice president for strategic planning, is also a committee member.

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