700 Pastors Study Together

« October 2011 « Union News

700 Pastors Study Together

By Gerry Chudleigh

Photo by Gerry Chudleigh

Chris Oberg, senior pastor of the La Sierra University church, speaks at the closing session of the 2011 Pacific Union Ministerial Council.

Dan Jackson, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America, speaks at the Pacific Union Ministerial Council.

Preachers aren’t noted for traveling long distances to listen to other preachers preach, but in August, nearly 700 Seventh-day Adventist pastors from Arizona, California, Hawaii, Nevada and Utah met in Ontario, Calif., for two days of studying, singing, praying — and listening enthusiastically to other preachers preach.

The Pacific Union Conference Ministerial Council, held every five years in conjunction with the union constituency session, featured five general presentations and 14 seminars.

In his keynote address Monday evening, Dan Jackson, North American Division president, urged pastors to rediscover their passion for ministry and evangelism. Tuesday morning and evening, Rogelio Paquini and Carlton Byrd (respectively) urged pastors to “Reach Out” and “Do Something.”

Tuesday noon, Jon Paulien, dean of the School of Religion at Loma Linda University, presented a scholarly study on the meaning of “Remnant” in the Bible. Paulien discussed the historical remnant, the faithful remnant and the eschatological (end-time) remnant, pointing out that in the Bible, the final remnant (which is still in the future) is “bigger and more international and unpredictable” than the other biblical remnants.

The workshops were held Tuesday morning and repeated in the afternoon. The largest number of pastors attended the seminars on “Words of Delight: The Blessing of Biblical Preaching” by John Brunt, Kendra Haloviak Valentine, Leo Ranzolin and John Webster; “Is It All Righteousness by Faith” by Young-Chun Kim; “Contemporary Evangelism for the 21st Century” by Carylton Byrd; and "The Power of Willpower," by Arlene Taylor.

In the final presentation Wednesday morning, La Sierra University senior pastor Chris Oberg spoke on Jesus’ parable of the wheat and the tares (“Who Needs to Hear This Parable?”). “The church urgently needs pastors and leaders and congregations who hear the words of Jesus: the wheat and tares grow together until harvest. Yes, there is contamination in the field. But ours in not to purify the neighborhood. Attempting to purify will make matter worse. In the end, God will handle the contamination in the field, a field which belongs to God. Until then, ours is to point people to Jesus.”

As the result of generous donations, every local church pastor in the union was presented a free copy of the Andrews University Study Bible. "Wow! This is great," said one pastor, with his new Bible in hand. "I have been given a lot of little things at church events, but never something this useful."

The event closed with the Pacific Union Prayer Team asking God's blessing on every pastor, their families and their congregations.

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