The Columbia Union Conference coordinates the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s work in the Mid-Atlantic United States, where 150,000 members worship in 860 congregations. We provide administrative support to eight conferences; two healthcare networks; 81 early childhood, elementary and secondary schools; a liberal arts university; a health sciences college; a 49 community services centers; 8 camps; 5 book and health food stores and a radio station.
God is love, power, and splendor—and God is a mystery. His ways are far beyond us, but He still reaches out to us. God is infinite yet intimate, three yet one,
all-knowing yet all-forgiving.
Story by Jerry Woods
More than 1,000 WGTS listeners came together at Potomac Conference's Sligo church in Takoma Park, Md., to hear about the hope that Jesus brings at the WGTS “Night of Hope.” In recent years as the WGTS 91.9 audience has grown, one of the ways the WGTS team reaches out to the 40 percent of listeners who don’t identify as Christians is through this event.
Read articles from the November 2018 Visitor:
Story by Michele Joseph
Now that the Priska Volpes’ children are grown, she participates in pastoral visits with her husband, James, at the Valley View and Beckley Seventh-day Adventist churches in West Virginia. They team up for health lectures, where she offers cooking demonstrations. She also has her own ministry. While reading Desire of Ages as part of her worship routine, she was struck with the idea to give out one Steps to Christ per day. The idea frightened Volpe, who is a shy woman and doesn’t like crowds. But she’s learned a lesson about God asking for what seems like hard requests.
“I have noticed when I do accept things, it is personal growth,” she said. “When I do something that is outside your comfort zone and stretch yourself, it helps you grow.”
5 Lessons Learned as a Pastor's Spouse
1. Be You.
“It’s OK to be you. I truly thought I was going to have to change my whole way of life. People truly appreciate me being me and not trying to be somebody I’m not.”—Kathy Pepper
2. Be Humble.
“[I’ve learned] humility, and how to [be] OK in a supporting role.”—Jeremy Wong
3. There’s Joy in Giving.
Interview by Alexis A. Goring
Seventh-day Adventists sometimes tend to “do life” in their own bubble of sorts—speaking their own church language (GC, haystacks, AY), socializing with people who believe like they do and even shopping in special stores, says Sung Kwon, executive director of the North American Division Adventist Community Services, and a member of Chesapeake Conference’s Spencerville church in Silver Spring, Md.
In his book, Burst the Bubble, Kwon challenges Adventist readers to “burst the bubble” and engage the community in what he calls “life on life evangelism.”
Read more about his book in the interview below: