News | Seventh-day Adventist Church

Glenville Installs First Woman Pastor

Allegheny West Conference and the Glenville church in Cleveland recently made history when leaders installed the first female pastor, Regina Johnson. Johnson is serving as Glenville's administrative pastor.

Story by Allegheny West Conference staff

Johnson graduated from Washington Adventist University in Takoma Park, Md., in May 2012, then joined the WAU Office of Ministry team as chaplain of ministry. While serving at WAU, she led the development of Crossroads, a student-led church service, started several new ministries and helped prepare 85 students for baptism.

Blue Mountain Academy Staff, Alumni Celebrate 60 Years of Ministry

In 1952 a real estate agent was tasked with finding the right property for the future Blue Mountain Academy (BMA). When he found it, he immediately called the president of what was then the East Pennsylvania Conference to share the news; however, he left out one vital piece of information: the land wasn’t for sale. Two conference employees toured the 683-acre grounds in Hamburg, Pa., that held six farms, a dairy, 169 head of cattle, nine buildings, seven barns and machinery to operate the entire plant. It also included a summer camp with five buildings, a swimming pool and summer vacation cottage.

Story by Caron Oswald

New Assistant Treasurer Joins Ohio Conference Team

After a lengthy search for a new assistant treasurer, the Ohio Conference hired Roy Simpson. Simpson, son of a pastor, lived in five different countries while growing up in Central America.

Story by Heidi Shoemaker

He opted to study accounting because he “wanted to work for the church, and numbers have always been my strongest area in school," he shares. Simpson has a bachelor’s in business administration, and expects to complete an MBA in finance in about a year.

Adventist Missionaries Bring Bibles to Cuba

The Seventh-day Adventist mission team enjoys visiting Cuba (Noah Simpson is not pictured.)

Although Seventh-day Adventists were unable to worship openly in Cuba until recently, members from Potomac Conference’s Seabrook church in Lanham, Md., have ministered there for more than three years. And this summer, Seabrook church members Gavin Simpson, Noah Simpson and Audrey Clarke traveled with Margaret Cancelliere, a member from Pennsylvania Conference’s Pottstown church, and Kenton Rawlins, a member from Connecticut, for a third mission trip to Gibara, a small seaside town where they have worked for the past two years.

Story by Dawna-gene Milton and V. Michelle Bernard

Peruvian Missionaries Help Mountain View Conference Reach More Hispanics

This summer the Mountain View Conference (MVC) kicked off a mission project that connected Seventh-day Adventists on two continents.

Story by Mountain View Conference Staff

The project was born in early 2015, when the staff and student body of the Peruvian Union University (PUU) in Lima, Peru, challenged students to serve as missionaries around the world. Many members of the student body accepted and committed to serve. School leaders say their motivation was founded on the blessings that came from the missionaries who brought the Three Angels’ Messages to their homeland. In turn, they wanted to bless others across the globe through what they deemed the “I Will Go” call.

Liberian Church Joins Pennsylvania Conference

A small group of members interested in reaching the more than 15,000 Liberians living in the Philadelphia area reached out to Pastor Matthew Kamara who was completing a doctorate of ministry at Andrews University (Mich.). Kamara previously served as the treasurer of the Liberian Conference in Africa and planted several churches there and in South Bend, Ind.

Story by Pennsylvania Conference Staff

Kamara agreed to help and started the journey to opening the Pilgrim church. In 2013 Kamara started commuting to Philadelphia on weekends. In 2014 he moved there and started working more intensely in the area. Now, after only two years, about 60 people attend each Sabbath.

Couple Builds Laurelwood Youth, Pathfinder Experience

When John and Janelle Rivera decided to work with the Laurelwood church youth again, they only planned to revive the Pathfinder club. However, they ended up leading a group of young people of varying ages, from juniors to young adults, many of whom did not grow up in Seventh-day Adventist homes or didn’t take their faith seriously.

Story by New Jersey Conference Staff

The Deptford church’s Laurelwood Lions Pathfinder Club sometimes functions more like a youth group, combining aspects of Pathfinders and Adventist Youth (AY) mixed with a dose of practical life lessons. Recently, the Riveras challenged members to create a $1,800 monthly budget for living on their own.

Highland View Academy Expands Academics Through STEM, Dual Credits

Highland View Academy’s STEM certificate program launched this year with approximately 30 students enrolled. These students benefit from an intensive but well-rounded education that especially prepares them to pursue STEM-related college majors. New STEM classes include integrated STEM, anatomy and physiology, project-based learning, robotics, iOS app development and a pilot of Maryland’s new advanced placement Computer Science Principles course.

Story by Lori Zerne

Do You Believe in a Literal Six-Day Creation?

Do you believe in a literal, six-day creation? Why or why not? Read more about this topic in the September Underscore article, and read responses from some of our Facebook followers below—and add your own.

Do you believe in a literal seven-day creation week? Why?

Posted by Columbia Union Visitor on Saturday, August 1, 2015

Posted by Columbia Union Visitor on Saturday, August 1, 2015

Read and share these stories from the September 2015 Visitor:

Video: Bringing Up Boys

Learn more about how mentors at Allegheny East Conference’s (AEC) Calvary church in Newport News, Va., do their part to inspire and uplift young men in their church and community in our September Visitor cover story. Watch an AEC video spotlight of the group below.

CROP from AEC Media Center on Vimeo.

Read and share these stories from the September 2015 Visitor: