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Culture of Prayer

Story by Christina Keresoma

God gives us open communication with Him through prayer. It’s our lifeline to Him. He even gives us different ways to enter these conversations with Him: praying the scriptures, prayer walks, prayer journals, prayer through song and worship, personalizing scripture, and group prayer. As a faith-based organization, our physicians, nurses, and employees can openly pray with each other, patients, and visitors.

As Seventh-day Adventists, we know prayer works. Physicians pray with patients before surgery, seeking God’s hand through the procedure and the patient’s healing. Environmental staff pray with patients in recovery rooms.

GracePoints Is on Point!

Story by Debra Anderson

If the last two years have taught us anything, if we want to reach people—the churched and the unchurched—we must think outside the box to connect with individuals in hopes of fulfilling their spiritual needs. GracePoints does just that.

GracePoints is a weekly video cast hosted by Melvyn Warfield, senior pastor of Potomac Conference's Community Praise Center (CPC) in Alexandria, Va. A labor of love, GracePoints began as a way to connect with his church family during the pandemic, he says. Every Wednesday, he emails the church with a short message of encouragement and the GracePoints devotional.

The name GracePoints comes from Warfield’s love of talking about the grace of God, giving practical points every week to help people live out their faith and get to know Christ better.

A Heartfelt Thanks

Editorial by Donovan Ross

When I was in the classroom, one of my favorite verses for morning devotion was Proverbs 3:6–7: “Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your paths” (NJKV). These verses reminded us that when we trust in God, we will be blessed by His direction. I’m still comforted by that reminder, especially as our Columbia Union Conference schools contend with the COVID-19 pandemic and its consequences.

Elected Leaders Include New Faces on Well-Established Teams

Image by Joseph Kissinger . Adventist Review

Story by Marcos Paseggi / Adventist Review

Delegates to the 61st General Conference (GC) Session in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, voted to accept the recommendations of the Nominating Committee on dozens of church leaders on June 7, 2022. The names voted include several new faces in a team of well-established GC departments, as well as GC Treasury, GC Secretariat, and GC Auditing Services. Those new to their positions are briefly featured below, starting with GC Secretariat, followed by GC Treasury and GC Auditing Service, and concluding with departmental directors.

General Conference Delegates Approve Church Manual Amendment on Ordination of Elders

General Conference Session. Image by Tor Tjeransen Adventist Media Exchange

Story by Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review

At the 2022 General Conference Session in St. Louis, Missouri, one of the amendments proposed for the Church Manual on the June 6 evening business session resulted in an extended discussion from the floor and required the delegates to take several related votes during the space of 75 minutes. General Conference (GC) associate secretary Gerson Santos introduced Church Manual item 409-22, which, he said, sought “to clarify some aspects of the church’s business meeting.”

Late Evening Discussion Points to Clarification on Ordination of Elders and Deaconesses

Image of delegates at the 2022 General Conference Session. Image by Tor Tjeransen Adventist Media Exchange

Story by Wilona Karimabadi / Adventist Review

Tuesday’s first late-evening General Conference business session addressed two items on the clarification of election and ordination for elders who are female and deaconesses. The discussion, which lasted almost until the close of the meeting, was filled with numerous questions and comments from assembled delegates, both in person and via Zoom videoconferencing.