Madrid, Spain. [CD-EUDNews. Corrado Cozzi]. This year the Inter-European Region (EUD) Seventh-day Adventist Church leadership met in Madrid. Every year this committee brings together executive members from EUD countries.
Leadership tips
The business meeting started on November 1st with a seminar on leadership. It was lead by Lowell Cooper, Adventist world vice president, focusing on the role and profile of a church leader.
The topics, inspired mainly for business and ethics of leadership, governance, etc., challenged those present, who were mainly leaders at different levels of the EUD church.
The seminar was divided in three parts and the participants enjoyed the presentations. The topics covered were: leader’s code of conduct, church organization and concepts of fundamental governance. “This was not something completely new,” said Corrado Cozzi, EUD Communication, “but the way Cooper presented it was simply awesome and it encouraged me to develop this important leadership concepts.”
Among the topics presented by Cooper was the question of unity as one of the duties of church leaders. “What holds the church together?” he asked. “No need of mechanical tools, only commitment to the Holy Spirit, worldwide mission of the church body and willingness to keep striving together.” And he concluded “Policy is the result of unity and not the cause of it.” All leaders need to make this concept their own.
“It was a positive initiative in training the EUD church officers, taught by someone who knows church organization inside-out” said Ruben de Abreu, Adventist Franco-Belgian Union President. “What impressed me most was the openness and transparency with which the questions were addressed. I believe that this kind of training should also be shared at the pastoral level, to better understand church function and coherent practice,” Ruben de Abreu concluded.
“The leadership seminar with Lowell Cooper was extremely very interesting. The first presentation was especially helpful to improve work done in committees and the importance of training board members. Thank you Elder Cooper for this inspiring seminar!” said Olivier Fitchberger, Adventist Austrian Union Executive Secretary
“The seminar demonstrated the right form of leadership, it was motivating and I saw that the topic is not only for pastors and church leaders, but also for church members,” said Milen Georgiev, Adventist Bulgarian Union Executive Secretary. Cooper insisted that the correct understanding and implementation of leadership should help the church stay united and help members develop and exercise their leadership skills and their talents.
“We need information and practice with training like this,” said Franco Evangelisti, Adventist Italian Union President. “It gave me new ideas and a desire to better manage the organization of our Union and follow the directions of the policy which is a great source of wisdom.” The material presented by Cooper is so fundamental that every new committee member should know. Even more, this material should be given to all new appointed church officers in all departments so that they can be ready to match the huge task received.
Purpose of the Church
Continuing this inspiring trend, Lowell Cooper gave a personal message to the members of the executive Committee on Sabbath morning.
Leaders have to know the purpose of the church, “not my purpose, but God's purpose” said Cooper.
“We learned about the four purposes of the church of God,” said Elsa Cozzi, EUD Children’s Ministries director, “this is what I’m promoting for Children’s ministries in my training for the Kids in discipleship project. ‘Pay attention to God and not to me’ seemed to be the message, but how often we fall into temptation and focus on the skills of awesome speakers and follow their thoughts. Our great work is to reveal Christ to the world in a direct and simple manner.
Doing this fulfills the second and third purpose of the church that is, to be training classroom for discipleship.
“The church is called to be a community of broken people: do we welcome people who smell of tobacco, alcohol, or have tattoos in our church?” added Cooper. “We have to transform our communities into a new attitude of relationship with God and others.” To become a community of acceptance, a place where everybody can have hope, forgiveness, and freedom to receive counsel and direction for a new life.
And finally, the church is called to meet the needs of the people living in the world. Jesus invited us to follow in his footprint, “that is included in the parable of the final judgment (see Matthew 25:31-46)” said Cooper. “We cannot feel separated from the world” said Paolo Benini, EUD Personal Ministry director, “our task is to work in partnership with God in favour of searching humanity.” “Weakness of mission is to concentrate more on religion than on the needs of humanity” affirmed Cooper.
May we concentrate on these purposes in the church.
pictures: 1. The Committee members; 2. General Conference Vice-President, Lowell Cooper;
