As thousands of Seventh-day Adventist leaders, delegates, church members, and friends take to the roads and airports on their way to the sixty-second General Conference Session in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, an informal survey of the “Adventist social media landscape” seems to reveal some of the participants’ joys, hopes, complaints, and fears. Beyond specifics, however, their explicit or tacit statements or acknowledgments showcase a predetermined baggage of carefully groomed and grown beliefs. It’s what we usually call expectations.
What are, then, some of Adventist social media users’ expectations?
Fellowship and Business
Based on hundreds of comments, I can certainly confirm what many already know: a General Conference (GC) Session is a social event that as an Adventist you hope to attend to meet with old acquaintances, former colleagues and classmates, and leaders and preachers you have seen only on a screen. It is the place to be, and if that’s a person’s goal, it’s very likely a GC Session won’t disappoint.
Others are focused on church business. After all, a GC Session must discuss and vote on agenda items that cannot be discussed or voted on in any other church gathering. It’s a business meeting, and there is an agenda to approve, follow, and finish. There are usually pressures to do so in most thorough, expedient, and fair way.
Varying Agendas
Still, comments on social media unveil those who follow their own agendas and hope that this coming GC Session will provide them an opportunity to air their grievances, dreams, or demands. It’s expected that some of them will eventually clash with those doing the church’s business, especially regarding points on which their agendas might differ.
Others seem to be complaining about specific details of the event organization or logistics, before the Session even starts. Yes, there are a few of those among us as well. It is expected they will resurface from time to time for weeks to come.
A Spiritual Dimension
At the same time, and for an event that seems to be heavily focused on mission (“Jesus Is Coming: I Will Go!” is an all-about-mission theme), I read scarce comments on the spiritual dimension of the event, other than the occasional call to pray for it.
Perhaps “praying for it” is just—and only—what the church needs. Still, it would be comforting to read more comments on the spiritual implications of a gathering that connects people from around the world as a worldwide family connected to the same faith, mission, and message.
Unknown and Unstated Expectations
Informal conversations sometimes describe expectations that few dare to clearly utter, and much less to state in written form. After all, a GC Session usually includes the largest number of church elections and appointments. And those elections and appointments have consequences. Some who hadn’t thought so before might start thinking of retirement, while others will feel the Lord is showing them it’s time to go. Others will feel called to a specific leadership position or deployment.
It is perhaps one of the less openly discussed issues around a GC Session: elections and appointments have real-life consequences. There are visas and work permits to secure, moves to plan, projects to reformulate, dreams to reframe, and much more. There are surprises, and there are disappointments. There are questions with no clear answers, and there is apprehension. And according to those who have been there before, there is peace when feeling the assurance that God’s will has come to pass.
Finally, a few might not know how to put their expectations into words or might not have clear expectations at all.
Jesus and Expectations
Having expectations is nothing new. Jesus Himself regularly met people who had either expectations about Him or others. Examples pile up: “Who do men say that I am?” (Mark 8:27); “Is this not the carpenter’s son?” (Matt. 13:55); “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matt. 11:7).
As these and other examples show, having expectations is not inherently wrong. In people’s interactions with Jesus, however, the key was for those with wrong expectations to be willing to alter or modify them accordingly as the Spirit led them to do. For Nicodemus it meant to stop thinking of Jesus as just “a teacher come from God” (John 3:2) and more as someone who “came down from heaven” (verse 13). For the Samaritan woman, it meant going from thinking of Jesus as just “a Jew” (John 4:9) to “the Christ” (verse 29). For a Roman soldier it meant from crucifying a criminal to acknowledging Him as “the Son of God” (Matt. 27:54).
Those who failed to modify their expectations did not fare so well. Judas is perhaps the most sad and notorious example. But there are others, including those who chose secession when King Rehoboam did not meet their expectations (1 Kings 12:16).
Managing Expectations
As thousands convene in St. Louis for the sixty-second General Conference Session, there is perhaps no better time to assess our personal and collective expectations. It might be time to ask God for guidance regarding what to expect and how to manage when reality defies and challenges our expectations. To ask for the strength to leave our bag of expectations open, so the Spirit can modify and rearrange them as He—in His infinite wisdom—sees fit.
And once again, to focus and refocus on mission, and on the Lord of mission. Because beyond our expectations, in less than two weeks, the sixty-second General Conference Session will be over.
When the lights turn off in the St. Louis America’s Center, our expectations might or might not have been met. Expectations can certainly be crushed, adapt, or change. Our mission, however, stays the same.
Registration Day
It’s registration day at the Dome.
I tried to register yesterday along with the technical staff, but because I am also a delegate, they did not have my badge. I walked away empty-handed and went to a different registration site today, where—ta-dah!—everything went incredibly smoothly.
I always marvel at the immense organizational machine that somehow manages to pull together a business meeting of this magnitude. There are so many moving parts coupled with so many people that you’d expect there to be serious hiccups all throughout the process. There are surprisingly few. Me? I have trouble tracking any more than three or four simultaneous activities. The people who organize this place?
Well, let’s just say I am duly impressed this year—yet again. No, impressed isn’t a strong enough word. Let’s go with dazzled. And trust me, I’m just enough of a natural cynic that I’m not easy to dazzle. The process was amazing. In seconds, I had my delegate badge and directions to my next stop, where I picked up my voting credentials. Nothing took more than a few seconds.
Maybe the TSA should drop by for some pointers.
If things move slowly at all, it’s because the room is full of old friends and colleagues who only get to see each other face-to-face every five years. (Or, in this case, thanks to COVID, it’s been three.) I’ve been hanging around the church just long enough now that I recognize an awful lot of people. In fact, early this morning, I ran into a friend on the sidewalk as I walked over to the Dome; he was out for a jog. “Do you remember 20 years ago when we met here in St. Louis? A group of us were going out for dinner, and we asked if you wanted to join us. You said, ‘sure, why not?’”
I did remember. (What I don’t remember: did they pay for my meal? Hmmm.) It was a pleasant memory–but it also made me gasp inwardly. Twenty years? Really? That was two decades ago?
Registration day brings another important feature with it: security. Yesterday, I roamed the building freely, getting in some 15,000 steps just exploring the place. Today, I can still roam, but not freely: there are security personnel and checkpoints everywhere, making sure that everything runs smoothly. My security badge now hangs around my neck permanently, because I can’t even report to work without it. (Hmm. If I can’t get in, I can’t work. Something to think about.)
You really, really, really don’t want to forget your badge. This place is absolutely enormous, and the last thing you want is to have to exit the wrong end of the building in the heat and humidity in order to get to the other side—your only option if you’re not appropriately credentialed. (Perhaps there’s a spiritual lesson in there: you really want to be appropriately credentialed when it comes for our ultimate convocation at the Second Coming. That one features weeping and gnashing of teeth on the outside; and there’s no need for that, because the credentials are available to absolutely everybody.)
Why get the news secondhand when you have a front-row seat?
Let me brag up another really impressive team at GC: the good people at Adventist Review. I’m a little biased, of course, because these days, they provide me with a paycheck. But you should be very impressed with them. This morning, we met as a team for the first time and went over what needs to happen in the coming days. It’s . . . well, breathtaking. They’re going to be putting out a new magazine every single day. Every. Single. Day. You’d be blown away by what they accomplish.
Everything that happens in the Session business meeting? That information ends up flowing through the Adventist Review “war room,” in near real time. There, a hyper-focused body of writers, photographers, and editors turn it into the information you need. A lot of people sitting on the fringes of the Session have rather strong opinions about the business of the church; if you want what actually happened, you’ll want to see what Adventist Review is talking about.
There’s no way you could possibly absorb everything that’s taking place in this enormous venue. They’ll absorb it for you and let you know. If it’s not in print (here in St. Louis), it’s online: articles, news updates, live video feeds. This week, you’ll be the first to hear from the next GC President as Justin Kim sits down to interview him live, mere moments after the name is announced to the world church.
You’re absolutely going to want to see that. Why get the news secondhand when you have a front-row seat?
It’s a little hard to believe this hard-working juggernaut of a team included me. I volunteered for them in 2022, but three years ago I was a volunteer. I could leave whenever I wanted and decline assignments if I felt like it (I didn’t.). This time, I’m fully embedded, making all kinds of rookie mistakes and having to bother people with silly questions about every 10 minutes. I’ll keep you posted on how that’s going throughout the Session. If it all goes well, I’ll still be embedded when the Session concludes 10 days from now.
If that’s the case, I’ll be following them back to Maryland.
Tomorrow is the big kickoff. Your church’s business starts in the afternoon, and I’ll be participating in my first live broadcast at the end of the day. Don’t miss it; we’re going to give you a better view than 90 percent of the people here in the venue are going to have.
