Department created at the 1985 General Conference session in New Orleans, formed from a merger of four former departments and a service of the General Conference (namely, Lay Activities, Sabbath School, Stewardship and Development, Youth, and the Home and Family Service).
As explained at the 1985 General Conference session, the action to bring these former entities together into one department would apply “only to the General Conference and its divisions.” Later it could “be implemented at the union and then the local conference levels.” It was not intended to change the organization of departments at the local church level. (See Adventist Review 162:29, July 2, 1985, pp. 10, 11.)
Philosophy . The Department of Church Ministries shares the responsibility for developing a global evangelistic strategy in consultation and harmony with administration and other departments of the church. It challenges the world church with objectives, goals, and plans to take the gospel to all the world. All of its activities are intended to be coordinated into a master strategy for soul winning and for nurturing the church membership.
The philosophy undergirding the department includes the following elements: (1) it is a support ministry to the church; (2) its support is developed through modeling spiritual leadership and training, producing resource materials, and providing consultant services; (3) its assignment is to integrate and coordinate the necessary groupings of specialty functions comprehended within the department: children’s ministries, family ministries, lay activities/personal ministries, stewardship and development ministries, Sabbath school ministries, and youth ministries; (4) its responsibility is to foster a wholistic ministry that involves worship, fellowship, nurture, stewardship, and outreach in order to provide a coordinated emphasis for the church.
The church ministries staff incorporates qualified personnel selected on the basis of their knowledge, skills, and abilities to care for the specialized functions, activities, and responsibilities encompassed by the work of the Department of Church Ministries. Their coordinated teamwork increases the potential for the best possible analysis, planning, material development, and implementation of plans to meet the needs of the target audience.
Early History: 1985–1990 . Delmer Holbrook served as director from the inception of the department in 1985 until his retirement in June 1988. His expertise in the fields of management, leadership, and education equipped him with the skills necessary to work for unity of purpose and to provide a climate conducive to good interpersonal relationships. GC vice president Kenneth Mittleider served as the department’s liaison with administration.
Early issues included the development of the departmental philosophy and working policies. Considerable debate surrounded the extent to which the new department was an integration of the former entities, a coordination of their functions, or some combination of the two. Were the departmental associates to be generalists in church ministries or specialists in the work of the former departments and service? Would there be a universal model for presenting the various functions of the department? If so, what would such a model look like?
Delmer Holbrook conducted leadership seminars in the various divisions for the new CM staffs. A world advisory held at the General Conference headquarters in January 1987 brought division church ministries directors together for team-building and consultation on the issues facing the new department. Considerable freedom was given to the world divisions to develop approaches suitable for their particular needs.
“Ministries” became the standard term to describe the functions of the former departments and service. In addition to family ministries, lay activities/personal ministries, Sabbath school ministries, stewardship ministries, and youth ministries, two new ministries emerged. Children’s ministries received its impetus from the vision and prompting of Helen Craig, former Sabbath school associate director for children’s Sabbath school, Vacation Bible School, and child evangelism. The emergence of music ministries was stimulated by the enormous talent and enthusiasm of singing evangelist and Sabbath school specialist Charles L. Brooks. Under his leadership the Seventh-day Adventist Hymnal was produced in 1985, and the songbook for primaries, Sing for Joy , was published in 1989. His untimely death in that same year brought a great loss to the department, including the fledgling music ministry.
Representatives from each of the former departments and service comprised focus groups, which were established for each of the ministries. These focus groups enabled an integrative working relationship and the development of a sense of unity among personnel of the various ministries.
AMiCUS, a joint venture of Church Ministries, Education, and Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries, was formed in 1987 as a worldwide outreach and support ministry for college and university students in non-Seventh-day Adventist institutions.
Delmer Holbrook, longtime educator in the church, elevated the religious education aspects of the department. Curriculum specialist Charles Betz and his wife, Harriet, served as consultants during 1987 to help the department develop curriculum frameworks for each of the ministries. Stopping short of an integrated curriculum for the department, this effort acknowledged that the General Conference model would have a strong educational base and would be a coordination of functions of the former departments and service.
Alternative approaches took shape in some of the world divisions. For example, the North American Division configured church ministries along an age-level, developmental model featuring adult ministries, youth ministries, and children’s ministries, while the South Pacific Division offered an integrated thematic perspective with a four-part focus: worship, fellowship, nurture, and mission.
When Delmer Holbrook retired in 1988, George Knowles became the department director, serving until his retirement at the 1990 General Conference session. Knowles continued the building process, working through a number of committees to address the various structural aspects of the new department, encouraging the continuing development of a coordinated model and preparing for Church Manual changes to reflect the work of church ministries.
Serving the Church Ministries Department during the 1985–1990 quinquennium were the following: Malcolm Allen, youth; Maurice Bascom, personal ministries/general church ministries; Charles L. Brooks, Sabbath school/music (deceased 1989); Helen Craig, children’s ministries (retired 1989); Gilbert Bertochini, Sabbath school; Don Crane, stewardship; Karen Flowers, family ministries; Ronald Flowers, family ministries; Erwin Gane, editor, Adult Sabbath School Lessons (appointed in 1986); Robert Grady, Sabbath school; Betty Holbrook, family ministries (retired in 1988); Delmer W. Holbrook, director (retired in 1988); George Knowles, lay activities/personal ministries (elected director in 1988); Israel Leito, youth (elected in 1986); Samuel Monnier, lay activities/personal ministries; Leo Van Dolson, department editorial director and editor, Adult Sabbath School Lessons (retired in 1987); Paul Smith, stewardship; Virginia Smith, children’s ministries (elected in 1989); Michael Stevenson, youth (deceased 1993). James Joiner and Laurell Peterson were assistant directors.
After 1990 . Israel Leito, formerly associate for senior youth, was elected director at the Indianapolis General Conference session of 1990 and served until Dec. 31, 1993, when he became president of the Inter-American Division. In addition to continuing in his responsibility as codirector of family ministries, Ronald Flowers was elected to serve as department director from Jan. 1, 1994, until the end of the quinquennium. Vice presidential adviser Matthew Bediako emphasized a close working relationship with General Conference administration.
With the provisional status of the Church Ministries Department lifted at the 1990 General Conference session, efforts were undertaken in earnest to prepare Church Manual documents and working policies for official action at the next General Conference session. In the face of a decrease in the number of specialists in the various aspects of church ministries throughout the world field and a downsizing of the General Conference Church Ministries Department itself, a higher profile was given to the six ministries dealing with children, youth, family, lay activities/personal ministries, Sabbath school, and stewardship. Smaller ministry committees replaced the larger focus groups, and associates in the department were given the title of director or in some cases codirector of their ministries. A world advisory held in February 1991 brought together division directors and associates with the headquarters team. The world staff shaped the agendas for their ministries for the quinquennium.
Closer ties and interfacing with other departments were also fostered. In cooperation with the Ministerial Association, a manual for local church elders was developed, and in 1993 the Year of the Pastor was promoted.
Major activities undertaken by the department included the Year of Youth Evangelism (1993), launched with the International Congress on Youth Evangelism, held in Prague, Czechoslovakia, in August 1992, which led to some 400,000 baptisms through youth efforts in 1993. The year 1994, named the Year of the Family, following the United Nations designation, led to a number of initiatives by family ministries. Research designed to provide demographic data as well as specifics about the functioning of SDA families was initiated in the world divisions. Regional consultations, such as the Pan-African Consultation on the Family in Kenya in 1992, in which 21 countries were represented, encouraged a proactive approach by the church in assisting families. The work of stewardship and development received new impetus at the Annual Council of 1993 with the mandate to establish stewardship commissions at the various organizational levels of the church.
Publications . A new publication, the Church Ministries Worker , was begun in 1985 under the acting editorship of Leo Van Dolson. Graham Bingham became editor in 1986, and the publication was discontinued in 1990. By 1994 in addition to a wide variety of training and resource manuals, regular publications by the various ministries included the Sabbath school/personal ministries quarterly Action , the family ministries annual Planbook , stewardship’s monthly Resource , youth ministries quarterly publications Accent and Journal of Adventist Youth Ministry , and AMiCUS’s quarterly publication Dialogue . Sabbath school teacher and student editions of quarterlies and publications produced in cooperation with the Review and Herald and Pacific Press publishing associations included the Adult Sabbath School Lessons (standard, large print, and easy English editions), Collegiate Quarterly , Cornerstone Connections , Junior Sabbath School Lessons , Earliteen Sabbath School Lessons , Primary Sabbath School Lessons , Kindergarten Sabbath School Lessons , and Mission (adult, teen, and children’s editions). The department also produced program helps for cradle roll, primary, and junior/earliteen Sabbath school leaders.
The General Conference Church Ministries Department staff during 1990–1995 included Malcolm Allen, youth; Lyndelle Chiomenti, editor, Adult Easy English Sabbath School Lessons , and associate editor, standard Adult Sabbath School Lessons ; Don Crane, stewardship; Karen Flowers, family; Ronald Flowers, family (elected director in 1994); Erwin Gane, editor, Adult Sabbath School Lessons ; Charlotte Ishkanian, editor, Mission (appointed in 1993); Murray Joiner, personal ministries (resigned in 1993); Janet Kangas, editor, Mission (resigned in 1993); Andrea Kristensen, editor, Junior and Earliteen Sabbath School Lessons ; Israel Leito, director, 1990–1993; Calvin Smith, Sabbath school/personal ministries; Virginia Smith, children’s ministries; Michael Stevenson, youth/music (deceased 1993); Gary Swanson, editor, Collegiate Quarterly , Cornerstone Connections ; David Wong, youth (elected in 1993); James Zachrison, personal ministries/Sabbath school (elected in 1994). Patricia Habada, curriculum specialist, and Laurell Peterson, Sabbath school production manager, were assistant directors.