Several Conferences around Australia recently held their annual constituency meetings, returning all of their officers to their positions.
In South Queensland, president Pastor Brett Townend, general secretary Pastor Colin Renfrew and CFO Scott Hopkins were all voted back to their positions by church delegates attending. Held at the Watson Park Convention Centre on Sunday August 19, Pastor Townend said he loved South Queensland, especially visiting the churches and seeing God at work in various ways.
“We have a real desire to ‘flatten’ the Conference structure and be more responsive to the needs of the local churches,” he said. “We are materially blessed as a Conference, but my desire is to see this transfer into Kingdom growth by better empowering and resourcing those on the front-line of ministry.”
The following weekend, August 25 and 26, saw delegates from around Sydney meet for the Greater Sydney Conference’s 29th constituency meeting, held at Mountain View Adventist College in Doonside. Pastor Terry Johnson, Pastor Adrian Raethel, and Eva Ing, president, general secretary and CFO respectively, were all returned to their positions.
“It is a privilege to serve God in any capacity that He chooses to use us and it’s a blessing to serve in the Greater Sydney Conference in this role for the next four years,” said Pastor Johnson, adding that five missional strategic focuses were voted on during the session.
“We have a lot to consider for our three companies and we will be doing that in the context of turning up the spiritual heat personally and corporately, growing intergenerationally, empowering our members, engaging with our community, and developing a digital media overarching strategy. This gives us direction for conversation, action and resource development and our team will be actively engaging in helping the local church to make this happen.”
The constituency meetings were also an opportunity for delegates to network and share in worship, as well as the presentation of administration and departmental reports and financial statements for the past few years. Both meetings were attended by Australian Union Conference (AUC) president Pastor Jorge Munoz, general secretary Pastor Michael Worker and CFO Peter Cameron.
“Choosing the leadership of a Conference is an important task,” said Pastor Munoz. “We are excited about the next quadrennium for both South Queensland and Greater Sydney, and it is our hope and prayer that the returned officers will be led by God through the next four years.”
