Pastor Ben Martin has been reappointed to his role as South New Zealand Conference (SNZC) president at the 68th SNZC Constituency Meeting, held October 27-29.
Commenting on his reappointment, Pastor Martin said, “I am really looking forward to working with all our churches this quadrennium as we continue to see our vision of being a movement of growing disciples who know, live and serve Jesus become a growing reality.”
Held at Ilam Seventh-day Adventist Church in Christchurch, the session gathered 190 delegates for a weekend filled with worship, baptisms and fellowship, where delegates received reports on the last four years and made appointments and decisions for the future of the Conference.
The event started on Friday evening with Ilam church pastor Luke Steen encouraging delegates to embrace the great commission to make disciples. On Sabbath morning, New Zealand Pacific Union Conference president Pastor Eddie Tupa’i shared a message reminding attendees to “quench their thirst in Jesus”, followed by two baptisms and one profession of faith.
In the afternoon, SNZC ministries and departments presented reports, followed by a Q&A segment. “It was thrilling to see how God has been leading through the different ministries in the South New Zealand Conference this last quadrennium,” commented SNZC secretary/CFO Michael Jones.
Sabbath was closed with a message from Pastor Martin encouraging delegates to follow God’s instruction to love each other amidst each other’s differences. The president’s message also opened the first business session in which delegates also voted in the new Conference Executive Committee.
The meetings continued on Sunday when the delegates made decisions about constitutional changes, building plans, investment decisions and Big Camp.
Commenting on the meetings, Pastor Martin noted, “There was a wonderful spirit from start to finish this weekend. No matter how difficult some of the decisions were, I saw God’s hand in these meetings.
“We are grateful to all of the delegates who travelled from near and far to participate in the decision-making and vision casting for our Conference, and for their passion in seeing God’s work done in this area of the world,” Pastor Martin concluded.
