The Australian Union Conference (AUC) Executive Committee have made several appointments following their mid-year meetings on May 29-30.
Pastor Jeffrey Masengi has been appointed as the new general secretary. The appointment comes following the acceptance of a call by Pastor Michael Worker, the outgoing general secretary, to serve at Adsafe, commencing in late July.
Pastor Masengi comes with a diverse range of experience, graduating with a Bachelor of Accounting from Universitas Advent Indonesia and an MBA from Saint Thomas University. He worked for US oil and gas corporation ConocoPhillips for 23 years in Indonesia, Singapore, Malaysia and Australia as the finance manager, planning manager and finance director. He went on to complete a Masters of Divinity and was called to the South Queensland Conference as an intern minister and the Northern Australian Conference (NAC) as general secretary and chief financial officer. During this time Pastor Masengi led the NAC for a few months while the president was on long service leave.
AUC president Pastor Terry Johnson said, “We want to thank Pastor Worker for his seven years of service at the Union, with a combined 19 years of service in conference and union leadership. His pastoral care and understanding was significant, as decisions that were made always took into consideration the spiritual impact. His recall of policy, constitutions, process and procedure is second to none and he will be sorely missed by our entire team. We wish him well and look forward to future collaboration.”
Pastor Johnson described Pastor Masengi as a skilled administrator with evident high capacity. “He’s competent, calm and a quietly spoken man who will bring a wealth of corporate knowledge along with his spiritual shepherding, leadership and administration gifts to the role here at the Union,” he said. “He has done well in the NAC and the members have loved his missional focus, clarity in communication and warm personality. We believe he will continue the legacy of godly secretaries that the AUC has had since its inception in 2001 with Mr Kingsley Wood, Pastor Ken Vogel and Pastor Michael Worker.”
Pastor Masengi said, “I am honoured and humbled to accept the call to serve as the secretary for the AUC. I wrestled with God about this call, but God revealed His will for me to serve in the Union office.”
Replacing Pastor Worker as director of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL) is associate director of PARL, Pastor Kojo Akomeah. Pastor Akomeah has degrees in theology, education and law, and has been serving as the associate PARL director alongside Pastor Worker for the past year and-a-half.
AUC ministerial associate secretary–aged care chaplaincy, Pastor Kenn Duke, was appointed as the director of Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries–Australian Defence Force, replacing Pastor Worker. Pastor Duke has extensive experienced in aged care and health care chaplaincy, serving as a pastor/chaplain at Adventist Senior Living for over 10 years and chaplain at Sydney Adventist Hospital for more than seven years.
Amanda Bews was appointed as the children’s and family ministries director, a role which has been held by Pastor Sylvia Mendez. Ms Bews has degrees in education and psychology, and served as a teacher for more than 10 years with four years as head of middle school. She has worked as the children’s ministry leader at local church level and volunteered at conference level. Ms Bews has been producing resources for the past eight years at the AUC, writing books and other materials for Seeds of Faith. In her new role, she will be instrumental in the rollout of the new children’s Sabbath school curriculum Alive in Jesus.
Pastor Mendez will be focusing more of her attention on The Worship Project as well as continuing as the director for women’s ministries and resource development.
