Surprising Lessons From Annual Council

In October 2025 I attended the General Conference’s Annual Council for the first time. And I learned a few things—not just regarding policy or church structure, etc., but broader, often surprising lessons about how the church works and, more important, why it works the way it does. Here are four of those lessons, in no particular order.

Lesson 1: Treat Students Well. Someday They May Be Your Boss.

It is true that Rick McEdward, the newly elected secretary of the General Conference (GC), is not, technically speaking, my boss. But he is nonetheless now one of our global denomination’s top administrators, and I appreciate his leadership. Years ago we were classmates in college, a mere two theology majors among the much larger pool of theology students matriculating through Adventist classrooms around the world. We ended up serving together for a few years in the same conference, as well. With admittedly a little tongue in cheek, I’m now glad I was nice to him.

Actually, McEdward in those days was unfailingly nice to me and everyone else he encountered. So I make no special claims to his regard. But his recent appointment as GC secretary does make an important point: Any theology major you see today—and yes, any high schooler on the soccer field or any child on the playground equipment—may someday become a top leader in God’s end-time movement. So treat them well now. Spend time with them. Train them. Invest in them. Teach them the ways of Christ and His church. And someday, when the calls begin to come to them, they will be ready.

Lesson 2: Adventist Education and Two Degrees of Separation

Annual Council naturally has leaders in attendance from around the globe. I wondered, Will I know many of them? I was pleasantly surprised to find I knew dozens of the delegates. One of the biggest reasons? Adventist education.

I unfortunately don’t come from “Adventist royalty,” with generations of family members working for the church before me. I grew up in a spiritually chaotic setting in the wilds of the western United States with zero thoughts about ever working for the church. But I did have the good fortune of a mother who believed that Adventist schools were the only schools her children would attend. And because of her sacrifice, I was set on an educational path that would eventually lead me to develop relationships with students—now leaders—across the world. Today, if I were stranded in almost any country, I would have a reasonable chance of finding someone—or someone who knows someone—who could help me. It’s yet another reason to send our children to Adventist schools.

Lesson 3: Uninspiring? Unresponsive? Or Just Exhausted?

Annual Council was a refresher course on one of the major reasons leading a global movement is so difficult: the schedule for top leaders is brutal. Annual Council delegates generally travel more days a year than they do not. This includes local, regional, national, and, very often, international travel, frequently by mass transit and sometimes by foot. Some of the delegates I spoke with had been in four or five countries in just the past 10 days and had led important meetings at each destination. One person joked, “How can you tell if someone is a General Conference employee? Easy: They don’t know what time it is!”—a not-so-subtle reference to the fact that world church employees often lose track of what time zone they’re in.

Most leaders I met, far from being ego-driven ladder climbers, were thoughtful, serious about their mission, and eager to find better ways to achieve God’s mission through the church.

Unsurprisingly, this regimen of travel/meetings/travel/meetings/rinse and repeat is exhausting. Yet when top church leaders arrive in a new country or area, local members are often either overjoyed to see them, asking them to pose for photos, sign books, and generally be an energetic, happy Seventh-day Adventist, or they are angry with the leader and looking to call them to account.

What many a church leader may need instead at such times are a comfortable chair, a pillow, and a nap. Globetrotting church leaders should always exemplify Christ and be lovingly held accountable. But perhaps we would be wise to also extend extra grace to such leaders when their travels leave them feeling a little less than enthusiastic.

Lesson 4: Prestige Is Out, Awestruck Humility Is In

Time for confession: I was worried about the stuffiness and pretense that I might find at Annual Council. Surely, I thought, with this many top church brass in one room, egos will be on full display, with plastic smiles, sculpted hair, and tailored suits to match.

So . . . did I find any of that? Yes. But incredibly little. In fact, most leaders I met, far from being ego-driven ladder climbers, were thoughtful, serious about their mission, and eager to find better ways to achieve God’s mission through the church. And what fascinated me the most was something that I hadn’t seen until this series of meetings.

When you’re “on the outside” of the upper church structure as a spectator looking in, it’s easy to cavil and crow about how inept and out of touch such and such a leader is. If we were in their shoes, we would do better! we think. But when one gets a chance to glimpse what such leaders are actually facing in their fields, one comes away with a rather different conclusion: Their job, from a human perspective, is impossible.

Did you know there are some countries in the world where there is one—just one—paid Seventh-day Adventist worker? And even in nations where Adventism has been working for generations, we are nearly always outnumbered by those who’ve never heard the three angels’ messages by preposterous ratios. On top of that statistical nightmare, some countries have cultures that are exceedingly resistant to the gospel, with still others being literally lethal to those who proclaim it. And the leaders at Annual Council are called, day in and day out, to change this. They are called to make disciples, to establish God’s remnant church in such a way that when the very final events come, those three angels will be positioned to give God’s last call in the most effective way possible.

This is not a job for the timid and retiring! It is instead the call of God to do the seemingly impossible. And in light of this staggering mission, my conversations at Annual Council made clear that whatever egotism might have initially sprung up over someone’s “high office” had nearly always been quickly melted by the heat of our global task. Avoid placing church leaders on a pedestal. Most of them have no interest and would rather have our help and prayers than sycophantic devotion.

A Good and Educational Time

Our church and its leaders are not flawless. But it was nonetheless an honor to be at Annual Council. I learned much. And I was reminded afresh that the church is in good hands. We Adventists have considerable work to do, more than we alone can ever hope to complete. I am encouraged to know that we have elected church officers of sufficiently stout and humble hearts that we can safely follow their lead.