The General Conference and the Southern Union Conference, with the
Georgia-Cumberland and South Atlantic conferences, welcome delegates, guests and staff to Atlanta—a modern metropolis with old Southern charm. The city, chosen in part because of its merging of every imaginable culture, has experienced unprecedented growth during the past decade, with the metro area population alone jumping a whopping 40 percent, from 2.9 to 4.1 million people. Seventh-day Adventists comprise less than two percent of that number.

Having the GC Session scheduled for Atlanta “caused us to think about the city of Atlanta and what we’re doing here,” said Gordon Retzer, president of the Southern Union Conference. “Through the vision of Good News Atlanta [see www.goodnewsatlanta.net], we’ve had churches working together in Greater Atlanta trying to express to the community that Seventh-day Adventists are people who love Jesus, love people and are concerned about the community.”

To prepare for the GC Session, local churches from the Georgia-Cumberland and South Atlantic conferences have been working to establish a clear Adventist presence in the city. In the past six weeks, there have been 45 evangelistic series in local churches. “These meetings culminated in evangelistic reaping meetings and a mass baptism here in the World Congress Center Wednesday through Saturday nights last week with evangelists Mark Finley, Alejandro Bullón and Nathanael Gracia,” said Retzer.

In addition to traditional and relational evangelism work, community service has been a focus. “The first women’s ministries convention in the Southern Union was held in Atlanta a couple of years ago,” explained Retzer. “Their purpose was to do community service in the city. Thousands of women came to express Jesus’ love in homeless shelters. It’s been a thrill to try to do what we can in the community of Great Atlanta.”

Retzer believes Atlanta is a perfect location for the world church session. “We really celebrate wonderful diversity in the Southern Union and in Atlanta,” he says. “Our membership — about 250,000 — is a world membership, so to have brothers and sisters from the world field come here is natural for us.”