September 30, 2007
Seoul, South Korea
Local
Church elders are essential part of the pastoral team.
As of the 1990 General Conference session, the
responsibility for training and equipping local church
elders was assigned to the Ministerial Association,
because the essential job descriptions for pastors and
laity elders are similar, and elders are to be viewed as
direct extensions of pastoral ministry.
Given such a responsibility, the Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD) Ministerial Association, under the leadership of Pastor Miguel Luna, organized a series of training sessions with the assistance of the General Conference Ministerial Association secretaries, Pastors James Cress and Jonas Arrais, respectively, from September 1 to 9, 2007.
They visited the Korean Union Conference, Japan Union Conference and Chinese Union Mission. Pastor Jonas Arrais focused on elders’ evaluation, functions and the spiritual gifts inventory; Pastor James Cress lectured on recruiting spiritual leaders, and a new start for the ministry. Elder Luna explained how to reach with the gospel secular and postmodern mind as well as the nature of biblical eldership.
They began the training sessions on September 1, 2007 at the Madalpy Training Center, Korea where 350 church elders met for the training. On September 2, they also gave presentations at the Seoul Adventist Hospital Church where another 300 church elders were in attendance. In Japan, on September 4 and 5, they met at the Amanuma Church, Tokyo where 60 elders attended the meetings. JUC filmed the sessions for the elders at Osaka Center Church Virtual Network (West Japan Confereence) and Koza Church Virtual Network (Okinawa Mission). After the meeting in Tokyo, Elder Cress departed for Hong Kong where he met around 130 church elders and deacons on September 7 and 8. On the same dates, Pastor Jonas Arrais and Miguel Luna visited Taichung, Taiwan where they met another 60 church elders who came from different locations of Taiwan Conference for the training.
In general the eldership training seminars had the opportunity to make contact with around 1000 church leaders. A request was made to incorporate young adults and young elders in order to meet the needs of local churches. During the sessions the time for questions and answers was a very good opportunity to clarify issues and to emphasize church organization and administration.
These training sessions have been a motivation for each Conference/Mission to continue with elders training in its territories each year. These sessions showed at the same time the need for permanent elders training in the areas of preaching, evangelism, teaching, pastoral counseling, visitation, church administration, leadership, helping new converts, and worship.
