Adventist Leaders in Inter-America Are Called to Depend on God in Times of Crisis

July 6, 2020 | Miami, Florida, United States | Libna Stevens, Inter-American Division News

This year’s Segment Leadership Development (SeLD) Conference opened with a record number of Seventh-day Day Adventist church administrators, department heads, pastors, and institutional leaders across the territory in attendance. More than 3,300 leaders tuned in via video-conference tonight, as the opening ceremony challenged the leadership to reflect on their relevance and effectiveness in their ability to rise to the challenges of the times.

Pastor Elie Henry, president of the church in Inter-America, encouraged the thousands of leaders to have total dependence upon God in times of trouble, inquiring at all times and waiting for God’s guidance and wisdom always, especially in crisis.

“Make sure you choose to go to God first in times of emergency,” said Pastor Henry. “David found strength in God, even as he worried about family, about his men, all he had worked for, he worried about the future and all he could do in his hopeless situation was to seek God first,” he said. As leaders, that’s the first lesson, followed by the second lesson which is to develop a game plan for victory and wait on the Lord for His guidance, said Pastor Henry.

“The Lord wants us to overcome the situation where we are today, amid this coronavirus pandemic. He wants us to fight for Him, for our families, for us to fight for our friends…to fight evil in the world until we get the complete victory, as it is our responsibility to be part of Gods’ rescue team.”

Pastor Henry challenged leaders to make sure they choose to go to God for encouragement and strength while upholding the mission He gave His church until Jesus comes.

“Life will knock us down, we will face emergencies, difficulties and what we choose to do will make a difference in our family in our offices, in our institutions or our community,” Pastor Henry said.

Themed “Leadership in Unusual Times,” the four-day training sessions will continue through July 9. The focus is on assisting leaders to reassess their emergency responses, empower leadership responses to members and community in times of difficulty, accelerating decision-making skills for addressing challenges with the organization and providing a forum for leaders to network on disaster challenges during the pandemic, explained Pastor Balvin Braham, assistant to the IAD president in charge of leadership training and the main organizer of the conference.

The SeLD conference usually draws more than 600 leaders every year to Miami, Florida, United States, but since the General Conference session was postponed for 2021, IAD leaders decided to reschedule the SeLD conference training event to be held online this month, opening the way for five times more attendees this year, said Braham.

General Vice President for the Adventist World Church Pastor Geoffrey Mbwana, spoke during the first plenary session on crisis leadership and the leader’s impact on helping people and organizations through such crises.

“Crisis presents a huge challenge to us in leadership, with disasters, calamities, floods, pandemics, economic crisis and the like and each one brings their own dangers, threats, abnormalities that disrupt our lives and our leadership, leading to fear,” said Pastor Mbwana. He reminded leaders that it is their responsibility to anticipate crisis, accept it is as part of life, prepare for it, plan for it, face it and lead proactively, just like the Prophet Nehemiah went through and navigated through the crisis of his time.

“Crisis presents opportunity for leaders to grow and you [as leaders in this church] are called to bring out your best again and again with every passing crisis, and if you are successful in leading through crisis you become a better person but even yet a better leader,” said Mbwana.

It’s about owning the situation you are in, praying about the situation, managing yourself, planning carefully how to handle the situation, implement a plan, learning lessons that result and sharing the lessons learned with others.

Pastor Mbwana touched on the necessary role and functions of having a crisis management committee, a crisis management team, and a crisis management plan for leaders to have in place as the framework of response to crisis.

“Leadership is about vision, the ability to see what is ahead before it comes. It’s about preparedness,” said Mbwana. “While you deal with crisis keep the mission in focus, make sure you bring people together, be truthful, act confidently for at a time of crisis people have their eyes on the leader sand have their ears turn to their leaders…so rise up and lead.”

More than 40 speakers and experts from the Adventist world church and the IAD territory will speak during the general sessions and seminars on crisis management, organizational effectiveness, financial strategies, emotional intelligence, church management and more.

The conference will be available to preregistered leaders who will take part in the general sessions and seminar presentations held on the Zoom video platform rooms with availability in English, Spanish and French.

This year’s Annual SeLD Conference will include sessions on July 7-9, from 8:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. from Miami Time. For updates, visit us at interamerica.org

For SeLD Conference’s program schedule details and resources, go to seld.interamerica.org