How Sabbath Seminars Created Its Mission Statement and
How It Acts to Fulfill It
- The Creation of A Mission Statement Team in early 2021
- The Creation of A Mission, Vision and Narrative Statements (“Mission Statement”) in May 2021
- The Revisiting of Sabbath Seminars Mission, Vision and Narrative Statements (“Mission Statement”) in May 2024
- The Proposals by Sabbath Seminars in August 2024
Early in 2021 Sabbath Seminars created a team to formulate a mission statement with corresponding vision and narrative statements.
The class completed a Survey Monkey which included questions about its mission.
Class member John Testerman took the words that related to mission and created a word cloud which provided the starting point for our work.
The team studied other examples of mission statement, including other Adventist church congregational statements, the Southeastern California Conference of SDAs’ excellent statement, and others. At the time, our own congregation did not have a published statement, and did not respond to requests for one.
That team worked with high energy and many meetings until a statement was created which was presented to the class for vote. The class discussed the statement thoroughly in a Sabbath school session and voted by acclamation to accept it and post it on the class website, which was done. Our Mission (sabbathseminars.net)
In May 2024 the class met at the home of Jim and Priscilla Walters for potluck and to specifically review the mission statement and consider a relocation proposal. Small groups worked to answer questions posed, and each group weighed in on the mission statement, as well as on the current format/location for our class (a proposal had been made to move to the church campus’s new ministry building, which would have also resulted in the elimination of most of the discussion hour). The overwhelming vote was for re-affirming the mission statement and continuing to meet in the Centennial Complex building where a full hour of discussion could follow the presentation.
On Sabbath morning August 24 2024 Leadership team member John McGhee led a “Sabbath Seminars Review” session, which reported on the collated results of the May 2024 review and included a Powerpoint presentation title “Being Church” by Bill Shull with proposals on how to move forward. The class voted overwhelmingly to support three proposals. A video of Shull’s presentation can be found HERE as an excerpt. or 1’13”48 into the class video for August 24 (pswrd: BookReviews)
The three approved proposals are:
1. Send a team or representative to dialogue with the pastor and attend board meetings.
2. Encourage a return to church board meeting announcements in the bulletin - with an increase in congregational visioning and participation in decisionmaking for the church - and (we will) begin attending and participating and ourselves.
3. Resolution that...our church...consider for our congregational future (a commitment) both in regard to LGBTQ+ inclusiveness and participative visioning and decisionmaking.
Sabbath Seminars
Room 3208
Centennial Complex of Loma Linda University Sabbath Morning 10:30-12:30