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Brian Danese
President
Time passes so quickly. It is hard to believe that it is time for another constituency. I want to begin my report by acknowledging the work and leadership of Elder Livermore. I had the privilege of working with him while he guided our conference four of the last five years of this quinquennium. As I share the things accomplished and the direction of Gulf States in this report I want to express my appreciation and cannot acknowledge enough what a difference I believe he has made here in Gulf States. One of my greatest joys has been to work with you Dave!
In this report, I want to share with you a small portion of what has been accomplished and what you can expect in the future from our administrative team. Below you will find the core values and some of the benefits of those values to our Conference. But before I share those I want to share what I believe is the role and responsibility of the Conference.
Gulf States Conference is an administrative body. It is charged with many administrative tasks to support the work of the three angels’ message in our field. Often, I heard Elder Livermore say we don’t have a baptismal pool or pulpit here at the office. What that means is that we acknowledge that ministry happens in the churches of our conference. Bible studies, prayer meetings, sermons, evangelism, baptisms all are centered around the local church. Our role is to provide administrative support to help our churches accomplish their vision for reaching their community with the good news of Jesus. But what does that support look like? Our vision of the role of the conference is to accomplish the following goals:
Provide excellence in pastoral leadership to our churches.
Strengthen Christian Education.
Investing in our Youth
Ensure that Gulf States has a strong financial foundation.
I would like to spend a few moments sharing what has been done and what is planned in each of these areas:
Excellence in Pastoral Leadership
This is another area that we began working on under Elder Livermore’s leadership. I want to share a quote from the book Evangelism pg. 94
“It is essential to labor with order, following an organized plan and a definite object. No one can properly instruct another unless he sees to it that the work to be done shall be taken hold of systematically and in order, so that it may be done at the proper time... Well-defined plans should be freely presented to all whom they may concern, and it should be ascertained that they are understood. Then require of all those who are at the head of the various departments to cooperate in the execution of these plans. If this sure and radical method is properly adopted and followed up with interest and goodwill, it will avoid much work being done without any definite object, much useless friction”
When I read that it says to me that having an organized plan that is communicated and followed up is a “sure and radical method.” As a part of our support for our pastors, we ask that each year they work with church leadership to put a plan in place. That plan is written out so that it can be communicated. Then each quarter a member of our administration meets with each pastor to review their plans and how things are going. We have found this to be a real blessing and believe that this sure and radical method will be a positive impact on our churches.
We have also worked to improve our hiring process to give us a better insight into pastors that could be a good fit here in Gulf States.
The last area that we are looking forward to developing is getting feedback from our church leaders that can help our pastors understand better the needs of their churches. We worked with local elders here in Gulf States about how to get and provide that feedback to our pastors. We are excited to begin to experiment with this in the upcoming year.
Strengthen Christian Education
I am so thankful for Christian Education. It has been a spiritual blessing in my life. This spring I was able to visit all our schools. What I saw was amazing. I was so blessed by the Christian environment and loved talking with the teachers about their ministry. Thank you churches and schools for your commitment to Christian Education. Attending Bass and having the support of a spiritual environment during the years I was growing up was such a blessing. We have worked to ensure the ministry of Bass continues in a way that is not a financial burden to our Conference. We continue to build the Bass Endowment which will mean that Bass will have two additional means of financial support in addition to the Conference.
We have had conversations about how we can help the elementary schools in our conference as well. While there are many ways we can support them, we need to work towards providing additional financial resources. Our plans are once the BMA endowment is complete to begin an endowment that can be used to lower the teacher cost. Please keep our schools and teachers in prayer. They are doing a great job in difficult circumstances. It takes a lot of support from the local church to ensure the success of our elementary schools and we are thankful for all that is done to support Christian Education.
Investing in our Youth
There is no doubt in my mind that our youth face challenges that I could not have even dreamed of facing. We feel there are three main areas that we can help make a difference. The first is through the ministry of Bass Memorial Academy, the second through Camp Alamisco, and the third through local church clubs and groups. I have already shared what is being done to ensure that the ministry of Bass continues to be available. In addition, we have begun some much-needed remodeling at Camp Alamisco. This summer we had some of our largest camps in a while and are so thankful for the ministry of Camp Alamisco. We placed an emphasis on hiring staff from the youth of our own conference this summer. What a blessing that our young people can enjoy Alamisco as campers and then later as staff.
The Adventurer, Pathfinder, and Master Guide clubs are thriving as well. Leadership training continues to move forward each year, and each church that supports one of these clubs sees the benefits to the youth very quickly.
A Strong Financial Foundation
Building financial health and accountability provides security to our churches and employees about our ability to support their mission. This means building and maintaining reserves, ensuring that tithe is used in a responsible way, and preparing for the financial needs of future challenges and ministry. There are several ways we have worked to continue to build financial strength both in the present and the future, both at the conference level and at the local church level.
One of the larger financial responsibilities for Gulf States has been Bass Memorial Academy. In a time when some academies are having to close, we asked the question of how can we maintain the ministry of Bass and do so in a way that does not create a financial burden to the conference. We began by working with Academy Health Center, Inc. (the nursing home at Bass) and the new management team that had been put in place years earlier. After years of not being able to support the school, the business was again able to begin supporting Bass. I want to thank the board and management team for their commitment and hard work. It has been a joy working with all of you.
In 2018 the Bass endowment was relaunched. The goal of $10 Million was set which would provide an additional financial support for Bass. God has blessed and in 2½ years we have seen it grow nearing the $4 Million mark.
In 2018 we entered into an agreement with the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference to take over operations of our Adventist Book Center (ABC). This has been a financial benefit to both conferences.
Furthermore, by working with Adventist Risk Management, we were able to reduce our property insurance rates by 25% to our local churches.
During the Covid pandemic were able to send back to our schools and churches about $320,000 to support their ministry and missions.
We take very seriously the sacred responsibility given to us through your financial faithfulness. And do our best to make sure God’s resources are managed in a way to advance His kingdom.
Summary
I want to thank you for your support of our calling to reach the Gulf States territory. The above areas will continue to be our focus as we move closer to Jesus’ return. The times are not making leadership easy, so I ask for your prayers for our Gulf States pastors, teachers and team members. Let’s stay faithful ‘till we see His return.