Over the last several years, our mission statement has been: To know Him and to make Him fully known. With this statement in mind, we carefully aim to filter whatever we undertake as a conference. It is our job to take Jesus to everyone in our territory and to let people see what Jesus is truly like so they can get to know Him.
One thing that makes the Rocky Mountain Conference such an interesting conference is its size, as we cover all of Wyoming and Colorado, and a part of New Mexico. Our membership is very diverse throughout the Front Range where a high percentage of our population is located, with more than 3.5 million people in just this area of our territory. Then consider Wyoming where the whole state has a population of 577,000. These facts make it very challenging to figure the best way to equitably distribute funds across the conference. Unique settings in our territory require flexibility in our mission.
During the past year, COVID has wreaked havoc in our churches and schools. Our ministers and teachers have been careful with safety, but since March of 2020, close to 50 percent of employees in the office have come down with COVID. The pandemic created a unique set of challenges that God has been leading us through.
From our headquarters in Denver, we support a palette of ministries:
CHURCHES
Mostly in multi-church districts, we have 133 congregations across the conference, with nearly 18,000 members. Our group of pastors is very diverse, growing healthy churches, and actively involved in their communities through service projects and health initiatives.
SCHOOLS
Currently, we operate 18 schools, two of which are academies: Campion and Mile High. Diane Harris, the superintendent for education working with nearly 100 teachers, is dedicated to helping our students know Jesus and do well scholastically.
SOUL WINNING
Wherever we can, we promote soul winning! It looks different from church to church and school to school, but sharing Jesus is our mission. It is amazing how creative our pastors and teachers are in their outreach ministries.
Another important part of sharing Jesus is our Literature Ministry program running out of Campion Academy, both during the school year and in the summer months. A crew of kids travels from one city to another trying to connect with someone at every house in the territory. Our young people are sharing stories of lives being changed through this ministry.
HEALTH MINISTRIES
RMC is blessed with the witness through the presence of five AdventHealth hospitals. But there is more. When our Adventist Book Center was closed in 2019, it turned into a Health Ministries center, called the Rocky Mountain Lifestyle Center. There are plans to employ a Seventh-day Adventist doctor to offer lifestyle presentations to the community, including providing tele-medicine consultations for individuals from around the conference.
COMMUNICATION
Communication is a ministry we strongly support. Every Friday, the NewsNuggets e-newsletter highlights events taking place all over our conference from Wyoming to New Mexico. We also publish Mountain Views, a quarterly magazine, presenting issues in the Adventist Church and some of the hot topics taking place around the globe, fostering conversation in our churches. Readers from all over the North American Division are asking for a subscription to the Mountain Views.
FINANCES
The Lord has blessed our conference financially in so many ways. Even last year during COVID, we were less than 1 percent behind where we had been the year before. We continue to praise God for the faithfulness of His people in their stewardship. We thank God for George Crumley and for the job he has done to keep us financially sound.
As we are eagerly waiting Christ’s return, we feel privileged to be a part of the mission of Mid-American Union Conference’s family of believers. Maranatha!
Ed Barnett is the outgoing president of the Rocky Mountain Conference. He is scheduled to retire on Aug. 31, 2021.
