Thomas L. Lemon was reelected president of the Mid-America Union by delegates to the Seventh Constituency Session on May 2 in Lincoln, Nebraska. Maurice R. Valentine II was installed as vice president for administration, a post left vacant since Elder Lemon became president in 2010. Elder Valentine has been serving as ministerial director, a position to which he was reelected. Elaine Hagele was chosen to serve again as vice president for finance.
All departmental directors were returned for continued leadership: besides Elder Valentine as ministerial director, Hubert Cisneros was relected church ministries/youth director, John Kriegelstein for the office of education, Martin Weber for communication, and Nancy Buxton for women’s ministries—a stipend position.
The officers and departmental leaders were elected to serve a five-year term, and all accepted that responsibility.
Delegates also installed an executive committee to continue oversight of the Mid-America Union until the next constituency session in 2016. Further information about the session is on the websites www.midamericaadventist.org and www.outlookmag.org.
In his closing challenge to Session delegates, Lemon cast his vision for the Mid-America Union as “Together Today to Transform Tomorrow. He outlined three broad initiatives for his administration during the next quinquennium: 1) Adventist Christian education; 2) evangelizing the larger cities of Mid-America’s nine-state region, and 3) young adult involvement in the church. He asked delegates to advise him by ranking those three areas according to their own sense of priority. The results: young adults 35%, education 34%, “big cities” 31%.
All voting of the day was done with hand-held electronic “gizmos,” which facilitated speed and accuracy. Results were immediately displayed on the big screens in the sanctuary of College View Church, venue for the constituency session.
