The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a global protestant church community made up of diverse people groups with about 21 million members around the world, 1.2 million just in the United States, and 10, 666 of these members of the Minnesota Conference. The Pew Research Center in 2014 found that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the most racially diverse religious group in the United States, and we see this heartily in the Minnesota Conference.
Because of the diverse nature of our church membership it is important for the church as an organization to create an environment of good working relationships across the board. The Human Resources department, with their role of helping the church deal with a fast-changing environment in the workforce, strongly believes that when workers are comfortable with each other as co-workers, a spirit of teamwork will lead to high productivity.
Consequently, last January the Human Resources department of our conference brought together four new pastors for an orientation meeting via Zoom. The HR director scheduled the meeting to help the new employees enter their ministries with a productive mindset.
We welcomed Luis Luciano (evangelism coordinator); Jude V. Senatus (pastor of the Duluth district); Mark B. Sigue (associate pastor of the Minnetonka Church); and Rene Marquez (pastor of the Iron Range district). We also communicated to them important policies relevant to their work in hopes of helping them to be as successful as possible.
The program was meant to be a down-to-earth meeting, making sure that the new workers are equipped for church work. The conference officers shared tips from personal experiences and things considered to be key to productive ministry. We understand church work is people-centered, and as we deal with people and volunteers on the local level it is critical that people in the work force are people who can be trusted, who value diversity, and who make it their mission to keep their eyes on eternity.
