Dec 19, 2013
BCE to Merge With Conference
by Andrew Camenga
BCE Executive
The Seventh Day Baptist Board of Christian Education has adopted a resolution to move toward merging with the SDB General Conference as soon as is practical.
The Board of Directors met October 25-27, 2013, for a retreat at Camp Harley Sutton, Alfred Station, N.Y. Our meetings began with a time of prayer on Friday night and concluded with a group picture just before noon on Sunday. In between we worshipped together, ate together, slept in the bunk rooms, and considered the overall ministry of the Board of Christian Education, our relationship to the General Conference, and budget planning for 2015.
We dedicated considerable time to making a decision about whether this ministry should remain an independent corporation or should merge with the General Conference. The end result of the discussion was a clear decision to move toward merging with the Conference.
We have communicated this decision with the General Council and General Conference office.
The following text is based on that communication:
In 2010, the General Conference adopted recommendations from an Ad Hoc Committee on Denominational Reorganization. Two years later, this action was confirmed by Conference action—adopting bylaw changes that implemented the recommendations.
One of the Ad Hoc recommendations directly addressed the Board of Christian Education:
That… the Seventh Day Baptist Board of Christian Education …legally merge with the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference.
Over this last year, our Board of Directors has gathered information, diligently prayed, and struggled with determining together God’s guidance in our response to the recommendation from General Conference.
This last weekend, October 25-27, 2013, our directors adopted the following resolution:
Resolved, that the Seventh Day Baptist Board of Christian Education, Inc. will move toward merging with the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference, USA & Canada, Ltd., as soon as is practical.
The directors have appointed Andrew Camenga, Paul Andries, Nathanael Lawton, and Allen Hauber as a committee to oversee the merger process for the Board of Christian Education. We look forward to working with the General Council of the General Conference to move toward implementing this decision as quickly as is possible. It is our hope to minimize the time spent in an uncertain organizational structure in order to provide all involved the opportunity to devote more attention to tasks that are specifically ministry oriented.