The General Council will be meeting in Riverside, CA this weekend. (And no the sandbox we will be playing in is not the beach!). We will be playing in a “sandbox” we are creating based upon the book by TJ Addington, Leading from the Sandbox. 

One of the items that we received feedback from you in our recent survey concerning the role of General Council and the future ministries of the General Conference dealt with long range planning. After receiving some advice and counsel from another Baptist denomination that recently went through restructuring, this will be our first big step into planning for the long term vitality of our General Conference and its members.

We covet your prayers as we continue moving forward. 

In addition to “playing in the sandbox”, we will be:

-Continuing to plan through transitions for 2014-2015

-Discussing our next steps in church development based upon the work of our Task Forces: revitalizing our existing churches and planting new ones

-Following up on action items from the 2013 General Conference sessions

-Approving a 2015 Denominational Budget to submit at our 2014 General Conference sessions

-Evaluating two churches for membership in the General Conference

-Discussing the proposed amendment to the Statement of Belief concerning Christ’s return

-Proposing bylaw changes

-Praying for our churches, agencies/allied societies, executives and staff

-Discussing many more topics

Please lift our travels and meetings in your prayers. It is a joy and honor for the General Council to serve SDBs. If you have anything that you would like the General Council to discuss, pray about, or hear about or if your church would be interested in hosting one of our meetings, please feel free to contact me at john.j.pethtel AT gmail DOT com.