The Christian church has convened worldwide conferences for a very long time. Luke tells us Christian leaders from around the world gathered in Jerusalem and made decisions, then “went through the cities, [and] delivered... the decrees to keep, which were determined by the apostles and elders at Jerusalem” (Acts 16:4, NKJV).

Following the example of the Jerusalem Council, the Seventh-day Adventist Church calls a world-wide General Conference session every five years to make decisions that affect the whole church. The 58th General Conference Session will be held at "America's Center" in St. Louis, Mo., June 29 to July 9, 2005. Weekend meetings and business sessions during the week will take place in the 70,000-seat Edward Jones Dome.

The 13 million members of the Adventist church will be represented at this session by 2,000 official delegates. That is approximately one delegate for every 6,500 members. So, unless your local church has 6,500 members (none do), your congregation probably won’t be sending a delegate. But that doesn’t mean your local church didn’t help choose your representatives.

Delegates from your local church elected a local conference executive committee at your last conference constituency meeting. That local conference committee appointed delegates to the union constituency meeting, which then elected the union executive committee. Every five years, the union committee appoints delegates to the next General Conference session. In 2005, the Pacific Union will be represented by 25 delegates (see list on pg. 35).

But all 2,000 delegates are members of some local church somewhere in the world — members in the pew, if you will, just like you and me.

What will the delegates do in St. Louis? These 10 days of meetings are usually described as “business sessions.” Delegates almost always consider changes to the Church Manual, since the manual impacts the world church. And delegates will deal with many challenges and opportunities facing our world Church, such as the spiritual development and discipleship of our members, unity of purpose and mission, promoting the quality of life found in Jesus Christ and managing the Church’s resources to best fulfill our commission to go “to all the world.”

In addition to policy changes, the delegates will vote public statements that clarify where the Church stands on issues of general interest. Delegates to previous GC sessions have voted statements on such things as abuse and family violence, AIDS, assault weapons, birth control, creation, the environment, marriage, religious freedom and many other topics. (For a complete list, go to www.adventist.org/beliefs/statements/index.html.)

But church members and leaders always hope and pray for more than business-as-usual at these “business sessions.” This GC session will not be preceded by a World Ministerial Council like most previous sessions, but there will be a day of spiritual emphasis. These meetings, entitled “Hearing God’s Call,” will begin Wednesday afternoon, June 29, at 3 p.m., and continue through noon on Thursday. This special prayer day will be broken into four sessions, each focusing on one aspect of God’s call. Each session will include music, testimonies and breakout groups for discussion, Bible study and prayer. This spiritual feast will be open to all delegates and visitors.

Much more information about attending this GC session as delegates or visitors is available at www.gcsession.org. But whether you plan to attend or not, please pray that this GC session will be a time of spiritual renewal.