As he opened the short General Conference Corporation Meeting of Members on Tuesday, July 8, 2025, GC president Erton C. Köhler said, “All our energies, all our meetings, all our finances, all the best of our talents are focused on the mission that the Lord entrusted to us.

“But while we’re living in this world, while we are established in the United States of America, we need to organize a legal corporation with all the legal aspects of our church, and because of that, today we need to have our annual session of the General Conference Corporation.”

Incorporated on April 15, 1904, as the legal entity to serve the GC, the General Confernce Corporation serves the church to help it carry on its work, GC general counsel Karnik Doukmetzian explained. Arthur G. Daniells was the first president of the General Conference Corporation when he served as the GC president from 1901 to 1922. Köhler is the 12th president to serve in this dual capacity.

This corporation is the legal persona of the unincorporated General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and holds title to the GC properties and other properties around the world.

“Nothing has changed in 120 years that the corporation has been in existence,” Köhler added.

In the meeting, members elected the GC Session Nominating Committee to serve as the corporation’s nominating committee for its board of directors. This group of directors will serve until the next GC Session, to be held in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 2030.

Each level of the church has similar corporations or associations, said Lisa Burrow, vice president and general counsel of the Columbia Union Conference, who previously worked for the GC Office of General Counsel.

“This is definitely the business of the church; it's just a different part of the church,” she said.

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