The Seventh-day Adventist Church's top officials next week are expected to vote on a slew of business items, including a possible structural change for operations in the Middle East, as well as the location for the 2020 General Conference Session.

Meeting for annual business meetings, the Adventist Church's Executive Committee is also expected to witness the launch of a worldwide urban-area evangelism initiative, said Orville Parchment, assistant to Adventist Church President Ted N. C. Wilson. Wilson will encourage participation in the initiative in each of the denomination's 13 world divisions during his Sabbath sermon on October 8, Parchment said.

The committee is scheduled to conduct business meetings starting Sunday at Annual Council, which is set for October 7 through October 12. Meetings will be held at the denomination's headquarters building in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.

The committee is comprised of more than 300 world church executives, pastors and lay members.

An advance copy of the meeting agenda is not made public because it is not finalized until it is approved by the committee at the beginning of business.

Church officers confirmed that these items are set on the agenda, but specific details are not being released yet because of a need for committee members to hear of and vote on the items first, they said. Other potential agenda items include:

• The launch of The Great Hope Project, a program for mass distribution of the book "The Great Controversy" written by church co-founder Ellen G. White.

• A half-day of leadership development training.

• A demonstration of how some regions may require further membership analysis due to membership mortality rates being vastly different from local mortality rates of the general population.

• An announcement of research recently launched to guide future strategic planning. Studies will examine church employees, members and former members. Researchers will study their personal spiritual life patterns, as well as their views of the church and its operations.

• A discussion of the North American and Trans-European divisions' request for a variance to the requirement that conference presidents be ordained ministers.

• A continued discussion from Spring Meeting in April on how church administration can be more transparent and accountable.