SeLD Conference Encourages Church Leaders to Practice “Inclusive Leadership”

Hundreds of Seventh-day Adventist leaders attending and connecting on day two of this year’s Segment Leadership Development Conference (SeLD) were challenged to sharpen their leadership skills as they guide their respective organizations and institutions throughout the Inter-American Division (IAD) territory.

The nearly 2,000 SeLD delegates, including administrators, educators, department heads, pastors, church elders, and laypersons filled plenary sessions, seminar rooms, and Zoom meeting rooms throughout a full day of presentations and workshops on July 26, 2022.

Speaking on the conference’s main theme, Inclusive Leadership, Paul Douglas, Adventist World Church treasurer, defined it as the ability to encourage and appreciate the contribution of subordinates, based on respect, recognition, response, and responsibility as a two-way relationship. Douglas suggested a redefinition in the context of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in its mission to carry forward the work according to the plans, policies, and programs set out in the General Conference’s Working Policy.

Inclusive Leadership

“Inclusive leadership recognizes that we are all in partnership with God and He has given to us a diversity of gifts to be used in fulfilling the mission to which we have been commissioned,” said Douglas. The code of conduct for church leaders must include integrity, respect, collaboration, trust, humility, excellence, and accountability, he said.

It’s all about empowering others and affirming their skill sets, sharing information that is timely and accurate, valuing the skills, innovation, and creativity of others, maintaining an enjoyable workplace atmosphere, and encouraging teamwork among leaders at all levels, Douglas explained.

Church leaders were challenged to re-examine their organization’s mission, vision, and strategic plan and study and measure what they were able to accomplish as a team.

The New Normal

“You must understand the new normal for your target audience, your members and employees. There’s no going back to the way things were before the pandemic,” Douglas said. “You must create a vision for your organization, re-examining your assumptions, traditions, approaches, embracing the new normal instead of fighting against it.”

There must be a reshaping of the organization with vital investments made in human resources and technology, a unifying of the team around the mission, as well as developing rigorous plans and executing them with discipline, Douglas said.

Experience at SeLD

For Pastor Jeremy Espinoza, a first-time SeLD Conference attendee, recently appointed as president of the Caribbean Costa Rica Mission, the emphasis on inclusive leadership points to what he wants to practice with his team. Espinoza, 42, grew up in the church, studied in the Adventist educational system in Costa Rica, and was district pastor for 20 years in the northern part of the Central American country. He also served as a departmental director.

As president in a mission office that oversees nine workers and thirteen district pastors ministering in eighty-five churches, Espinoza believes it’s key to engage in inclusive leadership as part of the church’s culture at all levels. “Just like the leaders of our higher organizations are inclusive when they treat us as equals and provide tools and encourage us to efficiently do our work in mission, we need to be intentional to do the same at the conference or mission level and down to the church so we can continue moving forward together,” he said. “Leading is not just about bossing others.”

Overseeing a diverse region can be a challenge with the four ethnic groups, Espinoza said. He meets with the thirteen pastors who average six or seven churches each and motivates the 12,000 members to be more involved in missionary work and reaching the dozens of ethnic communities in the remote mountainous region of eastern Costa Rica.

The spiritual messages, leadership presentations, seminars, and prayer sessions have inspired Espinoza to share with his team the continued commitment to moving forward together with the strategic plan set by his union, the South Central American Union, and the IAD. “We meet each week through Zoom and once a month in person, so I can’t wait to pass along what I’ve seen and learned here,” he said. “We need to maintain a spiritual inclusive leadership in all that we do as an organization to accomplish the task the Lord has given us.”

Spiritual Leadership

The impact of the leaders’ spiritual strength will influence the growth of the organization, said Pastor Balvin Braham, vice president of the IAD in charge of leadership development, during a plenary session. The intention of the SeLD Conference is just that: to help leaders work on self or look inward to their own spiritual and overall commitment to God and the organization, inspiring them to lead others spiritually as a team moving forward in mission.

Braham challenged leaders to continue development training of their leaders at all levels so they can fulfill the function of the ministries, conduct assessments regularly to achieve goals set out in the strategic plans, embark on organizational change, and be prepared to learn and grow during and after constituency sessions.

In his devotional segment, Dr. Leslie Pollard, president of Oakwood University, encouraged Seventh-day Adventist leaders to “seek not a higher assignment but a deeper alignment—leaders who are not politically protected but spiritually connected and who seek not a human appointment but divine anointment.”

Day two of SeLD saw delegates attending two dozen breakout seminar presentations and taking time for prayer and networking.

To view photos of the event, click HERE.

For more on Inter-America’s SeLD Conference, including information and resources, go to seld.interamerica.org.