We Have This Hope. Now is the Time. Almost Home. Transformed in Christ. When members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s General Conference (GC) Session Theme Committee reviewed past GC Session themes, they noticed not one mentioned grace.

“We said to ourselves, ‘as a denomination, we believe in grace; why shouldn’t it be our theme?’” says Pastor Gerry Karst, general vice president of the Adventist world church and chair of the committee. So, when Adventist delegates from across the globe gather in Atlanta, Georgia for the church’s 59th GC Session in 2010, it will be under the theme Proclaiming God’s Grace.

But is a GC theme anything more than a formality? Karst admits that traditionally, the answer to that question would have been “no.” However, during the last GC Session in St. Louis, Missouri in 2005, he says the theme became “more of a force driving many of the devotions, worships and presentation topics.”

For 2010, Karst expects that trend to continue. He says each speaker, worship director and even music coordinator will aim to “amplify” various aspects of grace. Proclaiming God’s Grace.  will “give the delegates something around which to rally,” he explains. “[The theme] will give the session spiritual direction and help presenters focus on a very important element of [Adventist] belief.”