Seventh-day Adventist students from around the world have adopted the “Berkeley Resolution,” calling on the Adventist Church to give “serious attention and support” to “ministry and evangelism on non-Adventist university and college campuses.”  The Berkeley Resolution document was produced at the University of California, Berkeley, by delegates to Berkeley 2000 (B2K), a first-ever gathering of Adventist students specifically focused on secular campus evangelism and ministry.

According to Will Sutton, Berkeley doctoral student and event organizer, the conference aimed to “create a network of fellowship on secular campuses around the world.” Delegates attending B2K, which ran from September 13 to 16, came from the United States, Germany, Bangladesh, Ghana, England, and Kenya.

The Berkeley Resolution states that there are currently more than 16 million students in North America alone studying on campuses that, by and large, do not have a recognizable Adventist presence. According to the document, an estimated 60 to 70 percent of Adventist students are enrolled in public universities and colleges. 

Among the initiatives the resolution proposes are closer ties between Adventist campus groups and the Chaplaincy Ministries department of the church in North America, greater emphasis by Adventist seminaries on ways of ministering to students on non-Adventist campuses, and “annual conferences and other events to train public campus student leaders on Biblical principles of leadership and evangelism.”

The proposal calls on the Adventist Church in North America to designate a year, within the next five years, to focus on “the opportunities and challenges facing students on non-Adventist campuses.” The Berkeley Resolution also requests that the church in North America appoint a “person to coordinate the ministry on non-Adventist college and university campuses.”

According to Dr. Humberto Rasi, education department director for the Adventist Church worldwide, the B2K conference “has come at the right moment to galvanize the movements that have begun on 50 to 60 campuses in North America. It brings these ministries together in perfect timing.”

Dr. Dwight Nelson, conference presenter and senior pastor of Pioneer Memorial Adventist Church in Berrien Springs, Michigan, says B2K “has started the process that will provide continual reaffirmation, cross-pollenization, and accountability between Adventist groups on secular campuses.”

B2K attracted college and university students from secular and Adventist campuses, graduate students, Adventist youth leaders, communication professionals and church leaders.  B2K events included both seminars and plenary sessions. Among the presenters were Dan Matthews, consultant for the television program Faith for Today; Hyveth Williams, senior pastor of the Campus Hill Adventist Church in Loma Linda, California; and Ron Pickell, a grassroots leader in secular campus ministry.  Representatives also attended from Adventist-affiliated institutions including Loma Linda University, Pacific Press Publishing Association, La Sierra University, Maranatha Volunteers International, Pacific Union College, Faith for Today, AmiCUS and SDAnet.