“United in Witness of Truth” is the theme for the four-day Annual Council of Seventh-day Adventist church leaders due at the world headquarters beginning Oct. 11. It is the final of a five-meeting series stressing unity, “By the Word of God,” “The Wonder of His Grace,” “In Worship of God” and “In the Warmth of Fellowship.”

Nearly 300 leading executives and lay members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church from around the world will gather next week to discuss current and planned actions for its immediate future, as well as its next international administrative event.

Morning sessions of the event will be set “in the context of mission,” said Dr. Larry Evans, world church undersecretary and prime organizer of the event. Reports during morning meetings will focus on evangelistic outreaches of the 13.5-million member fellowship, where a total of 25 million worship weekly.

Major topics to be presented at the session will include a final report from the church’s “Faith & Science” conferences, which concluded with a recent session in Denver, Colorado, United States (see ANN, Aug. 31, 2004). Also to be presented is the final report of the Commission on Higher Education.

A “philosophy of music” statement is on the agenda as well. An anticipated new “fundamental belief” on “Growing in Christ,” voted at the church’s spring meeting this year, is expected to be discussed, in preparation for action at the world church’s 2005 General Conference Session in St. Louis, Missouri, United States.

Strategic planning issues and those related to the Church’s Global Mission outreach will be discussed, as well as evangelistic efforts including Sow 1 Billion and the Elijah Project (see related ANN story), and Go One Million, an effort to recruit, train and equip 1 million Adventist lay people for evangelism.

Also planned for discussion is “Connecting with Jesus,” a new global distribution effort for a new series of books containing the writings of Ellen G. White, a pioneering founder of the church.

The church budget will be presented to council members, as will policies relating to employees who move between church regions and several constitutional issues, most of which, Evans said, are “not major.” A number of amendments to the Adventist Church Manual are also to be considered, before the 2005 session.

The General Conference Executive Committee, which convenes at Annual Council, is made up of church administrators, pastors and laypeople representing each of the 13 administrative regions, or divisions, of the Adventist Church worldwide. It is the highest decision-making body of the church, apart from the General Conference Session, which is a larger international body of church representatives that convenes every five years.