Church Leaders Return to Roots of Adventism

By: Gina Wahlen, General Conference Office of Presidential

More than 100 Seventh-day Adventist church leaders from around the world have come together to remember God’s miraculous leading in the beginnings of the Advent movement, and how He is still at work in the Church today.

The Adventist leaders are on a week-long Adventist Heritage tour of the northeastern part of the United States, known as New England, where Adventism began. The tour is being led by Jim Nix, director of the Ellen G. White Estate, and Merlin Burt, director of the Center for Adventist Research, director of the White Estate Branch Office and professor of Church History at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews University.

The tour itinerary includes such iconic Adventist sites as the William Miller farm in Low Hampton, New York; the Washington, New Hampshire, church; the Joseph Bates home in Fairhaven, Massachusetts; Gorham and Portland, Maine, places associated with the birth of the early years of Ellen Harmon White; and the Edson Farm in Port Gibson, New York.

“We look back to look forward under God’s tremendous guidance,” says Ted N.C. Wilson, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. According to Wilson, the purpose of the trip is four-fold:

1. To experience the spiritual blessing that comes from seeing how God blessed the pioneers at the beginning of the church as they relied completely on God and His Word.

2. The camaraderie and bonding that takes place as a dedicated team of administrators from the around the world on a spiritually-oriented trip together.

3. The historical review of God’s leading in the past.

4. Using the review of our past history to see how God will use His people and our prophetic understanding to proclaim the three angels’ messages of Revelation 14 to the world and the news of Christ’s soon return.

While the trip is geared for the church leaders, everyone is welcome to join them via daily Facebook live broadcasts and photo essays capturing each day’s activities on Wilson’s Facebook page, “Pastor Ted Wilson” at www.facebook.com/pastortedwilson.