Union Minority Groups Committee Hears Reports
Warren S. Banfield, director of
the Office of Human Relations at
the General Conference, exam-
ined the meanings of authority
and power in his devotional.
“The word authority is one of
the more repulsive words in the
English language today,” Elder
Banfield said. ‘‘Because it carries
the weight of the establishment,
authority is not a cherished
word,’’ he said. ‘But authority is
here to stay.”
Pointing out the nuances of dif-
ference in the words, Elder Ban-
field suggested that the office of
authority has been given an of-
ficial right which compels. A per-
son’s power, on the other hand, is
in his personal force which at-
tracts, he believes.
“When these two meet in the
same person,”’ he noted, ‘‘any-
thing can happen.’’
Saying that it is difficult to sep-
arate the speech from the speaker,
Elder Banfield pointed to Jesus.
“It was not what He said but what
He was that made the difference.
“Authority may be in a badge,
but power is up to the individ-
ual,”” he concluded in his appeal.
Asian Ministries
Reports from the various cul-
tural coordinators revealed that
Asian/South Pacific members have
reached 60 percent of their 1,000
Days of Reaping goal, Blacks 46.5
percent, and Hispanics 70 percent.
During the second quarter of this
year, Asian/South Pacific member-
ship reached 7,719 after 77 bap-
tisms, according
to George Atiga.
Highest numbers
of baptisms were
recorded by Ko-
reans, who are
the second high-
est in member-
ship and tithe.
Filipinos con-
tinue to be the largest in member-
ship and tithe, the latter almost
$535,000 for the second quarter.
Overall, Asian/South Pacific
tithe showed an increase of 12 per-
cent during the same period.
Highest concentration of Asian/
South Pacific members (47.3 per-
George Atiga
cent) live within the Southern Cal-
ifornia Conference. Northern Cal-
ifornia has the least at 2.2 percent.
Hispanic Growth
Hispanic tithe for the first 26
weeks of the year was nearly $2.7
million, a gain of 11.67 percent,
Manuel Vasquez
pointed out.
Over-all tithe
gain within the
Union was only
5.87 percent.
Missions of-
-~ ferings reached
Manuel Vasquez nearly $178,000,
a gain of 5.67
percent. Unionwide the gain was
only 3.46 percent.
[Editor’s Note: Since the Union
coordinators do not always report
the same kind of statistics, you
may feel as if you're comparing
apples with oranges. So don’t
compare! Rather simply rejoice in
the growth statistics shared.]
Retention rate of members
stands at l:4—one apostasy or
missing for every four accessions.
Division-wide that figure is 2:4.
Hispanics now represent 13.04
percent of Pacific Union member-
ship, and during the second quar-
ter they recorded 25.05 percent of
the gains. In Southern California
Hispanic baptisms accounted for
half of conference growth.
Black Outreaches
Reporting on Black progress,
William DeShay observed that half
of the Sun Village congregation of
86 are new. Elder
DeShay is coor-
dinator for
Southern Cali-
fornia and par-
ticipated in Earl
A. Canson’s re-
port.
In other high-
Earl Canson lights, Elder
Canson noted that George Rainey
has had 142 accessions following a
tent effort in Compton—a location
to which he moved because of the
Olympics. Efforts have concluded
in San Diego and Santa Ana, while
Sacramento’s Capitol City Church
family began in mid-September an
evangelistic crusade with Helvius
RECs)
Box 5005, Thousand Oaks, CA 91359.
The Pacific Union Recorder (ISSN 0744-6381) is
the official newspaper of the Pacific Union Con-
ference of Seventh-day Adventists and is
lished biweekly, 26 issues a year. Editorial office
is at 2686 Townsgate Road, Westlake Village,
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All stories, advertisements, obituaries, inquiries, etc.,
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go to local conference
EDITOR ................ Shirley Burton
ASSISTANT EDITOR .. ..... Larry Becker
CONFERENCE COORDINATORS
Ron Russell. .................. Arizona
Richard Lee Fenn . .... Central California
Sharonden .................... Hawaii
Reba Christensen ......... Nevada-Utah
Althea Roderick ..... Northern California
S.A. Yakush ....Southeastern California
Marilyn Thomsen . . . .Southern California gorical or typographical errors.
EDITORIAL BOARD . .S. Arakaki, G. Atiga,
S. Bietz, W. Blehm, E. Canson, C. Cook,
P. Follett, R. Martin, T. Mostert, F. Sherrill,
M. Vasquez, R. Watts, M. White
COLLEGE CORRESPONDENTS
JoLynndelaTorre.LLU La Sierra Campus
Gina Devine... .... Pacific Union College
Please Note: The Pacific Union Recorder
does not accept responsibility for cate-
Thompson, evangelist from the
Mid-American Union. During his
first city-wide effort in this Union,
new members were added at the
Desert Valley, Mid Vale Park and
Sharon churches of the greater
Tucson, Arizona area.
Black membership within the
Union now stands at 16,816 on
June 30. Their $2.6 million tithe is
a 7.43 percent increase over the
same period in 1983. Ordinarily,
Blacks report the most member-
ship growth annually during the
third quarter.
Arab Culture
Continuing their study into un-
derstanding the various cultures
of members within the Union, the
Committee heard Anees Haddad
describe Bedouin characteristics
which are basic
to Arab values.
Considering
that 1:6 of the
world’s popula-
tion is Muslim,
according to Dr.
Haddad who is
academic dean at
Loma Linda Uni-
versity’s College of Arts and
(Please turn to page 8)
“iy
Anees Haddad
For Times Like These
Three timely articles on events of the day—
Where is Your Citizenship?
(Christian Commitment)
Constitution Imperiled
(Court-shattering Wall)
America’s Holy War
(Religion and Politics Inseparable?)
—written by John V. Stevens, Sr.
Available by contacting:
Church-State Council,
Box 5005, Westlake Village, CA 91359
ONLY FIVE MONTHS OLD, Jeremy Yamashiro was already ap-
preciating Sabbath School felt materials at his first Utah camp meeting.
While his mother listened to Francis Wernick speak to adults about what
the God of the Universe expects of them, Jeremy was looking at pictures
of what that God created. Jeremy is the son of Dr. and Mrs. Duane
Yamashiro of Summit Park, Utah. (Photo by Shirley Burton)
Union Executive Committee Report
Picturing a reminder of the
global Seventh-day Adventist
Church family, President Walter
D. Blehm showed slides of his re-
cent fellowship with leaders of the
Church in the Soviet Union. Em-
phasis was placed again on the
world mission and vision of Sev-
enth-day Adventists.
Adventist Health Systems
The annual report of Adventist
Health System-West was made by
President Frank Dupper and
members of his staff: Alan Rice,
Don Ammon, Bob Carman, Doug
Rebok, and Lynn Detler. Naomi
Parsons, their legal secretary, also
attended. Such a report is pre-
sented annually to the two consti-
tuencies of the hospital corpora-
tion—the Executive Committees
of both the Pacific and North
Pacific unions.
Heading the report was an edu-
cational film prepared to orient
employees to the mission of Sev-
enth-day Adventists, who they
are, what they believe, and why
they are in the business of running
hospitals. Entitled ‘‘The Dif-
ference in Us Is You,’ the film is
available for showing also to
Church groups. Write Adventist
Health System-West, Marketing
Division, 1545 N. Verdugo Road,
Glendale, CA 91208 for rental in-
formation.
Revenue per patient day in the
14-hospital system is up slightly
from a year ago. Daily admissions
averaged 227, commanding the
market’s share, though the trend
of patient days is slightly down-
ward. Average length of stay is
now 5.99 days—which impacts on
daily census. Numbers of licensed
beds are up slightly.
Assets growth during the past
year was almost 14 percent—
reaching nearly $400 million. Ex-
cess revenue over expenses for the
first quarter of the year was $8.6
million. Accounts Receivable were
down from $16 to $11 million. In
a continuing program of cost con-
tainment, operating expenses were
up only 4.8 percent.
All hospitals continue their
thrust toward participation in the
Church’s mission.
Church Structure Study
Nearly five hours were spent
discussing the report of the Phase
II Committee on Church Struc-
ture. While not attempting to en-
dorse the document at that time,
the Executive Committee did send
to the General Conference the en-
tire book with notations of four or
five major areas reserved for dis-
cussion and a number of editorial
and semantic changes deemed
necessary.
Primary changes from the pre-
liminary reports included in the
May 28 RECORDER were Phase
II’s rejection of tithe retention by
the local church, a presidential
system whereby all staff would be
accountable to the president rath-
er than the Executive Committee,
and Youth as a separate ministry
cluster at the local conference
level.
Moreover, Phase II’s recom-
mendations include an expanded
Mission Statement, specific com-
position of a 46-member Union
Executive Committee, procedures
for filling vacancies, a call for
open executive committee meet-
ings at both union and local con-
ference levels, guidelines for
visitors to those meetings, details
on transition and implementation,
a suggestion for official newslet-
ters to include such items as agen-
das proposed, and the addition of
a Board of Education on the Union
model graph.
In addition, Phase II asked that
the General Conference in Annual
Council later this month not take
action on tithe policy until a full
study of the theology of tithe is
made. Further, it asked that the
Union and its constituent confer-
ences give immediate study for
discovering non-tithe resources.
Initial questions asked by the
Union Executive Committee in-
cluded the rationale of appropri-
ateness for requiring at least 50
percent of executive committee
members at both the Union and
local conference levels—in view of
the fact that the Union has no
direct access to the churches.
While there was support for a ma-
jority of lay persons on the local
conference committee, some felt
that more pastoral and local con-
ference staff representation was
appropriate at the Union level.
Other studies will be made re-
garding the Audit and Perform-
ance Review Committee’s duties.
(Please turn to page 8)
Coming in the Adventist Review
Nineteen hundred and eighty-four is a year of anniversaries
for Black Adventist work in North America. Seventy-five years
ago the Regional Department was organized at the General Con-
ference; 50 years ago Message magazine was first published. To
mark this special year, the October 18 issue of the Adventist
Review will contain several articles on Black Adventism—its
dimensions, its past, and its progress.
PACIFIC UNION RECORDER /OCTOBER 1, 1984