Social media comments highlight that attendee hopefuls carry a bag of expectations.
July 2, 2025 | St. Louis, Missouri, United States | Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review
As thousands of Seventh-day Adventist leaders, delegates, church members, and friends take to the roads and airports on their way to the sixty-second General Conference Session in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, an informal survey of the “Adventist social media landscape” seems to reveal some of the participants’ joys, hopes, complaints, and fears. Beyond specifics, however, their explicit or tacit statements or acknowledgments showcase a predetermined baggage of carefully groomed and grown beliefs. It’s what we usually call expectations.
What are, then, some of Adventist social media users’ expectations?
Fellowship and Business
Based on hundreds of comments, I can certainly confirm what many already know: a General Conference (GC) Session is a social event that as an Adventist you hope to attend to meet with old acquaintances, former colleagues and classmates, and leaders and preachers you have seen only on a screen. It is the place to be, and if that’s a person’s goal, it’s very likely a GC Session won’t disappoint.
Others are focused on church business. After all, a GC Session must discuss and vote on agenda items that cannot be discussed or voted on in any other church gathering. It’s a business meeting, and there is an agenda to approve, follow, and finish. There are usually pressures to do so in most thorough, expedient, and fair way.
Varying Agendas
Still, comments on social media unveil those who follow their own agendas and hope that this coming GC Session will provide them an opportunity to air their grievances, dreams, or demands. It’s expected that some of them will eventually clash with those doing the church’s business, especially regarding points on which their agendas might differ.
Others seem to be complaining about specific details of the event organization or logistics, before the Session even starts. Yes, there are a few of those among us as well. It is expected they will resurface from time to time for weeks to come.
A Spiritual Dimension
At the same time, and for an event that seems to be heavily focused on mission (“Jesus Is Coming: I Will Go!” is an all-about-mission theme), I read scarce comments on the spiritual dimension of the event, other than the occasional call to pray for it.
Perhaps “praying for it” is just—and only—what the church needs. Still, it would be comforting to read more comments on the spiritual implications of a gathering that connects people from around the world as a worldwide family connected to the same faith, mission, and message.
Unknown and Unstated Expectations
Informal conversations sometimes describe expectations that few dare to clearly utter, and much less to state in written form. After all, a GC Session usually includes the largest number of church elections and appointments. And those elections and appointments have consequences. Some who hadn’t thought so before might start thinking of retirement, while others will feel the Lord is showing them it’s time to go. Others will feel called to a specific leadership position or deployment.
It is perhaps one of the less openly discussed issues around a GC Session: elections and appointments have real-life consequences. There are visas and work permits to secure, moves to plan, projects to reformulate, dreams to reframe, and much more. There are surprises, and there are disappointments. There are questions with no clear answers, and there is apprehension. And according to those who have been there before, there is peace when feeling the assurance that God’s will has come to pass.
Finally, a few might not know how to put their expectations into words or might not have clear expectations at all.
Jesus and Expectations
Having expectations is nothing new. Jesus Himself regularly met people who had either expectations about Him or others. Examples pile up: “Who do men say that I am?” (Mark 8:27); “Is this not the carpenter’s son?” (Matt. 13:55); “What did you go out into the wilderness to see?” (Matt. 11:7).
As these and other examples show, having expectations is not inherently wrong. In people’s interactions with Jesus, however, the key was for those with wrong expectations to be willing to alter or modify them accordingly as the Spirit led them to do. For Nicodemus it meant to stop thinking of Jesus as just “a teacher come from God” (John 3:2) and more as someone who “came down from heaven” (verse 13). For the Samaritan woman, it meant going from thinking of Jesus as just “a Jew” (John 4:9) to “the Christ” (verse 29). For a Roman soldier it meant from crucifying a criminal to acknowledging Him as “the Son of God” (Matt. 27:54).
Those who failed to modify their expectations did not fare so well. Judas is perhaps the most sad and notorious example. But there are others, including those who chose secession when King Rehoboam did not meet their expectations (1 Kings 12:16).
Managing Expectations
As thousands convene in St. Louis for the sixty-second General Conference Session, there is perhaps no better time to assess our personal and collective expectations. It might be time to ask God for guidance regarding what to expect and how to manage when reality defies and challenges our expectations. To ask for the strength to leave our bag of expectations open, so the Spirit can modify and rearrange them as He—in His infinite wisdom—sees fit.
And once again, to focus and refocus on mission, and on the Lord of mission. Because beyond our expectations, in less than two weeks, the sixty-second General Conference Session will be over.
When the lights turn off in the St. Louis America’s Center, our expectations might or might not have been met. Expectations can certainly be crushed, adapt, or change. Our mission, however, stays the same.