World Adventist stewardship advisory to offer education on management of resources

September 04, 2014 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | ANN staff

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is holding a global stewardship advisory later this month to offer Church leaders and members education on biblical principles of planning and managing resources.

Erika Puni, director of Stewardship Ministries for the Adventist world church, addresses The Adventist Church’s Stewardship Ministries department is hosting a worldwide online conference September 19 to 21. Here, department director Erika Puni address Annual Council last year while his associate, Larry Evans, looks on. Image by ANN file photo

The World Stewardship Online Conference is set for September 19 to 21 and will be offered in four languages—English, French, Portuguese and Spanish.

Stewardship Ministries director Erika Puni said the conference is an opportunity to integrate Christian stewardship into the education process of discipleship.

“As the Church continues to grow, stewardship education is part of the nurturing of our people,” Puni said.

A major focus of Stewardship Ministries is management of personal finance and tithing. Puni said of members who don’t tithe: more typically forget than don’t believe in the concept.

The world conference will offer numerous seminars on a range of stewardship subjects, including budgeting, property and Christian ethics.

The conference, set to be streamed live from the denomination’s world headquarters, is jointly sponsored by the Adventist world church’s Stewardship Ministries department and the Inter-American Division.

Speakers include Adventist Church President Ted N. C. Wilson, Vice Presidents Pardon Mwansa and Ben Schoun, Inter-American Division President Israel Leito, and Andrews Seminary professor JoAnn Davidson. The conference will feature training workshops, panel discussions, question-and-answer sessions, and worship and musical presentations.

The conference will be the first global advisory held online from the denomination’s headquarters. Church leaders said recent technology upgrades to the Church’s website would enable greater collaboration in the future.

“We are excited to begin hosting events on our new Adventist.org platform and to partner with other departments,” said Andrew King, assistant Communication director for the Web. “We’re wanting people to realize the benefits of making their events available to a much wider audience through the Internet.”

Puni said the weekend’s schedule will include the following themes:

Friday afternoon: Foundations of stewardship
Saturday morning: Stewardship and worship
Saturday afternoon: Financial stewardship and one’s obedience to God
Sunday: Personal financial matters, family budget, stewardship of property and Christian ethics.

For more information and to register for the World Steward Online Conference, visit adventiststewardship.com.