Equipped For Ministries

NEW ORLEANS – More than 325 members from the greater New Orleans area attended the January 25-27 ministries leadership training presented by the Southwestern Union, Arkansas-Louisiana Conference and Southwest Region Conference at the New Orleans First Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The weekend began with an impactful training session on leadership presented by Southwestern Union President Larry R. Moore on Friday evening.

On Sabbath morning, union and conference leaders visited 10 area churches, presenting messages for the worship service and enjoying fellowship with the members. On Sabbath afternoon, the New Orleans First church was filled with those eager to learn and grow their ministries as training sessions on and for preaching, elders, deacons and deaconess, men’s ministries, women’s ministries, family ministries, children’s ministries, treasury, community services, stewardship, evangelism and more were presented in English, Spanish and French.

“I am overjoyed at the number of our members in the New Orleans area that were looking to be inspired and equipped through this training event. Although the union and conferences continue to present many different seminars on one or two specific topics throughout the year at churches throughout the union territory, this collaboration between the union and conferences allows for a more comprehensive and efficient ministries training event. It is our goal to present two to three larger Equipped for Ministries events in the Southwestern Union territory each year. We want to support, equip and inspire our members and conferences in their local ministries,” says Elton DeMoraes, vice president for church ministries at the Southwestern Union. DeMoraes presented training sessions for elders, deacons and deaconesses ministries at the New Orleans event.

“We had a wonderful group asking great questions and interacting together” says Sonia Canó, children’s ministries and Sabbath School ministries director for the Southwestern Union. In addition to presenting training sessions, she held a 2019 Vacation Bible School (VBS) workshop on Sunday morning.

The next Equipped for Ministries training event is planned for June 21-23, 2019, in Tulsa, Oklahoma. For details, visit SouthwesternAdventist.org/Training.