Biennial Constituency Session | Reaching Texas and Beyond

Tamara Michalenko Terry

May 16, 2021

The Texas Conference Biennial Constituency session took place on Sunday, May 16, 2021. Delegates joined via Zoom at 21 church sites throughout the conference. Texas Conference President Elton DeMoraes chaired the session joining Executive Secretary David Montoya and Treasurer Randy Terry streaming from the Texas Conference office.

Montoya officially welcomed everyone to the session and opened with prayer before DeMoraes challenged delegates to be bold in connecting with others to share their faith during his devotional.

After Montoya read the call (notice for the Biennial Constituency session), DeMoraes called the meeting to order and confirmed that there was a quorum in attendance from the different sites. A vote was then taken to conduct the session virtually. Since this is not a normal custom, the new, temporary, format had to be voted before continuing with the business session.

Once that passed, Attorney David Coggin was voted parliamentarian to ensure procedural process was handled correctly.

Changes in the sisterhood of churches were voted. That included those receiving Seventh-day Adventist Church status: Austin Spanish Central, Carrollton, Cleburne Country Life, Conroe Spanish North, Grove Spanish and San Antonio Filipino All Nations. The Corrigan Seventh-day Adventist Church voted to be dissolved. The Rosenberg Spanish Seventh-day Adventist Church voted to merge with Houston Spanish Southwest Seventh-day Adventist Church.

The previous constituency minutes were then voted before continuing with new business.

Former Texas Conference President, now Southwestern Union Conference President, Carlos Craig shared the President’s Report applauding employees and constituents alike for their diligent work especially through the pandemic. DeMoraes then presented Craig with a plaque to honor his years of service for the Texas Conference.

Montoya presented the Secretariat Report focusing on the baptisms and profession of faith numbers and membership increase.

Before Terry gave the Treasurer’s Report, General Conference Auditing Service Audit Specialist Roderick Cowley presented the Audited Financial statement declaring it a “clean report.” He shared, “In our opinion, as internal auditors of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, the combined financial statements referred to above present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Texas Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and Texas Conference Association of Seventh-day Adventists, Inc., as of December 31, 2020 and 2019, and the changes in their net assets and their cash flows for the years then ended in conformity with United States of America accounting principles generally accepted by the Seventh-day Adventist denomination.”

Terry then went through the Treasurer’s Report sharing tithe and other financial information for the Texas Conference. He gave praise to God and the faithfulness of the members for how the Lord has blessed the conference through these challenging times.

A motion was then made and passed to adjourn the meeting, so the remaining items could be discussed in person in 2023. Departmental reports were shared online for viewing.

The church sites did a tremendous job providing the Zoom option for delegates to meet. Delegates at two of the church sites had to seek cover when a tornado warning was issued in their area. A third church site was struck by lightning disconnecting their link to the meeting, so delegates had to join by phone at the church site.

“Even with all the challenges, it was nice to gather together,” DeMoraes said. “But we look forward to in-person discussions in two years.”

The printed version of the reports can be found online at issuu.com/texasadventist in the Spring 2021 issue of THE FLAME. Departmental reports are available to view at YouTube.com/TexasAdventist.

Questions regarding any of the reports may be emailed to questions@txsda.org.

Thank you for your prayers before, during and after this Biennial Constituency session. We pray God will continue to bless the Texas Conference as we strive to reach Texas and beyond.

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Tamara Michalenko Terry is an associate director for Texas Conference Communication & Public Relations.