General Conference Annual Council 2024 SDA Hensley Moorooven Billy Graham Adventists

Annual Council of the General Conference October 13, 2024 Afternoon

Hensley Moorooven: (Undersecretary of the General Conference)
speaks about Excellent Leadership and mentions Billy Graham here.

He forgets that in 1956, after the publication of the article “Are Seventh-day Adventists Christians?” in Eternity magazine by Donald Grey Barnhouse, Adventists were invited to participate in Billy Graham's crusades.

Transcript:
Hensley Moorooven: (Undersecretary of the General Conference)
Thank you and a few words on this commitment to Excellence. Let me ask you a question. Why should we pursue excellence in whatever we do? Why should we pursue to Excellence in whatever we do?

Karnik Doukmetzian: (General Counsel for the world church of Seventh-day Adventists)
Because God demands nothing less.

Hensley Moorooven: (Undersecretary of the General Conference)
Amen that's the very nature of everything God does am I right. Did you get that? We pursue excellence in whatever we do simply because that's the very nature of everything that God does. Therefore when you as a leader, I as a leader, we pursue excellence in what we do. We give credibility to the image of your organization and when your organization pursues excellence in what you do you give credibility to the gospel message that this organization is to preach. Am I making sense to your ears? We cannot be an organization that is poorly led and then we pretend that we preach a gospel of the Kingdom to others.
Billy Graham said one day he was (quickly quickly my friend Karnik we will move to the second A in a few seconds) Remember what I said when you pursue excellence in your organization, you give credibility to the message that we ought to be preaching. Billy Graham said one day he was in a city he did not know where the post office is and he wanted to mail a letter Karnik he went and said he saw a little boy, brother parliamentarian and he asked brother son can you show me the post office, of course it's over there. And then Billy Graham told him, "You know I'm in town now preaching tonight I would like to invite you to come under the tent come he said I will show you the way to heaven. The little boy said no sir I'm not coming. Why aren't you coming? You don't even know the way to the post office how can you lead me to heaven? So if our organizations are poorly led, if our organizations are poorly led, as a sheer matter of governance the future of preaching the word augers poorly. That is why we commit to Excellence in what we do. Not Perfection we don't have time to explain that but it is Excellence. Let's move second A second A brother Karnik.