2008 Host Committee Update

Here is a quick update from your 2008 Conference Host Committee . . .



See you in Kenosha!!!

SDB Center's Museum Opens New Exhibit!!!

The Seventh Day Baptist Historical Society is proud to announce that a new exhibit is open at the Seventh Day Baptist Center. The exhibit is a walk-through history of Seventh Day Baptists, including artifacts and photographs from more than 350 years of SDB history. For those travelling to General Conference or World Federation, the exhibit will be open in conjunction with the Open House at the SDB Center on Sabbath day, August 2, from 2:00-3:30pm. You are cordially invited to attend and see this new exhibit!

The exhibit was designed and put together by Jim Skaggs, a retired history teacher and member at the Seventh Day Baptist church in Madison, WI. The Society is grateful for his hard work on this project.

SDB Center busy with Conference Preparations

We here at the SDB Center are busy getting ready for the Conference and before Conference sessions. I would say pre-conference sessions but that might confuse some. This year, in addition to the Pre-Conference retreats (Youth and Young Audlt) the SDB World Federation is meeting, as are the regular meetings for SCSC Evaluation, the Coordinating Leadership Team, General Council, the SDB Memorial Fund and the Council on Ministry. All of this before the first worship time on Sunday night August 3. Enjoy the pictures here. Registrar, Linda Lawton wearing her registrar hat (at least sitting at her registrar desk), volunteers working in the conference room compiling (stuffing) registration packets, and the growing pile in the basement garage of things to take to Conference

Conference is Coming! (a rabbit trail)

Kevin's post today hit a musical trigger which sent me on a rabbit trail. The following is the result on the backdrop of current Conference receipts and with apologies to your end of the year traditions and Bing Crosby who popularized the song in the US. To get the tune you can hear the original here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mchDHct4Hvs

So here goes:

Conference is coming! If you're making plans, it's late.
Please to bring a gift to put in the offering plate.
If you haven't got a big gift, than a small one will do,
If you haven't got a small gift, then God bless you.


May God give you safe journey and a joyous heart.

Conference is Coming!

Some Highlights of Upcoming Conference
at Carthage College, Kenosha, Wisconsin:

Daily, Monday – Friday, August 4th – 8th
6:15 a.m. Prayer time
8:00 a.m. Praise from Around the World (World Fed. Delegates)
8:45 a.m. Bible Studies
7:00 p.m. Vespers
Monday – Young Adult Pre-Con
Tuesday– Youth Pre-Con
Thursday– Baptist World Alliance General Secretary
Friday– Men’s Chorus
7:30 p.m. Worship Services

Boards and Agencies Reports/Programs
Monday– 10:15 a.m. Executive Director
1:00 p.m. Memorial Board
1:30 pm. Board of Christian Education
Tuesday– 9:45 a.m. Council on Ministry
Wednesday– 9:45 a.m. Missionary Society-National
10:15 a.m. Historical Society
10:45 a.m. Tract Council
1:00 p.m. SCSC
1:30 p.m. World Federation
Thursday– 9:45 a.m. Missionary Society-Internat'l

Seminars – Tuesday, 1:00 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. (repeated)
-Today’s Contemporary Musician in Worship
-Turn Your Life Around: Breaking Free from Addictions
-Church Planting
-Using High Tech to Bring God’s High Touch
-"My People are TOXIC” cries the Lord
-So You Want to Host a General Conference? (2:30 only)
-Church Finances: For Pastors and Church Leaders (1:00-5:00 only)

Plenary Seminar – Thursday, 1:00 p.m.
Becoming Overflow People by Steve Sjogren,
Author of Conspiracy of Kindness and 101 Ways to Reach Your Community

Sabbath Day, August 9th
8:30 a.m. Communion
9:30 a.m. Sabbath School
10:30 a.m. Sabbath Morning Worship
12:00 -1:30 p.m. Lunch
2:00 p.m. Awards and Recognitions
3:30 p.m. Praise in Motion
4:00 p.m. Children’s Program
5:00 - 6:30 p.m. Dinner
7:00 p.m. New President Installation
9:00 p.m. “The Least of These” Concert

SDB Center To Host An Open House

In honor of the visiting SDB World Federation delegates and 196th SDB General Conference at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin the SDB Center in Janesville, Wisconsin will host an informal Open House on August 2nd, from 2 PM - 3:30 PM. The address is . . .

3120 Kennedy Road
Janesville, WI 53545
(608) 752-5055

If you are in the area prior to General Conference plan on stopping by and visiting our international guests and seeing your SDB Center!

See you then!

Tribute To The Past While Moving Forward Into The Future

The past few weeks the SDB Center in Janesville has been preparing for General Conference. Earlier this month the SCSC team from the SDB Milton Church spent a week at the Center cleaning both inside and outside. We filled TWO DUMPSTERS with old, unsused equipment from the basement and offices (We now have a usable garage!).

We also now have on display 37 photos of SDB Churches from around the world on the walls in the hallways (to help us remember we serve the churches). During the clean up we found a plaque from the original SDB Center in Plainfield, New Jersey which has now been installed in the Center.

The biggest addition though is an oil painting of the SDB Building in Plainfield, New Jersey by Larry Schultz, a member of the Milton SDB Church.

If you are in the area during Conference stop by and see all the improvements and additions.

SR Page Sponsors piling up

Remember the Sabbath Recorder mailing that came to your home last month? It featured a special offer to sponsor a page in honor of Leanne Lippincott-Wuerthele’s recent retirement.

Instead of the usual $125 page sponsorship donation, we suggested that readers could send in $3 for each of the 26 years of Leanne’s faithful service as assistant editor. So far, nearly every page of the September issue will be sponsored for Leanne. Thank you so much!

(Some generous readers sent in the $78 above-and-beyond their usual gift, including other page sponsorships or Editor’s Circle memberships. Wow—Thank you!)

You can still honor this servant—who will continue to write her “Reflections” column in the Recorder—by sending your gift today. Seventy-eight dollars is a real bargain to sponsor a page, and it will honor Leanne’s long tenure at the SDB Center. God bless you!

Mistake in Lyons Obituary

The July-August Sabbath Recorder lists the obituary of our dear brother (and faithful Conference attendee) Neville "George" Lyons of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. George passed away on New Year's Day this year.

In the second-to-last paragraph of the obituary (page 25), there was a mistake in the listing of George's survivors. It should read:
"Survivors include his three children, Duane, Marlon, and Karlene; three brothers, Fritz, Conlief, and Joseph; and two sisters, Joyce Lyons of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Charlene Lyons of Toronto."

We apologize for the error.

Mission to the Ukraine

An invitation from Teresa Johnson:

On behalf of the Seventh Day Baptist Church in Waterford, Connecticut, I'd like to invite you to our church at 206 Great Neck Road on July 18th at 7:30 pm. Our friend Claire Case will be presenting her slides from last summer's mission trip to the Ukraine. She is expected to go again this summer, and will give us more information about that trip on the 18th.

Come to be blessed and renewed by listening to what God is doing in a different part of our world!

For more information, contact Teresa at tere.johnson@sbcglobal.net.