BAUC Year end meeting 2025 – Baltic Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

On the second-to-last weekend of November, 21–22 November, the Baltic Union annual meeting took place in Pärnu. Members of the Union Council and leaders of various departments gathered on Friday evening to open the annual meeting with a shared prayer and a reflection by Andres Ploompuu, Secretary-General of the Estonian Conference. Andres compared mission work and counselling, concluding that these two fields are not as different as they may seem at first. Both must begin with relationship and listening, then helping, and only afterwards delivering one’s message, Andres said, explaining that Ellen White describes Christ’s method in the same way.

On Sabbath, participants headed to the Pärnu Adventist Church, where the day began with Bible study in groups, followed by a sermon on mission work by David Nõmmik, President of the Baltic Union. David’s message carried the same title as the annual meeting itself: “Together in Mission – together in Unity.” The sermon was based on Psalm 133, which presents two images of unity: oil poured on the head and dew descending on the mountains. “David knew the value of unity because he had experienced its absence, when brothers cannot get along,” David said. “Division is natural, but unity is supernatural. Unity is not achieved by looking at one another but by focusing on Christ.”

A characteristic feature of Union annual meetings is that every few years representatives of specific departments gather together; this year, participants included representatives from the communication, youth, and education departments. In the afternoon, the respective groups met to discuss the questions David had presented and later shared their conclusions with the others.

Communication department representatives discussed how their department could help connect other departments, how it could support the church in communicating the story of Jesus Christ, and which social media platforms are being used—or not yet used sufficiently—for this purpose.

In the education group, the discussion revolved around the future of ministerial training after the current education programs come to an end.

The youth ministry group examined how to ensure that youth ministry is not focused solely on events but becomes a natural part of church everyday life.

Treasurers discussed how to ensure financial transparency and how to help make tithing and offering a normal practice for all church members. They also considered the possibility of having treasurers attend meetings of church elders and pastors to explain these issues more thoroughly.

From the Secretariat’s presentation, one idea stood out: the need to develop clear guidelines for conducting meetings online so that both discussion and decision-making can take place safely and reliably.

The presidents of the three conferences within the Union, together with the Union president, discussed what should be the priority focus for the next five years. They unanimously concluded that it should be the development of a mission culture—a process that will certainly take longer than five years.

On Sabbath afternoon, participants also listened to David’s report summarizing a presentation by Daniel Duda, President of the Trans-European Division, given at the division’s annual meeting a few weeks earlier. Together they discussed the challenges and opportunities that Duda had highlighted.