SCC

FROM THE PRESIDENT

Dana C. Edmond
Dana C. Edmond
President
(Ext. 127)

From Me to You-Our Greatest Threat

Welcome to our website!

I have even changed the picture that I used for nearly 10 years (I do not have many pictures of me that I like; I surmised that adding my wife to my picture would improve it!). this is the first step in the upcoming new SCC Website upgrade.

Part of the new format will allow me the opportunity to write a new article in this space. The other one was about a year old; that will not do. So, my goal is to write a new article for this space each month. I shall call it,”From Me to You,” because that is what I want to do in this space each month-talk to you about the things I am thinking.

I was at a retreat, when I first heard the term “SWOT.” It was kind of a self-analysis of your organizations, it’s strengths, its weaknesses, its opportunities and the threats to it. The first letter of each of those spells “SWOT.”

I am not sure that organizations use the term “SWOT” anymore, or whether it has been replaced by the next trendy catchphrase that people use at retreats now. But, I got to thinking: Suppose we did a “SWOT” analysis of South Central? What are our strengths? Our weaknesses? Our Opportunities? What Threats are out there for us?

Let’s do a really quick” SWOT” analysis:

Strengths: One of our strengths are the people of this conference. We still like coming together for Campmeetings, Youth Congresses, etc. --that has not died out here, as it has in other places. I think that there is value to our coming together.

Additionally, there is still a basic commitment (albeit, probably not as strong as it used to be) to a basic, “traditional” Seventh-day Adventist lifestyle in this conference. And our workers (another strength) still believe in evangelism.

The fact that Oakwood University is in our conference is a huge advantage. Oakwood attracts families, it attracts retirees, it attracts professionals; at least some of the young people who come to Oakwood for school stay here. Approximately one third of the tithe revenue of our conference comes from the Huntsville area, where Oakwood is located.

Without Oakwood, we would have to develop and maintain our own campground for Campmeeting; that would drain hundreds of thousands of dollars from our operations. Soon, we shall have to make a final decision as to what direction we are going to take with our campground; we have to be intentional about it-and, we have not been. That has to change-and, God helping us, that will change.

But a part of the “inconvenient truth”, as former Vice President Al Gore would say, is that, in all likelihood, developing and maintaining a campground, will cost a ton; at least, at first.

But for now, having Oakwood in our territory, temporarily (though not permanently) saves us from having to address that.

Weaknesses: We probably live in the area that has the lowest per capita income of any conference in North America. The Lord has richly blessed the faithfulness of His people and we have been spared the staff layoffs that hit our more “affluent” brethren.

But, we operate on kind of a thin margin. We need all of the workers that we have, in fact, we need more workers, but relative to our income, we probably have too many workers. That dynamic is something about which I pray almost every day.

Opportunities: There are a lot of opportunities; I shall mention two. One is our health message. The world is coming around to where Ellen White was a “zillion” years ago, on the benefits of temperance on diet, exercise, use of water, proper rest, etc. The health problems in the black community provide a huge opportunity for witnessing in my opinion, if we would aggressively take advantage of it-which is one of my long-term goals.

And although nothing has caused me more stress lately, I think there is a huge potential opportunity in our church schools. There is a market out there, I believe, for affordable, quality, private education. If the world knows that we are offering that (and we have no choice but to offer quality if we want to stay in business; why would people pay money for an inferior product when there is a free alternative? Not only that, but God deserves quality if we are to claim that our schools are His schools) they will come running to us. That will give us additional witnessing opportunities, if we maintain our standards.

Threats: Once upon a time, our biggest threat was a 42 million dollar lawsuit, staring us in the face. But God’s people prayed and God delivered.

Ironically, though, we now face an even greater threat; I call it “The Threat of No Threat”, or, “The Threat That Comes When the Original Threat Goes”.

Remember how earnestly we prayed during the lawsuit? The history of God’s people seems to be that we pray earnestly when we get into trouble, but not so much when the Lord gets us out of trouble. Our history is that we do not do well when we are doing well.

I am more afraid of us forgetting to pray now that the lawsuit is over than I was when we were still dealing with the lawsuit. I always believed that the Lord would deliver us from the lawsuit.

It might be a little more difficult for Him to deliver us from ourselves. So, let us not forget to pray. And-please do not allow a single day to pass without praying for Mrs/. Edmond and for me.

See you next month!


Elder D. C. Edmond
President