Dakota Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
The administrative office of the Dakota Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, located at 7200 North Washington Street in Bismarck, North Dakota, serves as the headquarters for Seventh-day Adventist members residing in North Dakota and South Dakota.
The motto of the Dakota Conference is “Sharing the unchanging love of Jesus in a changing world.” Dakota Adventists are passionate about worship, health, education, and the joy of serving Jesus Christ. Each Sabbath (Saturday) morning, nearly 4,000 members gather to worship in 47 churches, companies, and groups. Sabbath School, the Bible study portion of the service, typically begins at 9:30a, and the worship hour typically begins at 11:00a. (Individual church times can be verified under the “About Us” tab, then choose “Find a Church.”)
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is the most racially diverse religious group in the United States. We embrace people regardless of race, national origin, gender, color, age, marital status, or disability.
Dakota Conference operates six elementary schools across the two states. Each summer, Dakota members and guests gather at the Dakota Adventist Academy campus for an annual four-day convocation called Campmeeting. This gathering provides a time for spiritual growth through training, inspiration, and fellowship. Summer camps for children, teens, and families are held at Northern Lights Camp along the Canadian border and Flag Mountain Camp in the beautiful Black Hills of South Dakota.
Each church in the conference is representative, meaning local churches elect their own officers and church boards through an annual nomination process. Delegates from constituent churches meet in executive sessions throughout the year to facilitate mission and governance, and every five years to vote conference personnel.
The Larger Organization
Similarly, churches are organized into geographic conferences in Iowa-Missouri, Kansas-Nebraska, Minnesota, and Colorado-Wyoming. A regional conference called Central States also exists across these locations, which, together with the Dakota Conference, form the Mid-America Union.
Unions are organized throughout the world into Divisions and Divisions into a worldwide unit called the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, located in Silver Spring, Maryland. The churches, unions, and divisions are all representative, and a similar model of representation functions at the union and division levels, as it does at the local church level.
Various Seventh-day Adventist institutions operate within these levels to further the gospel of Jesus Christ, including education, health care, publishing, and media outreach. Jesus’ method of loving compassion to relieve suffering by ministering to people’s needs and bidding them to follow Him is our corporate mission.