The Seventh-day Adventist Church is organized with a representative form of church government. Authority in the local church comes from the membership and executive responsibility is given to representative members (in the the local church) officers to govern the Church. This structure is maintained from the local church up to the General Conference. There are four levels of Church structure from the individual believer to the worldwide Church organization:
The Local Church
The local church made up of individual believers. Local churches elect their own officers and church boards by majority voting usually for a one year or two year period. Different congregations use either a one year or two year term of office.
Local Conference
The local conference, or local field/mission, made up of a number of local churches from the Islands of Barbados, Dominica, St.Vincent and the Grenadines. Churches elect delegates to the conferences which meet "in session" every two or three years. Executive authority between sessions is exercised by the Conference Executive Committee and the executive officers (normally President, Secretary and Treasurer), all of whom are elected by the session.
Our Union
The union conference, or union field/mission, is made up of conferences or fields within a larger territory. For our conference this is the Caribbean Union Conference. This comprises the North Caribbean Conference, St.Lucia Mission, Grenada Mission, Tobago Mission, Guyana Conference, Suriname Mission and South Caribbean Conference . Elections to administrative posts is usually done every 4 to 5 years.
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