Origin from 2025
On 4 July 2025, delegates at the sixty second General Conference Session in St Louis, Missouri, elected Erton C. Kohler as the twenty first president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, succeeding Ted N. C. Wilson by a vote of 1,721 to 188. Kohler, born in southern Brazil and previously the General Conference's executive secretary since 2021, became the first South American to lead the denomination's roughly twenty three million members across more than two hundred countries. He is a longtime champion of the church's Mission Refocus initiative, which identifies thirty high priority unreached and under reached areas for renewed evangelism. Addressing the more than 2,800 delegates after his election, Kohler said he moved forward renewed in confidence in the Lord and the church, and described Mission Refocus as a call for integration across the church's global structure.
Facts
Dates
StatusEstablished marks the denomination's own peaceful transfer of its highest office through delegate vote, not a claim about congregation growth or membership figures, which the church's own separately published statistical reports address. Connections
Associated With
This source names Global directly: "for integration across the church's global structure."
Source Erton C. Kohler Elected as General Conference President (North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists)
This source names Missouri directly: "Conference Session in St Louis, Missouri, elected Erton C."
Source Erton C. Kohler Elected as General Conference President (North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists)
Occurred In
Source Erton C. Kohler Elected as General Conference President (North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists)
Spread Event Of
Closes a three year gap since 2022's citation of Ted Wilson's re-election at the 61st General Conference Session, moving the map from an incumbent's return to office to the election of Erton Kohler as the first South American to lead the denomination.
Source Erton C. Kohler Elected as General Conference President (North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists)
Sources
1. Erton C. Kohler Elected as General Conference President (North American Division of Seventh-day Adventists)
Erton C. Kohler Elected General Conference President (Adventist Today)
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