On Thursday June 22, the Oregon Conference Executive Committee appointed Jonathan Russell to be the next Assistant to the President, a position vacated by Randy Hill as he begins his new role in the Pacific Union Conference later this summer. Jonathan will continue to lead the Communications team through the end of this year’s camp meeting and will officially begin to serve in his new role on August 1, 2023.

Formerly the lead pastor of the Sunnyside Seventh-day Adventist Church, Jonathan joined the Oregon Conference Communications team at the beginning of 2018, and has been hard at work reframing communications to meet the ever-changing needs of our modern world ever since. “One of our goals has been to build bridges between local churches and the conference,” Jonathan shared, “I think for a number of generations now people have really been asking, ‘What is the conference all about?’ and it has created a lot of barriers where people don’t understand its purpose. I was one of those people myself. I didn’t understand the conference and didn’t feel like I had time for it, so in our communication work it’s been really important for us to tangibly serve local churches, to build those bridges between them and the conference, and to tell the stories of what God is doing at the local level. Everything we’ve done has been about aiding and lifting up local church ministry, and in that way, I see this new role as a continuation of that. Working alongside churches at a critical point in their history––the transition from one leader to another––and being able to help recruit people that we believe God is calling to this region is an amazing responsibility and, in some ways, it’s just a continuation of what I’ve had the privilege of doing since I came to the conference five and a half years ago.”

In his new role, Jonathan will be vital in the work of pastoral placement and recruitment. “In Oregon we have a long history of placing pastors in districts with great care,” he said, “There are interview processes, we work with committees from local churches, and we do assessments that help us determine the fit of a potential pastor with each community. It’s a fairly comprehensive process that takes a lot of time and legwork that may not be required in other conferences, so the assistant to the president really is responsible for helping with that labor, making those connections, and working with the conference president to do the best we can in providing the right leaders for our churches.”

Over the course of his five-and-a-half-year tenure in Communications, Jonathan Russell’s leadership has made an incredible and lasting impact that will continue to shape how we share the Good News of Jesus for many years to come. “I believe the future of the church depends on a community that values technology and embraces creative communicators that will help us translate and share the Gospel in our modern world,” he said. “We have to intentionally make space for creative people to do their best work in framing the Gospel for each new generation, and over the past few years we’ve been blessed to have the opportunity to pioneer some models for how we can work with people who want to make a difference in new forms of media.” Under Jonathan’s guidance, the Oregon Conference Communications team has grown its responsibilities to include many new and impactful initiatives including greatly expanding impact through social media, partnering with Adventist creatives for training and outreach projects, mobilizing volunteers for emergency response (such as wildfires and greatly increased needs through Adventist Community Services during COVID-19), greater administrative transparency through regular reporting across a variety of media, and more focused attention on local church ministry. Jonathan has also been instrumental in developing a creative communications ministry environment that mentors one of the most difficult-to-reach demographics in the Adventist church today – young adults. From helping create the first ever “Digital Content Specialist” position to working with nearly a dozen young adult volunteers and interns during the summer months, the Oregon Conference Communications Department has quickly grown into a hub for meaningful, Christ-centered creative ministry whose leadership and influence extends far beyond the Pacific Northwest. “I think we’ve taken some huge strides these past few years in being able to serve local churches and to help them feel like if they have questions about communication strategy, media, live streaming, or anything else technology-related, they can get help. I feel like our team has really stepped up to be able to meet churches where they are, provide recommendations and training, and to really help take some of the stress out of those changes.”

Though his daily duties will change as he transitions into his new position, Jonathan shared that the heart of each ministry is similar. “My goal is to make sure that in our work we are as transparent as possible along the way, and that we have good communication in the process so that our local churches can have reasonable expectations for what the recruitment and placement process looks like as they go through it. I think that if we communicate well and if we have really good dialogue about where the church is headed and what the values of each church are, we can all get to the end of the pastoral placement process feeling like we all worked together to follow God’s will for each church.”

“The Oregon Conference has been blessed to have Jonathan serving in the role of Assistant to the President for Communication for more than five years,” said Oregon Conference President Dan Linrud. “Under his leadership the communications department has excelled. In that role he has been a significant extension of the voice of administration in our field. Jonathan’s input continues to be highly valued in the Administrative Council (AdCo). I am excited to continue working with him in this new role as he takes on new administrative responsibilities including pastoral placement, camp meeting responsibilities, special projects, and more.”

We are so grateful for the innovation and service of Jonathan Russell through communications ministry and look forward to all of the new ways God will use him in his new role!