Dear Wisconsin Church Family,
In 2001, my wife and I were blessed to answer the call to serve as the youth pastor at the Green Bay Church. We were humbled by Conference President Don Corkum’s willingness to take a chance on us, given that we were relatively inexperienced in ministry. Laurella and I had only been married for about two years, and I was just graduating from Southern Adventist University when we received the call to Green Bay. We accepted and then immediately got out a map to see where we had agreed to move.
Working in the Green Bay Church with Pastor Delmar Austin was an immensely rewarding time in our ministry. The families, too numerous to name, that blessed us in Green Bay are still close to our hearts to this day. It has been a blessing to see those kids, now all grown up with families of their own, contributing positively to the cause of God.
In 2005, following our time in Green Bay, we were blessed to work with the Sheboygan and Milwaukee Northwest churches. They were gracious to us as we engaged in ministry we knew and experimented with ministry we weren’t yet competent in. They nurtured our growth and provided us with a loving church family. Our son Joshua was born as we arrived in the district, and he enjoyed his first 5 years in these two churches.
In many ways, even though my wife is from California and I am from Ohio, we have grown up in Wisconsin. We have now lived in Wisconsin longer than anywhere else, and it has a feeling of home.
In 2010, we were happily surprised to receive a call to pastor the Wisconsin Academy District. The staff, kids, and church family at WA became a meaningful part of our lives. The Beaver Dam Church also worked its way into our hearts as I was able to worship with them most Sabbath mornings for an early church service prior to meeting with the Wisconsin Academy Church.
In 2013, we accepted a call to pastor in the Nevada/Utah Conference in Salt Lake City. We agonized over this call as we loved Wisconsin, the people we worked with, and the experiences we had been blessed with. After much prayer, we accepted the call and moved into the heart of Utah. It also quickly became a blessing to us.
In 2016, Elder Mike Edge called me and told me it was time “to stop wandering in the wilderness and come home.” We accepted a call to serve as the ministerial director back in Wisconsin and have been serving in this position ever since.
It has been a blessing over the past eight-plus years to work with the pastors and churches of the Wisconsin Conference. I have taken seriously the call to protect, nurture, support, resource, and assist our wonderful team of pastors. It has also been a blessing to visit our various church families as I have been able. Preaching and problem-solving have provided fulfillment, and we have seen the church of God grow.
I have lost track of the dedications, baptisms, weddings, funerals, and other ministry milestones that we have been able to participate in, but it has been a blessing to see lives changed for Jesus. We are grateful and humbled as we see how God has used us to be a part of this process.
Some of our greatest ministry triumphs and some of our most significant challenges have all occurred in this wonderful conference. We thank you for celebrating the good times with us and for providing comfort through the struggles.
You have probably guessed by now if you haven’t already heard, that my wife and I have accepted a call to another conference. God has opened a door for me to serve as a Ministerial Director in the Carolina Conference, where I will be able to provide support for churches, pastors, and members in this new field. This transition is bittersweet for us. A huge part of our hearts are here in Wisconsin, but we are looking forward to the new adventure God has in store for us.
We aren’t gone yet; our transition will take place directly following the camp meeting. So we’ll still be around for a few months. As we conclude our ministry in the Wisconsin Conference, our prayer is that the “church” in Wisconsin will remain faithful, as they were before we arrived, and continue to be faithful long after we are gone. The world around us is pretty crazy; I join those who have gone before me in believing that it can’t be much longer until Jesus comes to take us home. That said, I pray we will continue to be faithful to the calling God has placed on our lives to serve Him.
Even as life continues to move forward, we are never far away—just an email (pastoradamcase@icloud.com) or phone call away.
I pray that we have been a blessing in Wisconsin for Jesus because the Wisconsin Church Family has certainly been a blessing to us.
I have been blessed to be part of a strong team in the office, and I pray this team can remain strong. I have been blessed to see our pastors faithfully answering the call, and I pray our pastoral team will continue to be faithful to their calling. I have truly been humbled by the faithfulness, generosity, and dedication of our church members, and I pray that God continues to give you strength as you carry forward the mission of spreading the gospel to all the world.
I look forward to seeing you around the conference and at camp meeting this year. After that, I look forward to seeing you in heaven!
God bless,
Adam Case
Ministerial Director & Pastor