How a movement that began in the pews of other churches became a union of five conferences around the Great Lakes.
Early 1800s
The Second Great Awakening sparked revival across the United States. More people had Bibles at home and studied Scripture for themselves. Truths such as the seventh-day Sabbath and the literal Second Coming of Christ came back into view.
1863
The General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists is formed.
1889
The General Conference groups state conferences into districts, six at first and then eight. District three covers Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin and Ontario, with an advisory superintendent.
1901
The districts become union conferences, each with its own officers and department heads. Arthur G. Daniells is elected head of both the General Conference and the Lake Union Conference. He is the one who first organized and staffed the Lake Union.
Headquarters
Except for a short stay in South Bend, the Lake Union has been headquartered near Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan.
Today
Five conferences, Illinois, Indiana, Lake Region, Michigan and Wisconsin, make up the Lake Union, part of a worldwide church of more than 20 million members.
Timeline drawn from “The Heart of Lake Union,” by Emmett K. Vande Vere, first published in the January 1976 issue of the Lake Union Herald.
Where Adventism began
Before they were Seventh-day Adventists, the founders of the denomination sat in the pews of other Protestant churches in the early to mid 1800s. They were farmers, lawyers and teachers, and a handful of early leaders were already in pastoral ministry. People began to crave a more authentic Christian walk than the traditions and rituals that had become routine.
Several separate groups of devout Christians were scattered across the northeastern United States. What began as the “Advent Movement” is now a worldwide Protestant denomination with more than 20 million members. Discover more