We would like to introduce to you some of the women elected to leadership positions at the General Conference Session in St. Louis in July 2025.
Crystal E. Ward grew up in Brooklyn, New York. Her grandmother used to tell her extended family, “Stick together, trust God, and pray for the Holy Spirit.” She did. On July 9, during the sixty-second General Conference Session in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, Ward was nominated and then elected as an associate Ministerial secretary for the world church.
Just one day before, on July 8, Ward had written to God in her prayer journal. “Lord, I just want to be used in an impactful way, however You want to use me.” Not in her wildest dreams could she have imagined that less than 24 hours later she would receive a mandate to support Adventist pastors, elders, and deacons at a global level.
“I am in awe,” Ward said. “I don’t even know what my new position entails yet. But I was told that this is an opportunity to impact the world church on a global platform. And when I look back, I can see it’s an answered prayer.”
Success on Wall Street
Ward’s story seems out of a movie script. She studied finance and investment, and specialized in policy and executive management, graduating from Columbia Business School. She eventually made it into the corporate world of Wall Street. In a tough and competitive environment she ended up as a senior vice president in banking.
However, Ward felt she wanted to do something more fulfilling. “I wanted to live the purpose God was calling me for. But at the time, I honestly didn’t think it was a call to full-time ministry.”
Blessings of the Pandemic
Then the COVID-19 pandemic hit. While Ward had always served the churches she had attended as a layperson, the closure of churches allowed her to get even more involved than before. It was at that time that Ward felt a distinct call to ministry. “Intellectually, I knew what it was to be called, but then the experience happened. I prayed about it, fasted, and talked to some of my mentors, who told me, ‘Indeed, you are being called to ministry.’ ”
A New Direction
In August 2020 Ward enrolled at the Andrews University Theological Seminary and started online. The following year, as the school returned to in-person classes, she put her place up for rent and moved to Michigan, where the seminary is located.
Three years after Ward was installed as Spencerville pastor, she was elected to her new position at the GC. “I was impacting Spencerville, and I loved that. But now it seems God is taking me to another level of impact,” she says.
A Seat at the Table
Ward’s experience has shown her that when you commit to God, He can lead you to places you hadn’t imagined, but always with a purpose to serve others. “I believe that God has allowed me to have seats at certain tables where many others would like to be, and being there, I can be that voice for whoever needs to be represented,” she said. “It’s not just about being a woman or being Black. I think God has given me different experiences, and I can talk into those experiences at whatever table He places me at.”
According to Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review
Read the full article: https://session.adventistreview.org/i-am-just-a-willing-vessel/