The Lake Region Conference administration, left to right: Executive Secretary Abraham Henry, President Garth Gabriel, Treasurer Kent Nichols, and Vice President for Multilingual Ministries Eddie Allen.
Following that pivotal meeting, the Lake Region Conference was born on Jan. 1,1945. This was the very first Black, or what’s commonly known as regional, conference.
In 2025, the conference celebrates 80 years of ministry. It marks a journey that has grown in ways those early pioneering leaders may never have imagined.
In November 2024, Lake Region’s Communication Director JeNean Lendor sat down with the current conference leadership: Garth Gabriel, president; Abraham Henry, executive secretary; Kent Nichols, treasurer; and Eddie Allen, vice president for multilingual ministries. Below is a transcript of the interview, as they reflected on the conference’s mission over the years, the successes and challenges, and cast a vision for the future of Lake Region. The interview was edited for length and clarity. You can watch the full interview below.
Lendor: You are all part of the fabric of the current landscape of the conference, and not many people may know you beyond your [current] positions, beyond your roles and responsibilities. Pastor Gabriel, you have a strong history in music. Pastor Henry, you know that without this position, you have led by being a significant youth director for so many years. Pastor Nichols, you've been a CEO of your own financial company before coming into ministry. Pastor Allen, you were an administrator in Africa. So, tell me a little bit about what brought you into these leadership roles.
Gabriel: I know it seems somewhat trite, but the Lord has led me all the way, sometimes to paths unknown, and I love just being able to walk with Him daily. Sometimes I have no idea where He will take me. [My journey] may not have been linear, but it's almost cyclical in that I'm able to do music still and preach. I believe that God has blessed me with the ability to put both together.
Henry: I sincerely appreciate the opportunities that God has given me. My local church first trusted me at a young age and gave me responsibilities and opportunities for growth. I had a pastor who poured into me at the local church and a board who trusted me. I'm so grateful that I have a president and colleague who I work with who trust me, and constituents who took a leap by giving me this opportunity. It's been an opportunity to learn and to grow and be able to make a difference in representing individuals in my sphere and in my age group, not far removed from being a young adult myself. So, it's been an awesome journey, so far.
Nichols: It may sound cliche, but just like the president said, I feel like the Lord led this journey. I never had any aspiration to be a chief financial officer (CFO). I always wanted to run my own company. I feel like one of the pivotal things that happened to me is that something happened in my life where God said, “Okay, I'm going to stop something that you're doing well financially, and I'm going to make you look up to Me and realize that you have to depend on Me completely for everything.” It changed my whole trajectory of how God wanted to lead me and take me. Eventually I would go into ministry. I never thought I was going to be the CFO for Lake Region Conference. I was just happy to get into ministry, to be a pastor and to be faithful at work. And so, I feel like God has led that journey all the way.
Allen: I was in the country of Zambia, speaking with my wife, when she said, “Hey, Dr. [Walter] Wright (Lake Union president at the time) called you twice, and said that you need to call him back.” So eventually I called. He said, Eddie Allen, we need you over here. I had no idea what a regional conference was, because in the Northwest, where I studied and worked for many years, we did not have that. I have had a wonderful time working with my colleagues. I believe I have the best job in the Lake Region because on any different Sabbath I’m exposed to so many different language and cultural groups. It’s just amazing.
Lendor: So, January 2025 will mark 80 years of the Lake Region Conference. Is there any one word or phrase that encapsulates the significance of 80 years as a regional conference?
Gabriel: We are part of history—serious history. After the Lake Region Conference, we had eight other conferences join at different times, but we are the original regional.
Henry: I would say, still paving the way. We're growing in leaps and bounds. I always think, if the original administrators at this conference had a chance to watch us on the television screen, would they be proud of what they're seeing? I believe they would. We are just shy of 32,000 members. That's something to be proud of, but that's also an indication of how many more souls we have to win in our major cities and all throughout our fields. So, we have work to keep on doing, paving the way.
Nichols: I'm going to say that we're historically strong, relevant, persevering and moving forward dynamically. We keep that history before us to move forward, to be strong, to make sure that we're always persevering in what we do and what we believe, and then also making sure that we're dynamic for the new generations.
Allen: I am here thinking the word challenging. Always expect the unexpected. There's no dull moment. As far as my ministry, you're always surprised by something. Don't take it personally because it's the Man upstairs’ business anyway. Just do what He called you to do.
Lendor: There are some who celebrate the relevance of regional conferences, but then there are those who don't appreciate their relevance. Unfortunately, some of those might be our young adults. There's a generational gap, which unfortunately might have been caused by the pandemic, because it caused a generational spiritual gap as well. People stopped going to churches as often, their interest in even watching church online might have waned. How would you respond to someone who might say, “Why are regional conferences still significant?”
Henry: We're on the front lines. I think about one of our pastors in South Bend, Pastor Claval Hunter. I think about pastors like him who choose to engage in frontline ministry. We're called to not just shape communities and impact lives. Yes, we’re called to kingdom impact. But we also have so much work to do down here. We've been relevant. We tune in to what's happening outside, what's happening in the world. If there's a shooting in our community, our pastors are there; if there's someone hurting, our pastors are there; if a school is shut down for a specific reason, our pastors are involved; if there's a need for funding, our pastors are trying to find ways to do it.
Gabriel: [You talk about young adults] we are one of two regional conferences that has a young adult leader, and if we look at the statistics of the church, we've lost many of our young adults and with good reason sometimes. We are trying to make up for lost time, change some of our attitudes and how we were brought up, and recognize the difference between the young adults of today and the young adults of yesterday. And so, we have a young adult leader, Pastor James Doggette Jr., who is geared to bringing those young folk back into the fold.
Lendor: We have many schools in our conference, some now have not quite gone back to being K through 12. Some of them are just [Grades] one through eight. Tell us a little bit about the status of education in our conference.
Gabriel: A few years ago, we had to close a few schools. We lost a lot of students, and I don't really know what caused this demise. We found out it was not just in the Lake Region. There were several conferences where schools were being closed, not enough money. Where we are right now, we are making a comeback. Praise God! Our enrollments have spiked, our school buildings have been worked on, and we have spent quite a bit of money to ensure the success of our schools.
Henry: We have record-breaking numbers in Indianapolis, exceeding 75 students at our school there. At several of our other schools, enrollment is at an all-time high. Also, when we speak about infrastructure, not only did the conference make an investment in our schools — we're talking about well over $250,000 — we're also speaking about our greatest resources, the people.
Nichols: As treasurer, I see that we are committed financially to our teachers. We have phenomenal teachers, teachers who are doing phenomenal work in our school system. We are committed to that in our budget. We're committed to that and giving money for fixing the schools. But we do have some challenges. How do we meet the demands of what the world is offering, be competitive and also be Christian at our schools? Because there are some places where people can go to a public school, they can get a great education without paying anything for it, except out of their property taxes. So, we do have to look at some other ways. There are things that we can do that bridge that gap and provide other sources of funding to help those who are worthy for those scholarships, so that everyone who wants to have a Christian education can go. We also must make sure that we not only keep our education and curriculum excellent, but also keep it in an environment that people are proud to be a part of.
Allen: We have a lot of young people, but a lot of them are not in our schools — we have to be true. I've spoken to the pastors and I've spoken to churches about it. I think when we are intentional with recruiting staff [who speak the language of the immigrant group] it’s effective]. You could see the difference, for instance, in Indianapolis with the Burmese or the Hispanic in South Suburban. Kudos to Superintendent Deirdre Garnett. She is intentional about that.
Nichols: If I could just add, our president came up with the idea that we need to look for alternate sources of income when it comes to our schools. He thought it would be a great idea to look into grants. We just finished out a school grant for almost $289,000. We have another grant that we can use with our schools and our churches for over $1.2 million. So, we are thinking outside of the box.
Lendor: During the last two quarters of 2024, there were in-person midterm reports taking place around the conference. What feedback have you gotten?
Gabriel: The directive from the constitution and bylaws of Lake Region Conference is that we have midterm reports. I like having to do it because it keeps us in touch with the members. They know what we've done thus far in our ministries, and it's a way that we can get support from them. In other words, if a presentation is made and we can do better, usually the members speak up. We are here to serve the members and serve God, of course.
Henry: Midterms is an awesome opportunity to refocus on who Lake Region is. Lake Region Conference is not individuals sitting in an office in Mokena, Illinois. Lake Region Conference is officers, administrators, departmental directors and pastors, but Lake Region conference is 32,000 people. So, at midterm reports, it's not one small, elevated group that feels they're giving a lecture about what they've done to others. No, it's our conference coming together and having conversations about what we're doing together.
Nichols: We work for the Lake Region Conference, indirectly and directly, but at the end of the day, our success is [the constituents] success. We are successful because we have people paying faithful tithe and offering. We are successful because we have pastors that are being supported by their members to grow their church. We are part of a family that is doing the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Lendor: When you're having discussions with church members, what is the feedback on evangelism in the conference?
Allen: Evangelism is alive and well in this conference, and I could speak from the multilingual ministry — we're growing quite a bit there. Since the last quadrennium [three years ago], we have planted and organized seven new multilingual churches. We have two Kinyarwanda [Rwandan/Congolese] churches, two Filippino churches, a Korean church, a Hispanic church, and we just voted to organize a French-speaking church.
Gabriel: This year [2024], we've had more baptisms than we've had in 10 years. So, we are busy.
Henry: We’ve had over 500 baptisms and counting. And this is humbling because we didn't even notice. It was only as we were preparing for midterm reports that we began to see just how good God is. What I'm seeing coming out of the pandemic is that ministry can't happen on the backs of administrators and pastors. It has to be churches coming together. What I'm loving to see is total church involvement. Members are involved. They're doing the work. They're winning souls. I’m excited for next year!
Nichols: If I could add something. You asked the question, “What are we doing about that gap of young adults, or that generation that is on social media that doesn’t really feel like there’s a need to come to church, or why do we have to have a regional conference?” This perfectly explains it. Until we start engaging, until we start interacting with people, until we start making a difference in their lives, they won’t get involved. And so, we have to go out and meet them where they’re at. Most of our younger generation don’t want you just to tell them, they want you to show them. They want transparency. They want realness and when we engage like this, we will make a difference even in the generation of today!
Lendor: There's a major evangelism effort coming in 2025. What will Pentecost 2025 look like for Lake Region?
Gabriel: I'm excited. We're number one in the North American Division for having the highest rate of churches enrolled [More info on Pentecost 2025 at https://pentecost2025.com].
Henry: Our president made it very clear to us that we don't have a position called manager in this conference. We're pastors, and as pastors it is our job to be in front pushing soul winning. And he said, “There ought not be a church or a pastor not involved in Pentecost 2025.”
Nichols: We know every pastor may have a vision on what they want to do for evangelism, and those funds are going to be utilized for that. That aspect may be a community engagement, it may be doing a health fair, it may be a lay person that the [church] wants to support. But at the end of the day, we want to make sure that we represent the gospel of Jesus Christ, and then we point people to the Man who can change their lives and who can make a difference. At the end of the day, we want to just make sure that we do [this] with excellence, that Christ is magnified and that souls have an opportunity to make a decision for Christ.
Lendor: If you could think of one or two things that in 20 years, 25 years, 50 years, you would love to see the conference have, what would that be?
Gabriel: If Jesus doesn’t come [by then] it’s because He’s waiting for us to be ready. I would do my best, as I know my colleagues would, to do what we can to hasten His coming. You want that Holy Spirit falling upon us, like it did at Pentecost. We will pray earnestly for the Holy Spirit. As a matter of fact, why wait? We can do it now.
Henry: I want to see us close some generational gaps of working together. I think we've set the example of different age groups coming together on our team. All of us are different ages, and we work together so well. We want to see that at the local church. I want to talk to young adults and youth, and I want to appeal to them, “This is not your season for sitting out. This is not your season to be benched. This is not even your season just for preparation. This is your season to serve now where you are; use what God has given you. You don't need a pulpit in front of a church. Take your pulpits and go to the highways and boundaries. This is your season. This is your call. Let's do the work. Let's finish it.”
Nichols: One of the goals and desires of our conference is to make sure people fall in love with Christ, to fall in love with His character, fall in love with Him. If He does delay, one of my dreams here at Lake Region would be to have an educational endowment fund, so that we never have an issue when it comes to paying our teachers the best, to making sure that our schools are [the] most innovative and have the best structures, and making sure that every child that comes into our institutions, our churches, our schools, can go and get a Christian education.
Allen: My mind is refusing to grasp that Christ would delay in coming. If Christ would delay, I would hope this conference will always live as if Christ were coming tomorrow. That means we will be doing the work He called us to do. But at the same time, “God, won’t You come soon?”
Lendor: Thank you for the blessing you are to the conference, to each other and to me. You lead with humility and transparency.
Lake Union Herald staff
