Max Torkelsen plans to retire as North Pacific Union Conference (NPUC) president at this year’s NPUC constituency session on Sept. 25. He formally announced his decision to the NPUC executive committee during the regular May 4 meeting in College Place, Wash.
Torkelsen has been NPUC president since November 2008, when he was elected to replace the deceased Jere Patzer. Prior to that he had served more than a decade as president of Upper Columbia Conference, and before that, as the conference’s communication director.
His role at the NPUC brought him nearly full circle to where he began ministry as a young pastor in the Woodland/Cedar Creek district just north of where the NPUC office is now located in Ridgefield, Wash.
The NPUC executive committee along with several added pastoral and lay representatives from local conferences will function as the nominating committee to bring a replacement name to the Sept. 25 NPUC constituency session. The nominating committee will be chaired by Dan Jackson, North American Division president, during the next executive committee meeting scheduled for Aug. 17.
