Minner Labrador Jr. joined the Upper Columbia Conference (UCC) team as president in June 2018. His road to the Northwest began years ago in New Jersey.
“Soon after I was married, I had a trucking company based in New Jersey,” says Labrador. “That was where the Lord called me to ministry.”
His path to ministry led him from the Eastern Seaboard to Tennessee, where he graduated from Southern University in Collegedale, Tenn. From Tennessee the young couple and their newborn son went to Andrews University in Michigan. Labrador has pastored in Florida and North Carolina and served the Adventist Church in North America working in men’s ministries and most recently at the regional level working as a vice president for ministries and ministerial director in Arkansas, Louisiana, New Mexico and Texas.
“I believe God prepares each one of us for different chapters, different places, different seasons in our lives,” says Labrador. “I believe He has brought Evelyn and me to this place in time not because we’re fully equipped but because He’s able to equip us. The experiences God has blessed me with through my ministry have created in me a desire to see that ministry replicated. The joy that comes when one person comes to the Lord is absolutely indescribable.”
“I believe that God has prepared me for this season to encourage UCC members to reach out to every individual as though they were the only one that Christ is pursuing," he continues. "We all matter to God and when we touch the life of another person, we glorify His name.”
Labrador believes Christ has called each member to participate in sharing God’s love with others. Recently, he shared his vision for ministry with the UCC executive committee. He began by telling a story.
“I was at Andrews University preparing for a class. My oldest son was about 5 years old. He was riding his bike outside our appartment. Time went by and when I looked out the window, I couldn’t see my son. He was gone. As you might imagine, I immediately panicked.
"I called for help. Campus security came out and neighbors came out and everyone was looking for him for several hours. I eventually did find him, but those few hours that he was missing were most difficult.
"If someone had said to me, ‘Labrador don’t worry about it. You still have your younger son, you don’t need two,’ I would have had a difficult time accepting that statement.”
God used that incident to plant a deep longing in Labrador’s heart for lost people. Here in the Inland Northwest we’re faced with a challenge within the church. Statistics from 2017 research tell us that only four out of 10 members attend church. That means 60 percent of our members are missing from the church. Where are they? Why are they missing?
“My vision for Upper Columbia Conference is twofold,” says Labrador, “First, we need to bring back those we’ve lost. If we’ve hurt them, if we’ve discouraged them, if we haven’t met their needs or if we’ve dishonored the name of the Lord through some action, we need to apologize and welcome them back. I believe Christ is coming soon, and I don’t want anyone to be lost. Four don’t replace six. Each one needs to be home.”
The second part of the Labrador’s vision for the conference is to reach those not part of a church family. The goal is to plant seeds and invite lost people to healthy congregations and announce to the world that Jesus is coming soon.
“We want to win more souls for Christ,” says Labrador. “We want to invite people to come into the family of God, and we also want to retain our current members. In order to do that, we have to be ready to receive them. We have to love people, provide ministries that meet their needs and find ways to assimilate them into our church family.”
“I long to see a vibrant, mission-focused church family here in Upper Columbia Conference,” says Labrador. “Evelyn and I are so thankful and blessed to be part of the church family here in the Inland Northwest. It’s our prayer that each of us will let Jesus use us fully for His kingdom.”
Minner Labrador Jr., Upper Columbia Conference president, shares his vision for ministry.
