RMCNews – Ward, Colorado … Each year, Adventist educators from across the Rocky Mountain Conference (RMC) are pulled together prior to the start of the school year to be encouraged, inspired, and connected through worship and professional development.
“Across our conference, you serve students of different ages, backgrounds, abilities, and experiences. Yet we are united by one mission: to help every student know that they are seen and loved by God, gifted for a purpose, and equipped to serve,” was the connecting reminder from Diane Harris, RMC superintendent, to the almost 80 conference educators at the 2026 RMC Teachers’ Convention, August 1-2. Harris was joined with co-convention coordinator and new associate superintendent Andrew Carpenter.
This sentiment was supported with this year’s theme of “Known. Called. Sent.” which was expanded to “Known by God. Called to become like Him. Sent to make Him known.” Harris commented, “This theme begins with what is already true because of God. He knows us completely, calls us with purpose, and sends us into the lives of others.”
The convention began on Saturday with an opening Sabbath service and message by Dave VandeVere, RMC president, who tied the biblical story of the Samaritan woman at the well to the weekend’s theme and had attendees break into several small group discussions. He urged the educators, “We cannot be so distracted that we forget our call to lead students to Jesus.”
Timothy Gillespie, vice president of Mission and Ministry for AdventHealth Rocky Mountain Region, provided two messages for the attendees that day. Gillespie, while now a healthcare administrator and previously a pastor, had brief experience as a physical education and Bible teacher and has a number of family members in education.
Gillespie’s first message weighed heavily on the relationship between the educator and student as Christian Adventist teachers: “Education is the baseline of what you do. Education can be transactional, but the best education is relational.” He stressed the importance of creating a culture to foster this relationship for authentic impact in a student’s life.
“I think it’s so easy nowadays for our students to put on a persona for their friends and to be in that social media culture, which is something Tim Gillespie talked about,” commented Mathias Gallaher, new headteacher at Brighton Adventist Academy. “It’s really important as educators—and something that will be a challenge—to really help our students break down those walls and feel known. And when we start there, and help them to feel known, then we can show them the mission and we can show them they’re calling and then send them out to share it with others.”
The following day of the Convention was a full day of professional development led by Kristin Poage, an associate at Marzano Resources,* who reviewed an instructional framework to improve student achievement termed The New Art and Science of Teaching.
Of the new teaching staff present at the convention was the teaching principal Bobi Crenshaw from the Sonshine Academy in Worland, Wyoming, that has just reopened for the 2026-2027 school year. “Two years ago, I got the very strong impression that it was time for me to leave where I was, and I prayed about it. I listened to my shepherd who said, ‘I have somewhere else for you to go.’ I really felt called that Worland was where I needed to go.”
Crenshaw continued, “When we were getting ready to go. My house sold within ten days. We found a house, and I just feel that God has sent me here. So, I feel very known, very called, and very sent.”
The format of the convention was different this year, being held at RMC’s Glacier View Ranch (GVR) in Ward, Colorado. Remarking on the change, Harris said, “Our time together at Glacier View Ranch will give us an opportunity to pause before the school year begins, to worship, reconnect, learn, and remember that none of us carries this calling alone. My hope is that teachers leave Glacier View Ranch reminded that they are deeply valued, renewed in their calling, strengthened for the students God has entrusted to their care, and more deeply connected to the larger family of RMC Education.”
* Marzano Resources is not affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church nor the Rocky Mountain Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
—RMCNews, Photos by Liz Kirkland.
