Anyone who reaches the Advanced Master Guide — the LMA — is no longer discovering the club. They have already been a Guide, already been a Master Guide, already invested Pathfinders, already assembled a portfolio and faced a review board. The LMA is the top of the leadership ladder, and it exists precisely for those who will train other leaders: regionals, coordinators, people who sustain the Ministry beyond their own club.
Because it is the highest step, it is also the one that raises the most questions — and the most hallway legend. "Do you need to be twenty?" "Do you really have to have been a Master?" "Is it true it has a Gold Medal?" "Who invests, the pastor or the Division?" The answers exist, they are objective, and they are spread across three official documents of the South American Division (DSA): the leadership classes program, the card guidelines, and the Pathfinder Club Administrative Manual.
This guide brings everything together in one place, separating what is written policy from what changes from card to card over the years. Data verified on 07/22/2026 from the official sources listed at the end.
What exactly is the Advanced Master Guide?
Pathfinder leadership has three steps, in this order: Guide, Master Guide, and Advanced Master Guide. The LMA is the third and last — the highest a volunteer can reach within the class program.
It is not an "extra" class or an honorary trophy. The DSA's official guidelines are direct: each leadership level must be reached separately and in ascending order, starting with the first, regardless of the person's age or experience. No one enters in the middle. A 35-year-old adult who has never been a leader starts with the Guide class, just like an 18-year-old.
And there is a rule that catches many experienced people off guard: the requirements you completed at one level do not count at the next. What you did to become a Master Guide is not carried over to the LMA. Each card is a whole card, completed from the beginning. The logic is the same as at university: an undergraduate degree does not give you automatic credits toward a master's.
Why does such a demanding step exist at the end of the line? Because the LMA was designed to train those who train. It is the level intended for the leader who will act beyond their own club — in the region, the district, the field —, helping the local staff to have focus and vigor. It is second-degree leadership: leading leaders.
How old do I need to be to start?
The short answer: 20 years old to begin the class.
It is worth seeing the whole ladder of ages, because it explains why the LMA comes so late. The Guide class can be started at 16, but the investiture only happens at 18. The Master Guide requires being 18 years old. The Advanced Master Guide, 20 years old. Each step has its own minimum age, and they rise along with the responsibility.
| Leadership level | Minimum age | Level prerequisite | Who invests |
|---|---|---|---|
| Guide | 16 to start; 18 for the investiture | All regular classes completed | Pathfinder Ministry of the Conference/Mission |
| Master Guide | 18 years old | Having been invested as Guide (min. 1 year) | Union or Conference Ministry, upon authorization |
| Advanced Master Guide | 20 years old | Having been invested as Master Guide (min. 1 year) | Division or Union Ministry, upon authorization |
Notice that age is not enough. Being 20 only unlocks the LMA if you have also already been invested at the previous level. Someone who is 25 and never took the Master class cannot begin the Advanced one — they have to climb the whole ladder. Age is one of the keys to the door, not the whole door.
Do I really need to have been a Master Guide first?
Yes, and with no shortcut. The central prerequisite of the LMA is having been invested as a Master Guide — and receiving the insignia yesterday is not enough.
The DSA's guidelines call for real experience at the previous level: generally, at least one year acting as a Master Guide before starting the Advanced one. The idea is not bureaucratic. The LMA assumes you have already run a complete cycle of Master leadership — taught classes, held a staff position, mentored people — and are now ready for the step that trains other leaders.
Beyond the previous level, three requirements accompany the candidate from the base of the ladder and reappear at the LMA:
- Being a baptized and active member of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
- Being affiliated with a club or with a district/regional coordination.
- Presenting a written recommendation from your church board — the local church needs to formally endorse that you are fit to be invested.
The candidate commonly also gathers the certificates from the training courses required along the leadership path (such as advanced-level Staff Training and the leadership courses), with limited validity — they usually last a few years. If your certificate is old, confirm with the field whether it is still within the deadline before attaching it. This is the layer that varies over time, and the one who says what is valid today is the Pathfinder Ministry of your Conference or Mission.
What does the LMA card really require?
The Advanced Master Guide card organizes the requirements into blocks — the same broad axes that accompany all of leadership, now at the deepest level. Before the list, an honest and important warning: the exact content of the card is revised periodically by the DSA, through the Pathfinder Ministry Guidelines (OMDs). Books change, master projects come and go, requirements are adjusted. Use the summary below to understand the logic of the card and always confirm the items of the current version before starting.
Personal and spiritual growth. It is the heart of the card. It includes the Bible Year (reading or audio, with certificate) and the study of the book Seventh-day Adventists Believe in the highest range of beliefs — each level takes a block of the 28 Adventist fundamental beliefs, and the LMA gets the last range —, followed by an exam with a minimum grade of 7.0 (70%), prepared by the DSA and administered by the field. Add to that guided readings of denominational books, with written reaction reviews.
Service to the club. Here the LMA demands continuity: keeping a position of responsibility on the staff over a period (with minimum attendance at meetings) and mentoring a candidate toward the previous levels — normally accompanying someone toward the investiture of Guide or Master Guide. It is the part where you stop being merely led and start pulling others along.
Applied leadership, discipleship and field life. The card brings together practical leadership requirements (taking part in the specific LMA course, producing materials such as a club discipline code), evangelism requirements (giving Bible studies, accompanying someone to baptism, taking part in the Youth Week of Prayer), and advanced-level outdoor skills (leading an expedition with a report, directing ceremonies such as the Council Fire). It is the block that changes most between card versions — check the current one.
Training: the LMA project. This is the hallmark of the level, and it is worth detailing. The candidate normally chooses one of two paths:
- Theoretical path (material production): researching a topic under the departmental director's guidance, producing a substantial written work — on the order of dozens of pages — and preparing and delivering classes based on that research. It is the LMA's "thesis," the work many people call the project.
- Practical path (field challenge): founding a new club and sustaining it for about two years, with planning, investiture of members in the classes, and a staff left standing. It is leadership tested in practice, not on paper.
Notice the message behind the two paths: the LMA does not want you to learn to lead — it assumes you already know and asks you to produce leadership, whether by forming knowledge or by forming a club.
Read alsoLeader ClassAnd the Gold Medal? Do I need it?
This question comes up a lot, and the answer helps to clear up a common confusion: in the South American Division's Advanced Master Guide card there is no "Gold Medal" requirement.
The confusion originates in international materials. The vocabulary of leadership "medals" and "medallions" circulates in translations, videos and programs from other Divisions of the Church and ends up stuck to the Brazilian LMA, where it simply does not apply.
In the DSA, what marks the LMA is not an extra medal: it is the completion of the card, the portfolio and the investiture. The insignia you receive is that of the Advanced Master Guide itself. If someone says you "need to earn the Gold Medal to be an LMA," ask for the source — it is probably material from another Division, and not the policy that applies to your club.
It is the kind of detail where it is worth following this site's golden rule: a number, requirement or insignia only counts if it is in the official DSA card. When in doubt, the card rules.
The portfolio, the 90 days and the Virtual Card
Completing the requirements is half the journey. The other half is documenting — and this is where organized candidates set themselves apart from those scrambling at the last minute.
Unlike the regular classes, where there is no portfolio, the leadership classes require a portfolio gathering all the documents and works that prove completion of the card, in the order of the requirements. The official guidelines even define the formatting: A4 paper, standard font (Times New Roman or Arial, size 12), 1.5 line spacing and defined margins. It is not fussiness — it is so the review board can evaluate fairly and comparably.
And there is a fixed deadline that decides a lot: the portfolio must be submitted to the Pathfinder and Adventurer Ministry of your Conference or Mission 90 days in advance of the date set for the investiture. Three months before. Anyone who submits at the last moment runs a real risk of not being evaluated in time and being held over for the next ceremony.
Today much of that flow happens in the Virtual Card, within the SGC (DSA Club Management System). You fill in the requirements and attach documents directly on the platform — PDF for texts, photo for proofs, within the file size limit. One detail of the flow: the virtual card is only released after the club's director or secretary accesses the SGC and fills in the first requirement for you, getting it started. And it only moves to pending approval once it reaches 100% completion. Where there is a regional coordinator, approval goes through them; where there isn't, the field approves directly.
Who invests an Advanced Master Guide?
This is the question that generates the most "guesswork" — and the answer is quite specific. The LMA investiture is not the club's, nor the local pastor's on their own, nor the Conference departmental director's alone. It rises to the top of the structure.
According to the DSA's guidelines, the Advanced Master Guide investiture ceremony must be carried out by the Pathfinder and Adventurer Ministry of the Division or the Union, upon authorization. It is the highest organizational level among the three leadership steps — consistent with the fact that the LMA is the very top of the ladder.
Compare with the lower steps to understand the logic of "the higher the level, the higher who invests": the Guide investiture belongs to the Conference/Mission Ministry; that of the Master Guide, to the Union or Conference Ministry; and that of the Advanced Master Guide, to the Division or Union Ministry. The responsibility of recognizing the leader follows the scope of what they were prepared to do.
In practice, this means planning with room to spare. An LMA investiture usually takes place at larger events of the field or the Union, on dates set in advance. Adding the 90 days of the portfolio to the calendar of those events, the sensible candidate starts the conversation with the club leadership and the field long before thinking they are "almost there."
Is it worth getting all the way here?
The LMA is laborious on purpose. It is years of ladder — Guide, Master, Advanced —, each with its own card, its own portfolio and its own review board. No one stumbles into the Advanced Master Guide by chance. It is a choice.
What it delivers is not status. It is preparation to lead those who lead. An LMA is fit to train new leaders, to take on regional roles, to sustain the Ministry when the club needs someone who has already seen the whole cycle run. It is no accident that the level is described as the most intense in training — from it come many of the regionals and coordinators who give focus to local leadership.
If you are at the start of that journey, the advice is the same as for any class: don't leave gaps behind. Do the Guide well, live the Master Guide for real — don't just complete the card, hold the role — and reach the LMA with experience, not haste. The top of the ladder does not reward those who climbed fast; it rewards those who climbed whole.
And always confirm the current version of the card with your field before starting. The rule on age, prerequisite and investiture is stable; the internal card requirements are updated from time to time. Starting off reading the right card saves months.