Pastor Busi Khumalo was elected world director of the Seventh-day Adventist Church's Youth Ministries for the 2025 to 2030 quinquennium. The choice took place during the 62nd General Conference Session, held in July 2025 in St. Louis, in the American state of Missouri, and was reported by the Church's official channels, among them the Adventist News Network and the Adventist Review.
The role carries direct weight in the lives of millions of children and teenagers: it is this department that, at the top of the worldwide structure, coordinates the Adventurer clubs, the Pathfinder Clubs and the Master Guide program on every continent. In practice, the guidelines that reach your local club are born of decisions made at that level.
What was decided and where
According to the Adventist News Network, the Adventist Church's official news network, the delegates gathered at the 62nd General Conference Session elected Busi Khumalo to lead the Youth Ministries Department for the 2025 to 2030 period.
The General Conference Session is the largest administrative gathering of the Adventist Church and takes place every five years. It is there that delegates from around the world elect the main world leaders and vote on decisions that apply to the entire denomination. The 2025 edition, the 62nd in history, was held from July 3 to 12 in St. Louis, in the United States.
The election of departmental directors, such as the one for Youth Ministries, is one of the stages of that process. Once elected, the new director becomes responsible for the portfolio at the world level, coordinating the work with the Divisions — the large administrative regions into which the Church is organized across the planet.
Why this reaches your Pathfinder Club
For the Pathfinder, the natural question is: what does an election held in the United States have to do with the club at my church? The answer lies in the structure of the movement.
According to the Adventist News Network, the General Conference Youth Ministries Department oversees three programs linked by age group: the Adventurers (the youngest children), the Pathfinders (the best-known stage, ages 10 to 15) and the Master Guides, the leadership training for those over 16. This is the same design you find in your club.
Between the world director and the local club there is a chain of coordination. In Brazil, the clubs are organized by Division — the South American Division (SAD) —, then by Unions, Conferences and Missions, until reaching the church club. The broad guidelines on program, calendar and identity of the movement flow through that chain. Changing the leader at the top, therefore, is not a distant detail: it means defining who will set the tone of world Youth Ministries for the next five years.
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Busi Khumalo is a native of southern Africa and has a long track record within youth work. As the Adventist News Network reported, he has accumulated more than 33 years of ministry: about 10 years in the pastorate and another 23 dedicated to youth ministry, chaplaincy and work with public university students.
Before reaching the world position, he had already been leading Youth Ministries in entire regions. According to the same source, he was departmental director in the South African Union between 2003 and 2010 and, afterward, led the portfolio in the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division (known by the acronym SID) from 2010 to 2022. A Division is the largest administrative region of the Church, which gives a sense of the experience he brings to the global post.
Khumalo succeeds Pastor Gary Blanchard, who had led the department in the previous quinquennium. The transition is part of the normal renewal of leadership that happens at each General Conference Session.
The inspiration in the Pathfinder Pledge
In an interview reproduced by the Church's official outlets, Khumalo linked his passion for young people directly to the Pathfinder Pledge — the commitment that every member recites and that, in many countries, many know by heart. He cited precisely the final part of the text as his motivation to serve.
According to the Adventist Review, the official magazine of the Adventist Church, Khumalo pointed to as inspiration the passage that, in the English version of the Pledge, corresponds to: "By the grace of God, I will be pure, kind and true; I will keep the Pathfinder Law; I will be a servant of God and a friend to all."
The Pathfinder Pledge and the Pathfinder Law are the two texts that sum up the values of the movement and are declared at the opening meetings of the clubs. In citing the commitment to be "a servant of God and a friend to all," the new director tied his world mandate to the same ideal that a ten-year-old child repeats in their club.
Adventurers, Pathfinders and Master Guides: what the department coordinates
It is worth understanding the scope of the portfolio that Khumalo is now set to lead. Youth Ministries does not look after only the Pathfinders; it embraces the entire journey of the young Adventist, organized by age.
The Adventurers gather the youngest children, generally aged 6 to 9, in a lighter, family-oriented program. The Pathfinders make up the central stage, from ages 10 to 15, with the regular classes, the honors and the large camporees. And the Master Guides are the leadership track: young people from age 16 who prepare to lead their own clubs.
Stitching all of this together are the great events that give the movement its identity — such as the camporees, gatherings that bring together thousands of Pathfinders to camp and compete, and the investiture ceremonies, in which each member receives official recognition for the class completed. Coordinating global guidelines for that universe, while respecting the differences of each country, is the challenge the new director receives for the next five years.