General Council
The General Council is the 5-member body elected by the SDB General Conference to address Conference matters between delegate sessions of Conference Week–providing creative leadership, collaborative strategy, and supportive encouragement to the mission and ministry of the Seventh Day Baptist General Conference.
Russell Johnson
Currently serves as Pastor of Abiding Love Ministries in Rome, NY, and Interim Pastor of the Verona Seventh Day Baptist Church. He previously served as Lead Pastor at Verona (1978–1990) and later as Outreach Pastor, continuing to encourage church growth, revitalization, and planting efforts across the SDB community.
He studied at Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary from 1968–1971 while beginning his lifelong partnership with his wife, Jennifer, in 1969. They have been married for 56 years and are blessed with two children and seven grandchildren.
His service to the wider Seventh Day Baptist denomination includes roles on the SDB Council on Ministry (1982–1985), the SDB General Council (1985–1990), and as President of the General Conference (1986). From 1990 to 1998, he served as Director of Extension / National Extension Minister, supporting church growth and development across North America.
In 1998, he launched a successful IT services corporation to provide independent financial support for ministry. In 2023, he transitioned out of business to return to full-time ministry. Since then, his primary focus has been strengthening SDB witness and effectiveness through mentoring, training, and coaching church planters, including formal training as a church planting coach.
Steve Osborn
Steve Osborn lives in Firestone, Colorado. He and his wife Angie have four grown children. Steve serves as Lead Pastor of Frontier Church – Carbon Valley, a Ministry of Seventh Day Baptists, and as a member of the SDB Church Planting Task Force.
Helmer Umaña
Pastor Helmer Umaña was born in El Salvador, into a Christian Sabbath Keeping Family. He grew up as member of the Church of God Seventh Day (CoG7). Due to the Civil war in El Salvador his wife Anna Vilma along with their two chikdren, Karen Elizabeth and Helmer Jr., moved to California after his wife’s father and her two younger brothers were killed. They started attending the CoG7 located in East Los Angeles since 1983, where he served as Deacon for about 5 years. They moved to the same Church in San Fernando Valley, CA. In this Church he served as Elder and was a student on the SUMMIT school of Theology located in Denver Colorado. In December 1994 he helped start a new Church with some families on Fairland Road in Silver Spring MD. In on 2005 the church changed affiliation to Seventh Day Baptist, and they were accepted as members of the SDB in Newberg, Oregon in the year 2007. He has served as Pastor for the last 30 years. I have attended and completed the 3 Institute courses through the Center on Ministry in Janesville WI, Ordained on April 2008, an Accredited Minister on July 2015. He has served on the SDB Historical Society, and is one of Coaches in SDB Church Planting.
Maura Mazza
Maura Mazza became a member of the Bay Area SDB church while in college, after being convicted of the Sabbath. She and her husband Frank, as well as their three children currently attend the Shiloh SDB church. Maura has led youth groups and taught Sabbath school over the past twenty years. She has also planned and led several mission trips for Shiloh to serve alongside other SDB churches around the General Conference, and has served the Conference as the Nominations committee chair. Maura is a middle school special education teacher.
Erin Inabnit
Erin Inabnit is a wife, mother of two, teacher of many, and strives every day to better walk in the footsteps of Jesus. She grew up in Riverside, California, and spent her college years on the East Coast before resettling on the West Coast. She and her husband, Eric, spend most of their free time driving their school-age children around to various practices and events near their Washington home and are actively involved in the Seattle Area Seventh Day Baptist Church. After serving as a Trustee for the SDB Memorial Fund, she is excited to stretch herself and grow as she follows God’s call.