James A. Cress
Seventh-day Adventist Ministerial Association Secretary

James A. Cress, who serves as Seventh-day Adventist Ministerial Association Secretary for the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, considers himself a pastor on loan to the General Conference.

Along with his wife, Sharon M. Cress, who serves as coordinator of ministry to pastoral spouses and families, Jim has served the Adventist church as pastor, evangelist, departmental director, and instructor in evangelistic methods and preaching.

He graduated from Southern Missionary College with a B.A. in Theology and received a M.Div. degree from the Theological Seminary at Andrews University and a D.Min. degree from Fuller Theological Seminary.

His most satisfying work, however, is pastoring a local congregation, along with encouraging and motivating other pastors to excellence in ministry.

Jonas Arrais
Associate Secretary, Elders

Jonas Arrais, is the Associate Secretary of the Ministerial Association.
Jonas came here from Brazil. He holds a bachelor's in Theology, a Master
of Divinity Degree, and a Doctor of Ministry Degree from Andrews
University. He has more than 22 years of experience as a minister and
has served for the last 5 years as Associate Ministerial Secretary for
the South American Division of SDA. In 2005 he was elected to be part of
the General Conference Ministerial Association.

Sharon Cress
Associate Secretary, Shepherdess International

Sharon Cress is an associate in the Seventh-day Adventist Ministerial Association with the responsibility of clergy spouses and children. She has served the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a Bible worker, associate pastor, seminary leader, and for nine years as coordinator of Shepherdess International, the ministry to clergy spouses.

Willie E. Hucks II
Assistant Editor, Ministry

Prior to joining Ministry he was a college professor and a pastor.
 
For the past six years he has been at Southwestern Adventist University, Keene, Texas where he was associate professor of religion.  Previously he was a pastor in Louisiana and Texas with the Southwest Regional Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.  He taught courses to both ministerial and general students. He also participated in various evangelistic meetings in several countries. 
 
The new assistant editor is a graduate of Oakwood College, Huntsville, Alabama and he received his M. Div. from Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan.  Recently he successfully defended his D. Min. dissertation at Andrews.
 
Hucks is married to Kathleen (nee Alexander), a school teacher.  They have two children, Whitney and Kendall.

Anthony R. Kent
Associate Secretary, Continuing Education, Professional Growth, PREACH

Anthony Kent has recently come to the General Conference Ministerial Association from the South Pacific Division where he served as Division Ministerial Secretary and the Director of the Institute of Evangelism. Anthony's ministry experience includes pastoring local churches, church planting, public evangelism as a union and division evangelist, and leading study tours and other professional growth events for pastors. He has recently developed a Ministerial Internship Development and Training syllabus. Anthony is happily married to Debora and they have two daughters Chelsea and Georgia.

Cathy Payne
Resource Director

Cathy Payne joined the Ministerial Association in 1996. Her experience working with several publishing houses, The Media Center and ADRA International help to prepared her for her role as Director of the Ministerial Resource Center. Under her guidance literally hundreds of useful resources have been developed and produced for pastors, elders and laity all over the world.

Peter Prime
Associate Secretary, Evangelism and Church Growth

Peter Prime joined the Ministerial Association in 1999 as an Associate Secretary in charge of Evangelism and Church growth. He has earned two Master's, from Andrews University and more recently his D.Min. from Fuller Theological Seminary. Before joining the Ministerial Association Dr. Prime was President of the Caribbean Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventist.

Nikolaus Satelmajer
Associate Secretary, Editor Ministry

Dr. Nikolaus Satelmajer started his ministry in New York City, thereafter serving in leadership positions in upstate New York. He was Senior Pastor at the College Park Church, Oshawa, Ontario prior to coming to the Ministerial Association where he's in charge of continuing education and programs for clergy of all denominations.