On the north side of Andover, Minnesota, just across the old Anoka town line, the Andover Seventh-day Adventist Church keeps a quiet Saturday rhythm at 15036 Round Lake Boulevard Northwest. The congregation began life as the Anoka Seventh-day Adventist Church more than a century ago, then took the name of the town that grew up around its current building. Today it serves as a regional congregation under the Minnesota Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, supported by a multi-grade Adventist school, an active women's and men's ministry, and a network of weekly Zoom gatherings that keep members connected between Sabbaths.
A Saturday on Round Lake Boulevard
The Sabbath begins with opening remarks in the sanctuary at 9:30 AM. At 9:45 AM the congregation breaks into age-specific classes that run until 10:45. The Beginners class (birth to age 3) and Kindergarten class (ages 4 and 5) use the Alive in Jesus Beginner Curriculum and Our Little Friend. The Primary class (ages 6 to 8) follows Primary Treasure Online, and the Junior class (ages 9 to 11) uses Guide Magazine. Youth in Grades 9 through 12 meet in the Mother's Room with the Cornerstone Connections quarterly, while Young Adults gather at the back of the fellowship hall. Adult classes and the Women's Ministries class also begin at 9:45 AM.
Worship begins at 11:00 AM and runs until about 12:30. The service is held both in the sanctuary and on the church's YouTube Live channel, allowing members who are traveling or house-bound to follow along. Past services have been led by Pastor Ingrid Moon, by guest speakers from the Pathfinders club, and by the Women's and Men's Ministries groups. Several Sabbaths a year the morning closes with a potluck fellowship meal; the second Sabbath of each month hosts a Monthly Fellowship Potluck Dinner in the fellowship hall.
The church's stated mission is that the Andover SDA Church "will be a safe harbor for all people to experience God's love, grow in faith and become His disciples." A weekly Friday email newsletter called the Safe Harbor Newsletter is sent from AndoverSDA.Communications@gmail.com, the same address used to join the Safe Harbor Directory or request a printed version.
From the Ferry Street Church to the Lake
The congregation's roots reach back to 1899, when the Minnesota Conference of Seventh-day Adventists relocated the Minneapolis Preparatory School, also known as the Conference School (1888 to 1898), from the basement of the Minneapolis First SDA Church on Lake Street to the former Commercial Hotel in downtown Anoka. Renamed the Minnesota Industrial School, the program sat on the busy northeast corner of Ferry and Main Streets with an initial enrollment of one hundred students. A small group of local Adventists worshiped with the students on Sabbaths during the school year.
The local Adventists wanted a permanent church home of their own. When a Baptist congregation on the west side of Ferry Street, between what is now the walking bridge and a Walgreens, offered its building for sale, twenty-one charter members stepped forward in October 1900 and bought the building for $650. Constructed in 1858, the church was in sound condition and able to support the growing membership. A church school was started the following year and continued for several years, with the children's Sabbath School classes originally meeting in a basement that had a dirt floor until members poured concrete over it.
By 1966 a small Community Center building had been added behind the Ferry Street church, and over the years hundreds of area families received clothing, bedding, furniture and food there in times of need. By 1971, however, Anoka membership had grown past sixty and the 113-year-old building was showing its age. The congregation purchased property northeast of downtown Anoka on Round Lake in 1971 and began construction. Pastor H. I. Jarnes, members, and other supporters put in hundreds of hours of labor to complete the new church for a 1973 opening. The Ferry Street building was sold to a real estate developer that same year.
As residential growth pushed north of the city of Anoka, the church property was recognized as sitting within the town of Andover. The congregation voted to change its name to the Andover Seventh-day Adventist Church to match its location. Beginning in the late 1970s the church operated an elementary school in the church basement, and in 1993 a former neighborhood church on Lincoln Street in Anoka was purchased and converted into what is now the Anoka Adventist Christian School.
The Campground on the Rum River
Long before the present building went up, Anoka was already a notable place in Minnesota Adventist history. In 1899 the Minnesota Conference secured use of "a beautiful grove in the southeast part of the city" for the thirty-eighth Annual Conference and Camp Meeting, held June 6 to 11. About seven hundred people stayed in what the Anoka County Union called the "Adventist Campground," now George Green Park. The first Anoka Camp Meeting baptism, of forty-six believers, took place at a spot on the Rum River called "the eddy," just above the mouth of the river, with hundreds of spectators watching from the high banks.
The Conference returned to the Anoka campground for the 1915 to 1918 sessions, then again, with two exceptions, every year from 1923 through 1955. A water system was installed in 1926 and attendance reached 1,300. Local residents nicknamed the grounds "Cotton City" or "White City" because of the rows of white tents. Twenty cabins replaced some of the tents in 1946. A severe windstorm on June 22, 1952 collapsed the main meeting tent, an $8,000 loss with no injuries, even though ten men had been inside setting up for an evening evangelistic session.
Residential expansion and aging equipment led the Executive Committee of the Minnesota Conference to sell the campground back to the city of Anoka in 1955 for $55,000, double the appraised value. According to ABC Papers, twelve Adventists who had attended the first Anoka Annual Meeting in 1899 were present at the last session that year, fifty-six years later.
Wednesdays on Zoom, Thursdays at the Church
The week between Sabbaths is anchored by online study. "Lifting Up Jesus," a Bible study built around the current Adult Study Guide quarterly, meets on Zoom from 6:00 to 7:15 PM Central on Wednesdays. The Zoom ID is 777 915 455 with passcode Blessing. A Zoom prayer meeting follows at 7:30 PM, using the same ID and passcode. The fall 2026 schedule walks through the current quarterly with companion lesson PDFs, and on October 7 a new series, "Bible Readings for the Home," begins.
On Thursday evenings at 6:30 PM, the Andover SDA Weekly Prayer Meeting gathers in person at the church for a rotating prayer theme and devotion. The same evening at 6:00 PM, Conversations Cafe, an English conversation class held in cooperation with Anoka Adventist Christian School, meets at the school at 1035 Lincoln Street in Anoka for one hour of conversation practice. Men's Prayer Breakfast is held on the third Sabbath of each month at 8:00 AM, giving the men of the church a recurring spot at the table.
The Children's Wing and Anoka Adventist Christian School
Children have a place of their own each Sabbath morning and a school of their own during the week. Anoka Adventist Christian School (AACS) is a multi-grade Adventist elementary program located at 1035 Lincoln Street in Anoka. The school traces its roots to the late 1970s, when the Andover congregation began running an elementary school in the church basement. Enrollment and faculty size fluctuated through the 1980s until 1993, when the former neighborhood church on Lincoln Street was purchased and converted into the present facility. The school participates in the North American Division's Journey to Excellence 2.0 Adventist education program and can be reached at 763-421-6710 or anokaacs@yahoo.com.
The Sabbath School divisions on Saturday mornings keep children engaged with curriculum tied to their age: Beginners (birth to age 3) and Kindergarten (ages 4 to 5) use Alive in Jesus and Our Little Friend, Primary (ages 6 to 8) uses Primary Treasure, and Juniors (ages 9 to 11) use Guide Magazine. The Youth division (Grades 9 to 12) meets in the Mother's Room with the Cornerstone Connections quarterly, while Young Adults meet in the back of the fellowship hall. The Women's Ministries class meets in the lower level.
Women's Ministries, Men's Ministries, and the Monthly Table
Women's Ministries describes itself as an opportunity for Christian fellowship outside the traditional worship hour, drawing together women of various ages, cultural backgrounds, talents and experiences. The Women's Ministries Sabbath School class meets at 9:45 AM in the lower level each Saturday. Several times a year the group sponsors a fellowship dinner, hosts guest speakers from outside the congregation, and organizes outreach visits. On a recent Sabbath the women led the worship service, sponsored a fellowship dinner, and then visited White Pine Assisted Living and Memory Care in Blaine to sing songs, share scripture and spend the afternoon with residents.
Each fall the Women's Ministries Retreat takes the group offsite for three days of teaching and fellowship. The 2026 retreat, "Fearful Waters, Faithful God," will be held October 23 to 25 at Cragun's Resort on Gull Lake in Brainerd, with speaker Tamyra Horst.
Men's Ministries at Andover is described in plain terms: "Men's Ministries is just what its title says, about ministry. We come from various backgrounds, but our love for Jesus and the desire to be of service in our church and the community is a powerful bond." The men support church maintenance, school maintenance, a playground expansion, and a church landscaping project. Outside the structured ministries, food draws the church together: monthly potluck fellowship dinners follow the second-Sabbath worship service, and Family Game Nights, held once or twice a year on a Sunday, bring families together for outdoor activities, craft ideas, fellowship time, and food.
North Star Camp, Retreats and Family Nights
For more than sixty years, North Star Camp, 11287 Eagleview Drive NE in Brainerd, has been a place where young people can experience the outdoors, have fun, and come to know God in a deeper, more meaningful way. The Andover congregation supports the camp with weekly youth camps for ages seven to seventeen, family camps for all ages, and an Abilities Camp. Pathfinders, the church's Adventist youth-club program, meets at the church on the second, third and fourth Sabbaths of each month.
Each fall the district holds a campout weekend at North Star Camp, with members asked to help plan Bible studies, arrange games and activities, and serve meals to large crowds. The 2026 District Campout was held September 18 to 20, with the Andover sanctuary closed for the second-Sabbath worship service that weekend as members gathered at the camp instead.
"Intersect," a podcast where members find connection in each other's stories, is hosted by Jim Moon, who is currently working with the Minnesota Conference to launch a Tentmakers Network of Workplace Ministers. On the home page the church also advertises an ongoing "One Step At A Time" fundraising campaign to carpet the steps and landings in the building. A wide list of Adventist media resources, including the Voice of Prophecy, 3ABN, It Is Written, the Hope Channel, LifeTalk Radio, and Adventist World Radio, is linked from the church's Links page alongside Bible study resources, Sabbath School quarterlies, and a directory of food pantries for community help.
Beliefs and Identity
The Andover Seventh-day Adventist Church belongs to the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church, a mainstream Protestant body with approximately 19 million members globally and more than one million in North America. Locally the congregation is part of the Minnesota Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, within the Mid-America Union Conference, the North American Division, and the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
In the church's own statement of belief, Adventists teach that God is a Trinity of three persons, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, who together are one God. Salvation was made possible when Jesus, the Son, came to earth as a baby in Bethlehem and lived a sinless life in accordance with the Father's will. When Jesus was crucified for the sins of the people of the world and arose from the dead on the third day, victory was won for everyone. After the resurrection Jesus returned to heaven and left the Holy Spirit to serve as Comforter and Counselor. He promised to return to earth a second time to complete His plan of salvation and take His people to heaven, and Adventists look forward to that day. Adventists also teach that God cares about the quality of human life, and that the way believers live, eat, speak, think, treat one another, and care for the world around them is all part of His plan.
The church is pastored by Pastor Ingrid Moon, who was installed as pastor of the Andover and Cambridge churches on March 23, 2024. Earlier pastors of the Andover congregation include Adam Breiner (2011 to July 2023) and a long line of elders going back to the early twentieth century: Catlin, C. E. Edwardson, G. W. Wells, H. M. Hiatt, T. J. Rush, Harold Schmidt, Lawrence Burgeson, J. C. Zollbrecht, Vernon Emmerson, H. I. Jarnes, Clarence McKey, Bruce Juhl, Jan Follett, and David Kobliska.
Getting Connected
Visitors are welcome at Sabbath School at 9:30 AM and worship at 11:00 AM any Saturday at 15036 Round Lake Boulevard NW, Andover, MN 55304-3030. The service streams live on the AndoverSDA YouTube channel, with previous sermons and presentations archived there as well. Tithes and offerings can be given online through Adventist Giving. The Safe Harbor Newsletter arrives each Friday at AndoverSDA.Communications@gmail.com, where requests can also be made for the printed directory. Mail for the treasurer can be sent to PO Box 311, Anoka, MN 55303. The Anoka Adventist Christian School office can be reached at 763-421-6710.