Silver Spring, Maryland, United States …. [Jean A. Kellner/ANN]
Facing a world of increasing social isolation and community need, Seventh-day Adventists used a global conference last week to sound a call for church members to reach out and help others.
The pledge to become involved in the lives of their neighbors, without seeking anything in return, was sounded by many who participated in the three-day “International Conference on Adventists in the Community,”
organized by the church’s Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL) department. Delegates came from almost every world church region, and many left vowing to get involved.
The conference featured keynote addresses from Pastor Jan Paulsen, world president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and Dr. Tony Campolo, a noted evangelical scholar. Both called for Adventists to become more involved in social services. (See related ANN stories).
“When we reach out to those in our community, this is a sign of the Kingdom of God in the world,” said Dr. John Graz, PARL director for the world church.
“The trend is to be [self-satisfied] and not take care of others. We would like to change that trend. We would like to see more members involved with community service,” Graz added, saying that he hopes to have local church areas organize similar conferences in other parts of the world.
“We need to make sure this doesn’t lead to short-term enthusiasm or action, but for long-term action, so this should be a launch to more such events, at all levels of the church,” Graz said.
“Just putting on the conference sends a clear signal” that Adventists must be a part of their communities, said Tor Tjeransen, president of the Adventist Church in Norway. At the same time, he admitted that expanding social services “is a major mind shift for many of our members in Europe. We are more of a minority church in Scandinavia and we have kept to ourselves.”
Added Michael Ryan, vice president of strategic planning for the world church, “One of the great strengths that our church can bring to the cause of hope is a membership that knows Jesus. We have members living in 204 countries of the world. The issues of hope are served by departments and services prepared to inspire, train and send people who are committed to having the world catch a glimpse of Jesus’ love, compassion and care.”
Ryan added, however, that “there is ground to be made up. In a recent world survey conducted by the Institute of Church Growth at Andrews University, less than 30 percent of Seventh-day Adventists were interacting in their communities.”
Tjeransen said that many countries–including Norway–have strong national social services networks, hence church members “would have to create a good rapport with the government first” before being able to get involved with programs.
Such caveats, however, haven’t deterred Norwegian Adventists from making a start: Tjeransen said the church is reaching out to immigrants with Norwegian lessons, and looking for ways to reach out to the Muslim community.
“We need to open ourselves fully to the community,” declared Geoffrey Mbwana, president of the Adventist Church’s East-Central Africa region.
“There is room for more involvement.”
Mbwana said church members must also reorient their thinking toward serving others first, and letting conversions flow from the process.
“Many times when we visit people, we do it with a bias toward converting them,” Mbwana conceded. “But we must reach them with the love of Jesus. If we can reach out with the love of Jesus Christ, there is much we can do to bring them hope.”
The potential for outreach in communities is also strong in places where such work hasn’t been done before. Sir James Carlisle, governor-general of the Caribbean islands of Antigua and Barbuda and an elder in his local congregation, and his wife, Lady Emma Carlisle, told a Sabbath morning audience of their efforts to help an 8-year-old girl on the island, an orphan, who suffers from HIV/AIDS.
The Carlisles eventually took the young girl into their home, helped her get an education, and are still working with her, four years later.
Unfortunately, the child was returned to state care in a hospital because Antigua lacks a children’s home where she could be looked after. Sir James said the island once had no orphans or dependent children; now there are 54.
“We would love to build a children’s home, but we [in the local church] have yet to catch the vision,” Sir James told ANN in an interview.
As with other attendees, Sir James said the conference inspired him to urge his congregation to do more.
“In our local church, we are certainly going to see how we can improve our interaction with the community. We have a ‘meals on wheels’ program, and we need to expand this,” he said.
Copyright © 2004 by Adventist News Network.
