October 14, 2007 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States …. [Taashi Rowe/ANN ]
Gone are the days of Seventh-day Church members depending on pastors and public evangelism alone to share the church's message of hope.
Seventh-day Adventist lay people, evangelists, pastors, medical professionals and colporteurs are telling the world about Jesus through publishing houses, the Internet, radio and television, according to an October 14 Tell the World report to world church leaders at the church's headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland. In the report on the church's vision for sharing the gospel, church leaders shared how careful planning, prayer and training of church members around the world are key to sharing the gospel.
“Mission is not just one department but, our lifestyle,” said Jonas Arrais, associate secretary for the church's Ministerial Association. “So everybody should be involved and could be involved in evangelism.”
This was the goal when the church recast its vision for outreach under the Tell The World initiative in 2005. The Adventist Church is now focused on improving in seven areas of ministry. Those areas include spiritual growth, community involvement, personal witness, city outreach, church planting, evangelistic programming and media ministry.
The Tell The World initiative has resulted in more than 2 million people joining the church in the last two years, according to Jonathan Kuntaraf, Personal Ministries and Sabbath School director for the world church.
As church leaders from different regions and departments gave reports it became evident that media and technology is playing a large role in the church's rapid growth. It was also clear that the church was recognizing the impact that media convergence could have upon evangelism.
“The most significant trend in media is media convergence,” said Ben Schoun, president of Adventist World Radio. Schoun quoted James Canton's book, The Extreme Future, which states, “trillions is now being spent on putting together a vast network … resulting in a social media grid where entertainment, consumerism, education and even faith come together in this system.”
Schoun spoke of seeing this reflected in the church where cross promotion between literature, television and Internet is well under way. “Our goal is complete coverage,” Schoun said. “We want to find ways to use media to reach every person in the world.”
Methods differ around the world. Schoun even spoke of a radio bicycle ministry in India that is responsible for 6,400 baptisms.
Still, the personal touch and some time-tested ways have proven effective in reaching people too, some leaders said.
Jairyong Lee, president of the Adventist Church in the Northern Asia Pacific region said, “We are encouraging each member to lead one soul to Christ. Many are willing to do it but others are reluctant because they think they do not know how to do it.”
To reduce the fear of personal witness, church leaders are providing training and pairing up young people who spend at least 10 hours a month visiting people and giving Bible studies. While Pastor Lee gave the report, Michael Ryan a world church vice president and coordinator of Tell the World, calculated that it would take 173 years for one person working full time to do the work of spreading the gospel that 3,000 people can do in just 10 hours a month.
“It just brings home what we can truly do if we'll all just get together,” Ryan said.
Pastor Alberto Gulfan, president of the church in the Southern Asia Pacific region, was quick to caution that old-fashion methods, specifically public evangelism, are still reliable in bringing people to Jesus.
Gulfan spoke of Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia where seven churches participated in a public evangelism meeting last March.
“We were able to initially baptize 14 people,” said Gulfan. “That's not big but at least our pastors are now convinced that public campaigns still work, even in the big cities.”
The Adventist Church has never had a strong presence in large cities but Gulfan's report along with Erton Kohler's, president of the church in the South American region, show that the church is making inroads.
Kohler spoke of how integrative evangelism — a combination of low-tech and high tech outreach — in the cities of Sao Paolo and Rio de Janeiro, Brazil is leading many to the Adventist Church.
While acknowledging the church's success, Gary Krause, director of the church's Office of Adventist Mission said, “If we are to be honest, if we are to be candid, we are just scratching the surface.”
The Adventist Church conducted a survey in 2003 that indicated that less than 50 percent of the church's members had daily personal Bible study and prayer.
Appointing prayer coordinators to each church is one way to improve, said Bertil Wiklander, president of the Trans-European region. He added that “by pursuing other [Tell the World] goals, such as church planting and evangelism, we enhance spirituality.”
Finally, Mark Finley, a vice president for the world church, reported that while the Adventist Church already has 65,000 congregations the church is on track to add 20,000 more new churches within the 2005 to 2010 time frame.
“Evangelism is not an event, it's a process,” Finley said. “And when [church regions] lead their members into earnest prayer and intercession for the Holy Spirit, when members are equipped and trained for service and become active using their gifts, small groups organize, public evangelistic meetings are held and new converts are nurtured, the church grows.”
To view the Tell the World reports go to http://news.adventist.org/specials/2007/annual-council/index.html.
Related Sites
2007 Annual Council
Copyright (c) 2007 by Adventist News Network.
