Adventist Digital Communicators’ Meeting Focuses on Efforts to Share the Gospel
Thailand event celebrated 20 years of the Global Adventist Internet Network (GAiN).
July 15, 2024 | Chiang Mai, Thailand | Felipe Lemos, South American Division, and Adventist Review
The communicational challenges of a global church are proportionately gigantic. For two decades, Seventh-day Adventists have been discussing ways to effectively communicate the biblical message of salvation to different audiences with extremely diverse cultural characteristics. The worldwide gathering called GAiN, an acronym for Global Adventist Internet Network, is a meeting of the worldwide network of communicators focused especially on evangelistic action in the digital environment.
The meeting brings together professionals from a variety of communication categories who work directly or indirectly in institutional or non-institutional communication projects. The event has already been hosted by countries and regions such as Jamaica, the United States, Hong Kong, South Korea, and Brazil, and the twentieth meeting, in 2024, took place July 10-13 in the city of Chiang Mai in northern Thailand.
The 20th-anniversary GAiN summit in Thailand featured moments of reflection on strategic measures adopted in various regions of the world to share the gospel. [Photo: courtesy of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division]
GAiN also offered inspiration regarding missionary projects, especially those carried out in Asia. Many of these initiatives use digital technology to enhance results.
A Challenge Called Asia
Asia is a huge continent where Christianity is a minority religion and Adventism is in its infancy. Even so, the missionary efforts of the church are increasing in intensity and frequency.
The religiosity in Southeast Asia, which is predominantly Buddhist, is considered a natural barrier to the advancement of Christian initiatives. What is clear is that the typical communication productions of Christians need to be added to communication work based on interpersonal relationships.
The director of the Center for East Asian Religions at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists (GC), Khamsay Phetchareun, explained that belief systems such as Buddhism have a totally divergent view from Christianity in conceptions of God, human suffering, and even rituals of faith. In his assessment, a new Adventist member coming from that religious background therefore needs much more welcoming, because when that person changes religion, they literally become part of a new family.
Team of volunteers who work in digital evangelistic projects in the Philippines. [Photo: courtesy of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division]
In the Philippines, the Seventh-day Adventist Church maintains an online evangelism center. Currently, 42 young missionaries between the ages of 20 and 25, representing 20 different countries, teach the Bible and help people interested in learning more about the God revealed by Adventists.
The director of the center, Elexis Mercado, said that every month around 50 Bible studies are sent to people, mostly living in Asian countries. Between January and July 2024, at least 16 people were baptized through the direct influence of this work. In practice, these missionaries, who usually work in the project for a year, conduct prayer, dialogue, and Bible courses for people who come to them through contact with the content generated and disseminated on social networks.
In South Korea, an experiment with paid advertising on social media seeks to attract people to learn more about Adventists and their teachings. Seung Cheon Ji is the director of communications and digital evangelist at an administrative headquarters located in Gwangju, a three-hour drive from Seoul, the country’s capital. He noted that the pilot project began a little over a month ago in four congregations. According to Ji, in one church, digital campaigns offered prayers to people through Facebook and Instagram.
The reach of advertisements in just one church and for 30 days was more than 63,000 people within a five-kilometer (three-mile) radius of the congregation. Of these people, 101 responded, and a total of 40 were rated as the most promising contacts. Among the 40 most interested, just over 60 percent maintained some kind of engagement because of the prayer requests. Twenty percent, however, responded actively, and even showed interest in attending a service in an Adventist congregation.
Several initiatives around the world have leveraged the use of audiovisual content to bring people to the knowledge of the Bible. [Photo: courtesy of the Southern Asia-Pacific Division]
The training of future communicators and technology specialists is also a concern. During the event, the director of education of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Mongolia, Joanne Myoung Kim, presented plans to build an international educational institution for up to 200 students at a site 25 kilometers (15 miles) from Ulaanbaatar, the country’s capital. The idea is that the courses will start operating fully in 2026 and will be focused on communication, technology, agriculture, health, well-being, and other areas.
Movies and Series with Spiritual Impact
Williams Costa Jr., director of the GC communication department, emphasized the importance of increasing the production of films and series for evangelization. He reminded his audience that the purpose of films and series, that is, audiovisual material, is not to offer entertainment but to serve as a missionary resource to lead thousands of people to Christ.
The motivation to expand the number of Adventist titles in this area came from those who are already producing them. This was the case of Kyle Portbury, director/producer of the film The Hopeful, which portrays the beginnings of the Adventist movement. He highlighted the importance of the audiovisual resource to create a better experience for people and therefore make a more significant impact in the case of the biblical message.
The same idea was expounded by Terry Benedict, who co-produced the film Hacksaw Ridge, about Adventist conscientious objector Desmond Doss. The Adventist filmmaker pointed out that Jesus successfully used parables (the modern resource called storytelling) to bring His message to people of all classes and backgrounds.
Carlos Magalhães, director of digital strategies in the South American Division (SAD), presented the results of one of the oldest Adventist audiovisual content platforms in the world, Feliz7Play, which is now seven years old. Today, the South American Adventist channel includes more than 3,000 titles and around four million views per month. Magalhães stressed that it “was not created to simply share films and series, but to dialogue with the new generations, because it is necessary to have a space to talk to them through this type of content.”
Strategic Communication and Innovation
The event also highlighted the relevance of strategic communication. GC associate communication director Sam Neves reaffirmed the need to unite the efforts of the different Adventist communication institutions so that professionals are strategic supporters of leadership to fulfill the mission of preaching the gospel.
Regarding innovation, Jorge Rampogna, SAD communication director, shared some results of mobilization and engagement of young people in a Metaverse platform established by the Adventist Church to strengthen the community of prayer and Bible study. A concrete example is the life of Ideli Pirani Ferreira, from São Paulo, baptized in 2024 in an Adventist congregation after participating in the 10 Days of Prayer program and being embraced in the virtual community.
Deborah Lessa, a volunteer at the Adventist mission headquarters in Ireland, explained that one of the projects of the Irish church to reach more people for the gospel is the production of a documentary called A Leap of Faith, which will explore the growth of the Adventist Church in the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland.
For Lessa, GAiN “has been an incredible and inspiring experience.” She added, “Participating in events like this gives us a greater dimension of how the Adventist Church has fulfilled its mission through technology and digital media in different parts of the world.”
The original version of this story was posted on the South American Division Portuguese language news site.