A Miracle in Waiting

The Sava Centre in Belgrade, Serbia, is the venue of the 2024 European Pastors’ Council. [Photo: Tor Tjeransen] / Adventist Media Exchange (CC BY 4.0)]

Insights from the 2024 European Pastors’ Council opening ceremony.

August 31, 2024 | Belgrade, Serbia | Sorin Petrof with Trans-European Division

Nearly 1,200 leaders from across the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Trans-European Division (TED) gathered on Tuesday evening, August 27, at the Sava Centre in Belgrade, Serbia, for the fifth European Pastors’ Council (EPC) opening ceremony. The TED includes 28 countries, islands, and territories in western and central Europe.

Daniel Duda, TED president, and Patrick Johnson, TED Ministerial Association director, welcomed the audience, speakers, and guests, emphasizing the EPC’s role in continuing education, connection, and growth. The event, scheduled for August 27–31, marks a significant gathering of pastors, Bible workers, departmental leaders, and accompanying spouses from across the TED.

JJeffrey O. Brown, Associate Secretary, Ministerial Association, General Conference (GC), preaching the sermon “There’s a Hole in My Bucket”. European Pastors’ Council 2024 (EPC), Sava Centar, Belgrade, Serbia, on August 27  – September 1, 2024. [Photo: Tor Tjeransen] / Adventist Media Exchange (CC BY 4.0)]

The 2024 theme, “Engaged in Mission,” reflects the perspective of the current TED strategic plan, “Extend Love—Grow Lifelong Disciples—Multiply Communities.” The event’s program, comprising 50 workshops and 11 plenary presentations, addresses the pressing need for intentional involvement in the challenging milieu of the TED territory.

General Conference (GC) president Ted N. C. Wilson shared an opening message via prerecorded video. Acknowledging the challenging TED environment due to its highly secular European zeitgeist, Wilson drew inspiration from Jeremiah 32:26, 27. With a message to encourage the pastors to persevere under God’s guidance and be inspired, he also shared a challenge. “Is anything too hard for Me?” God says (Jeremiah 32:27). “The TED might be just the right place,” Wilson said in a prayer at the end of his short message, “where God could transform this challenge into a reality not short of a miracle.”

Serbian Group performing. European Pastors’ Council 2024 (EPC), Sava Centar, Belgrade, Serbia, 27 August – 1 September 2024.  [Photo: Tor Tjeransen] / Adventist Media Exchange (CC BY 4.0)]

Five Certainties of Mission

It was this definition of the Adventist mission that Erton Köhler, GC secretary, outlined. Köhler posed to the audience a solemn challenge: “How will 23.4 million Adventist members reach 8.2 billion people on the planet?” In his presentation, “The Five Certainties of Mission,” and quoting Matthew 24:14, Köhler highlighted five primary realities that should inspire everyone to engage in the mission: the second coming of Jesus; the inevitability of the end; the global nature of the mission (not just local); the certainty of the mission; and the miraculous nature of the mission.

As a practical step to fulfilling the mission, Köhler mentioned a new GC initiative, “Mission Refocus,” a strategic approach to sending 70 percent of all official missionaries to the frontline of the work and becoming part of the “glocal” (a new term) communities.

“Be part of this miracle!” Köhler said as he invited all participants to experience this idea of mission in their lives.

Council 2024 (EPC), Sava Centar, Belgrade, Serbia, 27 August – 1 September 2024. Cameradate: Tuesday, August 27, 2024 [Photo: Tor Tjeransen] / Adventist Media Exchange (CC BY 4.0)]

However, being called to be part of the mission must not replace the deep commitment to display God’s attributes in personal and denominational behavior. That was the principal challenge of the sermon, “There’s a Hole in My Bucket,” by Jeffrey Brown, an associate secretary of the GC Ministerial Association.

Brown, a native of Birmingham, United Kingdom, introduced the audience to the futility of a deadlock situation via a 324-year-old classic children’s folk song based on a protracted dialogue between two characters, Henry and Liza, which begins, “There’s a hole in my bucket, dear Liza, dear Liza.”

Inspired by Jeremiah 2:12, 13, Brown spoke about people who profess to love God and yet have other priorities, and the result is not just a leaky bucket in their lives but a deadlocked situation in the churches. “The problem is with us, the pastors and leaders,” Brown said. “We all have a hole in our bucket, and the church is trapped in circles of futility.”

Brown declared, “We must first admit that there is a hole in our personal and organizational bucket, then confess the current predicament, and finally address it intentionally and honestly.” He proceeded to quote a TED public statement designed to admit, confess, and address wrongs done in the past. “We must not trade the living water for a broken bucket,” Brown concluded in his sermon, inviting the audience to fully embrace the change.

General Conference secretary Erton C. Köhler discusses “The Five Certainties of Mission.” [Photo: Tor Tjeransen] / Adventist Media Exchange (CC BY 4.0)

The ceremony also showcased the artistic talent of local Serbian artists. Dragan Grujicic, president of the South-East European Union Conference, a territory that includes Serbia, invited the participants to interact with the local culture, introducing the Dimitrije Koturović Ensemble of Folk Dances and Songs, a 55-year-old artistic society founded in Belgrade. The dancers held each other’s hands in a V formation, making a chain called Kolo, a traditional dance performed by all ethnicities and religious groups in Serbia and other regions of the Balkans.

Surrender and Renewal

The EPC praise team concluded the night with two well-known hymns, “Just as I Am” and “I Came Broken,” creating an atmosphere of surrender and renewal. It was an inspirational and motivational opening ceremony for an event meant to invite the workers and their families across the TED to acknowledge the challenging times they live in and the great opportunities ahead of them. As the event unfolds, it promises to be a transformative experience, a “pause and reflect” juncture potentially awakening dormant energies and fostering miracles worth a thousand stories.

The original version of this commentary was posted on the Trans-European Division news site.