Adventist Leaders Emphasize an Intentional Use of Media for Mission

LEAD Conference presentations highlight opportunities and suggest a way forward.

October 13, 2024 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Marcos Paseggi, Adventist Review

More than 270 members of the General Conference Executive Committee (EXCOM) from around the world gathered at the Seventh-day Adventist Church headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, for the first day of meetings on October 10.

The day was devoted to the annual Leadership Experience and Development (LEAD) Conference, which traditionally has provided delegates with information and training on a topic of choice. The 2024 event is dedicated to “Digital Strategy for Mission,” GC secretary Erton Köhler announced at the beginning of the day. It focused specifically on “digital strategies that support and sustain digital evangelism and online outreach,” according to associate treasurer Richard Stephenson, who coordinated the activities of the day.

A Call for Urgency

In the first part of the program, Köhler set the tone for the day by reminding EXCOM members of the church’s call to be “an end time movement that is to prepare the world for the second coming of Jesus.” In that context, it is essential, he said, that visionary leaders retain a sense of urgency about mission. Quoting Adventist Church co-founder Ellen White, he read, “We have no time — not a moment — to lose.”

Köhler explained that while in some members the sense of urgency seems to be declining, the world seems to be moving at a faster pace, driven by technological advances and other fast-paced changes and transformations.

Against that background, he said, God is willing to use His human agents so that through simple actions they can allow the Holy Spirit to transform lives. “A click can reunite broken hearts, an email can bring hope, an image can impact a life, a word can change a life,” Köhler said. “A song can soften a resistant heart, a hug can lift a person up, a Bible study can convert a family, a sermon can save a multitude, a project can change the world,” because in the context of our mission to the world, “we are God’s angels,” he emphasized.

In closing, Köhler called on Adventist leaders and members to work with a sense of urgency in the midst in times of huge challenges, polarization, fake news, artificial intelligence, digital distractions and addictions, and accelerated thinking. “We need urgency to avoid missing opportunities, for the time is short,” he said. “Let’s use technology for mission with a sense of urgency!”

Media Opens the Way for Mission

In the next segment, David Trim, director of the GC Office or Archives, Statistics, and Research, shared about the beginning of Adventist mission in Ghana in West Africa. He showed how Adventist literature was used to build a sound body of believers even before missionaries arrived.

“Print was the cutting-edge medium of communication of its day,” Trim said. “So, we can say that in Ghana, media prepared the way for missionaries.” And the same happened in other places, including in Guyana and Barbados in the Caribbean.

Adventist publications were used as missionary tools, including Advent Tidende, a Danish magazine which, in 1872, became the first medium for foreign mission outreach, according to Trim. “Early church growth in Scandinavia reflected the influence” of the magazine, he said.

Trim concluded by emphasizing that “since the early days of our movement, media has prepared the way… for the missionary.… So, we need to put greater resources into media.”

Digital Strategy for Mission

After Trim, Stephenson explained why strategy is important when talking about evangelism and mission. He quoted Ellen White, who called members to “study, plan, [and] devise methods to reach people where they are” (Evangelism, p. 122). “This is what digital strategy is all about,” Stephenson said. “It’s about creating a framework to ensure the sustainability of our digital evangelism efforts.”

Strategies include using digital evangelism initiatives to connect interests to a local church community. “Unless our efforts are connected with a local church, we’ll have diminished returns, he emphasized. Other strategies include developing tailored digital strategies for each department and ministry, adopting world church platforms, integrating and centralizing resources, and securing the church’s online identity through effective brand management, he said.

Search Engines and the Truth

In the next segment, GC associate communication director Sam Neves explained the roles and potential of today’s major websites such as Google, YouTube, and TikTok in sharing the Adventist message. “Their search engines work very differently, so it’s important to understand how they present their search results so we can improve our presence online,” he said.

Neves suggested integration among various church sites could go a long way to move Adventist teachings to the first pages of search engines, thus helping digital missionaries to reach many more people. “We have a calling to present God’s final message to the world,” Neves said. “And what I plead with you is that we rely completely on the Holy Spirit to know how to do it.”

Synergy for Mission

Other presenters included GC publishing ministries assistant director Michael Eckert, who shared about the Global Bible School Initiative, and GC treasurer Paul Douglas, who discussed media synergy initiatives among various church entities.

Douglas reported on meetings among church media entities where leaders discussed “how to spend our money to have the greatest of impacts, … how we can work together to achieve more.” He referred to “synergnomics,” defined as “the prudent practice of everyone paying a little and getting a lot, rather than everyone paying a lot and getting a little.”

Supporting Adventist media synergy includes working to reduce and eliminate duplications and building strategic partnerships between Adventist media brands to synergize our message, Douglas said. It also includes effectively and efficiently blending traditional and new media to achieve positive and measurable outcomes. He suggested every church field could also work with these goals in mind.

An Intentional Presence

In a latter segment of morning LEAD presentations, North American Division (NAD) vice president for digital media Adam Fenner called on Adventist leaders to focus on having an intentional online presence to support mission. In today’s media climate, “we are competing for people’s attention,” Fenner acknowledged.

Against that current climate, he explained, “other people can do whatever they want online, including the outrageous clickbait. We can’t do that, but what we can do is to be in this space very intentionally. We have to ask ourselves, ‘How can we compete for people’s time?’”

Fenner emphasized that “the fundamental thing we need to do is having a positive digital presence.” Then he explained what it means. “A positive digital presence means that when people come to our websites, when they come to our social media feeds, when they read our newsletters, when they go to our Bible studies … they have a wonderful experience,” Fenner said.

He also recommend leveraging artificial intelligence while making sure “we don’t replace ourselves with it,” and make relationships the focus of Adventist online efforts, creating systems that lead people to find fellowship in local churches.

From Conversation to Conversion

NAD Adventist Information Ministry director Brent Hardinge agreed with Fenner. “Digital evangelism is the hook to catch people’s attention,” he said. The key, Hardinge emphasized, is fostering “spiritual conversations that lead to conversions. That is what we are looking to see happen.”

Against that background, Hardinge emphasized, “technology does not change people; the Holy Spirit changes people through personal connections.… What we want to do now is to increase those opportunities for connection.”