Online Mission Refocus Conference Announced at Annual Council 2025
Bledi Leno, Center for Urban Mission director, presents the Mission Refocus Conference during Annual Council 2025. [Photo: Peterson Fagundes]
Turning digital connection into an in-person community.
During Annual Council 2025, a two-hour online event was announced for 2026 to help Seventh-day Adventists around the world refocus on mission. A joint initiative of the Global Mission Centers and Digital Strategy for Mission, the Mission Refocus Conference: Click-Community-Change will be streamed worldwide and focus on how to bring people from online connection to in-person community.
Bledi Leno, Center for Urban Mission director, shared data with attendees that Generation Z will spend 10 years of their lifetime online.
“Average screen time globally is seven hours a day, and the average sleep time is 6.5 hours per day,” he said. “Last night, there were more people gathered on TikTok than those who live in all of Europe. The largest unreached nation lives in the digital continent.
He also shared that the average person touches their phone 2,600 times a day.
“Our challenge as global mission centers and as missionaries is to use those clicks and transform them into communities that will bring about change,” said Leno. “Personal and communal change.”
The Mission Refocus Conference will be live on February 22, 2026. Resources and presentations will be available in multiple languages, including English, Spanish, Swahili, French, Portuguese, Korean, Romanian, Russian, Hausa, and Ukrainian.
The presentations will focus on case studies that have successfully built communities through digital connections and practical how-to guides.
The conference is geared towards anyone who wants to learn more, including leaders, global mission pioneers, missionaries, lay members, pastors, and media experts.