November 15, 2024 | Silver Spring, Maryland, United States | Ted N.C. Wilson, President, General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists
With more than 5.3 million members, the East-Central Africa division is home to the largest number of Seventh-day Adventists in any world division, and yet there is still so much more to be done to reach the hundreds of millions of people living in this territory.
Realizing time is short, division leadership decided to use the I Will Go strategic plan as a guide to develop a method of strategic discipleship that would demonstrate dependence upon the Holy Spirit, encourage spiritual growth, focus on mission, and encourage leadership at all levels to support these efforts.
Rather than simply asking members to support a church program, programs were created to support the individual disciple-making efforts of the members. The goal was to move members from being mere spectators to enthusiastic disciple makers!
Recognizing nothing could be achieved without prayer, a division-wide prayer ministry was started, with each member encouraged to pray for at least 10 individuals they wanted to reach for Christ.
In September 2023, the “Hope for Africa” evangelism series was broadcast from Nairobi, Kenya, to the entire division. In addition to broadcasting on television and radio, outreach efforts included translating the series into the multiple languages used throughout East-Central Africa, making it easier for members to share the messages on their social media, and to host the series in their own homes. The series was seen in over 17,000 homes, offices, and prisons, in addition to churches and other public sites, leading to more than 200,000 baptisms!
Recognizing that families are under attack in today’s culture, Adventist families across the division prayed and used Christ’s method of mingling, sympathizing and caring as they invited new friends to “Family Impact,” a series of presentations focused on strengthening the family. We praise God that through “Family Impact” 185,000 new souls were baptized!
Understanding the Seventh-day Adventist Church is truly a worldwide family, the East-Central Africa Division invited members, pastors, and leaders from around the world to participate in a division-wide evangelistic harvest called the “Homecoming campaign.” Hundreds of members from every corner of the globe, ages 18-84, answered the call, including leaders from every level of the church who took time to pray and come help make disciples in ECD. It was a beautiful display of unity, bringing in more than 130,000 new souls to the kingdom, and we praise God for this bountiful harvest!
The Lord has tremendously blessed the East-Central Africa Division through its emphasis on Total Member Involvement, bringing in more than 705,000 precious souls through these and other outreach programs from January 2023 to July 2024! Furthermore, God has blessed them with a retention rate of more than 90 percent!
Truly, God is pouring out His Spirit upon His people, preparing them to be witnesses for Him through Global Total Member Involvement!
We are promised that “If our people will go forth in faith, doing whatever they can to make a beginning, and laboring in Christ’s lines, the way will be opened before them. If they will show the energy that is necessary in order to gain success, and the faith that goes forward unquestioningly in obedience to God’s command, rich returns will be theirs” (Evangelism, p. 18).
Are you ready to go forward in faith, saying, “Yes Lord, I want to be part of Total Member Involvement?” If so, I invite you to tell Him so in prayer just now. May God bless you as you reach out to others for Him.