Silver Spring, Maryland, United States …. [Wendi Rogers/ANN]
The sense of mission, and mission offerings specifically, have “fallen by the wayside in many different ways,” admitted Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders, representing each of the church’s 13 regions, during Spring Meeting at the world headquarters April 14 and 15.
“Part of it is our own fault, part of nobody’s fault,” Ben Maxson, director of stewardship for the world church, told attendees. “The whole process of this committee has been wrestling with not how [to] increase the giving for mission alone, but how [to] recapture the passion for mission.”
A report in the fall of 2003 to members of Annual Council showed a steady decline in mission offering over the past several years. Calling this “a disturbing trend,” the church’s administrative committee voted to review the mission offering program and analyze causes for the decline.
Maxson explained that more than 100 years ago the mission offering began with “an incredible vision. It was called the ‘Pitcairn;’ the building of a ship that would carry the gospel to the South Pacific islands. That mission ignited a passion for mission in our church.”
There is a “tremendous dependence on the mission offering for reaching the unentered areas of the world,” Bob Lemon, world church treasurer, told attendees. “We have to find a way to communicate to our members that the work is not finished. We still have huge unentered areas. We have done a very poor job of communicating how the offering is used, and I apologize for that. We are trying to set up procedures that will help us to identify and clearly define that.”
Reasons for the decline include poor communication to church members about how funds are used, ineffective promotion of offering, decline in Sabbath School attendance, competing appeals both inside and outside church organizations, shift of focus from global to local needs, and a perception that the offering doesn’t support front-line mission.
“There is a huge disconnect between the actual mission of the church and the person in the pew back home,” said Patricia J. Gustin, director of the Institute of World Mission at Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan. “They just have really no awareness of what the church is really doing. Another thing is that the information they do get is not focused on the unfinished work.” She explained that there is a focus on mission projects that are going well in certain areas of the world, and this creates a sense that the church is doing well overall. “It makes them think they’d better keep their money here [at their home church] since it’s going well in other parts of world,” she said.
Lemon explained that mission encompasses more than just the front-line, more visible, work. “We have to communicate that every cent of the mission dollar goes for mission, and, in fact, it does,” he said.
Attendees voted to establish an office for mission promotion at the world headquarters, though, Lemon explained, “we’re not adding additional salary budgets.” He said the budgets have existed and been budgeted in a different way, until now.
“This is absolutely vital to finishing the work and I hope that our processes that we will set up will not just be some vote, but will be a major change in the shift of communications,” Lemon said.
Maxson added, “This is not just adding to the structure, adding a new office. This is about creating awareness.”
The report included suggestions to better communicate how offerings are being used, including: direct mail offering appeals, a world mission emphasis Sabbath each year, establish a Web site, encourage church leaders to constantly promote mission, include pastors in planning and implementing new initiatives, organize groups of young people to assist pastor in promotion, and produce segments for the Hope Channel.
Current communication channels, such as church papers and lay channels, will continue to be used as well.
“It must be recognized that support of the church’s mission should be owned by all church members,” the report stated.
Copyright © 2004 by Adventist News Network.
