July 6, 2004 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States …. [Mark A. Kellner]
The worldwide mission work of the Seventh-day Adventist Church will receive a new emphasis and focus with the reopening of a Church Office of Mission Awareness, due to start on Sept. 1, 2004. The move, voted by the Administrative Committee of the world church leadership on July 6, follows action taken at the Church’s 2004 Spring Meeting.
Gary Krause, currently communication director for the church’s Office of Global Mission, will become director of the new office, as well as a general field secretary of the world church. A veteran journalist and communicator, Krause said he hopes the new emphasis on mission will help inspire renewed interest and support for the mission work of the church.
“In more than 200 countries around the world, including the challenging ’10/40 Window’ of nations virtually unreached by the Gospel, Adventists are making major efforts to bring hope and healing to people,” Krause told ANN. “The Office of Mission Awareness will do what its name suggests — make people aware of what the church is doing, and how they can support this with prayer, personal effort and financial contributions.”
Delegates to the Spring Meeting in April were told about the decline in support for the church’s Mission Offering. Reasons include ineffective promotion of offerings, decline in Sabbath School attendance, competing appeals from both inside and outside church organizations, shift of focus from global to local needs, and a lack of awareness of the magnitude of the church’s front-line mission work.
Copyright © 2004 by Adventist News Network.
