July 27, 2008 – Bridgetown, Barbados…[James Daniel/IAD]
“In order for things to change, you must change. We must be the change we want to see,” said Pastor Eugene Daniel, president of the church in the Caribbean Union, as he delivered the feature address at the opening of a union-wide Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Summit at the Sherbourne Conference Center, Barbados.
The four-day summit held July 16-19, 2008 under the theme Transforming Lives From the Inside Out, brought together about one hundred delegates from across the church territory “to examine the theological and philosophical underpinnings of the departments of Sabbath School and Personal Ministries,” noted Pastor Samuel Telemaque, director of the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries for the church in the Caribbean Union.
In delivering his opening remarks at the Summit, Pastor Telemaque also emphasized that “what is at stake at this summit is not a program nor attendance, but the eternal destiny of a people. We need to access our practices and determine whether or not we are preparing a people to live in the presence of God,” he said.
The main speakers at the Summit included Dr. Jonathan Kuntaraf, Sabbath School and Personal Ministries for the Adventist World Church; his associate, Elder Gary B. Swanson; Professor John Gavin, director for the Andrews University Social Work Program at Columbia Union College; Pastor Steve Veres, executive director of Metropolitan Health Services; and Pastor Carl Bayne, Sabbath School and Personal Ministries director for the church in Inter-America.
The Summit had a strong emphasis on Social Ministries. In his presentation, How to Establish and Manage a Community Services Center, Professor Gavin noted that “social ministries often attract socially dysfunctional people. They want to help-perhaps out of their own pain.” He therefore emphasized that volunteers need to be recruited, screened, and trained. Pastor Veres, in presenting the topic How to Plan, Organize and Operate a Mobile Screening Ministry, warned that “we must not see people as trophies to be won, but as humans to be ministered to.”
In evaluating the Summit, Pastor Alexander Biscette of the St. Lucia Mission, noted that it was the first time he has heard so much emphasis placed on social ministries. “”It challenges me to do ministry differently,” he said.
Speaking of the impact of the summit, Neville Edwards, a layperson from Barbados commented: “It brought new concepts to me; it changed my perception of how the Church ought to go about its mission; it showed me a variety of ways to work to accomplish what God designed for His Church. My approach to witnessing will now focus on fellowship, friendship, hospitality, and compassion.”
Hanna Poonwassie, a layperson from Trinidad, said that she now understands better what Sabbath School is all about. “I learned how I could teach a Sabbath School class by involving the class members.
Maureen Stanford, a layperson from Barbados, provided this terse statement on the impact of the summit: “I'll make sure God's dollars don't go to waste.”
The Sabbath School and Personal Ministries departments of the Caribbean Union will collaborate with the corresponding departments in the conferences and missions to ensure implementation of the principles presented.
A highlight of the summit was the baptism of 50 new believers joined the church as a result of five lay evangelistic campaigns conducted earlier this month.
For more information on the Caribbean Union and its evangelistic programs, visit www.caribbeanunion.org
