Adventist Heritage Center From: Sent: To: Subject: Adventist Review <evan=adventistreview.org@mail98.suw11.mcdlv.net> on behalf of Adventist Review <evan@adventistreview.org> Friday, November 20, 2015 11:07 AM Adventist Heritage Center A $219 Million Miracle 1
A $219 Million Miracle A boon in Chinese births paves the way for a $219 million expansion project. Perched on a Hong Kong hill is a brand-new 25-story hospital building that Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders call nothing short of a miracle. The US $219 million building, which officially opened Tuesday, will significantly expand Adventist health-care services in a secular megacity where the church has found that the most effective way to share Jesus love is through the healing work of its two local hospitals. Read more Small Division, Big Plans The Trans-European Division approves a strategy to connect, inspire, and change. What do you do when you take over as leader of not only the smallest world division... Read more Making Friends Is the New Face of Evangelism Commentary: Five things to remember if you want to share Jesus with young adults today Read more 2
Mission and Urban Centers Adventist world church leadership meets with U.S. regional conferences to explore ways to step up evangelism and outreach. Read more Repairers of Broken Walls Community-based outreach makes a difference in Philadelphia. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls... Read more Orange Cranberry Scones The only bad thing about these are they re gone as soon as you make them. They certainly don t last long, because everyone goes back for seconds and even thirds Read more Adventist Community Services provides you with opportunities to serve communities in Christ s name. ACS volunteers provide support and assistance in disaster relief, elder care, crisis care, urban ministries, youth and young adult engagement, tutoring, and mentoring. Your financial gifts to the Adventist Community Services offering on December 12 will make it possible to continue touching one heart and transforming communities. 3
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Login Search Subscribe Menu 1 2 3 4 5 I Inspired Churchgoers Just Enough to Buy My Album When a Little Girl Gave Up Her Birthday Gift in Faith 109-Year-Old Sunday School to Become Adventist Health Center in Scotland Thomas Davis, an Adventist Missionary Who Found Jesus After the Mission Field Olympic Champion Usain Bolt Was Raised in Adventist Home Asian Aid Charity Celebrates 50 Years of Educating Impoverished Children The Adventist supporting ministry started in the hallway of a home in Australia. SUBSCRIBE+NEWSLETTER+ IN THIS ISSUE+NEWS+ARCHIVES+ READER RESPONSE+MEDIA PARTNERS+ SCREENING ROOM+GRACENOTES+ PHOTO SUBMISSIONS
Repairers of Broken Walls Community-based outreach makes a difference in Philadelphia. Your people will rebuild the ancient ruins and will raise up the age-old foundations; you will be called Repairer of Broken Walls, Restorer of Streets with Dwellings (Isa. 58:12). I n 2011 Pastor Tara VinCross led her congregation at the Chestnut Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church to plant a ministry and grow a church in the West Oak Lane neighborhood of Philadelphia. The church named the new ministry plant REACH Philadelphia. REACH is an acrostic that stands for five core values that drive the ministry: restoration, empowerment, action, community, and hope. The missionary effort attracted young workers whose lives have been dramatically changed. Baptism, Then Ministry In 2011 Angel Smith moved from her home in Houston, Texas, to Drexel University in Philadelphia to study interdisciplinary health and prepare for a possible medical career. Her interest in spiritual things drew her to the Chestnut Hill Seventh-day Adventist Church, where she met VinCross and Rukiya Wideman, a young adult at the church who offered to study the Bible with her in her home. These one-on-one Bible studies, fellowship with other young adults in the church through Friday night Bible studies, and game nights led Smith to desire baptism. Encouraged by her church, Smith soon joined the Pennsylvania Youth Challenge (PYC), a summer literature evangelism ministry. PYC helped Smith earn tuition and scholarship money for school by sharing Christian books called magabooks door to door. After four years of participating in the PYC ministry, Smith now serves as assistant director of the program and is involved in sharing the Bible with individuals who are touched by the ministry of REACH Philadelphia. Having earned a master s degree in interdisciplinary health, Smith leads out in community fitness programs and encourages young people to become true disciples of Jesus on the streets of her neighborhood. International Flavor Tiffany Brown graduated from Andrews University with a B.A. in English. Her goal was to serve God as a missionary in English language schools overseas. Her goal was realized when she served for 14 months in an Adventist English language school in South Korea. Upon returning to the United States in 2011, Brown felt called to expand her skills by enrolling in Eastern University s Master of Arts in International Development program. As a member of the Chestnut Hill Adventist Church, she was encouraged to join PYC and become involved in REACH Philadelphia. After graduating with her master s degree from Eastern University, Brown accepted a call to serve as associate pastor of REACH Philadelphia. She used her newly learned skills in international development to lead in surveying the immediate community and discovering its needs. Information from the survey has led to the development of reading and math tutoring programs for children in grades K to 8. During summer months Brown serves as director of PYC. Several participants in the program have chosen to be baptized and become disciples, following up Bible-study leads and bringing others to Christ. Brown bubbles over with excitement as she shares her enthusiasm for ministry that exemplifies the kingdom of grace in her community.
52-1.jpg Preparing a Harvest Jane Takahashi joined REACH Philadelphia as an intern in March 2013. While assessing the community, she discovered an interest in community gardens. After networking with members of the community the Ogontz Avenue Revitalization Corporation (OARC) and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society the REACH Philadelphia neighborhood gardens began. The program brought people in the neighborhood together and, over the course of time, has drawn several individuals into fellowship with the church who might otherwise have never shown an interest. The ministry of REACH Philadelphia to the community, and the transformational impact it is having in the lives of the interns who have been trained in service for Christ, have captured the attention of leaders in the Columbia Union Conference. In an effort to establish a legacy of ministry that is incarnational and transformational in the urban community, the Columbia Union has expanded the ministry of REACH Philadelphia through the establishment of the REACH Columbia Union Urban Evangelism School. This school of evangelism offers immersive training in urban ministry in direct cooperation with REACH Philadelphia. VinCross, director and lead pastor of REACH, organizes diverse, hands-on experiences in areas of discipleship, the message and mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, servant leadership, community development, urban agriculture, health evangelism, cycles of transformational evangelism (including participation in public service), literature evangelism, and studies in Daniel and Revelation. Students learn valuable leadership and life skills as they connect with their neighbors to bring about lasting change. Through small cohort instruction, mentoring relationships, and practical ministry in a real context, the lives of students are transformed as the Holy Spirit works in and through them. Both the ministry center and student housing are located in the community they are seeking to reach. Students receive an immersive year unlike any they have ever experienced. In addition to the mission year experience, eligible students receive college credits for specific core religion courses through Washington Adventist University. REACH Columbia Union Urban Evangelism School has an enrollment of 13 students from various parts of the United States. They are enthusiastically involved in a combined program of classwork and fieldwork. These young lives are being transformed as they seek to transform the community in which they work and draw its citizens to Christ. Community leaders have expressed appreciation for this work of bringing positive change to this urban community. Turning Theory Into Practice Writing from Australia in 1898, Ellen White envisioned schools of evangelism that would prepare students to develop a missionary spirit in their daily lives. She wrote: Students should begin to work in missionary lines, they should learn to take hold of Christ, while
connected with persons of broad experience, with whom they may counsel and advise. As they do this, they will not only advance in knowledge and intellectual power, but will learn how to work, so that when the school term is ended, and they are separated from teachers and experienced advisers, they will be prepared to engage in earnest missionary labor, working under the direction of the greatest Teacher the world has ever known. It is as essential that they should know how to communicate, as that they should receive, a knowledge of the truth. The practice of telling others about Christ, of reading and explaining His Word, will stamp that Word on the mind, and make the truth their own. * This model is being lived out in the REACH community. Great things are happening in this part of Philadelphia. Yet the real payoff comes when these students finish this course of study and take an active role in sharing Christ and seeking to transform other communities. *In The Christian Educator, Oct. 1, 1898. Gaspar F. Colón is mission integration coordinator for Adventist Review. News & Features Subscriber Access About Departments Resources Current Adventist News Online Exclusives Gracenotes Events Subscriptions Renew Account Forgotten Password Report Trouble Update Mailing Address Issue Archives Our Roots and Mission Staff Writer's Guidelines Advertising Kit Adventist World Reader Response Photo Galleries Prayer Requests Partners Contact Free Newsletter Photo Submissions Downloads Sunset Calendar Church Locator RSS Feed Advertising Questions Copyright 2016, Adventist Review. All rights reserved worldwide.
Login Search Subscribe Menu Adventist world church president Ted N.C. Wilson meeting with leaders of the church s nine U.S. regional conferences. (ANN) 1 2 3 4 5 I Inspired Churchgoers Just Enough to Buy My Album When a Little Girl Gave Up Her Birthday Gift in Faith 109-Year-Old Sunday School to Become Adventist Health Center in Scotland Thomas Davis, an Adventist Missionary Who Found Jesus After the Mission Field Olympic Champion Usain Bolt Was Raised in Adventist Home Asian Aid Charity Celebrates 50 Years of Educating Impoverished Children The Adventist supporting ministry started in the hallway of a home in Australia. SUBSCRIBE+NEWSLETTER+ IN THIS ISSUE+NEWS+ARCHIVES+ READER RESPONSE+MEDIA PARTNERS+ SCREENING ROOM+GRACENOTES+ PHOTO SUBMISSIONS
Regional Conference Presidents Hold Key Talks on Mission and Urban Centers Adventist world church leadership meets with U.S. regional conferences to explore ways to step up evangelism and outreach. POSTED NOVEMBER 18, 2015 egional conference presidents and other leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are studying how they might use health centers, vegetarian restaurants, R community services and other outreach methods to expand efforts to share Jesus with urban centers and inner-city residents after holding key talks with General Conference and North American Division leadership. Adventist world church president Ted N.C. Wilson and North American Division president Daniel R. Jackson held key consultations this month with leaders of the church s nine U.S. regional conferences, which were established in the mid-1940s to accomplish a stronger work for African Americans and to provide leadership opportunities that would benefit the work of God. We discussed various items, including evangelism and outreach activities, Wilson said. Of special interest was the subject of Mission to the Cities and how regional conferences could help to extend that important evangelistic initiative for the large cities of the United States. Mission to the Cities is an initiative of the General Conference, the administrative body of the Adventist world church, to reach people in the large cities of the world though plans outlined in the Bible and the writings of church cofounder Ellen G. White. Those plans for working in the cities include the establishment of centers of influence such as churches, health centers, vegetarian restaurants, book and publishing outreach centers, community services, media centers, day-care centers and other ways of touching the lives of people. In addition, the plans envisage small outpost centers just outside the cities that contain homes for some city workers, lifestyle health centers, and training schools for those wishing to do evangelistic work in the cities. Historically, regional conferences have done much to evangelize large cities and are active in evangelism and reaching out to inner-city residents through community services. Currently, they maintain a very viable potential for reaching thousands in the huge metropolitan areas, Wilson said. Their contribution to the ongoing proclamation of the three angels messages in large cities and in rural areas has been a strong evangelistic outreach of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America and around the world. In addition to Wilson and Jackson, the special meeting on Nov. 2 was attended by North American Division executive secretary Alex Bryant and treasurer Tom Evans, and regional leaders William Cox, Dana Edmond, Henry Fordham, Daniel Honore, R. Clifford Jones, Alphonso McCarthy, Hubert Morel, Maurice Valentine, and William Winston. Bobby Mitchell and Calvin Watkins were unable to attend. Wilson appealed to Adventists worldwide to pray for church members and their outreach in regional conference territories. Please pray for our church members in regional conferences whether they are in the large cities or in rural areas as they reach out to thousands upon thousands with the life-saving Advent message of Christ and His righteousness in anticipation of His soon coming, he said.
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Login Search Subscribe Menu Two people praying over a Bible. (Pixabay) 1 2 3 4 5 I Inspired Churchgoers Just Enough to Buy My Album When a Little Girl Gave Up Her Birthday Gift in Faith 109-Year-Old Sunday School to Become Adventist Health Center in Scotland Thomas Davis, an Adventist Missionary Who Found Jesus After the Mission Field Olympic Champion Usain Bolt Was Raised in Adventist Home Asian Aid Charity Celebrates 50 Years of Educating Impoverished Children The Adventist supporting ministry started in the hallway of a home in Australia. SUBSCRIBE+NEWSLETTER+ IN THIS ISSUE+NEWS+ARCHIVES+ READER RESPONSE+MEDIA PARTNERS+ SCREENING ROOM+GRACENOTES+ PHOTO SUBMISSIONS
Making Friends Is the New Face of Evangelism Commentary: Five things to remember if you want to share Jesus with young adults today. POSTED NOVEMBER 17, 2015 Editor s note: News commentaries are intended to express the richness and variety of informed and responsible Adventist opinion on current issues. They do not necessarily convey the viewpoint of the Adventist Review editorial team or the General Conference. I, president, Florida Conference have always loved public evangelism: the energy in preparing for the opening night, getting to know those whom the Lord has brought through advertising and member invitations, building a prayer list of those who are contemplating full surrender to Christ, visiting people in their homes, and trying to move them to a decision by the final Sabbath of the five- or six-week campaign. I am very indebted to this wonderful process as my mother came into the church through public meetings. Those evangelists who brought many people to Jesus and into the Adventist movement over the years through this method are true heroes. But change has overtaken U.S. culture at warp speed. Around 30 percent of people under age 35 (20 percent of the general population) report no religious affiliation of any kind Buddhist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, or other. A lack of respect for Christianity is evident in the media and pop culture. Biblical illiteracy is the new norm. Simple Bible stories are unknown to most people. Many young people have never been inside a church except to attend a wedding or a funeral. In 2015, only 14 percent of Floridians in my conference attend church. About 90 percent of the population lives in metro regions, and society is becoming increasingly secular. Unfortunately, the trusted methods of yesterday do not work in reaching young adults. African- Americans, Caucasians, and second- or thirdgeneration people from Latin or Caribbean families are no longer as responsive to traditional methods. Yet people must be reached with a Christ-centered message of hope and wholeness. If we are going to remain effective, we must establish new methods in more long-term, relational strategies. About 70 years ago, people were hungry for information. Today, they can access more information with their smart phones than they know what to do with. What they are now hungry for are genuine relationships. I recently interviewed Roger Hernandez, Ministerial Association director for Adventist Church s Southern Union Conference, which includes my Florida Conference. He is using methods strongly tied to relationships between members and people who are far from God. Here are some of the things I learned from methods he is piloting: Cleber Machado, right, pastor of the Orlando Central Church, trains in Brazilian Jiujitsu with his instructor, Leo Gocking. (Florida Conference) Step Out Into the Neighborhood Orlando Central Church, pastor, One of the inevitable truths in the Bible is that God is at work. From the first page to the last, He is relentlessly involved. Knowing that, one of the first steps is to start being present in the streets and commercial establishments of the neighborhood to be where people are and to engage them in conversation. Here are a few people whom I ve met: A tattoo artist who not only considers his work sinful but also feels that God will never
1. Evangelism is like having a baby. A shift from a short preparation process with a long evangelistic campaign to a long preparation process followed by a short campaign. Hernandez likens the evangelistic process to having a baby. Bringing a baby into the world involves three things: Conception. This may be likened to making friends in the community. It is an ongoing process for a disciple-making church, but there is a renewed focus upon this principle at the start of the evangelistic countdown. Pregnancy. This is likened to the momentum established in the church as the congregation continues to make and cultivate friendships in the community through various avenues of service. Just as a mother prepares for childbirth for nine months by attending training classes, reading books, etc., this new evangelism model is also a nine-month process. Delivery. In childbirth, the preferred outcome is for the delivery process to be shorter rather than longer. If the labor extends too long, it isn t the ideal. If enough relationships with nonbelievers have been cultivated, a lot can be accomplished by a one-week (eight nights) evangelistic program. The momentum will build because much work is already being done with people in their homes. 2. Every member a minister. A shift from depending upon paid evangelistic workers to training volunteer church members to be missionaries where they live and work each day. accept him. In our conversations, sometimes we cry together thinking about how both of us need Jesus and how we can help each other. A professor at the University of Central Florida. We ve sat on his porch and exchanged ideas about the historic neighborhood in which his home and our church are located. Since I needed to exercise, I also joined the local YMCA and a Brazilian Jiujitsu gym with the idea of engaging people with whom I would not normally converse. Following a short exchange of names at the gym, a mother of a fellow member approached me while I was warming up and asked me about the state of the dead! Talk about incredible! God is calling us back to the neighborhood. It is time to be people of the Way, Good Samaritans. We must make a difference where we live. As Jesus said, In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16, NIV). Every evangelist I ever worked with wished the harvest would be prepared before the meetings opened, but members were not taught the biblical concept of every member a minister. Frankly, we preachers didn t understand it either. Evangelism and ministry were considered to be the pastor s job, but a renewed emphasis on every member being a minister is changing the way members think. Interestingly enough, this concept has always been present in the writings of Ellen White. When put into action, the number of new members who remain after baptism is increasing. In Hernandez model, a large-scale launch to prepare the church is held nine months ahead of public meetings. At the rally, an appeal is made for members to work with their pastor and attend all of the monthly training events. Here are some of the trainings: Intercessory Prayer. Training in intercessory prayer is provided at the outset. Later in the preparation process leading up to the public meetings, a 40 Days of Prayer event is organized, and it becomes a spiritual revival for the congregation. The prayers are especially targeted toward people who don t know the Lord. Service. Service is the most practical and essential component for preparation. Research today tells us that service is a foundational element in helping people grow to maturity in Christ. When 40 Days of Service was conducted last year in West Palm Beach, Florida, it was exciting to see our churches come alive with engagement around this model: free car washes, painting houses of people in the neighborhood near the church, and doing good deeds for older people in the community. The multitude of service projects carried forth by young people, middle-aged, and older members was transformative. 3. Personal invitations. A shift from depending upon mass mail to personal invitations. The money usually spent on mailing brochures is spent on a small wage for a couple of people who will give Bible studies for three months before the start of the eight-night series. These are temporary hires, but members are also trained to give Bible studies as volunteers. In the past, since pastors and evangelists were trying to do everything, churches looked to public advertising to bring people to the meetings and it worked!
My mother joined the Adventist Church after she saw meetings advertised in the local newspaper. Unfortunately, today, fewer people respond to mailers, newspaper advertising, and posters. Members may hand out advertisements to those with whom they have established a relationship. 4. Practical sermons. A shift from a monthlong series to a one-week series. Hernandez conducts baptisms each night and calls for decisions because people have been studying the Bible in homes for months. He advises, Preach decision sermons that answer the question, So what? and show the blessing and benefits of the Sabbath, a life of vitality and health, and the second coming. These practical sermons help people to embrace truth. Since U.S. society knows less about the Bible today than at any other time in our history, people are much less resistant to embrace Bible truth since they possess fewer prejudices or biases. 5. Make a friend. A shift from little follow-up to follow-up that is well-planned and implemented. Every new convert is given a ministry assignment. They are immediately involved and assigned one or more spiritual mentors to encourage him or her in their walk. Make sure their circle of friends in the church enlarges quickly. When we relied primarily on advertising, most of those who decided to be baptized had very few, if any, friends in the church. The likelihood of their staying in the church was challenging. My friend Alex Bryant, executive secretary of the North American Division, was invited to hold meetings this summer in Kansas City. He told the congregation if they would conduct service projects and establish relationships with 1,000 people, he would hold the meetings. Two groups of people were baptized. One was a delightful group who were relatively new in the U.S. His sermons were translated every night, and a number of people were baptized. He had another group who came from friendships. They were people who we usually don t win in large numbers, but because they were connected with members and saw them as friends, they came. Many were baptized and enthusiastic about being a part of a family who are sharing the gospel in practical, loving ways. People are hungry for relationships. So, I challenge you to make a friend today. It may be a life that Christ will touch through you for eternity. Young Adults Minister to the Homeless Every Sabbath afternoon, a group of young adults from First Church of West Palm Beach bring relief to the homeless at John Prince State Park. Funded from their own pockets, the young people pass out sandwiches, toiletries, clothing, and shoes. They ve formed relationships, and many of the homeless are known on a first-name basis. Young adults from First Church of West Palm Beach have befriended homeless people in their community. (Florida Conference) When the church conducted its annual Community Guest Day, the young adults collaborated with the church s community services and Sabbath School departments to include these homeless individuals. They provided transportation from the park, a shower, and a change of clothing. In addition to worshiping together, the homeless enjoyed an afternoon meal along with other guests of the day. The young people made a great effort to be sure those to whom they ministered felt right at home as they worshiped and fellowshipped with members of the church.
West Palm Beach young adults realize that homelessness is an issue much larger than they can handle by themselves. They are, however, determined by God s grace to do what they can to share the love of Jesus with the homeless community. A Church Where Everybody Matters A refusal to let anyone member or neighbor alike feel unimportant has led the Avon Park congregation to implement a small group strategy tailored after the counsel that Jethro gave his famous son-in-law, Moses, in Exodus 18. This Jethro Plan has resulted in the formation of 78 groups of 12 at the Avon Park church. Group leaders contact inactive members with nonintrusive methods while encouraging active members to reach out to friends and neighbors. Bill Peters with the Delivered Meals ministry visiting the During the past 2½ years, 58 program s founder, Kathlyn Myers, who was homebound before moving to a nursing facility. (Florida Conference) ethnically diverse new members have joined the church through baptism, a difficult accomplishment in what is commonly regarded as a retirement community. Higher Ground, a new outreach to young adults, has just launched under the leadership of associate pastor Ryan Amos, who is assisted by lay associates. A vibrant community services ministry feeds and clothes more than 1,200 people a week, including 200 who receive lunches in their homes thanks to our Wednesday luncheon ministry. Inspired and led by associate pastor Geston Pierre, musical teams encourage the heart by bringing warm, hopeful, Christian music to people s homes. The Partnering for Eternity program, led by Walker Memorial Academy principal Jacqueline Colón-Diaz, encourages qualified students to engage retirees in positive and mutually beneficial interaction. Ellen White says, The formation of small companies as a basis of Christian effort is a plan that has been presented before me by One who cannot err ( Evangelism, p. 115). At Avon Park, the cross of Christ has taught us that, in our churches and neighborhoods, everybody truly matters. News & Features Subscriber Access About Departments Resources Current Adventist News Online Exclusives Gracenotes Events Subscriptions Renew Account Forgotten Password Report Trouble Update Mailing Address Issue Archives Our Roots and Mission Staff Writer's Guidelines Advertising Kit Adventist World Reader Response Photo Galleries Prayer Requests Partners Contact Free Newsletter Photo Submissions Downloads Sunset Calendar Church Locator RSS Feed Advertising Questions Copyright 2016, Adventist Review. All rights reserved worldwide.
Login Search Subscribe Menu Raafat Kamal, president of the Trans-European Division. (Victor Hulbert / TED) 1 2 3 4 5 I Inspired Churchgoers Just Enough to Buy My Album When a Little Girl Gave Up Her Birthday Gift in Faith 109-Year-Old Sunday School to Become Adventist Health Center in Scotland Thomas Davis, an Adventist Missionary Who Found Jesus After the Mission Field Olympic Champion Usain Bolt Was Raised in Adventist Home Asian Aid Charity Celebrates 50 Years of Educating Impoverished Children The Adventist supporting ministry started in the hallway of a home in Australia. SUBSCRIBE+NEWSLETTER+ IN THIS ISSUE+NEWS+ARCHIVES+ READER RESPONSE+MEDIA PARTNERS+ SCREENING ROOM+GRACENOTES+ PHOTO SUBMISSIONS
Adventist Church s Smallest Division Rolls Out Big Plans The Trans-European Division approves a strategy to connect, inspire, and change. POSTED NOVEMBER 18, 2015 W, Trans-European Division hat do you do when you take over as leader of not only the smallest world division of the Seventh-day Adventist Church but also one compounded with severe growth challenges in a highly secularized Europe? For Raafat Kamal, president of the Trans-European Division, the answer is simple: Listen! And that is just what Kamal and his fellow officers have been doing for the past year. Kamal, who was elected in July 2014 and then reelected to a five-year term last July, told delegates at the division s year-end meetings this week in Montenegro that many key people have passed through his office in St. Albans, England, over the past year. A focus group of 80 people spent four days together in February, drawing up a list of 123 recommendations, and smaller groups have continued to meet during the year. Division leaders have been praying for wisdom on how to share the Adventist message of Jesus return in the 22 European countries on their territory, which stretches from Britain and Ireland in the west to Scandinavia in the north, Greece in the south, and Estonia and Bosnia-Herzegovina in the east. The division has only 85,000 church members. The drawn-out listening process helped division leaders focus and select personnel based on five key areas: leadership development, youth, family, children, and mission outreach. Key leaders for those teams were elected during the General Conference Session in San Antonio, Texas, last July. So with all the listening, thinking, and planning, what have those elected in July got in mind? Division executive secretary Audrey Andersson, speaking of the Adventist Volunteer Service, said mission is needed locally as well as in far-flung parts of the planet. The spirit of volunteerism is alive, she said. Emphasis placed on teamwork A youth team will bring together the division departments of youth, teens, public campus ministries, and Pathfinders. A Life Institute will bring together the division departments of singles, family, health, children, and women. A mission board will cross all departments. The division will give administrative support to unions, help train their trainers, and act as a resource hub. Following a General Conference model, each department will incorporate the Reach up to God, Reach in with God, Reach out for God model. She said, however, that short-term mission projects within the division might galvanize members into enthusiastic service for God while helping faith communities flourish. Teens and Community Services director Alastair Agbaje said young people needed to be active not just Global Youth Day but the other 364 days of the year. He called for young people to participate in Centers of Hope, as church community centers are known in the division. As each director got up to share his or her vision, the overlapping ideas of
Leaders of the division departments participating at the year-end meetings. (Victor Hulbert / TED) involvement became more and more clear. I believe that the time has come that our young people are serving with passion, youth director János Kovács- Bíró said, speaking from recent experiences in Hungary and Sweden said. He quoted a young professional couple as saying, We have found it far better to be an administrator of God s gifts than to simply receive them. Kovács-Bíró will be developing an institute of youth evangelism for the division to, like other division departments, train the trainers. As each department presented, it was clear that a lot of thought had gone in to how to work together, how to prepare appropriately needed resources and, most important, how to train the trainers so that they in turn could multiply skills and activity across each union, conference, or mission. Among other things, Family Ministries will be developing an effective program on issues of biblical values and sexuality based on a pilot already tried in Sweden. Women's Ministries is continuing with a General Conference-accredited certification program while developing a girls for Christ ministry. Newbold College of Higher Education in England will become a hub to train trainers for teen leadership. Even the Ministerial Association is getting a spruce up, with its secretary, Patrick Johnson, committing to practical help for pastors in areas of personal development. We are here to help you, Kamal told union presidents and invitees. We are a trainer of trainers. We want to make sure you have the right resources to do your task. There were questions. How, in practical terms, do you get team involvement? How do you balance training trainers within a local country context, or, from Ivo Käsk, president of the Estonian Conference, how do you simplify all these ambitious plans down into the context of a small conference? But the overall mood was positive, even upbeat. Former General Conference president Jan Paulsen expressed his joy at having spent the year-end meetings with former colleagues and former students. I like what I see and I have one word, he said. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you through the Word. The Holy Spirit is the unlimited resource of the church. News & Features Subscriber Access About Departments Resources Current Adventist News Online Exclusives Gracenotes Events Subscriptions Renew Account Forgotten Password Report Trouble Update Mailing Address Issue Archives Our Roots and Mission Staff Writer's Guidelines Advertising Kit Adventist World Reader Response Photo Galleries Prayer Requests Partners Contact Free Newsletter Photo Submissions Downloads Sunset Calendar Church Locator RSS Feed Advertising Questions Copyright 2016, Adventist Review. All rights reserved worldwide.