Where is the mission field? In the neighborhood; in the city; in the province, region, or department; in the world. That is what the American writer Ellen G. White said: "The Lord's work is to widen and broaden until it encircles the world" (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 7, p. 15). And based on this advice, Mission Refocus emerged at the Adventist Church's world headquarters and aims to encourage all members to become missionaries or support missionaries around the world.
"It is an initiative to involve church institutions, unions, conferences [regional administrative headquarters], and local churches in mission projects. But how? From the local church, we want to remember that there are many regions in the world without a Christian presence," explains Pastor Dieter Bruns, director of Adventist Volunteer Service for the South American Division—the department responsible for sending volunteers and missionaries in and out of South America.
Mission for All
Regardless of this concern being found at the administrative levels, the great point of Mission Refocus is to make the local church—that is, all the members of the Adventist Church—aware that there is still a large portion of the planet that needs someone to carry the biblical message.
Pastor Stanley Arco, president of the South American Division, emphasizes that "each one of us has to think about strengthening the local church with the mission we have. But the Gospel is not preached only in my local church—in my territory. It is preached to the whole world. So, the vision is local church, global church."
“When we remember that, we are motivated to help. When we help, actually, in the end, we are the big beneficiaries. And by being aware, by starting the process of helping, we also create in the local church more unity and more development," emphasizes Bruns. For him, when someone is known to be working in the missionary field, it brings more awareness and awakens the need to obtain information about this work. Consequently, it unites the church in a common purpose.
Pastor Arco comments that there are five phases to reach the final objective. The first is the Caleb Mission project in the local church. The second is the One Year in Mission (OYIM) project and Adventist Volunteer Service. From there comes the third part, which is an exchange of missionaries between administrative headquarters in South America. The fourth phase is sending and receiving people between continents through, for example, the Missionaries for the World project, which has already sent 25 missionaries to other countries. The last phase is in a project to be carried out in Thailand and Indonesia, countries where there is little presence of Christians, let alone Adventists.
During the next five years, the plan is to increase the sending of volunteer missionaries and professionals, promote mission trips (e.g., short-term missions), and invest in infrastructure.
Barriers and Opportunities
The integration between projects and departments shows the effort in getting the church integrally involved in Mission Refocus. In doing so, it motivates and provides more mission opportunities for Adventist Church members.
For the project to be successful, there are some challenges that must be overcome. For the missionaries, it is the language. It is essential to know English, for example, to learn a third language. For the institutions and administrative headquarters that make possible the sending of people, it is the financial resources.
The work of the project now is to make itself known everywhere, presenting the ways to connect volunteers and missions. The website vividfaith.com is one of the ways to make this connection. It contains all the available slots in various countries for various functions.
With the presentation of the Mission Refocus project during the Plenary Executive Committee, entitled "A Living Church," the objective is that everyone commits to actively work in sending and receiving missionaries to work in regions where there is no presence of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
This work occurs "in response to what they did with us in South America in the past. They [the pioneers] delivered; they came from North America, mainly. The leaders came here to spread the Gospel, and today, we have the church that we have. Now we are going to respond by giving missionaries and volunteers to other countries that also have this need," concludes Pastor Arco.
The original version of this story was posted on the South American Division Spanish-language news site.