The East-Central Africa Division’s (ECD) Content Creators and Influencers Summit in Olkeri ward, Kenya, took place August 19-22, 2026. The event highlighted the importance of digital evangelism and encouraged creatives to take part in spreading biblical hope online.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, the Adventist Church in the ECD territory focused on physical evangelism. When the pandemic shut down the world, those face-to-face connections moved online. Years later, people continue to spend more and more time in the digital world.

Moses Maka, secretary for ECD and speaker at the summit, offered a simple description of how ministry is evolving: “The fishing point has changed.” This reflected the opening message by Yohannes Olana on the 19th.

Maka challenged content creators to recognize the internet as a mission field filled with people searching for hope, meaning, answers, and connection. The challenge, he said, is not simply to put Christian content online, but to intentionally meet people there and lead them toward Christ.

The stories that emerged from the ECD Content Creators and Influencers Summit show how the shift has already begun.

For Steve Biko, it began with Sabbath worship.

Biko recalled how the pandemic forced his church to rethink the way it served its members. When churches could no longer gather in person, he, along with church leaders, developed an online Sabbath service to keep the congregation connected from home. Although the initial concept was meant for members, the broadcast soon reached further into the community.

The quality and consistency of the online service caught the attention of the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation, which began streaming the church's service and broadcasting it through its national platform.

What had begun as an effort to serve one congregation suddenly became an opportunity to reach a much wider audience.

For Biko, the experience became more than a COVID-era solution. It demonstrated what happens when the Church uses available technology to meet people where they are.

The pandemic created a similar turning point for digital evangelist Esther Namatovu.

While quarantined at home, Namatovu began exploring online platforms to share the gospel. She developed multiple digital ministry platforms, including Advent Discoveries and Salvation by Faith.

The journey was not without setbacks. One of the platforms Namatovu built, Advent Discoveries, grew to about 800,000 followers before she lost access to the account. The experience reshaped her understanding of digital ministry.

Numbers, she realized, could measure reach, but they could not measure faithfulness. For Namatovu, the real ministry begins after someone stops scrolling. She likened the comment section to a dining table: just as Jesus sat and ate with people, digital ministry requires creators to stay, listen, engage, and build relationships.

Namatovu proposed that a single comment can open a conversation, and a private message can become an opportunity for prayer, Bible study, and discipleship. “Don’t just post and go away,” became part of her philosophy. Her inbox is not merely a place for messages, she said; it can become a place for discipleship.

Namatovu's experience also taught her the importance of building ministry with others. Digital evangelists, she noted, should not try to carry the work alone but bring fellow missionaries into the journey. In a space where consistency can easily become pressure and numbers can become an obsession, Namatovu's measure of success is simpler: faithfulness to God.

Adventist pastor Joshua Mbithi King’oo experienced that transition firsthand.

King’oo, a student at the University of Eastern Africa, Baraton, began streaming worship services on Facebook from home during the pandemic. His initial goal was simple: to help people worship when they could no longer gather physically.

The public response led to the creation of Light FM Kenya, an online radio ministry. What began during a season of isolation evolved into a digital platform comprising a website, mobile application, and an expanding online community.

King’oo philosophy is captured in a simple conviction, “We are called not for likes, but for lives.”

His ministry does not end where the screen does. Since 2023, King’oo and his team have continued engaging in physical evangelism through Bible studies, door-to-door outreach, street ministry, and evangelistic work in Nakuru, Kenya, and beyond.

For King’oo, the digital and physical mission approaches do not compete, but rather complement each other.

The Church in ECD did not stop at learning to broadcast during a crisis. Individuals discovered how to build a ministry for an increasingly online world. That lesson now finds expression in OneVoice27.

As the Content Creators and Influencers Summit closed, delegates were given a statement of commitment and a charge to carry the gospel beyond the summit, into their platforms, networks, communities, and everyday digital spaces.

This article was provided by the East-Central Africa Division.