Last year the Seventh-day Adventist Church agreed to accept a software package that would connect Adventist communities globally over the Internet. On October 16, delegates to the church’s Annual Council voted to accept full ownership of the netAdventist software. The transition of software ownership will start in 2008 and will come under full ownership of the church by 2009.

“This software was developed by lay people who have provided the multiple millions of dollars required to produce this and they are giving it as a gift,” said Adventist world church President Jan Paulsen.

The software was developed for and given to the church by Three Angels Global Networking, or TAGnet, a lay-owned, supporting ministry. The license agreement makes a software package available to denominational entities at no cost. The software combines localized Web sites with live streams of information and resources from the global church. The software permits local churches to tailor the software to meet their individual needs.

By owning the software, Lowell C. Cooper, a world church vice president, said the world church will “have a common platform of communication globally. It will be easier to establish global branding for churches around the world and it is the easiest way of providing global connectivity.”

Cooper said ownership would also mean “the [world church] would be responsible for modifying, substituting or discontinuing use of the software.”

Delegates raised questions on what kind of support the world church would give to local users of the software.

Cooper explained that while the church’s headquarters will be responsible for the “provision of some technical support to [regional] technicians we certainly cannot provide technical support for the entire range of church use.”

Because the software has an open license, churches can host the software on whatever server they need to. It will also allow church programmers worldwide to make updates and add new applications to the software core.

Already the software is being used in more than 1,000 churches in North America and more than 1,000 churches in the South Pacific regions of the church with plans to start use in three or four more regions in 2008.

On a similar note, delegates also voted to establish in 2008 an Office of Global Software and Technology to be based at the church’s headquarters. Cooper said the decision came about after church leaders realized similar software was being developed and duplicated in different parts of the world.

The role and function of the office’s staff has not yet been established. However, Cooper said, “Someone based at the world headquarters would have the responsibility of creating the networking and the discussion forums in which software development questions could be addressed and collective decisions made about what kind of software would be developed.”

“Today, our communication needs to reflect that we are at the same time a global and a local faith community,” said Rajmund Dabrowski, communication director for the world church.

“The two actions today show the Adventist Church’s efforts to be proactive and better organized in developing software and using Internet technologies,” he said.