"How many flat tires does it take to stop your car?" Sikhu Daco, associate editor at Adventist Review, asked Adventist evangelist Mark Finley during one of the morning "I Will Go" discussion groups in St. Louis, Missouri. "One," he replied. "But it takes all four tires with air to make it go."

The car image stuck. Across four mornings, delegates explored the Church's four strategic priorities. Communion with God: prayer and Scripture as daily breath. Identity in Jesus: who we are is rooted in the crucified and risen Christ. Unity in the Spirit: we move together or we do not move far. Any one tire left deflated slows the whole movement. Mission for All, provides the forward momentum that keeps the other three from becoming a museum display.

The presenters shared that if the Church prays yet forgets why it exists, if we know who we are yet do not go, we are a car on bare rims. Mission inflates everything else, they said.

Afterwards, Justin Kim, executive editor of Adventist Review, opened the Mission for All session with the unlikely story of Major General John Charles Beckwith, a seventy-two-year-old Canadian soldier who read about the impoverished Waldensian valleys of Italy. Beckwith moved there, rebuilt schools, strengthened congregations, advocated for ministry in the Italian language, and reignited evangelistic zeal in a movement that was cooling.

Kim warned that without mission even Adventists risk becoming "club churches," gilded with programs yet inward facing, content to admire their own reflections.

Adventist pioneer, Ellen White saw the same drift and urged that "every church should be a training school for Christian workers." Members are not spectators. They are disciples in training, sent to neighborhoods, cities, difficult fields, and distant nations. Mission is the life of the Church, Kim said, just as burning is the life of a fire. Remove the flame and you soon have only warm embers, then ash.

Four Balancing Acts of Mission

With resources stretched and needs multiplying, Kim proposed four balances that help keep the mission whole. Each was highlighted with stories from around the world.

1. Service and Proclamation

Kim emphasized that the mission must touch souls through both service and proclamation. It feeds, heals, educates, and advocates—while also preaching, teaching, baptizing, and discipling. “A whole gospel for whole people,” he said.

One example came from a rugged mountain village, where a young missionary teacher named Millie transformed a simple classroom into a small sanctuary of prayer and healing. When a newly baptized woman collapsed and villagers ran for the shaman, Millie quietly prayed. Before the ritual began, the woman revived—deepening trust in the God Millie serves.

2. Sending and Receiving

“Mission breathes in and out,” Kim noted, comparing it to a healthy body of water that must both receive and pour out to avoid stagnation or exhaustion. He explained that while mission was long seen as going “from the West to the rest,” the 21st century has changed the map. Today, mission flows from “everyone to everywhere”—from Africa to the Americas, from Asian campuses to Middle Eastern neighborhoods, from island villages to inland deserts, and from rural hamlets to global cities and back again.

“No matter the size or setting,” Kim said, “every church can be both a mission center and a mission field.

3. Living Between the Advents

Kim reminded attendees that “we live between the manger and the clouds.” The First Advent—the incarnation, sacrifice, and ongoing ministry of Jesus as High Priest—shapes the urgency and empathy of our witness. Referencing Revelation 14:6, Kim said that when we proclaim the everlasting gospel, we do so with urgency because Christ is coming soon, and with compassion because He already came near.

“In the First Advent, God came down to our level, walked our roads, and suffered with and for us,” Kim said. “That shapes how we witness: we do not shout truth from a distance; we draw close, serve, listen, weep, and invite. Urgency does not cancel empathy—it intensifies it.”

4. Mission and Theology

Quoting German missiologist Martin Kähler—“Mission is the mother of theology”—Kim warned that separating mission and theology can weaken both. “Mission without theology becomes a busy activity,” he said, “and theology without mission becomes a debate club. Held together, they ignite living faith.”

He illustrated this with the story of Rosa Rodríguez, who was left in a wheelchair after personal loss. She prayed for a way to witness and, during a visit to a neighborhood salon, noticed a Bible. Gently, she asked the stylist if they could study it together. One conversation led to another, and soon, relatives, customers, and friends began joining in. The salon became a small group hub where Scripture and prayer shaped weekly conversations. A 14-year-old girl named Valentina was inspired to start her own youth circle. “In that bright, busy room,” Kim shared, “theology opened in community and mission moved naturally through relationships.”

Group Discussion

During the session delegates broke into table groups to wrestle with questions that now come home to each of us.

• What are some of the greatest challenges to mission in the twenty first century?

• What is your personal involvement in the mission of the Church? What ways have you found effective in sharing your faith? How is your local congregation making an impact on your community?

Secularism, digital distraction, migration, polarization, conflict zones, resource gaps, burnout, and language barriers were only a few that surfaced around the tables. And stories flowed across the floor.

The I Will Go Strategic Plan describes Mission for All as Spirit-empowered members and church entities engaged in personal and public proclamation of the eternal gospel to every nation, tribe, language, and people. It calls us to creative and modern methods that remain true to Christ's approach to mission. He mingled with people, ministered to needs, won confidence, then invited, "Follow Me." Our goal is to take a genuine interest in people, lead them to Jesus, and welcome them into a disciple-making movement.

As the GC Session closed and delegates traveled back home, some are longing after God, many are rediscovering identity in Jesus, all seeking the Spirit's unity. And Mission for All asks again:

• How will your local church become a training school instead of a club?

• Which unreached window, 10/40, urban, post modern, will you pray over and support this year?

One flat tire can stop a car. Four aired tires can cross continents. Let us go home with air in all four, hearts burning. Let the Spirit ignite us for mission in our neighborhoods and to the ends of the earth. Say it with believers around the world, I Will Go.

For more coverage of the 2025 General Conference Session, including live updates, interviews, and delegate stories, visit adventist.news and follow ANN on social media.