How Seventh-day Adventists relate to secular people, animists, and alternate forms of worship were just some issues discussed by leading experts in mission who met April 11 and 12 at the Adventist Church headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United Sta
How Seventh-day Adventists relate to secular people, animists, and alternate forms of worship were just some issues discussed by leading experts in mission who met April 11 and 12 at the Adventist Church headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States. The Global Mission Issues Committee, which meets twice a year, drafted several statements relating to these and other issues, which will be further refined and then voted as working guidelines for people involved in Adventist mission initiatives.
“Every person approaches spiritual matters from the perspective of his or her own culture and worldview,” says Dr. Michael Ryan, director of the Global Mission initiative of the world church. “The challenge we face as a church is to make the Christian message understandable and relevant in every cultural context.”
Other topics discussed during the two-day meeting included: syncretism, where the Christian message is compromised through contact with other belief systems; the centrality of Christian community to world mission; and the relationship of Adventism to Judaism.
Dr. Jon Dybdahl, chair of the department of World Mission at the Adventist Theological Seminary in Michigan, United States, said that the issues discussed by the committee, “if taken seriously and acted on, will have far-reaching implications for our mission and thus the future of our church.” He added: “For years we have had a statement about our relation to other Christians. We need to finish the task of defining ourselves in relation to other major world religions.”
In his paper on Judaism, Richard Elofer, director of the Worldwide Jewish Friendship Center, said, “We must appreciate how strongly our heritage is linked together with that of the Jewish people.” He pointed to common points between Adventism and Judaism such as the understanding of creation, the sanctity of the seventh-day Sabbath, the understanding of clean and unclean foods, and a belief in the Scripture as inspired by God.
At times the committee pointed to past failures. In his presentation on secularism, Dr. Barry Oliver, a church leader from Australia, presented a paper on secularism that said, “We confess that in our interaction with secular people, we, along with other Christians, have sometimes been too ready with answers before pausing to listen to the questions.”
“The Global Mission Issues Committee was established to provide guidance and direction for people working in the front line of mission,” says Ryan. “We’re addressing some of the issues that are raised by being involved in mission.” Members of the Issues Committee include administrators from the Adventist Church world headquarters; presidents of the various regional organizations of the church, known as divisions; experts in mission, or “missiologists;” representatives from the Biblical Research Institute; and Global Mission staff.
For more information on the Global Mission Issues Committee and the church’s Global Mission initiative, visit www.global-mission.org.
