“As we witness the rapidly unfolding signs of the times, we recognize the urgent need for the church to unite in an extensive evangelistic effort. Jesus is coming soon.” Ramon Canals, ministerial secretary of the General Conference Ministerial Association, appealed to church leaders at the 2023 Spring Meetings held at the General Conference (GC) in Silver Spring, Maryland, as he introduced the Global Disciple-Making Evangelism initiative.
As the world around us reveals the nearness of Christ’s soon return, Canals pressed, “We need to put a little more urgency to our work.” However, rather than focusing on mere events and special dates, this initiative aims to foster a culture of holistic evangelism and disciple-making within every Adventist congregation.
The Church’s strategic focus for 2020-2025 emphasizes the revival of worldwide mission and mission as a way of life, not just for pastors, elders, and other church leaders but for every church member to experience the “joy of witnessing for Christ and making disciples,” he said.
Canals encouraged church leaders, “The best work pastors can do for their members is not delivering sermons, but planning work for them [to do] and teaching them to work for Jesus.” The question remains, “How can we encourage our pastors and members, young and experienced, to get involved in global evangelism?”
The Framework and Model for Global Evangelism
Jim Howard, director of the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries department for the GC, took to the pulpit as he proposed the solution: a framework and model for global evangelism.
Earlier, Canals reminded attendees that, in Gospel Workers, p.351, Ellen G. White writes, “The work of God in this earth can never be finished until the men and women comprising our church membership rally to the work, and unite their efforts with those of ministers and church officers.”
It is this concept of Total Member Involvement, involving every church member and church leader in the participation of evangelism and disciple-making, that is the foundation of the Global Evangelism and Disciple-Making Model.
Beginning in May 2024 and continuing for a one-year period (and beyond), this initiative invites every Seventh-day Adventist division, union, conference, and local church to unite and adopt this model as a global emphasis to share the Three Angels’ Messages with their entrusted territories and communities.
Howard reiterated that this is not an event-focused initiative, but rather it hangs on the principles of having a full-disciple-making process and being primarily people-focused. It aims to involve several different ministries throughout different phases of the evangelism and disciple-making process, including health ministries, literature ministries, and media ministries. Through this process, every church member should have the opportunity and the essential training necessary to participate in any phase of the process.
Under the Global Disciple-Making Evangelism framework, every church, in its own individual context, can incorporate the phases shown in the table below. In this way, church members may learn to become medical missionaries and literature evangelists; and every church can have a Bible school and establish a Bible study ministry, while at the same time including other ministries in the process.
Sometime during the year, this model calls for a reaping event to be held; however, rather than ending the process after baptisms and decisions for Christ are made, Howard emphatically expressed that a systematic plan to disciple and nurture new members be put in place by every congregation. Through this plan, new members can be trained to not just be disciples but join the disciple-making process as well.
A Personal Ministry
Howard reminded church leaders watching and listening that Christ’s method of soul-winning is personal. “We can’t accomplish [personal ministry] through large events.” Our evangelism efforts must be infused with personal ministry, involving every church member, and a major part of this effort has to do with making sure individual members are connected with God, which is why the Back to the Altar initiative also plays an important role in this model of global disciple-making and evangelism.
Howard reminded attendees of Canal’s earlier statement, “We need to develop and plan work for our members.” One way he recommended doing this is by “resurrecting the interest list” because “every disciple is first an interest.”
Local churches are encouraged to spend more time during the year generating and working with interests at their local level and focusing on the people, not on activities. With this, Howard stressed honing in on each specific interest and remembering that the process for every person is different. As congregations focus on involving their members in being more intentional about meeting the needs for a person’s individual discipleship process, they will see greater results.
Concludingly, Howard summarized ten benefits of disciple-making evangelism:
Gets church members involved in every phase of making disciples
Prioritizes personal ministry —praying, distributing literature/media, inviting, visiting/calling, giving Bible studies, mentoring, etc.
Incorporates personal labor into public events for optimum results
Combines health and gospel work as Jesus did
Ensures that interests are being generated prior to reaping events
Leads need-based ministries to generate Bible studies and baptisms
Ensures proper preparation for baptism
Nurtures new members and trains them to win souls
Multiplies workers instead of merely adding members
Develops a culture in which every church is a training school
Said Howard, “Through global discipleship-making, we can ultimately engage every member of every church in every nation to make disciples using Christ’s method.”
As we partner with God in His work, focusing on people through this simple model, and continually pray for His Holy Spirit, we can globally unite as a Church to address the call to share the message entrusted to us while “simultaneously fostering a culture of continuous holistic evangelism within every congregation.”
Click here to view the presentation for Global Disciple-Making Evangelism, and click here to download the brochure and share it with your local church.