World Church: Evangelism Council Notes Accomplishments

On every continent, Seventh-day Adventist outreach efforts are generating interest and garnering results, denominational leaders told the church’s Council on Evangelism and Witness (or CEW) meeting at the church’s world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland Oct. 6.

Although many regional church leaders report that “traditional methods” such as public meetings still draw people, the church is also finding that other approaches are also successful in reaching new people, as well as bringing former Adventists back to the church.

According to Pastor Don Schneider, president of the church in North America, public evangelistic efforts in Baltimore, Maryland, and the Canadian city of Montreal, have been successful, despite previous difficulties in both cities. Nearly 500 have been baptized in Montreal so far, he said.

But Schneider said there was also an initiative to reach those who have left the church, adding that this is bearing fruit. After sending inactive and former members an invitation to an informal meeting, Schneider has met with people in three cities, and says that people are returning to the church when they know someone cares.

On the island of Mauritius, reported Pastor Pardon Mwansa, who heads the church in southern Africa, 27 of 50 planned evangelistic meetings have been held. In Madagascar, a Lutheran pastor and 50 of his congregants have joined the church, while another effort brought over a Roman Catholic priest and 10 of his congregation. Mwansa said that members of the regional church administration are helping conduct the campaigns, saying that they must set an example for other church workers.

The multimedia outreach of the Southern Pacific region of the church is on the verge of going global, said Pastor Laurie Evans, regional president. A multinational marketing agency has become enamored by “Chasing Utopia,” a series produced by the church’s Australian media center, and is about to conclude a deal to syndicate the shows worldwide, with potential income equal to the series’ production costs.

Adventists in Korea and the rest of Northern Asia are “hungry for new methods” to propagate their faith, said Pastor Jairong Lee, recently elected as church president in the region. One of these includes organizing study tours of Israel for non-members;

In Korea alone, 33 language schools have 40,000 students, 98-percent of whom are non church members; 120 churches offer English language instruction, reaching another 10,000 young people, Lee reported.

The Trans-European region of the church is an area whose population is 65 percent Muslim, said Bertil Wiklander, regional president. Small groups in some countries, such as Israel, are reaching people, while in some European lands, “café churches” are more popular.

“Now, the café church is not traditional, and sometimes they get a little charismatic, but that’s OK,” Wiklander said, noting that the outreaches are connecting with people in a culture that often ignores traditional religious efforts.

Germany, part of the Euro-African region of the church, is proving receptive to both direct-response cards offering a Bible study as well as to direct response advertising. Adventist messages are popular among readers of weekly “TV Guide” magazines, and will also be featured in national mail-order catalogs and even a Catholic Church publication.

“There’s a change of mind in Germany,” reported Matthias Mueller.

These reports—along with others from around the globe—were seen as encouraging by church evangelism leaders.

“It’s exciting to see the variety of plans for the [church’s] Year of World Evangelism in 2004,” said Ted N.C. Wilson, a vice president of the world church. “We will continue to pray for each other’s regions on the first Sabbath of every month.”

He added that the next CEW session, in April of 2004, will include an emphasis on discipleship.