Twelve months after its launch, an ambitious initiative to "blanket the world with Bible studies" is yielding exciting results, but also some challenges, according to Bettina Krause, coordinator of Sow 1 Billion. The task of distributing hundreds of milli
Twelve months after its launch, an ambitious initiative to “blanket the world with Bible studies” is yielding exciting results, but also some challenges, according to Bettina Krause, coordinator of Sow 1 Billion. The task of distributing hundreds of millions of Bible study invitations is underway, and already thousands of people have been baptized as a result. But some regions of the church are struggling to cope with the demand for Bible study lessons.
Krause says that recent reports offer a snapshot of how Sow 1 Billion is being embraced by church members, and impacting the communities in which these invitations are being distributed. The Adventist Church in every region of the world has adopted the Sow 1 Billion plan, and the many different designs and languages used in the brochures reflect the diversity of cultures in which the Adventist Church operates.
In the Southern Asia-Pacific region, Adventists have distributed 18 million of their 103 million-brochure goal, and are working to fill 388,412 requests for Bible studies.
In Korea, church members have received 40,000 requests for Bible studies after distributing 2 million of their 30 million-brochure goal.
In Kenya, 2,572 people have already been baptized because of Sow 1 Billion, and some 400,000 people have requested Bible studies.
In other countries in East Central Africa, there is an average response rate of 20 percent, with one country—Burundi—showing a 41 percent response rate. Throughout such regions the church has limited resources to fund enough Bible lessons for those responding; church leaders are urgently addressing ways to meet this challenge.
The Sow 1 Billion effort continues even in those areas of the world where secularism and postmodernism make Bible studies less attractive to the general population, says Krause. But while the results may be lower in real terms, in percentage points they represent major breakthroughs for the church. In Japan, with just 15,000 church members among a national population of almost 130 million, church leaders sought to maximize the impact of Sow 1 Billion by not only distributing 5 million brochures, but by also printing a Bible study invitation in 14 national newspapers. This was the first time in Japan that a potential reading audience of 35 million had ever seen a message from the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Requests for Bible studies in Japan has increased 800 percent since the same time last year.
Coordinators in Norway, Poland, the Netherlands, Romania and other European countries have also planned their Sow 1 Billion efforts with the challenges of secularism in mind. The Polish brochure, for instance, features an actor and a musician—both nationally known, and both church members—who relate in a few words how the Bible has changed their lives. It’s an approach that’s catching people’s attention, and already some 2,000 people have responded to the invitation.
Adventists in North America began distributing an unprecedented 25.9 million Bible study invitations earlier this year. One Bible study ministry, Voice of Prophecy, has reported some 17,500 new requests for Bible studies so far through Sow 1 Billion. In the Canadian province of Quebec, where there are few Adventists and slow church growth, church members have taken up the Sow 1 Billion challenge, says Emile Maxi, personal ministries director for the region. He reports that church members are excited to have nearly 2,000 new requests for Bible studies so far. Sow 1 Billion is helping church members see that, even in difficult areas, personal outreach is possible, Maxi says.
On the other side of the world, in Mongolia, the 600 church members—all relatively new Adventists—have begun working toward their goal of placing a Bible study invitation leaflet in every gur, or traditional round canvas-covered house, in the country.
Similar stories are coming in from around the world as more and more lay people catch the excitement of sharing their faith through Sow 1 Billion, says Krause. A report on the progress of Sow 1 Billion will be brought to the world church’s executive committee when it meets in the spring of 2005, and a further report will be given to delegates to the World Church Session in St. Louis, Missouri, in July 2005.