The challenge of finding new ways to communicate Seventh-day Adventist beliefs to people in a non-Christian context dominated the discussions of leading experts in mission who met April 8 and 9 at the Adventist Church’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.

The Global Mission Issues Committee, which meets annually to address issues faced by cross-cultural workers, combined short presentations and discussions. Papers were given on how the church’s fundamental beliefs relate to understandings of Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism, Animism, and Postmodernism.

“I want people to know what we believe,” said Jon Dybdahl, chair of the department of Mission at Andrews University, in Michigan, United States, “but they won’t know what we believe unless they hear it in terms they understand. Our 27 Fundamental Beliefs were written in relation to other Christians. Now we need to express them in the context of other religions.”

Adventist theologian Angel Rodriguez, director of the church’s Biblical Research Institute, said it is vital for the church to explain its fundamental beliefs to people in particular cultural circumstances, in terms that they can understand. “We’re not talking about watering down our beliefs,” adds Michael Ryan, director of Global Mission. “We’re talking about making them meaningful to people who come from different religious traditions.”

Borge Schantz, a cross-cultural expert from Denmark, presented a paper on meeting the spiritual needs of people from an Animist or “Ethno-Religionist” tradition. “All 27 Fundamental beliefs are needed,” he said. “They must, however, be carefully adapted to local cultures.” He gave the example of the importance of the spirit world and ancestor worship within Animism—an issue scarcely addressed by the church’s fundamental beliefs. He suggested adding a theological statement on the role of angels in spiritual life.

Other topics discussed during the meetings included the need for theological statements on areas that loom large in the context of other world religions—devotional life; tribalism, racialism, and gender bias; poverty and economic justice. “The committee produced several working statements on these issues, with a view to recommending that they be included with the 27 Fundamental Beliefs,” said Ryan. “The committee was clear, however, that these would in no way change the meaning of these beliefs.”

Richard Elofer, director of the Worldwide Jewish Friendship Center in Israel, stressed “the need to deal with the historical attitude of Christians toward the Jews.” He also pointed to “many statements” in Adventist literature that “can be understood by Jews in a negative way and need to be corrected.”

Members of the Issues Committee include administrators from 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.