A new committee, approved April 19 by Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders, will aim to coordinate and expand the Adventist Church’s television ministry around the world.  The Adventist World Television Committee (AWT) “is an idea whose time has come,” said Gerry Karst, a vice president of the Adventist Church worldwide. “This takes our global television outreach to the next level.”

Part of AWT’s mandate will be to ensure that existing broadcast infrastructure is being used to its full potential.  This will include looking for ways in which regional church broadcast services can work together more effectively, and cooperating, where possible, with lay-based television ministries. 

Church leaders explained that the establishment of the committee is a response, in part, to the dramatic growth in the number and range of church-owned and lay broadcast ministries internationally. The AWT committee will supervise and coordinate television evangelism around the world. 

AWT will also work to expand the scope of the church’s use of television and satellite in fulfilling the mission of the Adventist Church, in areas including evangelism, education, and training.

The newly established AWT will incorporate the Adventist Global Communication Network (AGCN) transferring and expanding its activities, functions, and personnel.  For the past four years, AGCN has served as the church’s international television broadcast service, providing programming to its 12,000 downlink sites around the world.