More than 3,000 Seventh-day Adventist church members registered for the Festival of the Laity in Orlando, Florida, United States this past week, and at least twice that number attended the closing worship services held on April 27. The festival, designed to help encourage and train lay people to share their faith, was the first in North America, and was patterned after similar festivals held by Adventists in inter-America and other regions of the world church.

During his keynote address April 24 Pastor Don Schneider, president of the church in North America, challenged delegates to begin in their own neighborhoods as they plan for how to share the gospel. “This event is about you, your God and your neighbor, not about a corporate church,” he said.

The festival featured worship, special music, and teaching seminars.  Each day started with a worship service, followed by four training seminar time slots, and closed with an evening service of inspiration.

The four seminar time slots focused on 27 different topics, such as Evangelism, and Grief and Bereavement Ministries. There were seminars in French and Spanish, as well as in English. Seminars in the Bible Study and Witnessing Ministries track covered topics such as “Winning Souls via the Bible Marking Plan,” “Eight Habits of Highly Successful Bible Students,” “Making Strong Lay Members for the New Millennium,” and “Creative Outreach and Discipleship.”