With 16 Bible workers, 24 students from the Amazing Facts College of Evangelism (AFCOE), and 11 students from Columbia Union College (CUC) going door-to-door in the Washington, D.C. area inviting people to Bible studies and the NET 2005 meetings, and a satellite beaming the meetings all over the world, the event is being called one of the Seventh-day Adventist church’s largest evangelistic outreaches.

“We’re joining hands and covering the globe,” says Jim Ayer, North American event coordinator and director of development for Amazing Facts, a media ministry that also hosts the College of Evangelism. NET 2005 speaker Doug Batchelor presents “The Prophecy Code: Bible Secrets Unlocked,” March 4 to 26 in the United States, and evangelist Mark Finley, director of the world church’s Office of Global Evangelism, will also broadcast throughout the Eastern hemisphere from Kiev, Ukraine.

“We distributed 50,000 newspapers as an invitation and another 50,000 will be distributed a few days before the program,” says Valery Ivanov, communication director for the church in Euro-Asia.

“There is tremendous potential to reach incredible numbers of people,” Ayer says.

For the first time since the church’s NET, or satellite evangelistic meetings began in 1995, this one will be held at the church’s world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, near the capital of the United States, providing an opportunity for Bible workers and students to blanket the Washington, D.C. area with advertising and personal outreach.

“It’s exciting to know that evangelism can radiate from the [world headquarters] to the entire world field,” Ayer comments.

“We’re getting new people every day who want to learn more about the Bible, and we’re meeting some former church members who are taking note of the signs of the times and are interested in getting back to church,” Alan Parker, director of evangelism for Amazing Facts, says in an article on Columbia Union College’s Web site.

AFCOE staff is leading a field school of evangelism at CUC in preparation for the March meetings, and teaching two classes.

“They are top-notch, experienced practitioners,” says Zack Plantak, chairman of the Department of Religion at CUC, in the article. “They know more about evangelism because they do it nationally and internationally. This is a tremendous opportunity for CUC students.”

About 22 students from Heritage Adventist Academy in Tennessee are also coming to help with door-to-door work and visitation, says Ayer, and during the Sabbath, or Saturday hours the 16 Bible workers train local church members to give Bible studies.

AFCOE and CUC students’ evangelism preparation will last four months, which includes training, going door-to-door, visitation, and follow-up after the NET meetings are over, Ayer says. 

The meetings will broadcast via satellite to hundreds of sites across North America and sent around the world by a number of Adventist media outlets.

The number of downlink sites that have registered for NET 2005 is more than 1,500, and, “We’re adding about 26 every day,” says Ayer. Some 3.5 million handbills are prepared for distribution as well, inviting both church members and non-members to watch the meetings from various downlink sites, and tens of thousands of Bible interest cards have been mailed, he adds.