Revitalizing existing Seventh-day Adventist congregations and starting new ones were topics high on the agenda of the recent SEEDS 2002 conference held last weekend. More than 300 Adventist pastors and lay people from across North America and overseas met May 8 to 11 on the campus of Andrews University, Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States.

“SEEDS is all about starting new churches, for the purpose of sharing the love of Jesus,” says Marti Schneider, coordinator for SEEDS and director of programs for the Adventist Church’s office of Global Mission. “SEEDS helps inspire, train, and equip lay people and pastors to find new and effective ways to make a spiritual impact in their community.”

The conference, which had the theme “Creating a Team on which Everyone Plays,” emphasized the role of lay people in ministry. Greg Ogden, director of the doctor of ministry program, Fuller Theological Seminary, was the major presenter for SEEDS 2002. He said that the Christian church has become an institution where the pastor does ministry to and for people. He argued, instead, that all church members should be involved in outreach to others.

“It’s exciting to see SEEDS giving practical training and direction for starting new congregations,” says Mike Ryan, director of Global Mission for the Adventist Church. “We often think of unreached areas overseas, but there are many areas within North America where there is still no Adventist Church and little, if any, Adventist influence.”

Besides attending the major plenary sessions and devotional meetings, those attending SEEDS could choose nine out of 140 different break-out seminars, with 56 presenters in English and nine in Spanish. Seminars covered such topics as “Empowering Leadership,” “Basic Church Planting,” “Interactive Bible Study,” and “Seven Habits of Highly Ineffective Churches.”

SEEDS is an annual event run by the North American Division Evangelism Institute. Each year smaller, regional SEEDS events are also run throughout North America and overseas.