9 December 2019 | Hinckley, UK [BUC news]
“God has called us to greater exploits for Him, bigger than we can dream or imagine.” These rousing words of Dr Kirk Thomas, British Union Conference (BUC) Evangelism and Sabbath School director, began a new training event called ‘BEAMS’ (the BUC Evangelism, Discipleship and Mission summit).
This year’s event entitled ‘Going Bigger’ took place from 8-10 November and gathered over 400 attendees at Hinckley Island Hotel, UK. An array of different themed sermons, plenaries, songs and workshops offered by 17 presenters meant delegates received the opportunity for training in many different ministries. There truly was something for everyone.
While chairing the Friday evening meeting, Dr Thomas discussed the BUC’s Evangelism and Sabbath School Department’s focus on ‘Total Member Involvement’. The aim of BEAMS is to train as many people as possible with a view to equipping and encouraging the Church in ‘reaching the Trans-European Division (TED) and Europe for Jesus Christ’.
Dr Richard Elofer, director of the General Conference Jewish Friendship Centre, spoke on ‘Reaching the Jews Among Other Unreached’, stating: “the work to ‘reach the Jews with the Spirit of Jesus’ is a ‘crucial mission for the Seventh-day Adventist Church… a conviction we must all have’ because ‘God would like to see the Jewish people come back to Him.” A time is coming… there will be as many converted in a day as there were on the day of Pentecost.” Review and Herald, 19 June 1905. Dr Elofer’s advice was to identify Jewish and other groups of people and pray for communities, walking and driving, for hearts to be prepared and for God to provide a way to reach people adding, “God will open your eyes to the harvest and then you will be surprised.”
In a sermon entitled ‘Where are We Going?’ Pastor Roger Hernandez, Ministerial and Evangelism director for the Southern Union, shared points on interacting with the community and building and maintaining a healthy church culture. For example, he said, “preach our struggles as people are not looking for a ‘wow’, they are looking for the ‘how’.” To counter the way in which the vast majority of unchurched individuals have no believing friends, he encouraged members to ‘walk alongside’ people and be trustworthy so they can turn to you. “Be upfront − we have a beautiful message” he urged, although “God has called us to be different, He has not called us to be weird.”
Dr Thomas presented every delegate with the gift of a vibrant bag filled with resources, featuring a ‘Sabbath School Alive!’ logo, symbolising the aspects of Bible Study and Prayer, Fellowship and Mission as he appealed for equally vibrant local church Sabbath Schools. Printed on the reverse side was a ‘GROW’ logo representing the disciple-making process, encouraging everyone to ‘Grow Your Church’. These and other resources to support these efforts are available on the General Conference’s ‘Grow Your Church’ website.
The model was developed by Pastor Jim Howard, General Conference Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Department associate director, who highlighted 5 foundational ministries for every local church:
- ‘Churchwide Community Ministries’ to prepare the ground;
- ‘Active Literature and Media Ministries’ to plant the seed of God’s word;
- ‘Vibrant Bible Study Ministry’ to cultivate interest;
- ‘Regular Public Evangelism’ as harvesting; and
- ‘Systematic Discipleship Ministry’ to preserve the precious fruit of new souls as a sequential, continuous cycle.
Pastor Howard explained that the agricultural model was taught by Jesus and that churches may assess if they provide a full range of outreach activities by whether they cover all of these areas.
TED Executive Secretary Audrey Andersson started the Sabbath day with a reflective devotion entitled, ‘Seeking the Lost’. The ‘blind panic’ of the woman in the story of ‘The Lost Coin’ was connected to the issue of church retention and how 16% of baptised members leave. Andersson asked ‘How much passion’ or ‘panic’ do we feel for the 1 out of every 6 who leave the Church?
Pastor Howard spoke next on the Church’s ’One Mission’. He described the seamlessness of in-reach and outreach reflected in the GROW discipleship model, helping churches to thrive effectively. Quoting from Matthew 28, he stated that “God has called everybody to witnessing.” He further explained that “Some call it a spiritual gift, and this has crippled the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The great body of lay people are sleeping giants, not aware of the incredible calling God has given them.”
Pastor Neville Neveling, General Conference Global Evangelism trainer, got participants enrolling as ‘cell phone evangelists’. He explained how this innovative programme, AWR360, organises and sources materials such as audio sermons and studies which are then forwarded to friends of cell evangelists through an automated system. This service is growing, and new languages are being added to this service regularly.
During the training on ‘Growing a Church of Disciple-Makers’, Dr Michael Mbui, South England Conference Sabbath School and Personal Ministries director, emphasised, “We are called to be the disciples of Christ and having spent time with Him, we are called to make others the disciples of Christ. A disciple is a learner (Matthew 11:28); a lover (John 14:15); a follower (Matt 4:19) and a witness (Acts 1:8). A disciple of Christ is a person who lives the life of Christ and reflects that life. Let people have an encounter with the Word because it has the potential to change lives.”
TED Personal Ministries and Sabbath School Director Dr Patrick Johnson addressed the challenge of people losing confidence in the Seventh-day Adventist message, encouraging his class to share it within the context of the grand narrative of ‘the Great Controversy’: the world’s key problem and also the coming resolution.
Pastor Simon Martin, TED Discipleship coach, shared during his workshop how to build a disciple-making culture in our churches through dynamic small groups. Based on Matthew 10:8, he shared the approach of finding a ‘person of peace’ in a local area, and becoming a blessing to that home, healing and introducing them to the Kingdom of God.
At the ‘WOW Club’, led by Yvonne Cummins and Maria and Earl Samuel, children also explored ‘Going bigger with God’, covered through a newly written play and other creative means. Jaden, 11, said, “I have learned new songs and it was actually fun, with lots of fun activities.”
The closing sermon by Dr James Yansen was entitled ‘When God is enthroned’, in which he shared how the more we connect with God, the more He transforms our minds. He shared the story about Satanists in attendance at a local church service when their 5-year-old responded to an altar call and prayed in front of the congregation. The parents came to the altar, touched because they had not taught their son to pray.
The programme was infused with prayer and praise as the summit paused on several occasions throughout the day to address prayer points related to in-reach and outreach. These included the people who have left the Church; the UK’s majority population; ethnic minorities and the Church’s young people. In fact, prayer had begun before attendees arrived and continued throughout the summit with a specially dedicated prayer room.
As a couple of participants from Telford church summed it up, it was a good, spiritually lifting and motivating with God saying, “Go!”
To find out more about resources or if you would like to get involved in any of these ministries, please contact Kerrine Guthrie or Dr Kirk Thomas from the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries Departments of the British Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
The original article first appeared on adventist.uk/news.
tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, editor; Deana Stojković, associate editor
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: [email protected]
Website: www.ted.adventist.org
tedNEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division. Readers are free to republish or share this article with appropriate credit including an active hyperlink to the original article.
