28 August 2024 | Belgrade, Serbia [Sorin Petrof with tedNEWS]
Nearly 1,200 leaders from across the Trans-European Division (TED) gathered on Tuesday evening at the Sava Centre in Belgrade, Serbia, for the fifth European Pastors’ Council (EPC) opening ceremony. Daniel Duda, TED president, and Patrick Johnson, TED Ministerial Association director, welcomed the audience, speakers, and guests, emphasising the EPC’s role in continuing education, connection and growth. The event, scheduled from 27 to 31 August 2024, marks a significant gathering for pastors, Bible workers, departmental leaders, and accompanying spouses from the 22 countries of the TED.
Engaged in Mission
The 2024 theme, “Engaged in Mission,” reflects the dynamic perspective of the current TED strategic plan, “Extend Love—Grow Lifelong Disciples—Multiply Communities.” The event’s programme, comprising 50 workshops and 11 plenary presentations, addresses the pressing need for intentional involvement in the challenging milieu of the TED territory.
General Conference (GC) president, Pastor Ted Wilson, shared an opening message via pre-recorded video. Acknowledging the challenging TED environment due to its highly secular European zeitgeist, he drew inspiration from Jeremiah 32:26-27. With a message to encourage the pastors to persevere under God’s guidance and be inspired, paradoxically, he shared a further challenge. “Is anything too hard for Me?” (v. 27). “The TED might be just the right place,” Wilson prayed at the end of his short message, “where God could transform this challenge into a reality not short of a miracle.”
Five Certainties of Mission
It was this definition of the Adventist mission as a miracle that Pastor Erton Köhler, GC Executive Secretary, outlined in front of a live audience. Köhler, an experienced administrator and a long-time youth leader in various roles, posed to the participants a solemn challenge: “How will 23.4 million Adventist members reach 8.2 billion people on the planet?” In the presentation, “The Five Certainties of Mission,” quoting Matthew 24:14, he highlighted five primary realities that should inspire everyone to engage in the mission: the second coming of Jesus, the inevitability of the end, the mission being global, not just local, the mission being certain, and the mission being miraculous.
As a practical step to fulfilling the mission, Köhler mentioned a new GC initiative, “Mission refocus,” a strategic approach to sending 70% of all official missionaries to the frontline of the work and becoming part of the “glocal” (a new missiological term) communities. “Be part of this Miracle!” concluded Pastor Köhler in his inspirational presentation, inviting all the participants to experience the miracle of the mission in their lives.
There’s a Hole in My Bucket!
However, being called to be part of the mission must not replace the deep commitment to display God’s attributes in personal and denominational behaviour. That was the principal challenge of the sermon, “There’s a Hole in My Bucket,” by Jeffrey Brown, the Associate Secretary of the Ministerial Association at the GC. Pastor Brown, a native of Birmingham, UK, introduced the audience to the futility of a deadlock situation via a 324-year-old humorous, classic children’s folk song based on a protracted dialogue between two characters, Henry and Liza. Inspired by Jeremiah 2:12-13, Brown was adamant in outlining that people who profess to love God often have other priorities, and the result is not just a leaky bucket in their lives but a deadlock situation in the churches. “The problem is with us, the pastors and leaders,” said Brown, “we all have a hole in our buckets, and the church is trapped in circles of futility.”
Brown declared, “We must first admit that there is a hole in our personal and organisational bucket, then confess the current predicament, and finally address it intentionally and honestly.” He then proceeded to quote a TED and Newbold College public statement designed to admit, confess, and address some wrongs done in the past. “We must not trade the living water for a broken bucket,” concluded Pastor Brown in his sermon, inviting an enthusiastic audience to fully embrace the change.
Colour, energy, talent and storytelling
The ceremony also showcased the artistic talent of local Serbian artists. Dragan Grujicic, President of the South-East European Union Conference, invited the participants to interact with the local culture, introducing the “Dimitrije Koturović Ensemble of Folk Dances and Songs,” a 55-year-old artistic society founded in Belgrade. The dancers held each other’s hands in a V formation, making a chain called Kolo, a traditional dance performed by all ethnicities and religious groups in Serbia and other regions of the Balkans.
Surrender and Renewal
The EPC praise team concluded the night with two well-known hymns, “Just as I am” and “I Came Broken,” creating an atmosphere of surrender and renewal. It was an inspirational and motivational opening ceremony for an event meant to invite the workers and their families across the Division to acknowledge the challenging times they live in and the great opportunities ahead of them. As the event unfolds, it promises to be a transformative experience, a “pause and reflect” juncture potentially awakening dormant energies and fostering miracles worth a thousand stories.
Photos: [Tor Tjeransen] / Adventist Media Exchange (CC BY 4.0) and James Botha
Featured image: Pastor Erton C Köhler, Executive Secretary of the General Conference, considers the miracle of the Kingdom of Heaven.
