How to GAiN at a World Conference

6 March 2016 | Silver Spring, MD, United States [Victor Hulbert with Sam Davies] Communication, IT and Media specialists from around the Adventist World converged on Seventh-day Adventist World Church headquarters in Silver Springs, Maryland, for a series of meetings between 24 February and 5 March. The two weeks of meetings included special advisories for the Communication and IT departments; Network Managers meetings for Hope Channel and drawing them all together, ‘GAiN’: the Gobal Adventist internet Network, hosted in the World Church auditorium, 24-28 February.

Communication directors with Elder Wilson

During GAiN, presenters from around the world demonstrated how to employ emerging technology to enhance the gospel mission of the Church. In his keynote address, Gary Krause, GC Associate secretary and director of Adventist Mission, said, “For too long Seventh-day Adventists have, to use Ellen White’s word, ‘neglected’ the cities. Our mission to the cities must be more than drive-by evangelism.” He posed the question, “What role can communication play in helping us ‘seek the shalom’ of the city?”

The rest of the week provided possible solutions to that tricky question. Harvey Alferez, Professor at Montemorelos University, showed that understanding the needs of people in big cities through data science can be helpful. He said, “following Christ’s method to reach the city dwellers of our day means understanding and meeting their needs.” His presentation described the potential of data science, the study of generalised extraction of knowledge from data to discover the needs of communities. He said this will make us more efficient in reaching people because we have taken the time to analyse their needs.

Presenting under the title, ‘Digital Storytelling: Keeping it Safe’, Mabio Coelho, the Chief Information Security Officer of the world Church, specified that social media is the prime way to tell your story today. However, it comes with its dangers, so while sharing your story and God through social media, you must also bear in mind, keeping safe.

Gaining inspiration from the Pulitzer prize section of the news museam

Italo Osorio, Enterprise System Architect at the GC, in his presentation, said, “As technology and society evolve, the Church faces the challenge of upgrading our way of doing mission. We have to use the new tools at our disposal to build the platform which will empower the new generation that is coming, to do mission in a way that feels natural to them.”

Nine representatives from the Trans-European Division attended either GAiN or the more technical advisories surrounding it. Among the cluster of presenters during GAiN were four speakers from the TED including, Sam Neves, Miroslav Pujic, Tor Tjeransen and Daryl Gungadoo.

Neves, who recently joined the GC as Associate Communication director spoke on the topic, ‘Experience is King’. He argued that while content is important it has to be ‘experienced’, not just delivered. Expectations on the web have changed and delivery must be “much more intuitive, pleasurable and efficient through apps which have caused users to change their expectations.”

Pujic, pastor of Cambridge church, presented the topic ‘Cultural Intelligence in Social Media’. He defined social media as a relaxed environment where content is generated and disseminated among communities. This social media culture has torn down the boundaries between authorship and readership. As a result, we need to develop a cultural intelligence for understanding and responding to the behaviours and values of this emerging social media culture.

Victor Hulbert and Dan Weber demonstrate interview skills during Advisory

Hulbert, TED Communication and Media director, demonstrated the art of a good interview both by sharing three ‘life stories’ during the Sabbath programme and by leading two very practical workshops on interview skills during the Communication Advisory. He also learnt a lot – including ideas for boosting the TED online presence.

Tjeransen, developer of the ADAMS photos storage system built originally for the Norwegian Union but now adopted by the GC and Adventist Review, showed how good practice in photo archiving can help not just individual communicators, but the whole world. He spent the second week representing Norway and the TED at the Hope Channel meetings where, he says, “topics ranged from operational policies to technical issues in broadcasting.” Tjeransen was impressed by General Conference Health Department director, Dr Peter Landless, who urged Hope Channel stations to produce programming that would contribute to the Comprehensive Health Evangelism initiative which is part of the strategic plan of the world church. Hope Channel UK will be releasing a very practical six-part series, ‘Enhancing Health’ in the next few weeks.

Paula Yunuen Carrillo, who was attending with her boss, Des Rafferty, from the Adventist Discovery Centre in England, stated that she loved the exploration of ‘data science’ and also the development of the Adventist Learning Community. This e-learning programme is a concept that is also part of the TED strategic plan and will be developed in Europe in co-operation with partners from around the world.

UK and German Bible School staff exchange ideas

Carrillo, who originally hales from Mexico, could often be found jabbering Spanish in the corridors and learning from others. “You find out what other countries are doing: how they are using technology to share God’s message of love. You get to know people and network with them and collaborate with them in a project. On this occasion I met someone who has developed a framework and I will be exploring it to develop some systems.”

That was also true for Pujic. Also busy networking, he enjoyed the “exchange of information, meeting other people and learning that the Church is still thinking about and using up-to-date methods in its ministry.”

Martin Luther King Jr. memorials with Sam Davies

It wasn’t all work; GAiN participants had the option of a tour of Washington DC where they visited places of historical interest including a visit to the Newseum – discovering the history and development of the news industry; the Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. memorials and the National Geographic Museum where participants viewed a cleverly constructed 3D film, Jerusalem, weaving together the live experiences of three girls, Jewish, Muslim and Christian, who all live in the old city of less than one square mile, but who currently never knowingly meet.

Films were also a big part of GAiN and the subsequent Communication advisory. The world premiere of OPPOSITES: an engaging true life tale of a man who had the odds stacked against him, also ‘Tell the World’: a moving re-enactment of the origins of the Adventist Church focusing on William Miller and Ellen White, and finally, a Hope Channel co-production, ‘Rest’: which highlighted the way Adventists celebrate Sabbath across 9 different cultures and time zones. With work still to be done on translation and sub-titling, all three films will shortly be available to all parts of the world.

Communication and IT leaders at Sabbath worship

It is hard to say goodbye, but for the Communication advisory it happened in the most meaningful way, a Sabbath morning focus by World Church President, Elder Ted Wilson, on the great Bible communicators, including a donkey. Following a traditional American Adventist Sabbath lunch of ‘haystacks’, the advisory concluded with a communion service where Pastor Guillermo Biaggi, GC Vice-President for Communication, used a contemporary illustration of how a modern DNA test on a historic blood sample proved a ‘guilty’ man on death row was actually innocent. In the same way, the ‘DNA’ of Jesus blood, symbolised by the bread and the wine represents us as innocent in the eyes of God. Biaggi concluded, “We came together, now we go back to our territories to serve and change the world.” [tedNEWS]

tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, director; Esti Pujic, editor

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How to GAiN at a World Conference

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