13 January 2016 | St Albans, England [Victor Hulbert] Is evangelism wrong? It can be, according to Jesus! Read his challenge to the Pharisees in Matthew 23:15. “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” [NIV]
Doing evangelism for the wrong reasons or in the wrong context can have seriously negative implications. Jesus emphasis is that we don’t do evangelism to make converts, but rather in a context of discipleship. That is just one Bible verse, and it was the only negative one quoted during a deep and lively discussion concerning Mission during a full day of meetings at the Trans-European Division (TED) offices in St Albans on Tuesday, 5 January 2016.
As a seasoned Education, Adventist Mission director, and Field Secretary, Daniel Duda, led the discussion. He challenged participants that “the church does not have a mission, God has a mission”. He clarified that by stating that “God fulfils his mission through the church”. This allows for a change of mind-set. It means we fulfil the ‘Mission of God’ rather than trying to do ‘Mission for God’!
With that formulation it also means that Mission goes far beyond ‘evangelism’ and baptismal statistics to a ‘creation of community’ – koinonia. Committee members came to the conclusion that Jesus wasn’t so much into evangelism but rather into the training of trainers, making disciples, and inviting people to ‘follow Him’. That doesn’t mean evangelism shouldn’t happen – we see plenty of it in the New Testament, but rather that it should happen within the context of community. As Pastor Simon Martin, one of three church planting experts invited to the committee stated, “We must be part of the community that makes God known in this world.” He added, “We are participants in community, not just spectators.”
In practical terms, various individuals indicated that mission is, in fact, a lifestyle. The Bible narrative does not segment people’s lives into the religious and the secular – everything we do has spiritual significance. Janos Kovacs-Biro, Youth director, shared how mission is giving room to God, asking not just how many disciples there are in the TED but how many in my own family. Alastair Agbaje, Community Services and Teens Ministries director noted how he has always built bridges with his neighbours and let himself, in a sense, become vulnerable. Victor Hulbert, Communication director, shared how even in leadership he consciously wrote an outreach magazine specifically with his neighbours in mind. “I wanted something that shared our church in terms of stories rather than a list of doctrines, membership statistics, hospitals and schools.” As TED president, Raafat Kamal summarised, “We need whole life participation in the movement of God.”
All this could be seen as theoretical – and perhaps distant from reality. After all, the TED can sometimes be seen as a tier of church leadership focused principally on administration. However, the spirit in the room told a different story. Directors were keen both personally and via the training they do and resources they provide to be an active part of Mission. In practical terms this means an active involvement in ‘training trainers’ to be better able to share in the Mission of God. While this has already started for most departments, it will be enhanced by a TED Advisory Council this May that brings all Union directors from across the TED into one place to learn, share and develop effective programmes together.
The afternoon discussion revolved around Communication and Media. Over the past year TED officers had listened carefully to Union Presidents, focus groups and think tanks to develop a new strategy for Communication. This gave the outline of a strategy, but still in listening mode, Pastor Kamal asked participants focused questions on how best to communicate mission.
The responses will be formulated into a document which will become part of the strategic plan, but the principle element that undergirded all the discussion is that Communication is a service department that helps all departments, and all parts of the Division, tell the story that will help inform, engage and inspire others to be part of the mission of God. That story may well involve social media, video reports, sharing ‘the vision’, providing resources and developing the TED website as a user friendly interface which provides resources and information that will help enable everyone to be part of the Mission of God.
This was not ‘just another committee’. This was Mission. In her closing prayer, treasury team member and senior accountant, Anca Tanasa, both gave thanks for what had been achieved, and prayed for the sense of Mission to fill each staff member in the TED and across Europe as we together, seek to make God known. [tedNEWS]
tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
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