1 June 2022 | St Albans, UK [tedNEWS]
When Oxford Scholar, Reginald Heber, wrote the famous mission hymn, From Greenland’s Icy mountains, he could easily have been describing the Trans-European Division (TED). His lyrics cover the imperative for sharing the Gospel to every corner of the globe, starting from the northernmost reaches of the TED to the southernmost. Those lyrics, written just 55 years before the first Adventist missionary arrived in Europe, soon became a reality through European Adventism’s outward looking focus. Despite an initially small base, European pioneers influenced mission in Africa, Asia, South America and beyond.
NINETY YEARS OF MISSION
In 2019 the TED celebrated ninety years of mission both at home and overseas. Despite the considerable setbacks of two World Wars, years of communist totalitarianism in Central and Eastern Europe, and more recently the ravages of secularism, the division has a rich history. This was explored in Dr David Trim’s celebratory book, A Passion for Mission and in a short video documentary. Trim noted that throughout the TED history over, 1,000 missionaries headed overseas to share the Adventist message across large swathes of the world.
Today the major challenge for the 11 unions and three attached fields that make up the TED is that while European Adventism sent missionaries out to others, Europe itself has since stagnated spiritually. In some countries, only four percent of the population attend church while in other former communist states, religion has been revived as more cultural than life changing.
Nevertheless, mission is alive in Europe! We praise God for the 88,355 members, some 600 pastors and 1,401 churches and companies that are spread across the TED territory: from Greenland’s icy mountains, down through more secular Scandinavia, the United Kingdom, and the Netherlands, to more traditionally Catholic, Orthodox or Muslim countries as we head south and east through Poland, Hungary, and the former Yugoslavia towards the balmy Mediterranean climates of Greece and Cyprus.
As Dr Artur Stele, GC Vice-President, stated emphatically during the 2018 TED Year-End Meetings, “You are not big in numbers but big in challenges.” He saw this as encouraging, both for himself and the larger Adventist world. Listening to the mission reports, the challenges, even the requests in special times of prayer, he emphasised that “you are big in providing the key for the future of mission,” noting that the same issues faced in increasingly secularised Europe are becoming apparent in other parts of the world.
In this report we share some key factors in the TED strategy.
NETWORKING
Leading up to the 2015 GC Session, the TED administration under the leadership of pastor Raafat Kamal, undertook a listening exercise. Strategic Focus meetings with key leaders, specialists in various callings, and innovative lay leaders, led to key focus areas linked to health, families, youth, children, and education. Other departments, such as Communication and Media, were reworked to provide better support and training.
The result was a ‘breaking down of silos’ as departments worked together on common initiatives linked to mission. Departmental directors and officers now meet monthly as a Mission Board to discuss and vote funding for projects, discuss cooperative initiatives, and focus on major themes and challenges across the division.
CREATIVE EVANGELISM
Dr Daniel Duda oversees Education and Adventist Mission and is willing to take a risk for the Gospel. One of his favourite projects is the Three Angels Motorcycle club in Novi Sad, Serbia. This Adventist group of bikers mix and befriend others in the biking community and have produced special literature focused on their needs.
“We have voted over £1 million (US$1.4 million) on 301 mission projects and 133 church plants,” Duda reports. These include 12 Centres of Influence, and a network of Messy Churches that are having a significant impact on children and their families in hard-to-reach communities in Croatia, Cyprus, Greece, and many other countries.
Funding also provided significant support for evangelistic programmes during the 500th anniversary of the Reformation. This included a coordinated network of public lectures across Serbia; a historic Bible search and public lecture that drew significant crowds in Nicosia, Cyprus; a re-enactment of Luther nailing his 95 thesis to a church door in a public square in Poland; a reformation weekend in England that opened the Church headquarters estate to the public with special worship and a fun day; and an innovative video series, Reformation Journey, that reached out in a format accessible to teens and young adults.
The TED also supported social projects such as ‘Invasion of Love’ in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Adventist Youth, together with friends, spent a week in the community to paint park benches, offer free carwashes, hand out roses, and run health and community programmes. This was especially significant and appreciated in an ethnically divided community still suffering from the after-effects of war. In a cultural setting where Adventists find it hard to make an impact, seeing Adventist and other youth working together towards a positive community goal helped encourage local citizens to be proud of their community, to build self-esteem, and to assist in a process of reconciliation.
In Wales, the British Union Bible Correspondence School successfully experimented with Let’s Explore, a Children’s Bible Study Programme aimed at 7 to 12-year-olds. “What is so exciting is that families from outside the Adventist faith community are registering to join in as well,” states Maureen Rock, Bible School Principal. One hundred children have now graduated, and such is the enthusiasm that, Rock now reports, Welsh children are involved in recording the next series.
CROSSING DIVISION BOUNDARIES
Sometimes two is better than one. In a series of initiatives, the TED has partnered with its neighbour, the Inter-European Division (EUD). Projects have included a Family Life accredited training programme, a Health Symposium, the continued development of the Intergenerational Church of Refuge (iCOR), and an annual GAiN Europe initiative that has garnered world-wide acclaim, not just in training communicators and media personnel from around Europe, but for engaging in cross-network projects that have now reached out even beyond the boundaries of Europe to produce films, books and social media that address important topics and assist mission.
The GAiN network project, Fathers, even won an award at the prestigious Religion Today international film festival. The 2020 project, Uncertainty, has generated a five-part documentary series with contributions from Europe, Africa, Asia, and Inter-America; a feature film from South America and a Sunscreen student documentary from the North American Division along with a book and social media spots.
YOUTH CONGRESS
By far the largest pan-European event was the 2018 Youth Congress in Valencia, Spain. Over 4,000 young adults gathered under the theme, The Journey.
“For me, this was an amazing experience,” Kamal states. “In the hot Spanish sunshine, they could have been out on the beach or sightseeing – but to see thousands of youth attending worship and workshops, learning new skills, making commitments for Christ and then going on the streets to witness – I was inspired.”
“These youth give me hope,” enthuses TED Youth Director, Zlatko Musija, noting that “we need to continue engaging with them after returning to their homes. Their witness can help change Europe.”
That engagement has continued, including in the past year the launch of Youth Alive in Albania and Lithuania.
It has also continued at camporees and summer camps which, according to former TED Pathfinder Director, the late Peter-Bo Bohsen, provide a rich environment for nurture and growth, not just among Adventist youth, but among their friends. He would also inform that in Scandinavia and countries like Latvia, almost half of baptisms come as a result of Pathfinders. His enthusiastic, creative, and imaginative ways of connecting with children and youth is deeply missed.
In the UK, both North and South England Conferences have expanded their Youth Camp facilities, recognising the life-changing choices that get made in such locations. In Poland, their youth-led annual camp meeting attracts almost twenty percent of their total church membership. Those that ‘were once youth’ still come because they enjoy the atmosphere, while the camp itself generates a high percentage of annual baptisms.
ADRA EUROPE
A very fruitful partnership is the development of ADRA Europe. The TED and EUD used to have separate ADRA directors. Now, with the need for cooperation, particularly in response to the European refugee crisis, but also for coordination, networking of 38 offices, and training, ADRA Europe is established as an office near the European Parliament in Brussels.
The first World Refugee Sabbath came as a result of a joint ADRA/TED/EUD crisis summit in Zagreb in January 2016. With many projects running throughout the year, this special joint initiative has continued to highlight the plight of refuges and the heart-warming solutions being provided both by church members and ADRA. World Refugee Sabbath programming has been hosted by the TED and EUD Communication departments in Greece, France, Italy, Serbia, and Germany with reports from across Europe and the world.
We have been especially blessed to see the caring attitudes of our members in recipient countries, who have gone out of their way to provide support. For instance, in England, a joint ADRA local church project is providing afterschool classes for migrant children who have often missed out on years of education, while Ireland and Sweden have both seen effective Pathfinder Refugee programmes.
The spring of 2022 witnessed war break out in Ukraine. By late March, 4.2 million people had crossed the international border out of Ukraine as refugees, according to the United Nations refugee agency.
TOTAL MEMBER INVOLVEMENT
Total member involvement (TMI) has caught the imagination of many members. This has led to significant lay-led initiatives; a youthful church plant, ‘Kompass Church’ in Tallinn, Estonia, another plant in a refugee centre in Ireland, the development of Public Campus ministries on a range of campuses – with particular success in Serbia and the United Kingdom – and the establishment of 12 Centres of Influence. Perhaps the most successful Centre of Influence is the The Cuisle Centre, tying in with a long running Mission to the Cities programme in Dublin, Ireland. The Cuisle Centre attracts a wide-ranging community to a variety of health, counselling, craft and spiritual programmes while Dublin itself has grown from one single congregation to a total of five, spread across the city.
SUPPORTING PASTORS AND LEADERS
In a support programme developed jointly by the Ministerial Association and the Family and Health ministries, the TED has continued to seek the best way to develop pastors and elders to avoid burnout and to deal with real issues of mental health.
This has involved training programmes and retreats, such as a major European Pastors’ council (EPC) in Belgrade, Serbia that inspired a total of 1,200 pastors, pastoral spouses, Bible workers and church leaders, as well as support events designed specifically to support our female pastors and leaders.
“Those leaders were enthused,” stated Patrick Johnson, Ministerial Association Secretary, noting that the days were specifically geared to connect, inspire and change each participant, offering a rich mixture of biblically based theology, innovative worship, practical workshops, and time for sharing ideas.
EPC was a major training event that added to the myriad of regional and local events led by each director together with their counterparts across the unions and attached fields. Their aim, to be trainers of trainers, thus enabling all our members to share our beautiful Adventist message more effectively across Europe.
“I am impressed by the commitment of our members and leaders,” reflects Kamal. “As I review the many hundreds of reports of initiatives and activities that come across my desk, it reminds me of the Apostle John’s words, ‘Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.’” [John 20:30 NIV]
Our mission and activities in the TED continue to connect with our communities, inspire them with the Gospel, and enable change. Our aim is big and may seem impossible, but, by God’s grace, we seek to reach out to the varied cultures and religious attitudes in Europe and let people know “that by believing you may indeed have life in His name.”
