12 November 2018 | Vejlefjord, Denmark [Jan-Gunnar Wold]
How can you communicate better using today’s myriad electronic media platforms? To help answer that question, over forty people met at Vejlefjord Adventist College, Denmark for a communication weekend 9-11 November.
Richard Daly, British Union Conference Communication director, inspired participants with his personal and vibrant message ‘Who took my juice?’. Daly shared not just personal lessons on the importance of communicating in the family, but asked, “When did you talk to God on a deeper level than ‘Hello…’, ‘How is the weather…’ or ‘Hi God, please help me today’?” Recognising that his whole life is buried in his smart phone, and what a fantastic communication tool that is, he equally brought out a lesson on device control, but that in our spiritual life we don’t need to log in. God is already listening. Other presentations focused on Fake News, instant messaging and reporting media events.
Brent Hardinge, Associate Communication director at the General Conference, shared his vision about the importance of the reader being the main element in communication, rather than ourselves and our need to present a topic. His presentation included news about the ALPS web framework which is adopted in many churches and church entities around the world.
Tor Tjeransen, Communication director at the Norwegian Union, enthusiastically explained how using the church media database, ADAMS, could benefit both those that produce pictures, and those that need the material for publications.
The Swedish Union presented how they use podcasts to attract an audience using their smartphones while Claus Nybo, president of Lifestyle TV, shared how emails coming in from Danish people to their new studio facility in Sweden were asking what had happened to their satellite programmes while the station was off-air during the transition to the new location in Arvika. “It shows that people are tuned in to our broadcasts,” he stated.
Participants were equally impressed by how Adventist Radio London managed to establish a proper DAB+ radio station. This major partnership between Adventist World Radio and the South England Conference, Daly explained, was an answer to many prayers.
Sunday morning was dedicated to presenting the rather technical side of streaming services, a topic Brian Rasmussen, IT director at the Danish Union, demonstrated for us all. Across the range of presentations, participants expressed gratitude that the topics were easily understood by the ordinary church member, not just the IT geeks.
The weekend was a direct result of a new collaborative initiative in Scandinavia called “Adventist Communication Academy” (www.ac-academy.org) and is the first of more programmes. Everyone left inspired to use all available digital tools to spread our message to the people of Scandinavia.
tedNEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, editor; Sajitha Forde-Ralph, associate editor
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