20 September 2026 | Maryland, USA [Gina Wahlen]<\/p>\n
A first-ever church planting consultation between representatives of Seventh-day Adventist supporting ministries and General Conference<\/a> (GC) mission leaders took place September 10\u201312 at the Church\u2019s world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.<\/p>\n The\u202fAligned for Mission Church Planting Consultation\u2019s stated objective was \u201cto strengthen our unity in Christ for mission in order to sharpen our focus on planting new groups of believers among the unreached, reaffirm our commitment to Christ\u2019s wholistic ministry model, and explore means of aligning our mission strategies.\u201d<\/p>\n Rick McEdward, executive secretary for the GC, welcomed participants with an appeal for unity: \u201cWe have a big mission, and we have enough to do, and let\u2019s go together . . . it\u2019s about one message, one church, one mission.\u201d<\/p>\n The three-day gathering included devotionals, prayer sessions, ministry presentations, strategic discussions, and informal conversations.<\/p>\n Erton K\u00f6hler, president of the GC, thanked supporting ministry leaders for their work and emphasised the need for the entire Church to participate in mission.<\/p>\n \u201cWe need many hands to push the mission of the church\u2014pastors, administrators, the members, and those who are leading supporting ministries around the world,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Supporting ministries are independent organisations operated by Adventist lay members that work in support of the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Leaders of these ministries shared details of their work in church planting, health ministry, education, media, literature evangelism, refugee ministry, missionary training, and sending both international and local missionaries.<\/p>\n Organisations represented included Adventist Laymen\u2019s Services & Industries<\/a> (ASI), a membership organisation for Adventist businesspeople, professionals, and supporting ministries; Adventist Frontier Missions<\/a>; Adventist Medical Evangelism Network<\/a> (AMEN); Adventist Southeast Asia Projects Ministries<\/a>; Gospel Outreach<\/a>; Jesus for Asia<\/a>; Outpost Centers International<\/a>; and Quiet Hour Ministries<\/a>.<\/p>\n Danny Houghton, president of ASI, said the spirit of unity was one of the most meaningful aspects of the gathering. \u201cWe all love the church,\u201d he said, \u201cand to be invited in and talk about strategy and push the work of the church forward was an honour and a blessing.\u201d He described the consultation as \u201ca very meaningful start in enhancing collaboration between supporting ministries to work in an aligned way with what the church is doing.\u201d<\/p>\n A recurring recommendation was improved communication between supporting ministries and official church organisations. Participants also suggested developing agreements between supporting ministries and denominational organisations working together in mission fields.<\/p>\n \u201cThe purpose of this meeting was to gather mission leaders together to strengthen our cooperation,\u201d said Greg Whitsett, Planning Director for the GC Office of Adventist Mission<\/a>. \u201cWe value our diversity of mission strategies, but not at the expense of harmony . . . I came away encouraged by what can happen when mission leaders sit together in a close setting like this to work our common challenges.\u201d<\/p>\n At the conclusion of the consultation, the group agreed on a statement identifying shared interests, including alignment on mission, improved communication and collaboration, and coordination of frontline work in high-priority mission areas. It also addressed the need to share mission stories with honesty, sensitivity to other belief systems, and sensitivity to security concerns in certain areas officially closed to Christian mission.<\/p>\n John Shin, M.D., president of AMEN, expressed his appreciation for the consultation.<\/p>\n He said, \u201cI have found this event uplifting and encouraging because it allowed me to meet like-minded leaders of other ministries and fellowship with them and leaders in the church administration in expanding the reach of the gospel message and the Lord\u2019s work.\u201d<\/p>\n Gary Krause, director of the GC Office of Adventist Mission, expressed a similar hope.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was wonderful to see lay ministries gather to pray, share, and discuss ways to work more effectively together, and with official church organisations such as Adventist Mission,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n McEdward closed the consultation by pointing beyond organisational structures to the ultimate purpose of mission: leading people to Jesus. \u201cOur calling together matters,\u201d he said, \u201cbecause it is to introduce people to Jesus, ground them in the Scripture and be whole-life worshippers of Jesus and also to invite others to worship Him as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Looking back over the three days, McEdward summarised his hope for what had begun in Silver Spring: \u201cI believe this weekend has been the beginning of an era of closer cooperation with supporting ministries.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n [Photos: Courtesy of Adventist News Network]<\/em><\/p>\n The original version<\/a> of this article was posted on the Adventist News Network<\/a> website.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Consultation focuses on stronger relationships and cooperation in mission<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":26623,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-26655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26655"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26655\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26657,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26655\/revisions\/26657"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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