{"id":384,"date":"2014-08-29T09:25:46","date_gmt":"2014-08-29T09:25:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2014\/08\/29\/behind-the-scenes-at-epc\/"},"modified":"2014-08-29T09:25:46","modified_gmt":"2014-08-29T09:25:46","slug":"behind-the-scenes-at-epc","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/behind-the-scenes-at-epc\/","title":{"rendered":"Behind the scenes at EPC"},"content":{"rendered":"

23 August 2012, Roga\u0161ka Slatina, Slovenia\u00a0[Julian Hibbert,\u00a0ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/span>\u00a0An interview with Miroslav Pujic, EPC Creative and Operation Director, takes readers behind the scenes at the EPC.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Question:<\/strong> Miroslav, I know that many of the physical and technical arrangements for this 2012 European Pastors\u2019 Conference were your responsibility. How do you feel about things, now that the event is underway?<\/p>\n

Answer: <\/strong>Julian, we set the bar high for this event \u2013 we wanted a quality experience for our pastors \u2013 and that expectation gave us quite a bit of stress at the beginning. The high temperatures in Slovenia on Tuesday and Wednesday didn\u2019t help either. They put the tent\u2019s air-conditioning under tremendous pressure. But I want to thank God, and the whole team, because we started very well and it has gone smoothly.<\/p>\n

Question:<\/strong> Miroslav, why does the TED hold these conferences?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Answer:<\/strong> Every five years this division brings our pastors, and as many of their spouses together as possible, for spiritual growth, nurture and professional sharing \u2013 but above all, to deepen their knowledge of the changes taking place in European society. In the last thirty years there have been huge paradigm shifts on the continent and they are hard to keep pace with. It is important that we share and discuss models of outreach that are working \u2013 and find new ones to meet the needs of people in our own mission field.<\/p>\n

Question:<\/strong> Why did you choose this theme for the conference: \u201cMaking God known\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Answer:<\/strong> Europe is a Christian continent and today it is popular, even trendy, to say: \u201cI believe in God and spirituality is important to me.\u201d<\/em> However, this doesn\u2019t mean that such people have a true knowledge of God or \u2013 most important of all \u2013 a relationship with him. Sadly, in most cases there is no relationship. But this can apply equally to Adventists \u2013 are we really any different to them if we have the knowledge but no relationship?<\/p>\n

Question:<\/strong> How many people are at this conference?<\/p>\n

Answer:<\/strong> We have accommodated 1100 registered guests of which 725 are pastors and the balance comprises mostly spouses. Oh, there are also quite a few daily guests. All in all, we have representatives from 22 countries.<\/p>\n

Question: <\/strong>How big is your support team for the event?<\/p>\n

Answer:<\/strong> We have over 200 people in that team, ranging through the tech support, ushers \u201chuggers\u201d, \u201csmilers\u201d, musicians, etc. Some are also working at the Exhibition booths, particularly the health expo and other booths. Most of my technical team are not full time video or audio specialists \u2013 they are pastors who are multi-skilled \u2013 which is an enormous cost saver.<\/p>\n

Question: <\/strong>Please share some interesting EPC facts and figures with our readers.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Answer: <\/strong>Julian, I am sure that this will surprise you.\u00a0 For this event we booked 700 rooms at 10 local hotels. Those hotels will serve our delegates close on 20,000 full buffet meals! By the way, the head chef at the main hotel tells me that our Adventist groups eat less than most of their other patrons. According to him, some of the groups that he caters for \u201ceat up to five times\u201d <\/em>what we do! He has also noticed, \u201cthat Adventists don\u2019t waste food the way many others do!\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Question:<\/strong> There is one question that many members may want to ask us: why are we here in Rogaska Slatina, Slovenia, and not somewhere else?<\/p>\n

Answer:<\/strong> Well, Julian, not only is this a beautiful country, but it is also very central for our division as far a travel is concerned. In addition to this, because of the good relationship we have built up with the local hotel management since our first visit in 1997, their prices are very reasonable.<\/p>\n

Question: <\/strong>Finally, Miroslav: Despite the immense pressures, do you still get something personal and rewarding from these EPCs?<\/p>\n

Answer: <\/strong>During these conferences I am \u201csleep deprived\u201d \u2013 getting a maximum of four hours a night. But because I am an extrovert, seeing how our pastors and their spouses enjoy themselves energizes me. Their obvious joy and sense of blessing just keeps me going! [ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/p>\n

\n

ted<\/em>NEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor; Dragana Selakovic-Duval, Frederic Duval \u00a0& Tor Tjeransen, photographers
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: tednews@ted-adventist.org
Website: www.ted-adventist.org<\/p>\n

ted<\/em>NEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division.
You are free to re-print any portion of the bulletin without need for special permission. However, we kindly request that you identify ted<\/em>NEWS whenever you publish these materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

23 August 2012, Roga\u0161ka Slatina, Slovenia\u00a0[Julian Hibbert,\u00a0ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/span>\u00a0An interview with Miroslav Pujic, EPC Creative and Operation Director, takes readers behind the scenes at the EPC.<\/p>\n

<\/a>Question:<\/strong> Miroslav, I know that many of the physical and technical arrangements for this 2012 European Pastors\u2019 Conference were your responsibility. How do you feel about things, now that the event is underway?<\/p>\n

Answer: <\/strong>Julian, we set the bar high for this event \u2013 we wanted a quality experience for our pastors \u2013 and that expectation gave us quite a bit of stress at the beginning. The high temperatures in Slovenia on Tuesday and Wednesday didn\u2019t help either. They put the tent\u2019s air-conditioning under tremendous pressure. But I want to thank God, and the whole team, because we started very well and it has gone smoothly.<\/p>\n

Question:<\/strong> Miroslav, why does the TED hold these conferences?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1577],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-384","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-organisational-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384","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\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=384"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/384\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=384"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=384"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=384"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}