{"id":4709,"date":"2017-01-24T14:06:21","date_gmt":"2017-01-24T14:06:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2017\/01\/24\/1-000-train-for-evangelism-at-south-england-expo\/"},"modified":"2017-01-24T14:06:21","modified_gmt":"2017-01-24T14:06:21","slug":"1-000-train-for-evangelism-at-south-england-expo","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/1-000-train-for-evangelism-at-south-england-expo\/","title":{"rendered":"1,000 train for evangelism at South England Expo"},"content":{"rendered":"

24 January 2017 | Binfield, UK [Natasha Mirilov]  Over one thousand pastors and lay-members from across the South England Conference (SEC) packed Newbold College\u2019s auditoriums and Newbold Church to attend an annual Evangelism Expo on Sunday, 8 January, making it the largest attended event of its kind.<\/p>\n

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Pastor Mark Finley and wife Ernestine<\/figcaption><\/figure>Pastor Mark Finley, Assistant to the World President of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, set the tone for the special one-day of training; themed \u2018Preparation for the Harvest\u2019. \u201cGod is on the move in the South England Conference, he stated, the Holy Spirit is touching hearts. 2017 provides an amazing opportunity to touch people for Jesus\u2019 kingdom.\u201d<\/p>\n

Finley spoke from practical experience, especially from his involvement with Mission to the Cities in Dublin. He challenged members to look at evangelism under the microscope and seek ways to change the communities around them.<\/p>\n

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Pastor Emmanuel Osei, SEC Acting President<\/figcaption><\/figure>Acting SEC President, Pastor Emmanuel Osei, was inspired by the number of people present and challenged by Finley\u2019s message. \u201cIt spoke directly to the needs of the Conference,\u201d he said. \u201cBeing in a secular environment and yet seeing how the Bible is able to deal with [all sorts of] people… We can definitely make an impact.\u201d<\/p>\n

In 2017, the SEC\u2019s four-year plan; \u2018Evangelism, Everyone, Everywhere\u2019, focuses on restoration. \u201cYou should feel empowered to go back to your church, to the community and make a change,\u201d stated Paul Lee, Assistant to the SEC President.<\/p>\n

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Pastor Anthony Fuller during Youth Workshop<\/figcaption><\/figure>The Expo is both a training and developing day for new members of church working teams and a refresher for those who attend the Expo annually. During the day Departmental directors provided training workshops, on how to provide the best service possible for the church and their community. These also helped to keep churches connected when talking about their progress, or issues with other members. This was emphasised by Executive Secretary, Douglas McCormac, who noted that an event like this, at the beginning of the year, brings everyone together in a spirit of service.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>\u201cA number of people have spoken about the fact that they want to see the Conference be more like a family and this brings us together,\u201d he said. \u201cThey see what everyone is doing and it encourages them to work together, because we are there to share the Gospel message.\u201d<\/p>\n

That made an impact on Raafat Kamal, President of the Church across the Trans-European Division. \u201cI was inspired by the testimonies, commitment and mission-focus of our church members,\u201d he said. \u201cIt just shows once again that God is working on hearts and minds to do His mission, to be a blessing for our communities with total member involvement.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Making connections during the ABC Expo<\/figcaption><\/figure>The Expo is, by definition, geared towards evangelism. Throughout the day, pastors and members learnt about the skills, techniques, and even the dangers of evangelism. What is appropriate. What should never be done! Leaders gave opportunity for churches and individuals to learn how to interact with members of the community, whether simply knocking on doors or connecting with the local press.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Osei, challenged members to work together with local councils. Challenge them: \u201cHow can we help, tell us what we can do to work together?\u201d He explained, that it is important to move away from \u201cthings obvious\u201d to \u201cthings that are going to help people\u201d and to \u201cthings where members can take pride in their community.\u201d<\/p>\n

The idea of \u2018help\u2019 was emphasised in the area of health by Ernestine Finley, wife of Pastor Finley. As a health professional, she encouraged the attendees to reach and meet people at their point of need through health. This harmonised with the theme of the entire Expo as members were encouraged to reach people in unexplored and innovative ways.<\/p>\n

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Exchanging contacts during ABC Expo<\/figcaption><\/figure>Following the Dublin experience, Finley has taken a personal interest in reaching out evangelistically in England. He is committed to returning to the UK before the end of this year to provide more training and to be involved in a significant evangelistic programme in 2018.<\/p>\n

From the animated conversations at the end of the day, Finley will not be on his own. One thousand others are inspired to make God known across southern England. Osei concluded, \u201cAs we leave this place, we do so recharged, inspired and enthused, ready to do something for God in this mission that He has given us.\u201d [ted<\/em>NEWS]<\/p>\n

\n

ted<\/em>NEWS Staff: Victor Hulbert, editor; Esti Pujic, associate editor
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: tednews@ted.adventist.org<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/span>
Website: www.ted.adventist.org
ted<\/em>NEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

24 January 2017 | Binfield, UK [Natasha Mirilov]  Over one thousand pastors and lay-members from across the South England Conference (SEC) packed Newbold College\u2019s auditoriums and Newbold Church to attend an annual Evangelism Expo on Sunday, 8 January, making it the largest attended event of its kind.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4663,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1569,1572,7,1588],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4709","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-communication-media-technology","category-evangelism-mission","category-news","category-united-kingdom-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4709","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\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4709"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4709\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4709"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4709"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4709"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}