![\"\"](\"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/02\/images_news-2017_Kaunas-panorama-old-city.jpg\" "\\"Kaunas")
<\/a><\/p>\nOver two intensive days, 30 \u2013 31 January 2017, Victor Hulbert, Trans-European Division Communication & Media director, shared not just those skills, but also how to profile your church in the community and, should a crisis arise, the skills needed to interact positively with the media.<\/p>\n
The training had an immediate effect. Mindaugas Pik\u016bnas, Youth Ministries director for the Baltic Union Conference pulled out his iPhone and immediately started collecting a series of short testimonies to share via his social media.<\/p>\n<\/a>Hulbert, at the invitation of the Lithuanian Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, freely shared his considerable expertise with pastors, Bible workers and administrative staff. This worked for Jurgita Kreg\u017edait\u0117, Executive Secretary, “The church needs to get closer to people, not only in their real lives, but also in cyberspace, an increasingly significant aspect of modern life,” she said.<\/p>\n<\/a>Arunas Cerkesas, a pastor who produces a regular outreach newsletter, Vilties Saltineis, looked through his content ideas seeking ways to engage more actively with the public. Valius Ei\u010dinas commented that \u201cthe value of this seminar was that it provided a model of how to work with a person, how to approach a person while communicating a message.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/a>“This was the first such seminar in the history of the Adventist church in Lithuania since the country regained independence in 1990,” stated Bertold Hibner, Conference President. “When planing the seminar we thought about several strategic purposes: to educate and train pastors and administrative workers in communication, to give tools for pastors to work with church members in evangelism, and to encourage our workers to use media for mission.”<\/p>\n<\/a>That worked for Vytautas Kul\u0161\u0117 who found that “some new ideas about how to speak with journalists were very helpful.” Gintaras Nekis was impressed with the crisis management training. He said, “We need to prepare in advance because the future may bring a crisis.” That preparation was practical as well as theroetical as the team worked through real-life scenarios, discussing together and eventualy facing a TV camera.<\/p>\n<\/a>Pastors expressed their gratefulness for a better understanding of how social media can assist evangelism, and for assistance in developing the skills to be prepared for crisis. Church members also benefited on the previous Sabbath, 28 January, when Hulbert preached at the Vilnius church, sharing with a congregation of Lithuanian and Russian speaking members a biblical foundation for Christians using social media. One visitor, a graphic artist from Belarus, said afterwards that this information was so important that he wanted to take it back to his home city.<\/p>\n