ANN Bulletin
Adventist News Network
Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters
October 4, 2005

In This Issue:
---------------------
* Innovative Evangelism Leads to Church Growth, Adventists Say
* World Church: Upcoming Annual Council Focuses on Organizational
Matters
* Poland: Church Aims at 'Postmoderns' With Relational Evangelism
* World Church: Andrews University Gets Top Ranking in Diversity,
International Makeup
* Singapore: Ministry Through the Language of Today's Music
* Malnourished Malians Receive Food Aid from ADRA
* In Brief: Bermuda Adventist Church Broadcasts Services via Internet
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Innovative Evangelism Leads to Church Growth, Adventists Say
Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [ANN Staff]
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Hundreds of people come in contact with God each day without first
stepping inside of a church. They hear about Him from their neighbors,
from satellite broadcasts, from a young person leading a series of
talks, and increasingly through the Internet.

Participants at the Seventh-day Adventist Church's Council on
Evangelism and Witness (CEW) shared that these innovative types of
outreach are contributing to the exponential growth of the church
globally. The group, which met at a biannual meeting in Silver
Spring, Maryland, Oct. 2, is designed to "function as a think tank and
a stimulant to ideas and actions that can find a place in the global
life of the church," said Pastor Lowell Cooper, chairman of the group
and a general vice president of the world church.

The CEW was established five years ago and aims "to keep the church
conscious that the Great Commission is its primary purpose," Cooper
added, referring to Jesus' words in Matthew 28:19 where He commands His
followers to "Go and make disciples of all nations."

Council participants were briefed on "Tell the World: A Vision for
2005-2010." First introduced at the church's General Conference
Session, its quinquennial world business meeting, in St. Louis,
Missouri in July, "Tell the World" will be unfolded and discussed
during the first business meeting of the upcoming Annual Council of the
church's executive committee.

"'Tell the World' is a spirit-filled church committed to Christ and His
mission to reach every person of the world," explained Mark Finley, a
vice president for global evangelism for the Adventist world church.
"Through God's grace we can do it. Not in our strength, however, but
His."

Finley added, as leaders of the church "we envision that 'Tell the
World' is not only telling with our lips, but telling with our lives."

Effective use of media, especially the Internet, in outreach is among
the current initiatives of the Council. John Banks, associate
communication director of the Adventist Church, who coordinated the
recent Global Internet Evangelism Network's forum in Bangkok, Thailand,
reported a mushrooming response to the initiative around the world.
"Several of our regions are establishing activities to reach the
Internet communities for God," Banks reported.

"The manual for the use of the Internet in the church is sitting in the
pew next to you, and he is 12 years old. What he needs is the content.
And the church is in the business of providing it," said Rajmund
Dabrowski, world church communication director.

Attendees at the recent meeting heard reports on a range of church
activities designed to advance evangelism as well as involve lay
members in outreach. The group also voted to allocate its US$500,000
grant from the world church to a variety of outreaches: 60 percent each
year, or US$300,000, will go to church regions for creative and
innovative public evangelism efforts; 20 percent, US$100,000, will go
for youth evangelism activities, such as "The Elijah Project," and the
last 20 percent was voted to fund public events by the Center for World
Evangelism. Church regions will be able to apply for the grant money to
be used in 2006, said Finley.

Public evangelism events conducted by young people within the church
are expanding rapidly, Pastor Baraka Muganda, world church youth
director, reported in a presentation at the event. In South America,
more than 50,000 baptisms resulted from such campaigns, he said, while
14,000 baptisms were reported from the church's Southern Africa/Indian
Ocean region.

Pastor Luka Daniel, president of the Adventist Church in West Africa,
said that more than 900 people had been baptized through similar youth
outreaches, many in an area "not known for evangelism," he added.

Muganda said these baptisms are only a part of larger results that flow
from youth involvement in outreach.

"When young people get involved in evangelism," Muganda said, "they not
only touch other lives, but they, themselves, are touched."


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World Church: Upcoming Annual Council Focuses on Organizational Matters

Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... [ANN Staff]
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More than 200 leaders of the Seventh-day Adventist Church from around
the world will meet at the church's world headquarters starting Oct. 10
for an annual meeting of the movement's Executive Committee. The event
comes on the heels of the quinquennial world church session in St.
Louis, Missouri, in July, and will address issues raised there as well
as pending administrative matters.

One of the major aspects of the, gathering , will be continued
presentations on "Tell the World: A Vision for 2005-2010." At the first
business session of the autumn meeting, the Executive Committee,
composed of the elected world church officers, international church
leadership, ministers and laity, will be briefed on how this program
will impact various outreaches of church life.

Another major agenda item is the appointment of a "Commission on
Ministries, Services and Structures," which is expected to fulfill an
earlier mandate to church leaders to "review all the ministries and
services of the [church's headquarters] to determine the most effective
means of assisting the World Church to fulfill her mission," as a 2004
Annual Council resolution called on leaders to do. The committee is
expected to discuss the terms of reference and membership of this new
body.

"I think it is a good idea for our church ... to have a standing
[commission] to address the issues of our mission and organization,"
said Pastor Jan Paulsen, world church president, at the April 2005
executive committee session. "We are becoming an ever larger,
international community," he added, noting that analysis of such
matters is "something we should do regularly, routinely and normally."
Recognizing the fact that the church is growing around the world,
Paulsen frequently said, "there must be a better, more effective and
efficient way of doing church."

Due for consideration by the committee will be a reworking of the terms
for church employees to serve overseas. It is expected that an
"International Service Employee Program" will be proposed to replace
the current "Interdivision Employee Program." however, details are
currently unavailable.

Also due for consideration during the meetings are a formal merger of
the church's Global Mission office with the Office of Mission
Awareness; constituency meetings for the Adventist International
Institute of Advanced Studies, Adventist World Radio, the Adventist
Development and Relief Agency, Home Study International/Griggs
University and Christian Record Services. Many other committees and
boards are also expected to meet during the period.

The Seventh-day Adventist Church has more than 14.3 million baptized
members, and some 25 million attending weekly worship in more than 203
countries and territories around the world. Organized in 1863, it is
one of the fastest-growing Protestant movements, with a global network
of hospitals, educational institutions and health food businesses
dedicated to serving needs worldwide.


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Poland: Church Aims at 'Postmoderns' With Relational Evangelism
Warsaw, Poland .... [Mark A. Kellner/Andrzej Sicinski/ANN]
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How does a church communicate the gospel message in a country where it
is fashionable to claim a Christian identity, even if one does not
really know who Jesus Christ is?

That's the challenge facing Seventh-day Adventists in Poland, a nation
with a devout heritage, but, church leaders say, also with confusion
about what Christianity really is. The answer: utilize "relational
evangelism" which involves building friendships and creating common
ground before deeper theological questions are raised.

According to Pastor Roman Chalupka, secretary of the Adventist Church
in Poland, such methods are proving successful. These methods go
hand-in-hand with the Polish launch of LIFEDevelopment.info, which has
been used successfully in Britain and other European countries and will
be translated into Polish and adapted for the culture.

The core values of the LIFEdevelopment ministry are relationships,
growth and support, said Pastor Miroslav Pujic communication director
for the Trans-European region of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

Explaining the name, Pujic said the focus is on life as growing, not
static, and nurturing and developing. He added that the "info" should
lead people to the latest forms of communicating about a better life.

"We had a young married couple in Warsaw, around the age of 30, who
became vegetarians and were accused of being 'sectarians' by their
family," Chalupka said in a telephone interview. "They were searching
the Internet to find support for their health beliefs, and out of all
the possible links, came upon a listing for one of our congregations
near the Baltic Sea. After two months of corresponding with an elder
there about diet, they were asking for answers about religious
questions. The elder gave them my name, we made contact and now I am
preparing them for baptism."

Chalupka added, "The way to reach these people was not through
religion, but through friendship and vegetarianism; that's how we're
doing it."

Such relationship building, he adds, does not totally replace other
methods. Adventists in Poland have sold over 1 million copies of "Steps
to Christ," for example, and maintain an active, theological outreach
via the Internet. But reaching the 46 percent of Poles who don't attend
any church requires additional methods.

This concept of mission in a postmodern society was the center of
discussion at a recent seminar, held at the Seventh-day Adventist
College of Theology and Humanities (ACTH) in Podkowa Lesna, for pastors
and elders from 130 congregations.

"The focus of our interest should be the part of society that doesn't
attend church," said Pujic, who spoke at the event. His presentation
focused on LIFEdevelopment.info.

Chalupka noted what he called a "fashion" among some people in the
country "to behave in a religious manner even though they do not
believe in God." He said this comes from a centuries-long effort by the
Roman Catholic Church to promote a Catholic identity as part of Polish
national identity. Yet, he added, such "branding" didn't yield a deep
commitment or understanding.

"I used to go door-to-door and survey people about their religious
views," Chalupka recalled. "When I asked my first question, 'Are you a
Christian?,' the answer was, 'Of course we are.' Then I would ask, 'Who
is Jesus Christ?' They had no idea. The concept of church was rather a
personal identification [rather] than a belief."

It's that challenge that Polish Adventist pastors and church leaders
are facing, he said. Already, some have responded.

"In a way, we can say that some" of the pastors have tried similar
methods without knowing about the LifeDevelopment program, Chalupka
said. "They are trying to find the best methods to reach young people,
to talk to them. They just want to be friends, and by friendship come
into their life and then they will ask 'why are you different?'"

For Pastor Arkadiusz Bojko, who leads an Adventist congregation in
Podkowa Lesna, the need to reach these "postmodern" youth and young
adults is clear.

"Teenage generation up to 20s and 30s, people who are educated, with
well-paying jobs, they act like typically secular, postmodern people,"
Bojko said in a telephone interview.

Unlike previous generations whose Biblical knowledge, however scant,
prepared them to accept Bible-based proofs of Adventist belief, Bojko
said he is seeing "a growing number of people who do not believe in the
Bible." As a result, he added, "our traditional approach is not
necessarily reaching the [needs] of this younger generation."

Bojko said, "We are observing a decrease of interest in our typical,
public evangelistic way, with fewer and fewer people interested in
these topics. We are pushed to use 'back door' types of evangelism.
LIFEdevelopment is a good pretext to enter on the social basis."

While awaiting the preparation of materials and formal launch of the
program, Bojko said he is finding young people in his church who can be
trained as lay leaders and then go out to reach their peers. He
believes such an approach will be more successful in gaining an
audience among young adults.

"I've found that especially when you are talking about first contact,
as soon as they find you are a pastor, they treat you as a
'professional,' and think he's paid to do what he is doing," Bojko
said. "I believe that it's much more authentic when young people who
are not professionally involved in some kind of church work are in
contact with their peers."

Bojko praised the LIFEdevelopment materials, noting that his son, age
12, who is fluent in English, warmly responded to a tape of "The
Evidence" television program from England, which also takes this
approach.

Such evangelism, Bojko said, is "not jumping on the stage with the
Bible, but is a different approach [that] still conveys a deep and well
done spiritual message. It fills the gap for this kind of material. I
believe we can make good use of it."

And Pastor Pawel Lazar, president of the Adventist Church in Poland,
has high expectations for the new outreach method: "Personally, I
believe LIFEdevelopment.info can bring about notable changes in the
Seventh-day Adventist Church in Poland. Friendship evangelism is a
long-term program, but it produces good results. Our Lord Jesus Christ
is the best example of this approach."


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World Church: Andrews University Gets Top Ranking in Diversity,
International Makeup
Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States .... [Ray Dabrowski/ANN]
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When Erica Slikkers and Kristin Denslow sit in their university
classroom today, they sit next to students representing a rich tapestry
of races and countries. Slikkers and Denslow attend a school that is
regarded as one of the top educational institutions in the United
States recognized for its diversity and international makeup of the
student body. They are at Andrews University, a private school operated
by the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Berrien Springs, Michigan, and
one of the denomination's premier educational institutions.

The diversity of Andrews University is clearly seen in the fact that
since its establishment in 1874, the school has steadily increased its
international scope. Today, a visitor to Andrews is able to mingle
with people from some 90 countries.

According to Rebecca May, university relations director, the school's
commitment to academic excellence is recognized with the university's
continued ranking by U.S. News & World Report's America's Best Colleges
edition as one of only 162 state-sponsored and 86 private institutions
of higher education in the United States to receive the publication's
"National University" ranking.

"Andrews is the only Seventh-day Adventist university to hold this
distinction," May said. According to the August 29, 2005 issue of U.S.
News & World Report, a National University "offers a wide range of
undergraduate majors as well as master's and doctoral degrees; many
strongly emphasize research." Currently, Andrews offers approximately
180 undergraduate, master's and doctoral programs.

In a recent report on the state of national universities, Andrews also
ranked at number six for percentage of international students on
campus, with 12 percent of the student population coming to Andrews
from all over the world. The university was also ranked as the 16th
most diverse campus of any national university, public or private.

Commenting on the ranking Andrews has within the national educational
mosaic, May said "many national universities, public or private, work
diligently to recruit students from diverse ethnic backgrounds, and
increase the percentage of international students to their campus."

"It's been a way of life for Andrews University, and the world church,
for so many years that we almost take it for granted," May added.

The university administration and faculty are currently involved in
discussing ways to recreate Andrews as a "new university for the new
century."

Among the issues under evaluation is "how to turn our diverse
population into an educational asset for the new century," Niels-Erik
Andreasen, president of the university, told Adventist News Network.
Commenting on the implications for educational development, he listed
such areas as "mind expansion and understanding, as well as experience
for living."

According to Andreasen, "Andrews is distinctly situated to draw on our
legacy, our leadership, and our substantial resources in developing
future leaders during this challenging time of earth's history. And we
will strengthen our efforts to inspire our students, graduate and
undergraduate, to seize the opportunities to fully participate in the
culturally, socially, spiritually and intellectually rich campus
community."

Andreasen believes that this will prepare students, in ways not
available anywhere else, "to provide leadership in both the public
sector and private sector, where the struggles to adjust to changing
world demographics and globalization are most acute."

May echoed these comments: "As we read the news every day, we realize
that living in this multicultural environment provides experience for
our students that goes beyond the classroom."

Current enrollment for this academic year increased by 70 students for
a student body of 3,087. May said that "as evidenced by this year's
increased enrollment, more and more students are finding Andrews
University the right place to 'Seek knowledge. Affirm faith. Change the
world,'" as stated in the school's mission statement.

Besides the Berrien Springs campus, Andrews University has affiliates
and extension programs in different parts of the world, serving the
needs of a growing and changing denomination, and providing education
to another 1,700 students elsewhere. "This positions us as educational
servants to the world church," Andreasen added.

However, there remains a need for educated leaders to support the
church's expansion, he admitted. This is "to bring Adventist influence
to various fields in the public sector, and to provide faith-based
education for the world Adventist family. Andrews University stands on
the cusp of a new era in Adventist education and is uniquely prepared
to serve the global needs of our worldwide church," he concluded.


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Singapore: Ministry Through the Language of Today's Music
Singapore, Republic of Singapore .... [Wendi Rogers/ANN]
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For the Christian band Parousia it's "all about sharing the Word of
God." For 12 years the Singapore-based group has ministered every
chance they get in a language that resonates with those steeped in
today's intensely music-oriented culture.

Jeff Lam says the name Parousia is Greek for "The Great Arrival," and
it's often used to refer to the second Advent. Lam is a Seventh-day
Adventist and a member of the group. "It quite aptly expresses why I am
in Parousia. I believe that we have a duty and a God-given calling to
proclaim the second coming of Jesus."

This calling is what drives Lam to share in the mission of his church
and communicate its message by using new and innovative approaches that
will reach a secular society.

"Over the past 12 years we've played in clubs, discos, shopping
centers, rooftops. You name it, we've played it. And every time we've
played, it's been clear why we were there," Lam says.

"It has always been our aim to make known the reason for which we
play," he adds. "I guess Christian musicians nowadays can be
categorized into those who openly declare Christ, like Steven Curtis
Chapman, Sonicflood, etc.; those who make you dig a little deeper to
find out what they're saying, like Lifehouse, etc.; and those who don't
play for Christ at all. We're definitely part of the first group."

Parousia also assists other Christian organizations in their
ministries. The band has gone on mission trips to Hong Kong, Mongolia
and Japan to serve alongside organizations such as Youth for Christ and
Campus Crusade for Christ. "We were there to fulfill a need and to help
out in whatever way possible. We've also helped out in countless
church-organized outreaches and played in many Christian schools."

The band has played regularly at a café in Singapore called The Third
Place. "When we first began it was only us, but soon we began asking
other bands, both Christian and non-Christian, if they wanted to play,
too. Without us trying to, it has now evolved into a monthly gig where
over 200 people cram the cafe to hear local music, many of them
non-believers."

Lam explains that Parousia is usually the last band to play and they
often share a little about the songs they've written and what they mean
to band members. They built relationships with several of the bands
that play there, "sharing our experience, knowledge, our values and
beliefs. It's been amazing to see God working."

He talks about an experience the band had in Mongolia playing for
Campus Crusade for Christ, an international interdenominational
ministry. The band played several concerts, "not expecting to see the
audience again, and also several short promotional gigs where we tried
to invite people to a bigger, final performance where we would invite
the kids to come to Christ," says Lam.

"On that final night, we had over 600 non-believer kids there. When the
response slips came in after the concert, there were over 300 kids that
indicated that they had made a decision for Christ. It was absolutely
amazing, and truly humbling to see God at work."

One of the band's goals is to strengthen and preserve the faith of its
members, Lam explains. "We have each experienced personal and
collective spiritual growth that we never would have on our own. God
has truly blessed us individually as we have served together."

He adds that, "It's been a great learning experience for me working
with other denominations of believers, learning and being inspired by
them. I hope I've done some of the same for them as well."


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Malnourished Malians Receive Food Aid from ADRA
Bamako, Mali .... [Nadia McGill/ADRA/ANN Staff]
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The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) is joining the Food
for Work and Food for Training programs to aid 26,000 children and
support the livelihoods of 27,000 men in Mali, one of the poorest
countries in the world.

The project aims to meet the nutritional needs of children under the
age of five in the Gao region by distributing food and supporting food
security projects.

Without help through the lean season, approximately 2.2 million people
-- 20 percent of the Malian population -- are likely to suffer from
food insecurity, said Karla Leitzke, country director for ADRA Mali.

"The Northern pastoral areas of Gao region have been among the most
affected. In the Ansongo and Gao districts, the distance between
pasture and water points becomes more critical every day. Herds have to
walk up to 19 to 24 miles a day; that expends more caloric energy than
they ingest in a day. In two months' time, our resources for food may
be exhausted," Leitzke added.

Some 5,000 Malian children in the North already suffer from acute
malnutrition, with infant mortality reaching record levels in some
Northern areas. "I am glad we are able to intervene immediately," said
Leitzke. "But as the situation is critical, we continue pursuing other
funding possibilities to expand our intervention and help more children
and their loved ones."

The four-month project, which is valued at U.S. $41,623, is funded by
the World Food Programme (WFP) and ADRA International. It is scheduled
to run until mid-January. ADRA Mali also has three ongoing emergency
responses funded by WFP in the Kolokani district and the Koulikoro
region. They include food distribution for refugees from Cote d'Ivoire,
food distribution for four community health centers, and Food for Work
and Food for Training projects for communities affected by drought and
locust infestations.


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In Brief: Bermuda Adventist Church Broadcasts Services via Internet
Midland Heights, Bermuda .... [Compiled by ANN Staff]
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Midland Heights Seventh-day Adventist Church has become the first in
Bermuda to broadcast its services live on the Internet. Pastor Kelby D.
McCottry, who started behind the initiative, says one of the church's
slogans is "evangelism through technology," he told The Royal Gazette,
a local newspaper.
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