he North American Division (NAD) is now 89 years old. According to our most recent yearbook (2001), the NAD has 4,775 churches and 922,917 members in a division with a total population of 306,434,000. In addition to the United States and Canada, our territory includes Bermuda, the French possession of Saint Pierre et Miquelon, Johnston Island, Midway Islands, and all Pacific islands not attached to other divisions.

The NAD is one of the two or three most complex fields of the world church. Our members have access to 24-hour news, 500-channel satellite systems, and a vast culture of heroes and antiheroes bombarding us with their solicitations. The rise of New Age religious experience seduces many into a deceptive fill-in-the-blank religiosity. "Spiritual" in pop culture is whatever spirit speaks to you.

Our challenge is to spread the everlasting gospel to persons bombarded by media, frequently distracted from spiritual concerns, and ill-equipped for the coming apocalyptic crisis.

Within the NAD there are giants. Here are just three suggestions on how to go about meeting them:

1. Make Adventist education financially accessible. The NAD Department of Education estimates that 60 percent of our academy-age youth (between 13-18, when the transition from adolescence to early adulthood is most fragile) are being socialized outside of the Adventist school system. Now is the time to do something decisive, lest we create an at-risk generation. Either we are going to make Adventist education financially accessible, or we must train our publicly educated Adventist youth as missionaries to the public system.

But this pragmatic position runs afoul of Ellen White's counsel, which has made it abundantly clear that an Adventist education is a necessity for all our youth. However, if Mrs. White's ideal is not achievable, then a mission-advancing alternative is needed.

In the Southern California Conference Ron Pollard has created Heritage Missions, which takes Adventist young people in public schools on mission trips to Africa. Parents are responding in overwhelming numbers. "Almost all of our mission trip work for teenagers is directed to our academies," observes Pollard. "When do the majority of our teens who are not in Adventist academies experience mission abroad?"

2. Assess leadership effectiveness. While we have many outstanding leaders at all levels, too many of our members complain that they are languishing under leadership that would be fired if it worked at their jobs. Our members request standards of leadership effectiveness that involve both leadership assessment and development. How do leaders know when they are being effective? How do they know what is expected of them? Leadership assessment, when rightly done, is a blessing; and it is long overdue.

3. Mobilize for diversity and mission. In some parts of our division personal mission appears to be a thing of the past. I am excited about satellite evangelism. I recently participated in Pentecost 2000 in South Africa, in which we reached 18 countries on three continents, in 14 languages, and baptized thousands of people into the Seventh-day Adventist Church.

But no army fights only from the air. Ground troops are needed. Satellite evangelism is only as good as the member-based groundwork that precedes and follows it.

A corollary to mission outreach is diversity training. Larry Caviness, president of the Southern California Conference, indicates that 165 countries are represented in that territory. We need to take off our same-race, same-country blinders and understand that God expects us to minister to everyone within our sphere of influence, regardless of race, class, culture, or gender. The Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20) clearly reinforces the importance of multicultural outreach.

It's awkward to witness to people who are different from us racially, socially, and culturally. Yet when we overlook the relationship between diversity and mission, we are saying by our example that we need to reach out only to people who are like us. We must move beyond the slogan "each one can reach one" to the conviction "each one can reach anyone."

Let's get to work!

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Leslie N. Pollard serves as vice president for diversity at Loma Linda University Adventist Health Sciences Center.