BY DIANE GRUESBECK LEBRUN

HILE ATTENDING AN INTERDENOMINATIONAL seminar, Susan sat stunned as an Evangelical preacher observed: "Seventh-day Adventists have a message to share with the world . . . but they don't know what to do with it."

Are we, as a denomination, really that bad at evangelism? Perhaps we have been. However, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has a plan-aggressive initiatives for evangelism in 2004-and by the end of this year we may hear a different story!

A Whole Year of Evangelism
At the 2002 Annual Council Seventh-day Adventist world leaders chose 2004 as "The Year of World Evangelism," a bold step forward in fulfilling our Lord's commission to share the gospel with the world.

The Year of World Evangelism 2004 (YWE 2004) initiative involves everyone-lay members and pastors-in evangelistic proclamation through personal, small-group, public evangelism, literature, and health evangelism, as well as every conceivable means of technological communication, including radio, television, satellites, printed media, and the Internet. Evangelistic efforts are designed to reach the millions in the urban centers of the world. Specifically targeted is the 10/40 window (where only about 5 percent of the people are Christians) and the secular, postmodern Western culture that denies the need for the gospel.

"The Year of Evangelism will ignite evangelism here in North America as it will around the world," says James W. Gilley, vice president for evangelism in the North American Division. "We should see the results for several years to come. Our goal of 45,000 baptisms and professions of faith should send North America well over the 1 million mark in membership."

Sow 1 Billion
"Something big is about to take place in the church worldwide," predicts Harold Baptiste, chair of the North American Sow 1 Billion task force.

Sow 1 Billion is a strategy designed to place 1 billion small tracts in 1 billion homes, telling of hope in Christ and inviting people to study the Bible. The tract, printed in scores of languages, is designed to spark interest, provide hope, and offer Bible studies. People can send for free Bible lessons from the address printed on the card, or simply go online to www.hopetalk.org to contact the Bible school nearest them. They can even enroll and take lessons online in a multitude of languages. Information about how to contact a local Seventh-day Adventist church is also available.

The cost to print 1 billion invitations to study the Bible is huge-$5 million. However, $1 million was raised during the Sabbath morning offering at the Adventist-Laymen's Services and Industries (ASI) convention in August 2003, and other donors have pledged another $4 million for this project. Through this single outreach alone, the Seventh-day Adventist Church hopes to reach more than two thirds of the world's population.

Satellite Evangelism
Hope for Today/Net 2004, featuring Walter Pearson, speaker/director of Breath of Life, will be uplinked live from the Miracle Temple church in Baltimore, Maryland, and will be televised on the Adventist Communication Network (ACN) and Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN).

This Net 2004 series will begin Saturday evening, October 2, and will run through October 30, broadcast in every time zone at a local time of 7:00 p.m. Meetings will be held five nights a week and will feature miniconcerts and adrenaline-pumping sermons by Pastor Pearson.
In addition, 3ABN will air two Spanish evangelistic series this year. In February Esteban Bohr presented a weeklong series live from Venezuela, which aired on 3ABN's Spanish stations around the globe. And in November Frank Gonzalez will present La Red (The Net).
Satellite technology allows us to reach almost every corner of the world with the message of Jesus Christ.

Other Evangelistic Examples
There are other innovative and successful evangelistic ideas that you may want to consider.

SonRise Over Baltimore. During September and October 2003, 40 to 50 seminarians and six Andrews University faculty members traveled to the area and began a comprehensive public evangelism outreach within the metropolitan Baltimore/Washington, D.C., area.

Evangelistic meetings were held in four surrounding locations as part of an evangelism field school, a required course for those studying at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary.
Russell Burrill, director of the North American Division Evangelism Institute (NADEI), led out in the meetings at White Marsh Seventh-day Adventist Church in Baltimore. He experimented with the innovative approach of running two meetings nightly, one at 5:15 and the other at 7:15. Amazingly, 90 percent of the 5:15 crowd was not Seventh-day Adventist, versus only 30 percent of the audience attending at 7:15.

Burrill comments on the success of the 5:15 sessions: "There are three reasons: first, there are seniors, who don't want to drive after dark; also parents with small children; and most significant, the after-work crowd, who don't want to drive home to the suburbs and then return to a meeting after dinner. It's easier for them to stay."

This public evangelism campaign was the culmination of years of planning and strategy. The Columbia Union contracted with NADEI to train more than 50 lay members over four years to serve as preachers, Bible workers, and evangelistic team members.

SonRise is just one element in the Baltimore Metro Initiative, a joint strategy of the Columbia Union and the Chesapeake and Allegheny East conferences, together with 30 local churches, to declare the metropolitan area's 2.6 million residents "a mission field."

Church Planting and Cell Churches. Cell churches focus on relationships, understanding that people need nurture once they start attending church. Simply warming a pew for a couple of hours and having no further contact during the following week is not enough. With small groups of six to 12 people an instant community is formed-an extended family with whom to share, pray, and encourage.

Living Word Christian Fellowship in Hamilton, Ontario, began as a cell-based church that was recently granted official church status. The cell church focuses on relationships. Pastor Dan Linrud explains, "It is comprised of a vertical relationship with God, a horizontal relationship with fellow believers, and relationships that build bridges to the unsaved."

Anthony MacPherson, of Living Word, shares further: "Cell churches aim to make community, discipleship, witness, and leadership development the focus of believers' lives through the development and multiplication of wholistic small groups."

The discipleship process is a combination of one-on-one growth partner meetings, growth retreats, church seminars, and Sabbath morning growth classes during Sabbath school. As people engage in this process they become devoted disciples of Christ.

The Seventh-day Adventist world church has also recognized the importance of nurturing new believers. With roughly 1 million people joining the Seventh-day Adventist Church every year, the world church leaders, at their annual business meeting in October 2003, voted to approve a document entitled "Evangelism and Church Growth-From Baptism to Discipleship," which covers nurturing new members, assisting them to grow and mature within their congregations.
Yes, it is possible to bring in millions of new believers with large outreach efforts worldwide. The key to keeping them is nurture and friendship as they develop as new Christians.

Creative Evangelism. The motto is attention-grabbing: "A place for those who have given up on church, but not on God. We're building a community of grace." The Adventure, a relatively new congregation led by Roger Walter, in Greeley, Colorado, is a congregation committed to evangelism. It puts its money where its mouth is, committing 40 percent of the church budget for outreach.

Started in January 1999 by a group of 15, The Adventure has grown to a membership of 120, with an average attendance of 200. Roughly 30 percent of those who attend each week are not Seventh-day Adventists, but are seeking something to satisfy their spiritual hunger.
Recently two associate pastors have been added to the staff. One is paid entirely from local funds; the other is paid half from local funds and half from union church planting funds. The congregation's next goal is to add another group. Pastor Walter explains: "People will drive more than 45 minutes to church, but won't bring friends farther than 15 minutes away." The second church will be located within an area that holds 30 percent of the congregation's friends. In preparation, members are doing Bible studies, door-to-door surveys, servant evangelism, and advertising.

The church has sponsored a number of innovative evangelistic series. One series was condensed into one week. Another time an entire series was presented in one weekend: three topics on Friday night, 10 on Sabbath.

This fall The Adventure is teaming up with NADEI in an areawide crusade in Loveland, Colorado, with the goal of baptizing more than 100 people.

Now It's Your Turn
As you read this article, there are many evangelistic series already under way around the globe. Satellites are streaming nonstop programming to the entire globe. Conferences are sponsoring and coordinating major events. Local churches are creatively providing evangelistic opportunities for their neighbors and friends within their communities. What are you doing, personally, to participate and support evangelism this year?

You can support your local church's evangelistic outreach simply by getting involved. Befriend those who attend the evangelistic offerings in your community; sit with them, telephone them with encouragement, introduce them to your friends. Friendships help to ensure that new members don't slip out the back door within a few weeks.

Support this worldwide initiative with your financial donations. Assist your church in purchasing their share of the 1 billion tracts for your community. At a cost of one-half cent each, even a $20 donation could help your congregation reach 4,000 homes.

Let's Make This a Reality
It's easy to get excited about the great strategic initiatives in place to evangelize every corner of the globe. Yet, as we participate in these larger programs, it is important to remember what Jesus referred to as His most important command: love your neighbor.

During a recent sermon Mark Youngberg, pastor of Calvary Road community church in Berrien Springs, Michigan, provided one of the best definitions of evangelism: "Evangelism is the process of sharing God's love with a person until they fall in love with Christ."
With Year of World Evangelism under way, the gospel could reach the entire world very soon.

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Diane Gruesbeck LeBrun is an employee at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, and a freelance writer.