eneral Conference president Jan Paulsen challenged Annual Council delegates and those attending the 100th anniversary celebration of the Takoma Park church to focus on the positive power of Christ to help believers build ethical lives in his sermon of Sabbath, October 9.

"The moral power of Christ-the power of His resurrection-is not just the power to say 'no,' " Paulsen told the overflow congregation, "but also every bit as much the power to say 'yes'-'yes' to prudence, to moral goodness, to justice, to reverence before God, and to allowing the fruits of the Spirit to develop. It is living in anticipation of Christ's second coming that is the reality that drives this."

"The Adventist Review was launched by a vision that the truth of the second coming of Jesus would ultimately circle the globe like 'streams of light,' " says senior editor William G. Johnsson (pictured below). "From the first issue of Present Truth in 1849, the magazine has striven to embrace the global mission given to Christ's disciples."

Johnsson introduced more than 300 Annual Council delegates to a dramatic expansion of the ministry of the Adventist Review at Sunday's session by describing an eight-month feasibility study that led to the new proposal. Church leaders from around the world responded by strongly endorsing the plan to print and distribute a free international English-language edition that will be read by nearly 1 in 3 Seventh-day Adventists worldwide-5 million believers in 10 of the church's 13 world divisions.

The new edition will feature news, Bible study, devotional articles, information about General Conference initiatives, discussions of the church's Fundamental Beliefs, and selections from the Spirit of Prophecy, as well as a cover story each month on the expanding worldwide mission of the Adventist Church.

Initial plans call for printing the new edition, tentatively titled Adventist World, at multiple sites around the world, and distributing it in bulk through local congregations. General Conference funding will pay for all prepress costs, printing, and transport to port facilities. Each receiving division will cover distribution costs to its churches as it creates a network for the monthly journal.

"As the editorial team prepares for this new opportunity, careful work is being done to consider how this major expansion will support and improve the weekly editions of the Adventist Review," Johnsson adds. "Current subscribers, church leaders, and other publishing experts are being consulted to help achieve a smooth transition in the publishing cycle. We're committed to making certain that the Adventist Review will continue to meet the expectations of readers for encouragement and inspiration every week."

Global Mission Highlights Commitment to Mission
During the past century, the Takoma Park church and its members played a significant role in the worldwide mission of the Adventist Church. Mike Ryan, General Conference vice president and director of Global Mission, hosted a Sabbath afternoon mission program at Takoma Park church that highlighted the church's contributions as part of the weekend centennial celebration. The program featured a blend of video, musical performances, and live interviews.

Mission Awareness Offers
Nontraditional Ways of Giving
"For some members, the Adventist mission offering seems like giving into a black hole," Gary Krause, director of the Office of Mission Awareness, told delegates Sunday. "They don't know where it's going, or what their contributions will fund. We need to foster a culture among us that helps every member understand that the entire church benefits in all its mission initiatives and projects from this offering."

Krause described Adventist members as "the most generous people in the world when they see a need," and announced new plans by his office to give members opportunity to financially support mission projects outside of the traditional Sabbath morning mission offering. A new Web site, www.adventistmission.org, will include a secure site for online giving as well as detailed information about how mission offerings are being used.

Amendments Made to Mission Statement
The Sunday morning session of the Annual Council unanimously voted to amend the church's Mission Statement, and also endorsed a new "Values Statement of the Seventh-day Adventist Church." The changes to the Mission Statement included five consensus expansions of language in the current document: (1) "the everlasting gospel" phrase became "the everlasting gospel of God's love"; (2) readers are reminded that the everlasting gospel is "revealed in the life, death, resurrection, and high priestly ministry of Jesus Christ"; (3) Jesus is identified as both Saviour "and Lord"; (4) the church is designated as God's "remnant" church; (5) and its task is to "nurture believers as disciples" as it awaits the Second Coming.

The Values Statement stresses the "infinite value" of each individual to God, and reminds that they are thus deserving of "respect and dignity," "gifted for and needed in the diverse activities of the Church."

Church Involves Youth in Evangelism
Under the branches of a tree in Africa or the South Pacific, in an auditorium in Europe or Asia, young adults in the Adventist Church are stepping forward to take a leading role in public evangelism.

Delegates to the Annual Council today enthusiastically received the report of the "Elijah Project," which is a collaborative effort of Adventist-laymen's Services and Industries, or ASI, with three world church offices and departments: the Center for Global Evangelism, Personal Ministries/Sabbath School, and the Youth department.

"This is a strategy to involve young people between the ages of 15 and 30 in actively proclaiming the gospel," said Mark Finley, director of the Center for Global Evangelism and speaker/director of It Is Written. "We believe we will involve 100,000 young people in 10,000 evangelistic meetings worldwide."

Finley explained that the church will invest U.S.$1.2 million-including a U.S.$500,000 grant from ASI-in funding the project, along with an additional U.S.$1.5 million in materials ranging from printed picture rolls to "New Beginnings" DVD lecture series.

He added that world divisions are "mobilizing" young people for the event. The Southern Africa-Indian Ocean church region has already committed to holding 750 such meetings, with the South American region pledging to conduct 950. In Romania, more than 500 youth-led evangelistic meetings are scheduled, he added.

Finley explained that instead of investing a large amount of resources in one or two satellite campaigns, which would not involve a great number of young people, the smaller events will bring young Adventists to the forefront of sharing Jesus with others.

"The issue is not the number of people we will reach but the number of youth who are involved," Finley said, noting that the public meetings will, cumulatively, reach numbers similar to those who attend satellite events. He added that the church will conduct several major satellite evangelistic campaigns in the next year.

The Elijah Project was one of several initiatives to draw attention at the Council on Evangelism and Witness, which preceded the Annual Council on October 3. According to world church general vice president Ted N.C. Wilson, "This was one of the most thrilling councils in terms of reports of God's moving through the Holy Spirit's power. More and more places are employing personal evangelism through small groups."

Wilson said there was a "growing excitement" among church leaders about the Elijah Project as well.

Armando Miranda, also a general vice president of the world church, noted the unique assignment of the Council on Evangelism and Witness.

"We have a lot of different meetings here dealing with administrative items and many [other] problems," Miranda told ANN, "but this is the only one focused just on evangelism-the only one. The only concern here is how to do the ministry of the church, not only to exchange ideas but provide models of evangelism."

"It's encouraging to see and participate in a platform established by the church where we can explore different models of how to reach people where they are and lead them to Jesus Christ," said Miroslav Pujic, communication director for the church's Trans-European region. "It is important to explore views in order to better understand that a journey of faith more than often requires time, as well as an awareness of the culture and circumstances of those whom we are to reach for Christ."--adapted from Adventist News Network.