A passion to reach the world for Christ via the so-called "information superhighway" brought together some 100 Seventh-day Adventist technologists, pastors and lay members for four days of meetings at the Fourth Global Internet Evangelism Forum in San Diego, California, August 31 to September 3.
"The gathering considered a wealth of ideas and strategies for using the Internet's reach and power to help finish the task of global evangelism," said Rajmund Dabrowski, communication director of the world church and one of the organizers. "We are passionate to use this technology in a convergent way to meet the needs of the church and expand our missionary outreach among the new online users and communities."The forum included several presentations of new Internet products from Germany, Poland, Brazil and the United States, among others, with numerous Bible studies and other outreach options developed by Adventist technologists. Also, the participants were able to appraise content management programs which are being developed in different world regions.
The Three Angels Global Networking, or TAGnet, of Fallbrook, California, is working on a means by which its netAdventist church Web site creation and content management software can be donated under a "modified open source license" to the Adventist world church. The system has been under development over the last two years and is already available to local churches and organizations in the North American region of the church.
When accomplished, the move would make available to the world church the software and tools to set up and run Web sites for local churches, schools and other entities who can adapt it for their local needs. Exact details are being finalized and a formal announcement of terms is pending, according to TAGnet leadership.
Having such a system available, communication leaders say, will be a tremendous advantage in bringing a common identity to and enhancing the usefulness of church Web sites around the world.
The last day's sharing included a wealth of suggestions--to be considered by the world church's Coordinating Council for Internet Ministry--on how to make Web outreach more effective, and how to improve follow-up with people who connect with the church online and are interested in the Adventist message. One plea was for a way to make it easier for names and addresses of interested persons to be shared across national and world church region boundaries. Jobson Santos, a pastor who works with the Adventist Media Center in Brazil, noted that he receives inquiries from Portuguese speakers in North America, Europe and elsewhere, and he sometimes has trouble getting these to local churches.
The conference began with a keynote address by Mark A. Kellner, assistant director for news and information at the world church headquarters. Speaking about the need to use the Web and complimentary technologies to enhance relations within the church community, he said, "I'd like to see us all do more things to make sure that we each and we all are helping each other 'cross the finish line' and enter the heavenly rest and reward Jesus promises to those who are faithful."
Ron Vhymeister, a professor at the Adventist International Institute for Advanced Studies in the Philippines, urged his audience to be sensitive when bringing Western-developed technology to other cultures.
"Don't try to fix everything" in the culture you're entering, he said, and, "don't make Christianity needlessly Western."
Addressing the question of "are we relevant" on the Internet, Michael Dabrowski, an Internet industry expert from the Washington, D.C.-area, said that it's the message that needs to be adapted to the medium.
"Successful secular media outlets address the basic methodologies of human listening by addressing the relevance to the matter at hand. The problem is therefore not with the medium used but how it is utilized," he told the forum. "Relevance, pertinence, validity, bearing and application are some words we use to define the concerns we have about everyday life and about our certainty of the future."
Speaking several times to delegates, Pastor Mark Finley, a general vice president of the world church and a sponsor of the Global Internet Evangelism Network (GIEN) committee, urged his audience to be "difference makers" in their communities as they labor to share the Gospel. He also told his colleagues that using the Internet is inline with the church's understanding of the need to complete the task of global outreach.
"We believe that the task will yet be finished and that God will do something spectacular using various technologies in these last days of Earth's history," Finley said. "Seventh-day Adventists are a people of innovation. Seventh-day Adventists are a people of technology. We believe that God is going to finish His work using every means: radio, television and the Internet."
Addiction specialist Wendi Kannenberg offered a sobering look at the perils of Internet addiction, which, she said, were spreading beyond North America to other parts of the globe. Among those most susceptible to such addictions, she said, were "Those in positions of leadership who are isolated, tend to be under pressure to lead exemplary moral lives and are subject to intense on-the-job emotional stress."
Workshops at the forum addressed a variety of topics including writing for an international Web audience, blogging, the use of technology in the local church and Internet security. In a separate presentation, Miroslav Pujic of the church's Trans-European region discussed how to reach today's post-modern society, a theme echoed by Pastor James Coffin, director of the world church's Center for Secular/Postmodern Mission and a senior pastor in Orlando, Florida.
"A challenge that we face is to take every doctrine that we have and not say 'do it because it's right and if you don't do it, you're going to be damned,' but we say 'do it because God is giving you this truth so that life can be more rewarding and more fulfilling every minute of every day. Instead of [just] proving it, I think we need to show the beauty of it,'" Coffin said.
Following a request for a laptop, three were offered on the spot, meaning that the church's communication director in Mozambique will no longer have to walk 15 minutes to use a local Internet café to communicate with the world church's headquarters. An additional US$750 was raised to fund Internet evangelism efforts, and ways to funnel donations of used equipment from North America and elsewhere to the rest of the world church were discussed.
According to John Banks, associate communication director for the world church and chief coordinator of the GIEN meeting, upcoming events will continue to expand the developing online options for the church and address world regional needs. "We will continue to meet internationally and avail regions of the church to address their contextualized needs. We will be finalizing a recommendation to meet in Europe in 2007."
Several delegates to the event expressed satisfaction with the presentations and activities.
"Yes, the San Diego [event] was the best of the three forums that I attended. The topics were more informative and beneficial to the field. The [program] is getting focused," said Jonathan Catolico, church communication director for the Southern Asia-Pacific region.
Pastor Steven Bina, communication director in the East-Central Africa region, wants to see an Internet forum on his continent. "The knowledge I have gained and acquired in this GIEN workshop has given me the urge and impetus to stage the same in my area of work. I intend to organize one of two local orientation forums coming next year 2007 in two major cities for the purpose of creating awareness. I will only urge and plead with the organizers [of the] world GIEN to re-think seriously on taking the forum conferences to other places where they may feel are not ready for this kind of ministry, yet they are ready."
The proceedings of the 2006 Global Internet Evangelism Network Forum were recorded in audio and video formats; the presentations, and many supporting slide presentations, are available online at http://gien.adventist.org/forum2006/index.html
