May. 17, 2012 São Paulo, Brazil

Mark Kellner/Adventist Review

Concluding a spring meeting for the South American Division, Seventh-day Adventist world church President Ted N. C. Wilson put his foot down, literally.

First, however, the sole of Wilson's foot was dabbed with rubber-stamp pad ink. Then, joined by division and union leaders here, each similarly "inked," he stepped down on a map of South America. Each leader repeated the process.

This visual demonstration had a scriptural basis, declared SAD President Erton Köhler: Just as God promised to Joshua and the children of Israel the land wherever Moses' successor trod (Joshua 1:3), Adventists were claiming the division for Jesus. Each of the 17 unions had its own map, all bearing the footprint of a leader.

Backing up the dramatic display was an even more dramatic commitment: the South American Division expects to raise US$50 million to fund outreach in dozens of locations in 2013. Buenos Aires, the heart of a 13-million population metropolitan area, will be the chief priority, but every other union has identified a big city as an outreach target.

The Argentinian capital is of special interest, for the city is one where only 9.1 percent of the population consider themselves "evangelicals," while 18 percent aren't interested in any religion at all. Ten challenges have been outlined by the Argentine Union, including the establishment of a clinic, a vegetarian restaurant, Adventist schools and churches in the federal capital, or central city. "Mission Caleb," a youth outreach program, hopes to enlist 3,000 young people, and the church plans to distribute 300,000 DVDs titled "The Last Hope."

These efforts, along with outreach to former Adventists, a special project at Radio Novo Tempo (New Times), and 167 small evangelism campaigns, culminating in a satellite series by Pastor Luís Gonçalves in September 2013, are expected to lead at least 3,000 people to baptism in the city, along with the establishment of four new congregations.

Similar goals are planned for many other cities, including Porto Alegre, Rio de Janeiro and Manaus in Brazil; Asunción in Paraguay; Cochabamba and La Paz in Bolivia; Santiago and Valparaiso in Chile; Montevideo, Uruguay; Quito and Guyaquil in Ecuador; and Lima and Trujillo in Peru, among others.

In an impassioned message to division leaders, Wilson recalled Jesus looking out over Jerusalem and weeping – not for the buildings, but for its people.

Wilson asked, "Are you weeping for the cities of the South American Division? [Jesus] wasn't weeping for the city itself, He was weeping for the people of the city. Because you see, the city is made up of thousands and thousands of people."

During a day of stirring reports about evangelistic outreach and literature distribution – South American church members placed 25 million copies of "The Great Hope" in the hands of residents in nine countries on March 24 – Wilson recalled his own effort that day in São Paulo, and said he’s advertising the success in many places.

"Let me tell you, the world is amazed at what South America has done," Wilson declared.

He added, "But these big cities, many of them have no idea about Jesus. So the General Conference and the world divisions have focused on mission to the cities, bringing hope to the cities. The hope of Jesus' soon coming."

At the same time, Wilson said, evangelism must be grounded in our own personal connection to the One we're seeking to introduce to others.

"All of these plans, slogans and visuals ... will mean nothing if you and I do not know personally that person [Jesus], the One who saved us. The One who will come to take us home. The main reason we do this for all of the cities of the world is to introduce them to Him."

Apr. 26, 2012 Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Bettina Krause

Seventh-day Adventist world church President Ted N. C. Wilson today challenged believers to grasp the opportunities for open discourse that a secular state preserves.

His comments came during a keynote address to the 7th World Congress for Religious Freedom. The gathering has drawn hundreds of religious liberty advocates, government officials, scholars and legal experts to the Dominican Republic this week to examine the influence of secularism on religious expression.

Although acknowledging the inevitable conflict between the values of believers and that of secular culture, Wilson said, “We have to accept this tension as part of a free society. We have to accept the challenges and find appropriate responses, through God’s leading.”

Wilson drew a distinction between “radical” or “extreme” secularism—which seeks to exclude religion from the public sphere—and “secular governance,” which remains neutral toward religions and protects the religious freedom rights of minorities.

“If intolerant and ideological secularism attacks our religious values, we have to stand up for them with conviction,” he said.  Wilson cited examples of where secularism has been taken too far, including attempts to prohibit Muslim girls from wearing headscarves to public school, or to mandate the provision of abortions by institutions that reject the practice as a matter of conscience.

“It’s taken too far when the mention of creation of the world is totally forbidden in the public schools or when Christian agencies for adoption of children are threatened to lose their legal recognition, if they refuse to list as potential parents same sex couples,” he said.

However, Wilson also said that people of faith should reject the temptation to see a “religious state” as an acceptable alternative to secular governance. “If the state gives one religion a privileged legal position, no equality is possible and life becomes a nightmare for those who are different,” he said.

“Which type of society is it that condemns to death someone for apostasy because they have changed religions?” he asked. “Is that a secularized or religious society?”

Wilson said that Adventism’s strong heritage of religious freedom activism and its support for state neutrality between religions has firm biblical foundations, and that Adventists “feel very close to believers who have stood for religious freedom during thousands of years of restrictions and persecution.”

He said his life-long passion for promoting religious liberty has its roots in memories of his father, Neal Wilson—a former world church leader—who often spent hours with government officials explaining the value of freedom of conscience.

“We need to instill in young people the love for preserving religious liberty and freedom of conscience,” said Wilson. “Let us encourage them to join in this vitally important pursuit of freedom of conscience for all.”

Apr. 24, 2012 Punta Cana, Dominican Republic

Mark Kellner/Adventist Review

Addressing nearly 900 delegates and guests at the Seventh World Congress of the International Religious Liberty Association, Denton Lotz, a noted Baptist minister and IRLA president, summarized the purpose of this three-day event: "We're here today because we believe that freedom of religion is basic to all human rights."

That view, sadly, is not shared in many parts of the world, something Lotz said made holding the sessions even more important.

"It's incumbent upon us to work together that we live together in harmony and concord," Lotz said to an audience of leaders from Christian, Muslim, Jewish and other communities. "We don't need religious wars."

That violence against believers remains a problem was evident from a session-opening video presentation noting the death sentences pronounced – but not yet carried out – on Christians in Pakistan and Iran on charges of "blasphemy," and the assassinations of Pakistani officials Salman Tasser, governor of Punjab province and minorities minister, Shahbaz Bhatti. Also cited was the extreme religious repression found in North Korea.

While the main congress theme, "Secularism and Religious Freedom – Conflict or Partnership" may seem far removed from lands where persecution is active, Lotz took a different view.

"Most people worldwide suffer from a lack of religious freedom. Seventy percent of the world lives in places of religious repression," he said.

Speaking to an audience that included Seventh-day Adventists, Mennonites, Roman Catholics, Baptists, Mormons and Scientologists, among others, IRLA secretary-general John Graz noted the world congress is a multifaceted event.

"This congress is about religious freedom, but it is not a religious event," Graz said. "We are all here together. We represent different faiths, different religions and different churches. We are different, but we are respectful of each other."

With the theme of "Secularism and Religious Freedom -- Conflict or Partnership," speakers and delegates will attempt to negotiate the challenges of a world which is increasingly hostile to a variety of religious expression in the public square. While standing for separation of church and state, IRLA leader Lotz issued a call for religion to avoid following a secular society's lead.

"When religion becomes secular, I believe it is the greatest challenge to religious freedom, allowing secularism to define what a religion believes," Lotz told delegates. "When we allow the secularization of our faith to transcend the transcendent, it loses its meaning," he added.

According to Lotz, "Religion will die when it no longer focuses on God, but only on autonomous man. Religion will thrive when it focuses on God."

In a statement read to delegates, the country's president, Leonel Fernandez Reyna, offered "a most cordial welcome to the Dominican Republic, a land of freedom. The Dominican Republic is a place of freedom for Christians, Muslims, Jews and people of other faiths."

Apr. 10, 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States

Bettina Krause/ANN

Organizers of this month’s 7th World Congress for Religious Freedom say they’re focused on helping religious liberty advocates stay ahead of the curve in recognizing new threats to religious freedom and responding effectively.

The three-day conference, set to begin April 24 in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic, is expected to draw more than 800 government officials, legal experts and religious liberty advocates from 60 countries to explore the impact of “radical secularism” and other forces that are thought to erode religious freedom protection around the world.

The event comes as research shows that global restrictions on religious freedom are on the rise. A Pew Research Center study last year reported that religious freedom restrictions increased for about a third of the world’s population during the last decade. The limits were mainly due to government restrictions occurring in a few, but populous, countries.

The congress will focus on the theme “Secularism and Religious Freedom—Conflict or Partnership?” which highlights an area of increasing concern.

“For many people of faith, the word ‘secularism’ carries a host of negative connotations,” said John Graz, Secretary General of the International Religious Liberty Association, which is sponsoring the event. “They may see it as a force that’s hostile toward religion. But religious freedom has historically flourished under a secular government that doesn’t play ‘religious favorites.’”

Other issues to be addressed at the Congress include the political and religious fallout from the Arab Spring revolutions, and well as continuing fears around the world of religious extremism and religiously motivated violence.

According to Graz, another emerging threat to religious minorities is so-called “radical secularism,” which casts religion as just another “special interest group” in society, and seeks to limit religious expression on the grounds of “protecting secularism.” He cites the 2011 “burqa ban” for Muslim women in France as an example of this trend.

Among those attending the 7th World Congress are government officials and legal experts from the United States, the Caribbean and South and Central America, Europe, Russia and the Middle East, along with scholars and human rights activists from around the world.

The International Religious Liberty Association was chartered by Seventh-day Adventist leaders in 1893 and is dedicated to defending and promoting freedom of religion for people of all faiths. The IRLA has non-governmental organization consultative status at the United Nations, and affiliates and partner associations in 80 countries, and is the world’s oldest association for defending religious freedom.

Daily news and video from the congress will be available at www.irla.org.

Apr. 05, 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States

Adventist Review staff

Ted N. C. Wilson, president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, and other church leaders, are in the middle of a 10-day official visit to China, seeking to strengthen ties between the global Adventist family and an estimated 400,000 Adventists in the People’s Republic.

“We have visited wonderful, faithful, dynamic and courageous Seventh-day Adventist church members,” Wilson wrote in an April 4 email to Adventist Review editors. “We have seen lovely churches that we own, heard wonderful choirs, seen enthusiastic young people in churches and the results of earnest mission activities on the part of church members. We have seen some of the large, modern cities of this vast country as well as the strong infrastructure and natural beauty – and, of course, the thousands upon thousands of people just about wherever you turn.”

Joining Wilson are G. T. Ng and Robert Lemon, Adventist world church secretary and treasurer, respectively, along with Jairyong Lee, president of the denomination’s Northern Asia-Pacific Division, David Kok Hoe Ng, Chinese Union president, and Eugene Hsu, a retired general vice president of the world church. Williams Costa Jr., Adventist Church Communication department director and Andre Brink, an associate Communication director of the world church, as well as regional Communication director Suk Hee Han, are part of the delegation.

One of the stops on the itinerary is the city of Wenzhou, in southern China. The city has 9 million inhabitants and 1 million Christians. With such a high density of Christians, it is sometimes called "the Jerusalem of China.”

"In the Wenzhou area there are 40,000 Sabbath keepers that expect the second coming of Jesus,” Hsu said. “They are approximately 10 percent of China's Seventh-day Adventist membership and the second largest Christian group in the region," he added.

China has more than 1.3 billion people and a growing Christian community. Adventists, in many cases, worship in the same church buildings used by other Protestants. Nevertheless, Chinese Adventists keep the Sabbath and embrace the same core biblical beliefs held by members around the world.

"It is touching to see how God's love unites us as a world family and how the Holy Spirit works even without a formal Church structure and external assistance in this country," said Ng.

On March 31, Wilson preached in the Shanghai Mu'en Church and met with more than 1,500 members. In the afternoon the delegation went to the city of Wuxi, two hours drive from Shanghai, and found an enthusiastic group of Adventist believers in the Wuxi Xi'an Church greeted the leadership team with a service of music and prayer.

On the evening of April 1, a special program was presented at the Jingshi Seventh-day Adventist Church in the city of Wenzhou. At each stop, Wilson offered words of encouragement to Adventist believers.

—with information from Williams Costa Jr. in China

source: Adventist News Network

At last week's meeting, the executive committee of the Southern Union Conference of Seventh-day Adventists voted to support the General Conference and the world church's decisions on the role of women in the church. They voted to be "in harmony with the Seventh-day Adventist World Church as expressed by actions taken during the General Conference in business session." At Indianapolis in 1990, the General Conference in session voted to not ordain women pastors. In 1995 at the Utrecht session, the world church delegates voted to not allow divisions to independantly decide the matter. The Seventh-day Adventist Church does not ordain women pastors.

Mar. 26, 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States

Mark Kellner, Adventist Review

Before the start of a massive March 24 evangelistic outreach in São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, Pastor Ted N.C. Wilson, General Conference president, had encouraging words: “Everyone can be part of God’s remnant church.”

Speaking to a congregation of 2,000 at the São Paulo Adventist University Center (UNASP) Church – with another 5,000 to 6,000 viewing a broadcast at other locations -- Wilson said he planned to join thousands of church members that day in distributing what turned out to be 4 million copies of The Great Hope, an outreach book based on The Great Controversy by Ellen G. White, a pioneering co-founder of the Seventh-day Adventist movement. A total of 25 million books are to be distributed throughout the South American Division in one day, he noted.

Adventist world church President Ted Wilson poses with a group of volunteers holding copies of The Great Hope, a sharing book based on church co-founder Ellen G. White's classic, The Great Controversy. Wilson led a March 24 distribution of 4 million copies of the book in São Paulo. [photos: Arumí Figueiredo]

Officials in the South American Division emphasized that the March 24 effort is not an isolated venture. The following Sabbath, March 31, will be a “friendship day” in which neighbors are invited to participate in an Adventist worship service and lunch with Adventist families. The goal of the “Impact Hope” campaign is to inspire Seventh-day Adventists in the South American Division to live a lifestyle of personal evangelism.

For his part, Wilson lauded the division’s massive one-day literature outreach, and said other world church divisions could benefit from similar programs.

“The beauty of all of this is that it motivated the entire church on every socio-economic level to participate in distributing the book to loved ones, friends, neighbors, and others,” Wilson wrote later in an e-mail message to Adventist Review. “It got the church out into the community to meet the people and the Holy Spirit blessed the efforts enormously. … It has shown that a single event approach, along with every other personal outreach activity and local church outreach, can be a huge rallying point to galvanize God's people for witnessing and missionary work. Divisions and unions around the world need to use this approach to bring church members together in something that is far bigger and grander than anything we could do individually.”

Along with a burgeoning Adventist medical missionary outreach in the region, Wilson said literature distribution is a key means by which mega-cities such as São Paulo, with a municipal population of 11.3 million (and an additional 8 million in the surrounding metropolitan area) are to be reached. The city will also be one of 12 host cities when Brazil welcomes the 2014 FIFA World Cup soccer championships.

“The world church has committed itself to distribute 175 million copies of The Great Hope and the larger version [The Great Controversy] this year and next year,” Wilson told the congregation. “Can you imagine how many new Seventh-day Adventist believers we will have because of this? And we give God all the glory.”

Wilson added, “God uses His Word to change people’s lives. He uses books like this [The Great Hope] to change peoples’ lives.”

That change was evident in the life and testimony of Sheyla Guimarães, a homemaker from the city of Mineiros do Tietê, about 140 miles (225 km) from the city. Her heartfelt video testimony was played during the worship service, and described the story of a spiritual seeker who was dissatisfied. In October 2011, Sheyla’s daughter found a copy of The Great Hope in the family’s mailbox. She “devoured” the book, and said she found answers that were not provided in other churches. Today, she’s a Seventh-day Adventist.

An Adventist volunteer tosses a copy of The Great Hope to a resident of Brazil's largest city.

Guimarães and her daughter came to the platform and were greeted by Wilson and other church leaders. She told Wilson and the congregation how happy she was to be a part of the family of God.

During his sermon, Wilson emphasized the role of the Seventh-day Adventist movement as “a unique people with a unique message.” He explained that because of the gift of the Spirit of Prophecy, which Adventists believe was manifested by Ellen G. White during her 70-year ministry, the church has a special responsibility.

“We are told the greatest wealth of truth ever entrusted to mortals has been given to [the remnant] to give to the world,” Wilson said. “When we understand that by grace we are saved, when we understand the completeness of salvation as explained by the sanctuary service, then we begin to understand that Jesus is our creator, isour redeemer, is our example, is our high priest and is our coming King. In Jesus we have everything we need to be saved. What a message it is to share with people today!”

Before joining the thousands at the UNASP church in going out to share The Great Hope, Wilson said he’d been told that São Paulo had the greatest population density of Seventh-day Adventists in Brazil.

“By God’s grace, São Paulo will become even more populated with Seventh-day Adventists” as a result of the March 24 outreach, Wilson said. “Let us go into every corner of São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Brasília, Belém, Fortaleza, Manaus – and throughout every country of South America. Bring the wonderful news: Jesus is coming again!”

Following the worship, Wilson and other church leaders visited Jd. Colombo, one of the slum neighborhoods in São Paulo’s Paraisópolis, or “Paradise” district to share that “great hope” with residents.

The day concluded in São Paulo with a rally of more than 60,000 Adventists celebrating the outreach effort. Combined youth choirs and a full orchestra, Wilson reported, led “a program organized of thanksgiving to God and, of course, thanks to the great efforts of so many people who dedicated themselves to this great missionary task.”

--With reporting by Márcio Basso and Felipe Lemos, South American Division

Adventist Church president supports community, spiritual development during Africa tour

Mar. 20, 2012 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States

ANN staff, with reporting by Steve Bina, Paul Charles, Corrado Cozzi, Etiwel Mutero and Edward Onyango

Seventh-day Adventists are committed to supporting community development in southern and central Africa, world church President Ted N. C. Wilson said during a recent tour spanning several of the region’s countries and numerous church building projects.

Adventist Church President Ted Wilson lays a name plaque for a proposed 14-story multipurpose building expected to house new headquarters for the church in Ethiopia. The expansion of church infrastructure in the region reflects membership growth and a commitment to community development, local leaders said. [photos courtesy East Central Africa Division]


While in Africa, Wilson met with local church officials and members in Burundi, Ethiopia, Zimbabwe and Zambia. He urged local membership to unite with their world church family in embracing the church’s Revival and Reformation initiative.

Afterward, the world church leader flew to France, where he spoke for worship service at the Adventist Church on the campus of Adventiste du Saleve.

Rebuilding infrastructure

In Burundi, Wilson visited the future site of an Adventist hospital planned for the country’s capital city, Bujumbura. Later, in a meeting with President Pierre Nkurunziza, the national leader urged the Adventist Church to hasten construction, explaining that the country has a great need for hospitals and clinics.



President Nkurunziza also paid tribute to the church’s contributions to education, poverty alleviation and other development projects in the country, which continues to recover and rebuild infrastructure following decades of political unrest.

Wilson told President Nkurunziza that the church is keen to support the country’s physical, mental and spiritual development. He also thanked the government of Burundi for protecting religious liberty and allowing Adventists to complete their national community service on Sunday instead of Saturday.

Burundi President Pierre Nkurunziza's chief of staff welcomes Wilson and an Adventist Church delegation to the president's office.

Wilson called the leader of the largely Christian nation a “man of God” and offered a brief devotional and prayer for Nkurunziza, commending his efforts toward achieving peace and reconciliation in Burundi.

A call for unity

Later, in Ethiopia, Wilson laid the foundation stone for a 14-story multipurpose building expected to house new headquarters for the Adventist Church in the country. The church in the region is adhering to new building codes, said Alemu Haile, president of he church in Ethiopia.

Flanked by government officials from the country’s capital city, Addis Ababa, Wilson and East Central Africa Division President Blasious Ruguri donned safety helmets to lay a name plaque for the forthcoming building.

At a later meeting with local church leaders and members, Wilson encouraged unity among membership, urging Adventists not to let race or ethnicity wedge between them or hamper the work of the church.

Sharing the Adventist hope

In Zimbabwe, tens of thousands of people came out to hear Wilson—36,000 at a stadium in Harare and 20,000 more in Bulawayo. He urged the crowd gathered at Barbourfields Stadium to join in the world church’s project to distribute church co-founder Ellen G. White’s touchstone book The Great Controversy. Local members can help by donating toward the purchase of books and sharing copies with their friends, family and neighbors, he said.

Later, Wilson addressed a graduating class of hundreds of students at the church’s Solusi University, also in Bulawayo.

Growth and development

In neighboring Zambia, Wilson visited the site of the proposed new Zambia Union Conference office facilities near Ndola. The new headquarters will accommodate burgeoning church growth in the country, church officials there said. In 2007, the North Zambia Field was divided into two new church territories with a combined membership of nearly 120,000. Zambia is the fastest growing region in the church’s South Africa-Indian Ocean Division.

Wilson toured numerous church building projects during his recent visit to southern and central Africa. Here, the world church leader inspects a worship structure under construction in Bujumbura, Burundi.



The church’s education system is also flourishing in the region. Zambia’s minister of education praised the church’s education system at a plaque unveiling ceremony to mark the opening of a new administrative building for Rusangu University. He added that education is the only means to overcome poverty and ignorance.

In comments to Adventist leaders and church members in Zambia, Wilson underscored the importance of Scripture. “Seventh-day Adventists must hold fast to the Bible as our foundation for belief and practice in this world,” he said. “The Reformation did not end with Luther. It must continue with us.”

Changing opinions

The final leg of Wilson’s official tour took him to France, where Euro-Africa Division President Bruno Vertallier and Franco-Belgian Union President Jean-Claude Nocandy welcome the world church leader and offered insights into the life, activities and strategies of the church in the region.

Wilson and his wife, Nancy, worship with French and Swiss Adventists on the campus of Adventiste du Saleve in Collonges-sous-Salève, France. [photo: Jean-Paul Barquon]


 
During a question-and-answer period, local church leaders asked Wilson about his focus on Revival and Reformation, the church’s relationship with other faith groups and how to handle lay initiatives. Observers say the exchange was open, fair, relaxed and, at times, even humorous.

Wilson, who previously served in the French-speaking Western African country of Cote d’Ivoire, is fluent in the language. Local church leaders say the shared language helped create a deep connection with French and Swiss Adventists.

“It was very helpful for me to meet President Wilson personally,” one local church leader said. “I have heard many rumors about him since [General Conference Session in] Atlanta, but … I find he is a very approachable person, humble, with plenty of administrative experience, wise and a real leader. And I have realized he is authentic.”

During March 17 Sabbath worship services, many French and Swiss Adventists were able to meet Wilson and listen as he preached on the campus of Adventiste du Saleve in Collonges-sous-Salève, France. He urged members there to humble themselves before God so that He can make them witnesses across Europe.