TED Responds to New Opportunities

29 November 2010 St Albans, England [Miroslav Pujic, tedNEWS]

One hundred and nine delegates from thirteen Unions and three attached Fields, which constitute the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European region (TED), met from 14 - 17 November in Becici, Montenegro. The year-end executive committee meetings of the division took place under the theme “Boundless Grace.”

Dr Bertil Wiklander, President of the Trans-European Division, says, “Our meeting was carefully planned to underline the mission of the church. Much time was given to the new strategic plan which focused on growth in Nurture (Reaching-up), Evangelism (reaching-out) and Community (Reaching-across). The spiritual tone of the meetings, with prayer that flowed through the business sessions, beautiful music, excellent devotionals, and a wonderful group of committed Adventists made this meeting a delight to chair for me personally.”
General Vice President of the World Church, Pastor Pardon Mwansa and Pastor G. Alexander Bryant, North-American Division Executive Secretary, attended the meetings as representatives from the Adventist World Church Headquarters, and to provide counsel.

In his keynote address Dr Wiklander emphasised that the task of the Division is to facilitate, inspire, and give direction to the Church. “In these meetings we focused on planning how local churches can be active communities that are being nurtured by God, that are filled with commitment to God’s mission to the world, and that grow together as a faith community", said Dr Wiklander. He continued, “the expression ‘revival and reformation ‘comes from Ellen G. White, where she underlines that it is the Holy Spirit that drives both elements together; both the revival of our spiritual lives and the resulting changes in behaviour and priorities. Since this is something that God does, our work is to be focused on Him, being open to Him, knowing Him more deeply, growing in Him, and making Him known wherever we are. Ellen G. White says that ‘this is our first work’. In order to accomplish this work, we need to discover the biblical theme of God’s faithfulness to his creation. The Creator’s faithfulness to his creation drives his mission to destroy evil and restore the world to what he originally created it to be (Revelation 21:1-5)”, concluded Dr Wiklander.

During four intensive days, the Committee listened to reports and the plans from administration and departmental directors, discussed numerous policy changes, processed various items of business, and discussed current and future major initiatives such as KID's in Discipleship, Relay (Youth Institute for Evangelism), LIFEconnect (Internet Ministry), and Al Waad (Media Ministries in the Middle East).
Furthermore, it approved the 2011 division budget as well as the European Pastors Council to take place in Slovenia 21-26 August 2012.

Having informed the committee of the 15% membership growth during the last quinquennium, Audrey Andersson, Executive Secretary said: “During this quinquennium Secretariat’s key focus is 'Mission with Maintenance'; finding ways to retain members and train them for mission will lead to greater growth in the next quinquennium.

Johann E. Johannsson, Treasurer, reported about the financial situation and the plans for the next year saying that "on average the Division's regular operations have been relatively stable during the year despite fears to the contrary. I am, however, concerned about the developments during the next year, as many of the governments of countries in our Division are planning drastic cuts in their budgets as well as tax increases which may affect the members of our Church and ultimately the income of our unions and fields. We therefore want to move cautiously into the future. The Division has a balanced budget for 2011, but we continue to have challenges in the operations of Newbold College. We need to find ways to balance the College's budgets. In part, we hope to resolve this through additional income from increased enrolment, but drastic cuts will also need to be made in the operational expenses of the College. This process has already started. I want to thank all our faithful church members around the Division for their support, faithfulness in returning Tithe and Offerings and for their prayers for the work within our territory and in the mission fields. God has led us in the past and he will lead our Church as we move into a new year with its opportunities and challenges."

Recognising the need to mobilise all members for ministry and outreach the executive committee voted an action on ‘Leadership and the Ordination of Women.’ The action requested the General Conference to: prioritise the study of the theology of ordination, review policies to make them gender neutral ensuring that all leadership pathways are open to male and female and to grant a variance to the model constitution and bylaws within the TED to accommodate this. Additionally they requested permission to ordain women within the TED territory. By opening these doors for women the committee believes that it would strengthen the growth of the church in Europe.

The Executive Committee also voted new assignments: Dr Miroslav Pujic has been asked to be director for Publishing, Ministry to Postmoderns and Worship & Music Ministries; Clair Sanches-Schutte and John Sanches, director and associate for Family Ministries; Dr Paul Tompkins, Ministries to Adventist Youth on Secular Campuses (AMiCUS); Clair Sanches-Schutte, Ministry to Clergy Families; Audrey Andersson, Office Personnel Manager.

Reports from individual Unions and Fields indicated the full commitment of the leaders, in mission outreach and evangelism. At the same time all of them recognised the challenges faced in Europe and the Middle East: postmodernism, secularism, materialism, traditionalism and a resistance to Christian beliefs. Each report pointed out the special role of the church, namely that the church is more than a social club, more than a group of men and women with common interests. Rather, it represents God’s activity in the world and man’s response to that activity with thanks and willing obedience.

In his final remarks Dr Wiklander said, “As we focus on God, we become a deeply spiritual community, revived by the Holy Spirit, who leads us to change our priorities, improving the quality of our work, and leading many to Christ—this is how I envisage the Seventh-day Adventist Church, being a prophetic church at the end of time and being charged with vision and energy in spreading the gospel to the world, knowing that, as his church, we are God’s repository on earth of the riches of the grace of Christ. Revival and reformation means to become what God intended us to be. It means change; spiritual change, with an enormous impact on our lives and the world in which we live.”

The Trans-European Division Executive Committee is made up of church administrators, departmental directors, pastors and lay people representing each of the thirteen Unions and three Fields of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 40 countries in Europe and the Middle East, including Egypt, Sudan and Pakistan. [tedNEWS]

If you would like to see more photographs from the TED executive meetings, please click here.

tedNEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
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