Adventist Lay Leaders Charged to Reach Across Cultural Divides

Biechoi Xie who lives in Bonaire in the Dutch Caribbean region shares the challenges and plans of reaching chinese communities where she lives during Inter-America’s Festival of Cross Cultural Missions held in Port of Spain in Trinidad.  Photo by Curtis Henry/IAD

August 16, 2018 | Port of Spain, Trinidad | Royston Philbert/IAD Staff

Inter-America’s first Festival of Cross-Cultural Mission Conference challenged more than 600 Seventh-day Adventist lay preachers, church planters and pastors to step out of their comfort zones and embrace the cross-cultural mission to all people groups.

“You came from different corners and countries of the Caribbean and beyond to be enriched by the experience of so many, on how you can better share the good news,” said Pastor Elie Henry, president of the church in Inter-America as he addressed the congregation last weekend. The four-day training event took place at the Southern Caribbean University in Port of Spain, Trinidad, Aug. 8-11, 2018.

IAD President Pastor Elie Henry addresses the delegation during the Sabbath morning service Aug. 11, 2018. Cesar Hernandez of Central Mexico translates his message. Photo by Curtis Henry/IAD

“This good news does not exist to be amassed, or consumed at home, but needs to be shared, thrown to the wind of humanity and spread like a wave of love and mercy,” Pastor Henry continued. “You must jump over walls to embrace the mission that God has given.”

It’s about being able to do extraordinary things for God amid the challenges facing multi-cultural groups spread throughout the vast territory of the Inter-American Division (IAD), said Pastor Henry.

The Cross-Cultural Mission Conference, themed “Celebrating the Past: Reaching All the Peoples for Christ,” provided a forum for IAD front-line missionaries and volunteers to share creative ideas, encourage each other, and identify resources for achieving the common goal of reaching all the people in the territory.

Over the years, evangelism in the IAD territory has been restricted to working among those of similar ethnicity, said Pastor Samuel Telemaque, director of the Office Adventist Mission for the church in Inter-America and main organizer of the event. “The reality is that people from different cultures, ethnicities and languages are now living in close proximity to each other and church members need cross-cultural competencies to appropriately share Christ with their neighbors from different cultures.”

Pastor Samuel Telemaque, director of the Office of Adventist Mission in Inter-America addresses the Festival delegation. Jamal Franklyn translates Pastor Telemaque on stage. Photo by Curtis Henry/IAD

It’s a paradigm shift that needs to take place, according to Telemaque. “God created diversity and the diversity is reflected in the different cultures.”

The church in Inter-America is moving to focus on real evangelism, said Telemaque, who holds a doctoral in missiology in intercultural studies. “This is the opportunity for talking together and thinking together with all those who are involved in mission work across cultural lines in the division.” Now is the time for “it is something it should have happened a long time ago,” he added.

Dr. Jony Hajaj, director of Muslim Relations for Adventist Frontier Mission (AFM) explained that the church is now facing its greatest challenge with the spread of Islam around the world. “The church needs to be aware but must also see Muslims as people to be reached for Jesus,” said Hajaj.

Dr. Hajaj urged delegates to welcome the stranger with unbounded generosity and “to see our neighbor as any person who needs us, so the world will know that the Church hasn’t forgotten people and, in turn, that God has not turned His back on them.”

Delegates from Guyana march before they report evangelism impact in their communities. Photo by Curtis Henry/IAD

The conference was timed to coincide with the Festival of the Laity hosted by the Caribbean Union Conference for more than 500 of its lay preachers. The festival, held every five years, seeks to inspire and celebrate the work of the laity involved in evangelism across the English Caribbean countries and islands.

More than 20 speakers and evangelism experts from the Adventist World Church, Andrews University, North American Division and Inter-American Division, gave presentations and seminars on cross-cultural missions, methods for sharing Christ with Muslims, how to plant churches in cities and rural communities, how to advocate and innovate change in different cultures, how to fund and operate centers of influence, how to integrate social science with mission, and how to design relevant ministries for urban dwellers, among others.

“We believe that it could be disastrous for us as a church to remain silent in not reaching the peoples of our region,” said Pastor Kern Tobias, president of the church in the Caribbean Union. “It’s about keeping before us the principles and purpose for mission fulfillment.” If the church is not careful, said Tobias, it could lose its mission “so targeting all the people in all our communities is important to the fulfillment of the mission.”

Pastor Kern Tobias, president of the church in the Caribbean Union. Photo by Curtis Henry/IAd

For Biechoi Xie, a delegate from the Dutch Caribbean Union, the festival was another opportunity to gain more knowledge about reaching her people. She is the only Seventh-day Adventist in her family and the only individual from a Chinese ethnic group in her local church in Bonaire.

“I am overjoyed because coming here has made me realize that we have lots of work to do,” said Xie. “I am going home to teach my friends how to speak Chinese so, together, we can reach all the peoples for Christ.” She does not want to make mistakes or be culturally arrogant. “Sometimes I literally don’t know how to proceed and feel so inept but I like being pushed to see God and my fellow humans differently, to have a bigger sense of what humanity made in God’s image can be.”

Biechoi reflected on the many opportunities she missed to tell about Jesus. She particularly identified with Dr. Hajaj’s presentation on The Bible and the Koran: Points of Convergence and Divergence. “I was given know-how to explore how I could relate to this growing group around my territory,” Biechoi said.

Delegates from the North Caribbean Conference report evangelism impact on stage during the festival. Photo by Curtis Henry/IAD

The words of Dr. Jeffrey Browne, associate ministerial secretary of the Adventist World Church, also hit close to home for Biechoi.

“Home is where God has placed us to minister for Him,” said Browne. “We cannot keep singing the wrong song, we cannot keep looking at cultures, values and our world views believing that our way is the right way.”

It was all about creating a major shift in the thinking of all the delegates, said Pastor Telemaque of the historic conference. “The diversity of ethnicity, languages, cultures, and nationalities challenged old assumptions and created new worldview of God’s mission. We modeled the change we wanted to see.”

Lay leaders attend one of two dozen seminars held during the event. Photo By Curtis Henry/IAD

Lay delegates and church leaders were challenged to engage in a form of cross cultural mission as well as train others in a six-month, one-year, or two-year impact in their respective regions.

The results should enable leaders to pioneer planting 300 new churches throughout the Inter-American Division in 2019, Telemaque said.

To view a photo gallery of Inter-America’s Festival of Cross-Cultural Missions Conference, Click HERE