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“Higher than the highest human thought…”

The EUD annual Mid-year Meeting organised under the auspices of the Education.

“Higher than the highest human thought…”

(credit: Corrado Cozzi)

Friedensau, Germany.C. Cozzi, CD-EUDNews.

The annual Mid-year Meeting of the Inter-European Region of the Seventh-day Adventists (EUD) was held in Freudenstadt, Germany, from May 27 to 29, 2018. In attendance were 40 participants, among whom local Union of Churches presidents, administrators, department directors and Institutions directors.

The purpose of the meeting was to share the main issues of the administrative work of the Division, and to debate and promote items related with the mission of the church.

The agenda aimed to inform, amend, vote on, and recommend the church mission-related items, while maintaining the possibility to develop and increase one of the major topics endorsed by the Adventist church.

This year, the topic was Education, which is particularly important because it is an integral part of the strategic framework of the church.

The special guest was Dr. Lisa Beardsley-Hardy, Education Department Director at the Adventist General Conference, located in Silver Spring, MD, USA.

In her speech, Dr. Beardsley-Hardy gave an overview of the education panorama around the world. The church has been inspired, since the beginning of its existence, to care for this aspect of life that obviously pushes progress of our society. The church’s intent is to contribute to the society by organizing more than 8208 schools around the world, for a total of 1,922,982 students.

The studies presented by Dr. Beardsley-Hardy aimed to show that youth attending Adventist schools are less inclined to leave the church.

This study takes into account a geographical context where it is normal to manage the complex organization of an academic institution, as in the USA. In Europe, the context is different, with more Adventist students attending secular schools.

In the debate that held place after the presentation, this topic was presented as the focus, with some interesting proposals.

“In our European context, it is not so easy to open an Adventist school,” remarked Elsa Cozzi, EUD Children’s Ministry Director, “thus, for this reason, our goal as a church should be to open our church in the afternoon and offer an after-school support, that includes our lifestyle-oriented principles and values.”

Other interventions were oriented to underline the Education Department’s important task of considering this domain not only within the school setting, but more broadly within all disciplines that allow the members to improve their knowledge in all domains of the Church.

Now, it has to be said that to belong to the Church creates not only a sense of belonging, but the acquisition of a lifestyle that can be for a personal and societal benefit. 


Opening session 

The EUD President, Mario Brito, opened the work session with a message based on two visions of the prophet Zechariah, as presented in chapters 3 and 4 of his book. Like Joshua, the high priest, and Zerubbabel, the governor, we need to be cleansed and anointed by the Holy Spirit in order to be successful leaders in the cause of God. 

The President urged the participants, who were mainly church leaders, to pay attention to the growing polarization fostered by extreme theological positions that prompt each person in opposite directions, away from a balanced approach to life and its actual challenges, inside and outside of the church.  “We should be channels of life that feed people with the helpful instructions given by God to prepare the world for His upcoming kingdom, which is already a reality in the hearts of many people and will reach its glorious fullness when Jesus comes again to reign as sovereign Lord,” affirmed Brito. 

In his opening message, Pastor Brito mentioned that during this Mid-Year Meeting, there would be a special emphasis on Education. True education is, essentially, redemption in its best – to cooperate with God in restoring His image in humankind.

He also took the opportunity to extend an invitation to build a more solid unity in the church, despite the divisions ‘imposed’ by the cultural diversities we encounter in our European context.

Treasury

EUD treasurer, Norbert Zens, reported that, thanks to the faithfulness of church members in 2017, tithe has increased by more than two percent in 2017. At the same time, we have to recognize that in some of our Unions, the financial situation is challenging due to significant decreases in tithe since the financial crisis started in 2008. Still, we are very thankful to our heavenly Father for His blessings to His church, its members, and supporters. The second pillar of church finances consists of mission offerings collected in local churches every Sabbath (especially by Sabbath school offerings, week-of-prayer offerings and 13th Sabbath offerings). In 2017, church members in the EUD contributed almost 6 million euros to the world-wide mission of the Church.

The members of the Executive Committee have also received a report on the use of the tithe in 2017. “Administrators and executive committees not only need to understand scriptural and Spirit of Prophecy counsel regarding the use of tithe and the policies that have been developed to guide the church in applying that counsel,” affirmed Zens, “but they also need to assess and evaluate its application within their territories. To assist with this ongoing evaluation and monitoring, each conference, mission, field, union, division, and the General Conference shall present an annual report to the respective Executive Committees on the use of tithe.”

In 2017, unions and conferences shared about 11 Million euros of tithe with the EUD. The report showed that the tithe received was used in 2017 for purposes outlined in the policies and guidelines of the Church, i.e. for Pastors, Evangelists, front line missionaries, departmental expenses, Direct Evangelism Appropriation, media centers, general administration, education (institutions) and union appropriations.

In order to promote mission and increase its services for society, the Executive Committee voted to allocate special funds for mission projects in unions as well as for the support of primary and secondary schools.

During the meeting, the president of the Romanian Union, Stefan Tomoiaga, presented a project that aims to build a Romanian Adventist Hospital in Tirgu-Mures. The objective is the construction of a 150-bed hospital with oncological focus, able to meet the needs of the population suffering from neoplastic diseases through the best possible medical services. 


Devotionals

Any administrative session of the Church is preceded by a morning devotional. This year, the General Conference guests, Vice Secretaries Hensley Morooven and Claude Richli, offered a very interesting reading of the Gospel of John describing Jesus’ approach to meeting the needs of His people. Reading the Bible is a continued discovery of methods and attitudes adopted by Jesus in respecting their freedom to accept or refuse them.

“For us, it is important to support people in their needs,” affirmed Morooven, “but also to help them to meet Jesus.” While considering the main theme of education, he concluded “the best compliment that we can receive from a student is thanks ‘for the received education that allowed me to discover Jesus’.”

“As we are pursuing the value of unity in the Church,” said Richli, “let us find this unity not only in the same way we understand the Bible, but also in Christ Jesus who gives us a name. It is only in His name that we can find the truth, and as Jesus is the Truth, we understand that it is the name of Jesus that unifies us.” This thought echoed what President Brito said in his message at opening session, looking for a unifying point between the two poles of the Church.

Closing Session

In his closing message, President Brito referred to Jesus’ encouraging and hope-filled speech during His last meeting with His disciples in the upper room, as presented in John 13-17. He knew that in a few hours He would leave them. Thus, He used the time spent together to review His most important teachings and promises, in order to prepare and encourage them for their future ministry and the difficulties they would have to face. 

During Jesus’ discourse, He repeated over and over again, “If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.” If He asked us the same question today, what would be our answer? What do we need most?

Remember that He promised, and He is trustworthy, that He is willing to give us anything that we ask in His name. We will not be able to accomplish the mission He has entrusted us without receiving from Him the Gift of gifts. The gift that brings along with itself all the most important and needed gifts – the Holy Spirit. The best investment we can make is in people. Let’s invest our talents, time, and money in people.

“As shepherds of God’s flock, pray for your sheep. Pray that we may have a loving church in which we encourage and help each other to grow in all dimensions of our existence. Think about those who left the church. They are many. Educate our children, youth, women, and men to love each other,” urged Pastor Brito.