Photo: Adventist Mission
New director for Secular and Post-Christian Outreach
A Seventh-day Adventist pastor with a passion for sharing God with secular and post-
Christian people in Australia has been entrusted with overseeing the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s growing efforts to reach the same demographic group worldwide.
Brendan Pratt, currently the Ministerial Association secretary of the Australian Union Conference, will become associate secretary of the union’s Ministerial Association while also taking on the new role of director of the Global Mission Center for Secular and Post-Christian Mission, which is under the Office of Adventist Mission at the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
Pratt said he looks forward to seeing significant synergy between his current work in Australia and his new post at the Global Mission Center, whose mandate is to equip the Adventist Church with new tools to help secular and post-Christian people know God.
“I am passionate about seeing transformation in lives and communities as people connect with Jesus and grow in relationship with Him,” Pratt said. “I am particularly passionate about mission within secular culture.”
A secular person is someone not affiliated with a church or other faith group, and a post-Christian person lives in a society based historically on Christian values but chooses to reject the authority of Christianity in their life.
“Reaching secular and post-Christian people is one of the Adventist Church’s biggest mission challenges,” said Gary Krause, director of Adventist Mission. In an attempt to reach this group better, the Adventist Church has made them a key plank in a new General Conference initiative called Mission Refocus, which prioritizes resources for frontline mission work.
“It is one of the three Mission Refocus windows we are concentrating on—along with the 10/40 Window and the Urban Window,” Krause said.
He expressed full confidence in Pratt, who holds a PhD in which his doctoral thesis focused on consumerism’s impact on Christianity and has worked as a pastor in Australia and New Zealand for nearly 30 years.
Pratt fills a post vacated by Kleber Gonçalves, who led the Global Mission center for 12 years.
Goncalves advised those interested in sharing Jesus with secular and post-Christian people to seek an understanding of their worldview, with the purpose of finding connecting points that are relevant and meaningful to their lives, and to use “Christ’s method” to create opportunities that would not be possible any other way. [Adventist Mission]
Photo: Mongolia Mission
In Mongolia, Adventist women pastors hold first-ever retreat
The Mongolia Mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church (MM) held the first women pastors’ training in its territory, under the leader-ship of Ministerial Association director Bold Batsukh, from December 1 to 3, 2023.
This first meeting sought to revive the mission spirit, realign procedures, and reevaluate church administration strategies. Eight women pastors participated in this special event. The pastors shared experiences and received training in effective pastoral care for their local churches.
Jonas Arrais, Ministerial Association director of the Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD), highlighted the importance of “being called to be a pastor” and reviewed Church Manual procedures and important chapters in the Minister’s Handbook. After his presentation, there was time for discussion on pressing issues and ideas about leading local churches in the face of today’s challenges. Raquel Arrais, NSD Ministerial Spouses Association director, presented the morning devotionals, sharing key topics on spiritual growth and care. Batsukh offered important leadership insights for the daily work of a pastor.
MM secretary Adiyakhuu Oktiyabri discussed strategies for church growth and reclaiming missing members, which is one of the biggest challenges the Adventist Church in Mongolia has faced after the pandemic. Finally, treasury department leaders shared guidelines, procedures, and explanations on how the church operates financially.
Attendees left inspired and equipped with renewed energy to lead and nurture their congregations. [Northern Asia-Pacific Division and Adventist Review]
Public Campus Ministries leaders and regional Youth Ministries leaders. Photo: Cuba Union Conference
Ray Frometa, Youth Ministries director, leads a seminar in Peñas Blancas, Mayabeque, Cuba. Photo: Cuba Union Conference
Cuba responds after one in three pastors leaves
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Cuba is doubling its efforts to equip young people in response to the emigration of a large number of pastors and local leaders in recent years. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, the emigration of pastors and church leaders was a regular occurrence, but local church leaders said the number has grown to an unprecedented level since then.
“Between 2021 and 2023, the multidimensional crisis on the island accelerated migration, something that has affected the Adventist Church here,” said Aldo Pérez, Cuban Union Conference president. “We have lost valuable pastors and local leaders.”
Since 2021, a total of 44 pastoral families have left their posts. That represents a third of the pastors who led at the union, conference, mission, and local church level, Pérez said.
Pérez calls the present situation the “post-COVID crisis, when the economic situation has become more difficult and critical here.” The situation forced leaders to implement an emergency program to train new leaders. To face the challenge of losing so many pastors and local leaders, administrators have strategized to train 7,000 youth, including 3,500 new Master Guides and 3,500 Adventist Youth (AY) leaders across the island.
“We have a young leadership in the church, and we must equip them well so that the church can move forward with its missionary work,” Pérez said.
“The goal is to accelerate the processes and produce trained and motivated leaders to serve at greater speed and quantity than the migration pulls,” said Ray Frometa, Youth Ministries director of the Cuba Union.
Initiatives planned for the current quinquennium have included training some 300 young people to become instructors in each conference in 2023, appointing a Master Guide and AY leader in each district, providing a Youth Ministries institute online, and training local church leaders in each church to become youth mentors.
During a training of more than 500 youth leaders and Public Campus Ministries students and young professionals in January, Frometa encouraged attendees never to think that the best leaders left the country.
“Those of us who are left are the ones whom God will use to finish the work,” he said. “God is calling and training you because this work is not about human talent but about the will and purpose of God.”
The Adventist Church in Cuba oversees more than 12,000 young people, about half of whom are ages 6–15 and the other half ages 16–30.
As part of the strategy to restore leadership, a pastor has been assigned to each of the 20 AY Federations throughout the country. Each pastor can directly supervise and lead in the process of recruitment and training of the new AY leaders and Master Guides, Frometa said.
“They will have the mission of emphasizing the organization of the clubs and youth leaders as well as the mentoring program that would end up integrating them in the local leadership of the church," Fromata said.
The youth leadership program has always run at a modest rhythm in the church, Frometa explained, but as designated associate Youth Ministries directors, the new leaders can take a more active role and help each local pastor to develop an intensive leadership program in each church district.
More than 40,000 Seventh-day Adventists meet in 546 churches and congregations in Cuba. The union conference oversees four conferences and two missions across the island. [Ireydis Pita and Libna Stevens, Inter-American Division]
