Main Speakers of the Convention

 

  Ella Simmons
General Vice President
at the General Conference
 
 

The Power of Unity for Faith, Mission, and Ministry
Often faithful Christians are fervent in reaching up in worship to God and zealous in pursuing the Church’s mission of reaching out for the salvation of the lost; yet, they are less eager to reach across the aisle or corridor to forge relationships with like believers for ministry. This session will engage participants in discussions and reflections on the values of unity for the development of mature faith, invigorating mission, and authentic ministry. It will focus on the power of inclusion versus exclusivity and harmonious diversity versus uniformity for demonstrating God’s love and sharing the Gospel. It will draw from principles set forth in Biblical foundations, the exemplary life of Christ, guidance in the prophetic messages given the Seventh-day Adventist Church, and parallel insights from contemporary literature. 

         
    Linda Koh
Director of Children's Ministries
at the General Conference
 

Teach your child to witness
«If parents and teachers can help children discover that knowing Jesus is the most important thing in the world, they’ll soon conclude that the most important thing they can do is to tell others. Come and learn some fun ways of teaching children to share their faith and witness for Jesus.»

         
   

Elaine Oliver
Associate Director of Family Ministries
at the General Conference

Willie Oliver
Director of Family Ministries
at the General Conference

 

Together We Are Stronger
This presentation aims to share proven Biblical and social scientific relational dynamics and processes that help maximize the achievements of collective action in marriage and other important relationships. You will leave with tools you can use immediately to enhance every relationship you have.

         
    Derek Morris
Editor of Ministry Magazine
 

Powerful Biblical Preaching
Discover nine lessons from the teaching ministry of Jesus that will transform your preaching ministry. We will also examine a 12-step process for the development and delivery of powerful biblical sermons. God wants you to preach His Word with power.

         
    Bill Knott
Editor of Adventist Review and Adventist World
   Devotionals
         
    Don McLafferty
Associate Pastor of the Collegedale Seventh-day Adventist Cuhrch
and founder and director of Kids In Discipleship
 

Intergenerational Worship that Disciplines Young and Old
Sabbath worship services must engage young and old in the Word of God. The generations must join together in worshipping Jesus Christ and in growing as His disciples. No age group should be spectators in worship, but active participants.

Discipling Leaders: Developing Spiritual Accountability
Care enough about discipling leaders to join them in their spiritual journey with Jesus Christ. Share your heart. Challenge theirs...and be willing to be held accountable.

         
    Joseph Kidder
Professor of Church Growth and Evangelism
SDA Theological Seminary, Andrews University
 

The Biblical Role of the Spiritual Leader
A proper understanding of the Biblical role of the pastor is crucial to church health and growth. The reason why so many of our churches are not growing is because pastors are doing everything expect what God has called them to do. Therefore it is critical to study biblically what pastors should do. What should the pastor do? What is the biblical role of the pastor? Do we have a model in the Scriptures that might help us understand the Biblical role of the pastor? This seminar will clearly show you from the bible and study of growing churches what the pastor does.

The Missing Ingredient in Most Churches
In our interviews of members of growing churches, we noticed that healthy, growing congregations have a special ingredient that plateauing and declining congregations do not. That ingredient is enthusiasm and most churches don’t have enough of it. The members of growing churches are excited about God, excited about their church, and excited to share their faith with others. They are proud of their local church and eager to bring with them their friends and relatives, knowing that they’ll be blessed. For these people, going to church is a joyful experience that they want to share with others. Come and hear what you can do to make yours an exciting place.

The Worship Experience You Heart Longs For
Church renewal is always connected with worship renewal. This has always been true, but much more so today. Church growth and renewal are always connected with the worship experiences. We learned from interviewing hundreds of people that most people are hungry for powerful, vibrant, energetic worship. Many are longing to have an encounter with God, to feel His presence and live His power. Every time the church is intentional about prayer, building discipleship, and bringing about worship renewal, the church becomes healthy and starts growing. In this seminar you will learn some Biblical principles that will help you feel the presence of God in a very powerful worship experience.

         
    László Szabó
Professor of Mission
Friedensau Adventist University
 

A church that’s easy to multiply
A movement needs multiplying churches but our reality produces often just multiplying problems. A serious look at the situation is necessary. A quantitative  analysis of certain European church entities draws the attention to the relevance of the topic. A biblical analysis of multiplying house churches leads to challenging questions. A review of current theories and models about house churches, simple churches may challenge you: there might be some implications your church needs to think about seriously.

         
    Bruno Vertallier
President of the Inter-European Division
 

Steps for Personal Piety
Open, read, meditate upon the Bible text and discover what the Lord wants to tell you during that special time. Prayer and reflection in a very practical way will be our experience as we will share the blessings of the Lord for us in order to let the Holy Spirit work in us and through us in order to witness the name of Jesus.”

         
    Paolo Benini
Director of Personal Ministries
of the Inter-European Division
 

Sabbath School Action Units and Small Groups: Differences, Parallels and Roles
As the working policy affirms, the mission of the Sabbath School is to be supportive for every believer to build a relationship with God, to build a loving fellowship with our fellow brothers and sisters, and to mobilize them in mission and service to the world. In addition to this the Sabbath School is a support structure for each department of the church in the accomplishment of their mission. The workshop aims to show how a renewal of the Sabbath School is a powerful service in reach up, reach across and reach out.

         
    Gabriel Maurer
Executive Secretary of the Inter-European Division
 

Sharing the word through New Media
New media has changed human habits. But the dreams and profound desires of human beings have remained the same. This workshop intends to create awareness and lay the foundation for a training toward united Inter-Ministries work and witnessing. It will open a window to an amazing variety of options on how cooperation between all ministries and the Publishing Ministry could make a lasting impact in the churches own development as well as in outreach attempts.

         
    Mario Brito
Director of the Ministerial Association
of the Inter-European Division
   Plenary Sessions
         
    Denise Hochstrasser
Director of Women's Ministries
of the Inter-European Division
 

Synergy in Action: Mentoring
How can we help in keeping members in the Church for the future? How can we help young people, men and women to grow into taking up responsibility and leadership inside the Church through mentoring? Why and how do we reach out to people in society, to girls, boys, young people and adults without regard to gender, and what are the biblical/theological reasons for it.

         
    Ingrid Naumann
Former Director of Women's Ministries
of the South German Union
 

Small Groups and Self-Helping Groups

Small groups and self-helping groups are a helpful instrument for healthy spiritual relations and relationships between people in general. Often we think making disciples works by giving bible studies. But in the New Testament this was something that happened in small groups through pastoral and supporting ministry by men and women alike.

-       Biblical basics for small group
        ministry.

-       The building bricks for
        successful small groups.

-       What makes small groups so
        effective when it comes to
        changing of lifestyle and
        purpose in life?

-       How can I start with small
        group ministry?

-       How can new small group
        leaders be found?

-       Need-oriented small groups

     
   
     Valerie Dufour
Associate Director of Health Ministries
of the Inter-European Division
   Synergy in action: Health as a tool for the Ministries
Everybody is interested in health and many are longing for a mental or physical health improvement. Health programs enable us to connect with those around us, meet the needs of people in a practical manner, open doors to care for children, youth, men, women, seniors and families in our communities. Mission & Health Ministries, Youth Ministries & Health ministries, Women Ministries & Health Ministries, Children’s Ministries & Health Ministries, Education & Health Ministries… BLENDING MINISTRIES is the way to INNER strength and OUTreach. In all these ministries, health may be the right hand to accompany each one in his mission. The Sabbath School can be a supporting structure for the Health Ministry and many others. The workshop will offer practical examples of how this can be achieved.
         
    Liviu Olteanu
Director of Religious Liberty
of the Inter-European Division
 

Synergy and Interference of ‘Public Affairs’ into the Church’s Departments. Religious Liberty for all
General: Concepts of ‘synergy’, ‘interference’ and ‘public affairs’: roots, unity/delimitation. Interference of ‘Public Affairs’ into the Church departments’ life, Institutions and Services as: Children; Youth; Women; Family; Mission and Sabbath School; Education; Health; Pastoral Ministry; Religious Liberty; Communication; Publishing and Literature evangelism; ADRA; Human and Financial Resources, etc. Special: “To put the things in a proper perspective”. From individual and “concern” to the trust and results. The interference of ‘Public Affairs’ in SDA Church departments’: its target, objectives, tools, and estimated  consequences, in the international context of ‘Religious liberty’. From ‘Public Affairs’ to ‘Public Relations’ in and for Church’s life. "To win or solve problems".

         
    Corrado Cozzi
Director of Communication Ministries
of the Inter-European Division
 

Stewardship and the ministries of the church
Very often Stewardship is linked with terms like finances, economy, tithe, offering and everything included in the world of money management. This is true, but incomplete. Stewardship is the first role God gave to humans to manage His property. The best meaning of Stewardship is a Christian Management of life, wether personal or community. The Adventist in the church promotes a holistic project for life and several church ministries play an important roles to support spiritual human development. Discover how Stewardship could be supportive for these ministries harmonizing their different contributions.

         

 

 

 

Elsa Cozzi
Director of Children's Ministries
of the Inter-European Division



Barna Magyarosi

Director of Education and Family Ministries
of the Inter-European Division

 

Family Matters: children and parents, together in discipleship
Discipling our children : who is in charge? Church leaders? Sabbath School leaders/teachers? Children’s Ministries leaders? Parents? Discipling our children is one of the greatest responsibility we have and all of us we want to do it right. It is not just fulfilling a duty or passing on a belief, but discipling as Jesus did. To teach our children to follow Jesus not only by telling them what to do, but moreover, by being role models for them. We need to enter in a paradigm shift and get serious about our responsibilities as parents and leaders. In this workshop, CHM and FM EUD Directors will share some ideas and concepts to help parents and families get involved in discipling their children.


         

 

  Arnold Zwahlen
Pastor
in the German Swiss Conference
 

Center of Influence in Europe
This workshop explains the idea of the families and community center Reinach-Wynental. It is a social mission project of a 40 members-church in the center of Switzerland and aims to promote good relationships for families and single persons. God’s wonderful guidance has made social security offices and local authorities consider and support this project as partner in the service for the region.