Amidst the culturally vibrant setting of Southeast Asia, tech specialists, content creators, ministry leaders, and administrators gathered in Chiang Mai, Thailand, on July 8, 2024, for the highly anticipated Adventist Technology Summit (ATS).
The summit brings together participants from regional organizations and institutions of the Adventist World Church. Over two days, they aim to establish new connections, share insights, and initiate discussions to advance the church's mission through cutting-edge technology. Spearheaded by the Technology Operations and Strategy leadership of the Adventist World Church (GC), this initiative follows the overwhelming support of the initial summit held in Brazil in 2023. The summit centers its purpose in creating synergies and developing mission-focused strategies. Throughout the event, leaders in finance, technology, digital evangelism, hybrid ministry, and privacy and security will showcase existing church initiatives, extend their usability to other regional offices, and create an ecosystem for collaboration.
ATS Focus on Accelerating the Mission
Williams Costa, Jr., Communication Director of the General Conference, opened the summit with an inspiring devotional message. He emphasized the importance of working in synergy, breaking down barriers for the sake of mission, and exploring the endless possibilities that technology offers to support the church's mission. With zeal, Costa highlighted the crucial communication between decision-makers and creatives, essential for driving significant mission growth and reaching thousands of people in this generation for Jesus.
Intelligence, Integration, and Investment
Elder Paul Douglas, GC Treasurer, highlighted the intrinsic connection between intelligence, integration, and investment. He explained that intelligence springs from innovative ideas and ministry concepts. Integration involves combining these developments to create more useful and expansive outcomes that benefit many. Investment entails carefully examining how these components can support the church's mission under the guidance of wise and prayerful decisions. Douglas believes that these three important factors build a strong mission strategy.
Douglas also shared his vision for the world church, emphasizing the goal of leveraging technology to create a seamless data-sharing and storage system. This system would support the church's ongoing mission efforts by facilitating the exchange of information for administrative and ministry initiatives. Additionally, it would enable the sharing of resources that can be contextualized to reach diverse groups of people across various regional organizations and institutions.
Digital Mission Strategy for Mission
Richard Stephenson, Associate Treasurer of the General Conference, presented the digital strategy for the mission structure, developed and approved by the Digital Ministry for Mission Committee.
At the forefront of strategy development, the committee places a high value on Data Protection Compliance, emphasizing adherence to data privacy regulations and ensuring security and protection. Stephenson emphasized that while we focus on fulfilling the mission of the church, it is crucial to also fulfill our responsibilities as citizens of this earth. This approach reflects Jesus’ character of stewardship while faithfully engaging in the church's digital missions.
The Digital Strategy emphasizes three key factors: Digital Infrastructure, Digital Initiatives, and Digital Innovations. These components aim to achieve specific objectives for the Adventist Church's digital missions, focusing on the sustainability and accessibility of resources, robust data collection and security protocols, and the contextualization of digital strategies for diverse global populations. Additionally, the strategy seeks to develop an ecosystem for various Adventist platforms, ensure the relevance of systems to local churches, and enhance the Adventist Church’s branding and SEO.
Existing Adventist Platforms for the Adventist World Church
The Adventist Church, in the field of technology, has been actively involved in developing platforms and softwares that will help the church support and develop church operations and ministry around the world.
The Adventist World Church created SunPlus. SunPlus is a mission driven denominational network providing, and continuously improving a sound, globally applicable, financial management system. It is a financial management and accounting software suite with powerful analytical features developed for use in the majority of the Seventh-day Adventist Church's administrative and institutional entities worldwide.
The SunPlus mission is to build up the entire denominational financial management system: success will thus consist of widespread and successful adoption of the software as well as enhancing the capabilities of church workers responsible for accounting and financial management.
The Adventist Personnel System (APS.net) in the North American Division is a web-based, mobile-friendly solution designed specifically for the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church's payroll and personnel management needs. The Adventist Church Treasury Solutions (ACTS) is continuously working to enhance the program, ensuring compliance with denominational policies and government requirements. APS.net integrates seamlessly with Adventist Accounting Software International (AASI.net) for easy posting of detailed payroll-related general ledger entries. Additionally, it can function as a standalone payroll program compatible with other general ledger software packages.
Hope Channel International developed the Jetstream platform to facilitate live streaming and provide storage and streaming for on-demand videos, thereby reducing costs while enhancing the mission. This platform encourages content creators to use Jetstream on a large scale, lowering online video costs for any ministry within the Adventist Church.
The Adventist Technology Summit is expected to transition to the Global Adventist Internet Network (GaiN) on the third day of the meeting in Chiang Mai.
Edward Rodriguez, SSD Communication Department