Seventh-day Adventist creatives from across the South Pacific gathered on Australia’s Gold Coast for the Digital Discipleship Conference (DDC) 2019 on July 5-7.
DDC aims to train and equip church members for discipleship on online platforms. The fourth edition of the annual conference focused on the theme “Future Beyond the Future”, featuring keynotes and workshops centered around evangelism through digital media. Digital marketing, blogging, podcasting, social media and film-making were just a few of the many disciplines that featured.
“I didn’t truly see how intricately God had been working on our behalf behind the scenes until the end of the event,” said event organiser Rachel Aitken. “Since the beginning of planning the 2019 Digital Discipleship Conference so much conflict, hardship and struggle surrounded the event . . .”
Attendees had the opportunity to explore their creativity in two practical sessions on the Sabbath, with creatives in the music workshop creating a song they shared later in the afternoon. The international flavor of the event was highlighted by visitors from Vanuatu and Papua New Guinea, as well as keynote speakers from the United States and Brazil. DDC is run by the Australian Union Conference, being held for the first time on the Gold Coast after the previous three editions were hosted in Sydney.
“I praise God for the hardship and the struggle of planning the 2019 Digital Discipleship Conference because through it I am able to measure the success of the event as I observed a countless number of God-ordained moments that took place that were totally out of my control,” Mrs Aitken said.
A New Zealand edition of the DDC is also planned for August 9-11 this year.
