Our vision is to be a thriving Adventist movement, living our hope in Jesus and transforming the Pacific. That is what we believe God’s preferred future for us is. Historically, we have always understood ourselves to be a prophetic, missional end-time movement, and as we look forward into the future, the thought of being a movement that changes the world still captures our hearts and imaginations.
There are many powerful ways that we can fuel a thriving Adventist movement in the South Pacific.
The first key is to keep our eyes focused on Jesus. There are so many dark places in our lives, in the world and at times even in the church which can absorb us, but becoming preoccupied with darkness will never fuel a movement. We need to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus. Jesus is inspiring, amazing, startling, shocking, powerful, compassionate, gracious and life-transforming. He is the most amazing Person I have ever met, and He is not only amazing—Jesus is truly God. Doesn’t it only make sense to turn our eyes away from the world and focus on Him?
The second key is to accept and pursue the promise that Jesus gave us before He returned to heaven. He told His disciples to wait for the promise, the presence, the baptism and the filling of the Holy Spirit. We can fuel a thriving Adventist movement by spiritually hungering and thirsting for the Holy Spirit as the living water that will quench our deepest spiritual thirst and the people all around us.
The third key is telling powerful and inspiring mission stories. Jesus’ favourite way to explain to people what His kingdom was like was to tell stories. Then, within a few decades of Him telling those stories on the shores of Galilee, the Holy Spirit inspired the Bible writers to pick up their ancient pens and write the stories which we find in Matthew, Mark, Luke, John and Acts.
Jesus is still inviting us to keep our eyes fixed on Him, to ask for the gift of the Holy Spirit and to tell mission stories. In October, we’re celebrating Adventist Heritage Month and have created an Adventist Heritage devotional. You can register for it at heritage.adventistchurch.com. We invite you to soak yourself and your family in mission stories throughout October. When you do this, you will be fuelling a thriving movement of people who living our hope in Jesus and transforming the Pacific.
