The South Pacific Division contains four unions. Adventist Record recorded interviews with all four union presidents during the South Pacific for Christ launch program in Brisbane, Queensland. In this issue, we bring you our chat with Dr Brendan Pratt, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Australia.
Juliana Muniz (JM): Have you enjoyed this week at the conference? What stood out to you?
Brendan Pratt: I’ve thoroughly enjoyed it. What stood out was people’s heart for mission, and I thought the focus on integration for mission was incredibly valuable. I really enjoyed the presentations by the people from the centres for secular post-Christian mission and the urban centres from the General Conference, because that relates to our Australian challenge. I appreciated that the whole idea of mission was seen from a very broad perspective.
JM: Before we talk about Australia for Christ, it would be good to give our viewers an idea of what Australia looks like as maybe a mission field. What are some of the challenges that you face in your region?
Brendan Pratt:Australia is certainly a mission field. 84 per cent of Australians don’t connect with a church community, and that’s huge. Australia is increasingly spiritual but not religious, walking away from institutional religion. If we look at the challenges in Australia, it comes back to what consumerism does to a culture, what that does to religion and the opportunities that also gives.
JM: You were one of the union presidents who were elected right at the end, towards the end of 2025, so you have a lot of the quinquennium still ahead of you. What are your goals and strategies for this quinquennium?
Brendan Pratt: You’re right, I still have my L plates on. But yeah, there’s a lot of opportunity. So strategies and goals, working on what’s it look like to integrate for mission. What would it look like in Australia if we could get all our entities—whether that be our schools, aged care, local churches, all our members—rowing in the same direction with a mission focus? That’s one of our big challenges—integrating for mission. Our mission statement is about inspiring, empowering and equipping missional conferences, and that’s empowering them to respond to God’s love, God’s calling. So what’s it look like for the Adventist Church in Australia to be a beautiful picture of God? What’s it look like to captivate people with a picture that compels people in their relationship with God? And in the midst of consumerism, which destroys people having time with God and with one another, what’s it look like to call people to a better way of being human? It’s all about time with God, time with each other, and all those things that actually make life better than how it is in Australia at the moment.
JM: Now moving to Australia for Christ, which I’m very interested about. It’s coming up in 2028, and some people are a bit sceptical about it because if we look at PNG for Christ and Trans Pacific for Christ, they are pretty much following the same model. What can we expect in Australia? Because I can’t really picture that same model being applied here. Would that work? What do you have in mind?
Brendan Pratt: Well, some of it’s exactly the same because humans are very much the same in many regards. I’ve appreciated seeing PNG and TPUM put a huge emphasis on prayer, on equipping their members to share stories, on small groups, on people realising how valuable the mission is. That is essential everywhere, and that’s what we can learn from what we’ve seen already. However, you’re right. The mission in a different context, in a highly secular—people call it post-Christian, I think our younger Australians are pre-Christian—environment. It is a different challenge, but it still comes down to what it looks like to connect hearts to a loving God and to have people see Jesus. I think there’s opportunities with the rising anxiety in Australia. We’re more anxious now than ever, and we’re lonelier now than ever. I think Australians are realising that the political systems, technology, the economy—all those things we put our trust and hope in—are not stacking up. And so I think Australia for Christ in 2028 is the perfect time for lifting our intentionality and outward focus. It’s like when you have an exam to study for; you know you’ve got to sit down and get it done. Will it include some of the stuff that PNG and TPUM included? Yes, it will, because Australia’s incredibly multicultural. Will it include stuff we haven’t seen before? It has to, to reach the 84 per cent of Australians who don’t connect with any faith community. We’ve got to think of things we haven’t done yet. This is where our young people are particularly important. This is where innovation comes into it. We’re setting up innovation hubs where we’re saying to our young people, “We don’t have to try and teach you about how to reach Australian young people. You are one of them. But what can you teach us as a church system to connect better?” So we’re going to have to innovate, try new ideas, learn new things. We’ll work out some things that don’t work and some things that do work. That’s a challenge for us, but the reality is God’s already working in Australia. We join God in that mission and we get the fun of discovering what that mission looks like.
JM: How do you expect people to start preparing for it? Because it is a harvest program, so for the harvest you have a whole preparation. So how do you expect people to start preparing for it?
Brendan Pratt:Well, the preparation, if we take what was explained by Pastor Charlie Jimmy yesterday, does include an intentional prayer focus. It includes a focus on what it means to be part of our communities. One of our challenges is when we do the AUC surveys, people say, “I’m growing my connection with Jesus,” but when we ask them, “How comfortable are you sharing Jesus?”, most people tick unsure. They’re not quite sure how to share Jesus. That’s a challenge because our best effort is to have our church members be the evangelism campaign. Their lives are the campaign. We can pay for programs, strategies and advertising, that’s all good, but imagine if we had 60,000 church members so eager to share faith that wherever you found a church member, you found someone who’s sharing Jesus.
JM: Before we close, in addition to Australia for Christ, what should church members in Australia be aware of in terms of mission?
Brendan Pratt: In terms of mission, we’ve got OneVoice coming up in 2027. And at first we thought, Hey, is OneVoice going to compete with Australia for Christ 2028? But no, because OneVoice27 is mission for all, having everybody comfortable with sharing Jesus, which is what we’ve got to do anyway. So OneVoice will be where we’re saying, “How do we share Jesus well in Australia?”
Getting ready for 2028 as well, so we’ve got that. You’ll also hear about the Church Next strategy. That’s what we’re doing to encourage this innovation to reach the 84 per cent. So what does it look like to find different ways and different expressions of being the Adventist Church that engages the part of Australia that doesn’t engage at the moment? So that’s pretty exciting. But if you’re a church member in Australia at the moment, then I really do believe that it’s just intentionally making that space and time to grow with God and grow with people. Because in our consumer culture, the opposite to consumerism is community. If we can do community really well and build relationships, that’s where Australia for Christ 2028 is going to work.
JM: It’s a time where with AI and so many automated things, I think if we can take that human side to the next level and be there for people, it’s going to be something really different that will stand out.
Brendan Pratt:And we use all that technology. We’ve got clever people doing clever stuff. That’s all needed. But there’s also the simple things of just simply connecting with God, connecting with people, allowing God to work in and through you. And that’s what we talk about: inspire, empower, equip. Inspiring, connecting with God. Empowered with inner strength out of Ephesians 3. Equipped out of Ephesians 4 to be people of light in the darkness of Australia.
This interview was recorded and published as a recent episode of Record Live. Watch it below:
