Mbombela Central SDA Church

Epizode

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  Before You Run, Learn To Kneel 13.05.2026 17min

  There is a sequencing problem in Christian ministry, and Pastor Zwide Masuku named it plainly in a short devotion drawn from Mark 3:13–14.The text is deceptively brief. Jesus goes up a mountain, calls whom he wants, and they come to him. Then verse 14 does something careful: “And he ordained twelve, that they should be with him, and that he might send them forth to preach.” Two purposes. One precedes the other. Being with Jesus comes before being sent out. That ordering is not accidental — and Masuku built four points around it.One: Devotion must precede mission.Masuku’s first challenge was to a room of Master Guides in training, but the word lands on anyone in active ministry. He said it plainly: “Before you walk, you need to kneel. Before you stand, you need to kneel. Before you speak, you need to kneel. Before you serve, you need to kneel.” The principle he drew from it was this — private illumination must come before public proclamation.The failure mode he identified is one most leaders recognise in retrospect: going forth to serve before spending enough time with Jesus. The calling itself gets mistaken for the source of the calling. The busy-ness of ministry crowds out the stillness ministry was always supposed to flow from.Two: A calling to serve is a calling to save you.This point carries a theological weight that deserves sitting with. Masuku recalled something a lecturer said during his training: “Ministry is a way of saving the minister.” Which is to say — God does not only use your service to reach others. He uses it to reach you.But there was a second edge to this point, and it was the more pastoral one: serve your family before you serve the church family. He was direct about the failure mode. “It is going to be a sad day in Lowveld when you and I are seen to be shining in the church yet we are very dark in our own families.” The concentric order he named was clear — family first, then local church, then zone, then district. Whatever leadership capacity you have been developing, let those closest to you feel it first.Three: Go private before you go public.Conflict among leaders is not a sign that something has gone wrong. Masuku was straightforward about this: “Differences are going to come because we are human beings. Not because there is anyone who is wrong, but as long as there are more than two people, you are bound to have a conflict of ideas.” The question is not whether conflict will come, but how it will be handled when it does.His counsel was direct: resist the temptation to correct in public. Public confrontation produces defensiveness, not accountability. Private confrontation produces openness and protects the other person’s reputation. He paired it with the inverse: “Praise in public and confront in private.” When a colleague has done well, light their candle publicly. When they have erred, go to them privately first.Four: Grounded in the Word, focused on mission.The final point returned to where the sermon began — the text. Jesus called the twelve first to be with him. Before the mission, the sitting. Before the proclamation, the formation. Masuku used a distinction that will stay with anyone preparing for an investiture or a camporee: “Attendance is a seat. Participation is a post.” Showing up to mark a register is not the same as answering a calling. The question he left open was the right one: after the certificate, after the ceremony — will you be a Master Guide by uniform, or by conviction?His answer to that question was not a programme. It was a posture. “Before you run with the mission, sit with the Word.”Four points. One through-line. Before you send, kneel. Before you serve the church, serve your family. Before you correct publicly, go privately. Before you run with the mission, sit with the Word.That is the sequencing. That is the order. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  The Power of Now: Why Your Youth is Your Greatest Ministry 06.05.2026 20min

  It’s easy to look at traditional leadership and assume that true impact requires decades of experience. But what if your most potent season for ministry is right now? Your youth is the time when you possess the most energy, the sharpest intelligence, and the deepest fervour. Apostle Paul gave this directive to his young protégé:“Let no one despise your youth, but set an example for the believers in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, and in purity.” — 1 Timothy 4:12Here are the core takeaways from the message on how to lead from the front, regardless of your age.1. The Fleeting Currency of YouthWhen Paul travelled through cities like Rome and Corinth, he would frequently leave young leaders like Timothy and Titus behind to edify new believers. Because of their age, they were often met with arrogance and disrespect from older, sometimes culturally entrenched congregation members.Paul’s advice was not to wait until they were older to lead. It was to double down on the present.As Pastor Myeza put it, the energy you have today is a diminishing resource. You cannot write a letter at 40 asking for your 30-year-old stamina back. Your youth is the exact moment to execute your vision, build the church, and shape the culture of your community. Do not undermine your own season. Use your full capacity now, so that when you look back, you know you left nothing on the table.2. Becoming a Walking SolutionA Master Guide’s uniform and tie may command attention, but they are not what inspires the next generation. True leadership happens when people look at your life — in the church, in your family, at your workplace — and see a solution.When colleagues ask where your diligence comes from, your answer should point back to a God who calls you to excellence. People should not merely want to wear the uniform; they should want to become the kind of person who wears it.3. The Five Pillars of ExampleTo ensure no one despises your youth, you must outpace your critics through character. Pastor Myeza worked through Paul’s five metrics for setting an example:* In Speech: How you speak to people reveals exactly how you regard them. True leaders do not suffer from “verbal diarrhoea” — speaking only to be heard, or showing respect only when a senior pastor is in the room. A leader speaks to a twelve-year-old with the same regard they extend to an elder. Stop the gossip. Use your words to edify.* In Conduct: Master Guides should never be known as people to avoid because of poor behaviour. Your conduct should make parents hope their children grow up to be exactly like you.* In Love and Faith: Leadership is a brotherhood, not a competition. We are called to support, embrace, and carry one another — not to undermine from a distance.* In Purity: Integrity is its own defence. Even when critics spread falsehoods or attempt to tarnish your leadership, consistent and upright conduct will always speak louder than their noise. As Pastor Myeza put it, you will know deep down that you have upheld 1 Timothy 4:12 — and that knowing is enough.The Bottom LineAt its core, Pastor Myeza’s message is a call to action: do not wait for permission to be an example. Embrace the weight and the privilege of your season. Speak with grace, conduct yourself with honour, and build a legacy that makes others want to follow in your footsteps — not because of what you wore, but because of who you were when you wore it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Heaven's Joy in Mission 11.04.2026 3min

  The Trans-Orange Conference Publishing Department, led by Director Pr Sipho Ngcobo, is hosting a Virtual Week of Spiritual Emphasis from 12–18 April, in collaboration with the Southern Africa Union Publishing Director, Pastor Eugene Carolus.The theme — Heaven’s Joy in Mission — centres on a conviction as old as the Adventist movement itself: the church was organised for evangelism. When local congregations stop engaging in mission, they risk becoming social clubs. The Publishing Department exists to counter that drift, equipping members as agents of change and working to establish literature evangelist chapters in every church across the TOC territory.The week’s line-up brings together pastors and literature evangelists from within the conference:* Sunday — Pastor Johannes Maluleke* Monday — Pastor Thabo Moseke* Tuesday — Elder Tobias Manqele* Wednesday — Pastor Stevens Marios* Thursday — Pastor Monde Ntshatsha* Friday — Pastor MadalaSunday’s session begins at 18:00; Monday through Friday sessions run from 19:00 to 21:00. A virtual link will be circulated to all TOC members — and the invitation extends beyond conference borders. All are welcome to join and be blessed. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  GPS: God's Positioning System 10.04.2026 24min

  In this sermon on Exodus 17:8–13, Pastor Muzuyanda Lunga draws on the Israelites’ wilderness journey to deliver three interconnected lessons about faith, prayer, and community.He begins by retracing Israel’s path from Egypt — through the Red Sea, the bitter waters of Marah, the provision of manna, and the water crisis at Rephidim — to establish a pattern: God’s people repeatedly forget His faithfulness when they encounter new difficulties. Pastor Lunga urges his listeners not to fear the future by forgetting how God has led them in the past. Whatever personal “Rephidim” someone may be facing — financial hardship, broken relationships, despair — the God of the Red Sea and Marah remains the same God, able to bring water from a rock.He then turns to the pivot of the passage: “Then came Amalek.” Pastor Lunga highlights the conjunction “then” to show that the attack followed directly on the heels of God’s provision. His first major point is that blessing attracts opposition. When God begins to move in a person’s life, jealousy, gossip, and hostility often follow — the Amalekites of everyday experience.His second point centres on Moses’ raised hands as a symbol of persistent prayer. When the hands were up, Joshua prevailed; when they dropped, Amalek gained ground. Pastor Lunga exhorts believers to defend their blessings — family, livelihood, calling — through diligent, ongoing prayer, echoing Jesus’ instruction in Luke 18:1 that we ought always to pray and not lose heart.Finally, he draws attention to Aaron and Hur, who held Moses’ weary arms aloft. The church, Pastor Lunga argues, must be a community that is praying for one another rather than preying on one another — people who will say, “Hold on, we are here,” when a brother or sister is too tired to keep their own hands raised. Victory over life’s Amalekites is won not in isolation, but on our knees and in each other’s company. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  The Wounded Healer 09.04.2026 34min

  Pastor Mongezi Maichu preached on the healing of the lame man at the Beautiful Gate (Acts 3:1-10), drawing out three interconnected themes: human brokenness as symbol, healing as narrative transformation, and the complexity of the wounded healer.He began by observing that the lame man had internalised his condition so deeply that he could only ask for alms — never for healing. His identity was fixed by his brokenness. Maichu argued that believers do the same: we define ourselves by what we’re going through rather than by what God sees in us. We sit in proximity to holiness — attending church, praying — yet remain excluded from the wholeness God offers, because we never ask for more than survival. Meanwhile, those who do enter the sanctuary fail to carry the lame man inside with them, content to toss coins rather than share the transformative power they’ve encountered.The sermon then reframed the healing as narrative reconfiguration. When Peter declared “Silver or gold I do not have,” the man’s entire identity story shifted — from beggar to witness, from excluded to restored, from passive recipient to active participant. Significantly, his first act after healing was not to go to the marketplace but to enter the temple and praise God, finally experiencing the holiness he had only been near.Maichu closed with the wounded healer motif. Peter and John could heal precisely because they themselves had been broken and remade by Christ. Their poverty — having no silver or gold — became the vehicle for divine power. In the same way, believers are not healed by having their wounds erased but by having them re-narrated within a larger story of hope, love, and peace. The call, then, is to stand tall, stretch out scarred hands, and offer others the same healing received from a wounded Messiah who meets us in solidarity with our suffering. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Godly Families 08.04.2026 26min

  Pastor Don Mabasa preached from Ephesians 5:25 and Ephesians 6:1–2, exploring God’s design for the family. His central argument was that the roles God assigns within the family — husband, wife, child — are not about authority or control, but about responsibility and peace. When husbands are told to love their wives as Christ loved the church, God is not creating a hierarchy of power; He is modelling sacrificial service. Christ gave himself up for the church, and husbands are called to do the same for their families — to prioritise, protect, and provide.Pastor Mabasa used the analogy of a car with one steering wheel: the family needs a single driver not because the passengers are inferior, but because two people steering at once guarantees chaos. The passenger’s role is equally vital; they warn of potholes, and advise on direction. Both share the same destination.He challenged husbands who boast about going to heaven alone, leaving behind wives or children who have strayed. A head of household, he insisted, bears responsibility for every soul under that roof. If they miss heaven, the failure belongs to the family leader too.He connected domestic dysfunction to church dysfunction: families that cannot forgive at home import that bitterness into worship. Couples who refuse to speak carry that silence into the congregation. Fixing the church, therefore, begins with fixing the home.He cautioned against pride — the “African man” posture that refuses correction — and against blaming the devil for problems we refuse to address ourselves. Marriage, he reminded the congregation, is not a contract between spouses but a covenant with God.Concluding with a thought from Pastor Maphanga, he urged believers to protect one another’s dignity rather than expose each other’s sins, carrying the unity built at home into the life of the church. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  David's True Strength 08.04.2026 26min

  Pastor Kevin Khabe’s sermon, delivered on the third evening of a virtual week of prayer, is grounded in 1 Samuel 30:1–8. He recounts how David and his men, having been dismissed by the Philistine commanders and sent back to Ziklag, arrived to find the city burnt and their families taken captive by the Amalekites. The men wept until they had no strength left, and in their bitterness they even spoke of stoning David. Yet in that moment of total loss — his home destroyed, his wives seized, his closest companions turned against him — David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.Pastor Khabe highlights that this was not an isolated act of faith. In 1 Samuel 23, David had already established a habit of inquiring of the Lord before acting, and God had delivered the inhabitants of Keilah through him. So when crisis struck again in chapter 30, David returned to what he knew: he called for Abiathar the priest to bring the ephod, and he asked God directly whether to pursue the Amalekites. God’s answer was unequivocal — “Pursue, for you will surely overtake them, and you will surely rescue all.”Drawing on Hebrews 4:15–16, Pastor Khabe transitions from the Old Testament ephod to the New Testament high priest, Jesus Christ, who is touched by our weaknesses and invites us to approach the throne of grace with confidence. He then turns to 2 Corinthians 4:8–9 and introduces what he calls the “but” factor — the biblical conjunction that acknowledges affliction, perplexity, and persecution, yet insists we are not crushed, not forsaken, not destroyed.He closes by paralleling David’s rescue mission with Christ’s redemptive work: just as David pursued the Amalekites and recovered everything, so Christ came to rescue all who were held captive by sin, offering salvation as a free gift to everyone who believes. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Meals on Wheels: A Leader's Summary 06.04.2026 44min

  Pastor Boichwarelo Mashishi, Trans-Orange Conference Director: Meals on WheelsCorrected TranscriptLet me take this time to greet the church of God in the wonderful name of our Lord and Saviour, Jesus Christ. The voice and the face that you are seeing belongs to Pastor Boichwarelo Mashishi, and I am the Meals on Wheels Area Director in the TOC. And I am hoping that we will have a great time together as we try to navigate through this digital world, where we do things online, making sure that our churches receive the necessary equipment and tools for us to do our departmental training together.I also want to thank the conference for giving us such platforms so that we can tell and inform the church about what we are doing and what we are about. And as you may see on your screen, it says Call to Serve. I think this is one of the pillars or one of the main cores of our existence. And this we also see from Christ — before the cross, or before he ascended — where he broke the bread and had wine with the disciples, and he did this to show them and to tell them that they need to continue serving one another and continue to be good examples to one another. So we are called to serve at Meals on Wheels. It is the same thing also, and this is our mandate — to align ourselves also with the church. So we are called to serve, and service is what we render to the public, to our churches, and to the environment itself.We get straight into our business and we talk about corporate social investment — CSI — which is our socioeconomic, ethical, and moral responsibility of corporates. This is what companies and our big corporates have the responsibility to do, and so should we also as a church — the responsibility to go into our communities and see what impact they can make, or how they can help. So each and every company has this, and so does our church.And our Christian social responsibility — we are getting to that now, into the gist of why do we exist? What is our code as a church? And I need to outline it right there and then, and say our Christian responsibility is to make sure that we cater for the social ills that we have around us — the things that we might deem not to be well, or the injustices that are happening in our communities. As a church, we need to be the voice to the voiceless. We need to be the hand that feeds, the hand that guides, the hand that makes sure that people around us are well taken care of. And this is our mission. I must also say this is our mission — as a church, as a community.And what is that social responsibility? It is a moral and internal concern with injustice in the society. Like I said, it includes poverty, discrimination, segregation, and oppression. Such concern is followed by external action in the form of social assistance or social services. That is what we need to do as a church. That is what we need to do as a people.What do we do? We take care of the injustices that are happening around us and we make sure that we do good and that everything runs accordingly.What does the church say in this regard, or in this term — social responsibility? The Seventh-day Adventist Church believes that actions to reduce poverty and its attendant injustices are an important part of our Christian responsibility. That is what we exist for. That is what we are here for as Meals on Wheels — to cater for the injustices that are happening in our community.And the Bible is clear. It reveals God's special interest in the poor, and how he deals with his people or his followers, and how we should respond also as his followers — those who are able and who have care for themselves — in caring for those who are around us. Working to reduce poverty and hunger means more than showing sympathy to the poor. It means sponsoring or participating in programmes that address the causes of poverty and hunger, helping people to build sustainable lives. One always says, the need for the church will always be there for as long as the poor are there. For as long as the poor are there, it is our mandate also as a church to exist.And what does God say? There is a well-known text that we like sharing at Meals on Wheels, and it is found in the book of Leviticus 23, verse 22, and it says: When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edge of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God.What does gleaning mean? — which is the old tradition that the Jewish community used to do. When they harvested their fields, they would not harvest everything. They would leave a certain portion which is on the edges, and you will take note — it is on the edges, where people when they walk by or pass by, it is easier for them to reach. It is easier for them to take that which you have left for them. It was a custom that is well known, and we are encouraged also as a church to follow suit, to do the same.As we continue — Desire of Ages, page 369. It reads as follows, and it is a well-known quotation also: Christ received from the Father. He imparted to the disciples. They imparted to the multitude, and the people to each one another. So all who are united in Christ will receive from him the bread of life, the heavenly food, and impart to others. It is our mandate. The Spirit of Prophecy also declares that our mandate is to make sure that whatever that we have received, we impart.Ministry of Healing, page 143 — which is a well-known quotation also that we love, that I have personally fallen in love with in the way that we do — and it is: Christ's method alone will give true success in reaching the people. The Saviour mingled with men as one who desired their good. Look, we need to mingle with men — not for the sake of programmes, not for the sake of passing time, but for the sake of desiring their good. The main purpose of us doing this is to desire people's good. He showed his sympathy for them, ministered to their needs, and won their confidence. Then he bade them, Follow me.So it does not go the other way around, where we come to people and tell them they must follow us. We need to — I think in psychology we call it — we need to build rapport, where somebody needs to trust you, somebody needs to believe in you, somebody needs to know that whatever that you are doing towards them is for their good. The sole purpose of this is to make sure that you cater for people's goodness. You want to see them good. You desire it — it is your desire. And ministering to their needs — you desire for them to be good, you minister to their needs. Before you mingle with them, there needs to be an action that is required from your side. You go to them. You want to know who they are. You want to know how you can make their lives better. After you minister to their needs, of course with sympathetic views and sympathetic connotations, then you win their confidence. After winning their confidence, the Lord always says the rest is history — then you bid them, follow me, or join us.We have about 18 Sustainable Development Goals that we as a country need to attain, need to adhere to. And I will just mention maybe the top five that somehow speak also to assessments. Number one is poverty alleviation. Number two is zero hunger. Number three is good health and wellbeing. Number four, quality education. Number five, gender equality. Like I said in the beginning, we do not segregate, we do not discriminate, we do not make the next person feel less of a human being. It is our social responsibility and it is what we do.And maybe we should add the sixth one — which is clean water and sanitation — which is something that we have been struggling with of late. It is our responsibility to make sure that these top six, at least, are something that as a church we are tied to.South Africa has been hit recently also by a number of things and I need to bring this to the attention of the church. We have been experiencing strikes or protests, COVID hit us, state capture — we are looking for jobs, recession is on its way. We are just going through a lot as a country and as the church, and we need to be relevant to all these things as a church. And this is how we are going to do it.We are presenting this to you as a church — that Meals on Wheels, or the departments of the church, or the church itself rather, should be the answer to these programmes and should be the solution to these problems.One might ask: how does Meals on Wheels feature in all of this? I am sure we are aware there are about three vehicles which are in the humanitarian space, and I am going to mention them quickly. We are aware of them. One might ask how do they intertwine or how do they work together?We have Adventist Community Services, which is your Dorcas, which is the services that the conference renders. And you will hear more, maybe in other presentations, where the director of ACS gets to tell us what they do. But we complement each other because we are in the humanitarian space.There is Meals on Wheels, which we are here for today, which is something we will be talking more about.Then we have ADRA. ADRA also works — ADRA talks to the disaster relief of the country. And by the way, we need to disclose also — ADRA is national, ADRA is worldwide. Meals on Wheels is not. ACS also is worldwide, and you find this also in our Church Manuals. But you will not find Meals on Wheels in your Church Manual. But we will deal with this as we go. And maybe by the end of this programme, we will know what we are about.About 60 odd years ago, a pastor by the name of Dennis Bird started this vehicle that we will be talking about as Meals on Wheels. It started in East London, where he was catering for and taking care of the elderly in East London. There were fewer than 20 that he was taking care of, and he saw a vision. He saw a bigger picture. And ultimately he decided that this vehicle cannot be owned or operated by me alone, and I am going to hand it over to the church. And that is where we exist today, and that is why we are here today.So Meals on Wheels is over 60 years in service. It is not a new kid on the block. It has been there for quite some time. Like I said, it is 60 years now.The national service delivery or the footprint that we have as Meals on Wheels: we have about 210 branches around the country. We have about 512 service points — with service points, we just mean places where food is being served. We have about 185 vehicles that enable us to deliver food and do our social responsibility as an organisation on a daily basis. We serve about 34 million meals per year. And I am aware that this statistic has also changed somewhat.Our national footprint when it comes to beneficiary statistics: it is about 72% of our Black people, and 20% of our Coloured community, 7% of our White people, and 1% Indian. This is the population. This is the demographic of the beneficiaries that we deal with as Meals on Wheels nationally.The mission statement of Meals on Wheels: it is transforming lives through charity in motion. Charity — the practice of being benevolent, the Christian theological concept of unlimited love and kindness. That is all that we are saying — that in everything that we are doing, charity needs to move. Charity needs to transform lives, and how do we do that? By becoming relevant, going to the people, being for the people.And our vision: our vision is a hunger-free South Africa. Look, we are aware that certain things we might not conquer as an entity and organisation alone. However, it is our mandate to make sure that South Africa is a hunger-free society.We are moving on, and now we get to our services or our basket of services, which is the basket that I am about to mention now: food security, poverty alleviation, self-sustainability, and fundraising. These are the pillars that Meals on Wheels wants to see happening.We need to ensure that suitable access to a balanced meal to the poorest of the poor in communities inside South Africa is delivered. Poverty alleviation — breaking cycles of poverty in our community, serving through lasting social and economic interventions.Self-sustainability — at one point, we always say we want to shorten the queues that we are seeing. We can always serve our people, service them, feed them. At one point there needs to be a transformation where we train them to be able to catch the fish. You can always catch fish for our people, but at one point we need to develop them. We need to make sure that people have the capacity they need to fend for themselves.And of course, fundraising — the most important one also. We need money to do service. We need money to make sure the things that we ought to do are done necessarily and in good quality, and that requires money.We are going on. I need to also mention the structure of Meals on Wheels. We have about 6 area offices in Meals on Wheels. So maybe let us start with our head office, which is in Bloemfontein, where the union is. It is called Meals on Wheels Community Services South Africa, which has 6 area offices. Maybe in terms of government language, or in terms of the church structure, we would say the head office is in Bloemfontein. Then we have provincial offices around the country, and I will mention them.We have MOWs in the NCSA — the Northern Conference of South Africa. We have one there. We have MOWs in the TOC — the Trans-Orange Conference. We also have MOWs in the Eastern Cape. We have MOWs in the Northern Cape. We have MOWs in the Western Cape, which is situated in Cape Town. All these area offices or regional offices — some of them are situated in our conferences. You go to your local conference, you will find a Meals on Wheels. You go to the KNFC conference, you will find a Meals on Wheels there — which is the last one that we have. So we have a head office in Bloemfontein and 6 area offices within our conferences.I will mention them again: MOWs NCSA, MOWs TOC, MOWs Eastern Cape, MOWs Northern Cape, MOWs Western Cape, MOWs KNFC.And now coming to our own branches here in the Trans-Orange Conference: we have about 50 branches altogether. We always call them our mini churches. TOC branches. We always say we have 50 branches in total. However, we have 48 active branches. When we say active, it means they are compliant. They are well run and they have all the structures that we need to make sure that everything runs as Meals on Wheels.I will quickly mention how many we have in each province. We have 8 branches in Mpumalanga, which forms 16% of our growth. We have 16 branches in Gauteng, which is the largest province we have when it comes to our branches. These are kitchens. So whenever I say kitchens, know that I mean branches — know that these are kitchens we serve from. And we have 11 in the Free State. We have 5 in North West. And we have 9 in Limpopo.And I need to mention also these few ones. The ones in North West — we also have a hospice in the North West in Wolmaransstad, where we have about 22 in-house patients that we are taking care of as Meals on Wheels. Which I also need to make mention of — we need help when it comes to our hospice, the running of it. We have lost a lot of sponsors. We have lost a lot of people who are helping us in terms of keeping it afloat. So yes, we need assistance there. And we have one also in the Northern Cape, which forms 2% of the total 50 that we have. But in all, it is 48 active branches that we need to mention.And now the meals that we have served over the 3 years that we have been in the area of TOC, and maybe we will do a comparison as to how they have grown. In total, we have served over the past 3 years: 33,128,000 meals in total. In 2022, we served about 8,600,000 plates. In 2023, we had about 10,000,000 plates that we served. In 2024, we had about 13,100,000 plates that we have served in our communities. So you see, it is growing and the number is not decreasing. Why? Because of the social ills that we have.And now this maybe should be something that the church needs to find out — where do they fit in?Relationship with the church — and this is what we have been doing for the past 3 years. I need to mention this and make it a statement that we internalise and we own it. Meals on Wheels South Africa — which is the national footprint — is owned and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church, through the kindness and generosity of fellow South Africans. For the last 60 years, this has been delivering a plate of food to the poorest of the poor in South Africa.What does this mean? Meals on Wheels belongs to the church. Therefore it should not be that it is Meals on Wheels at the church — we are one entity, and our mission should be one. Our goal should be one, which is to take care of our social responsibility wherever we are as a church.Now, just in terms of governance, so that we show how Meals on Wheels operates as compared to a department of the church — we always say Meals on Wheels is not a department of the church, but an organisation of the church. Know the difference. A department — you will find it in a Church Manual. Whereas Meals on Wheels — we have what we call a constitution that runs and governs Meals on Wheels. The church or the departments of the church will have a church board. We also have an organisational board.And maybe one needs to be clear and bold about what I am about to say: our board needs to be at least 98% Adventist. And I am not saying this to discriminate or to segregate, but I am saying this for one sole purpose — which is that Meals on Wheels belongs to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Therefore, people who are governing and who should sit on this board should be serving Adventists who will take care of the culture of the church, the norms of the church, the laws of the church, and also follow the principles of the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy.Then we have, as departments at the local church, we have a business meeting. Whereas in Meals on Wheels, we have what we call the highest board, which is the AGM — the Annual General Meeting — where we sit and formulate everything that we have been discussing over the boards. So let us support the difference: the department you will find in the Church Manual. Meals on Wheels you will not find in the Church Manual. However, we have a constitution. We have our own boards, which we always administer, and we deliver to people that their board needs to belong to the Seventh-day Adventist Church.We continue. Now one might ask: how do we start? As a church, where do we start?Look, with the financial crisis that we have been having in the country and also in Meals on Wheels, we always encourage the church to start something on their own first. How do we mean? Create something that will make the church fall in love with it before we get involved as Meals on Wheels. This will ensure a few things, and I will mention them.Number one, we will make sure that whoever is involved in Meals on Wheels: number one, they have the love for it. Number two, they love God's people. Number three, they love what they are doing. And the whole intention of this is to serve God. If you think you are going to do this for money, maybe this is not a platform for you, or not a thing that the church needs to start. However, you understand how influential this is — this is what you can do: you want to draw people to Christ. This is another vehicle that we can use. You want to make sure that our evangelistic campaigns run smoothly. This is another vehicle to draw people to Christ. Remember — we mingle with them, we win their confidence, we cater for their needs, we make sure that everything that they need is well taken care of. Then we bid them, join us. And this is how it starts.The church appoints a community service leader. Remember, I said this is run and operated by the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The church commences a community service programme by itself. You do this by yourself, with the involvement of the church board, and ultimately the business meeting needs to sit also and make sure that the church adopts this and embraces it. Then after some time, the church applies to Meals on Wheels for affiliation. Affiliation — you receive your own NPO registration, you become an entity on your own, then you get to be affiliated with us and we orientate. We make sure that we capacitate, we make sure that everything that we are doing is above board and not against the laws of the country.MOWs conduct a community needs assessment, which is a form that is also available from our side. We do not want to start things that will not benefit the community. We always say this, and I always reiterate this — before we think we need something for the community, let us make sure that we have the buy-in of the community. Let us make sure that it is what the community needs, and it is what we as a church believe will win souls for the Lord. So we do a needs assessment, and subject to funds, MOWs approves the application and we welcome you on board. You become part of us, where we now form a constitution together and form what we call a Meals on Wheels branch.How does this work? It means once we have adopted and approved the application that the church would have sent — of which, by the way, I will send, or it is available on request — the necessary steps for us to make sure that we have a branch at our local church. MOWs sets up infrastructure and equipment. We make sure that you have a board. We capacitate the church, making sure that the board — and maybe I should mention this — in that board, I become the chairperson of the board. Elder Dembe, who is the Finance Director of Meals on Wheels, becomes the treasurer of the board. Then the local leader that has been appointed by the church becomes the secretary of the board.Now, because of this structure, it makes governance easier and it makes our work also easier — that nobody should be an island. We cannot work in silence. We become a team. Somebody must report to somebody, or report to a board or report to an entity that we have structured.And MOWs funds and administers the branch. Like I said earlier, we take care of the money that we send to the branches, or the money that the branch raises. It cannot be administered by one person or two — it needs to be a constitution or a constituency that sits and decides: what do we do with the money? How do we raise funds? How do we make this branch run?And MOWs provides a vehicle, subject to capital funding. The branch operates, the church participates, and MOWs monitors. I like that part. Once we are fully fledged and running, you are not alone — you have a support system. The church participates as members. MOWs also monitors that we are always on point with the government laws, the country's laws, and the church principles, and also that we take care of our people the way we should.And we are almost towards the end. So this is a structure of governance or how a Meals on Wheels branch will be structured. You will see on top: the MOWs TOC AGM. And this is also the constituency that happens here in the conference. There is a MOWs TOC AGM, which sits and decides what the overall direction of the branches is supposed to be. Then we have a body that comes immediately after the AGM, which is the MOWs TOC board, consisting of people who are professionals — executive and non-executive directors — that need to be on board, that need to make sure that whatever we are doing, we are not doing it from the top of our heads. It should not be a one-person show or an individual show. No. There needs to be a body that we report to, that makes sure that everything runs accordingly.Then we have what we call a TOC MOWs subcommittee, and we have other subcommittees: we have an HR subcommittee, we have a placement committee, we have a search committee, we have a board review committee. And ultimately we will have what we call an action committee.Now, an action committee in the context of the conference will have the chairperson as the president of the conference, with two designatories that he can nominate at any time. In this case, the CFO of the conference also becomes part of the body. The executive secretary of the conference also becomes part of the body. Then comes the director of Meals on Wheels and the CFO of Meals on Wheels. The five of us form what we call an action committee.Now, an action committee in simple terms is just the steering committee — people who are taking care of the daily running of the organisation. At the branch level, it applies the same.Now, we have these structures so that there is compliance, so that there is proper reporting, so that we are accountable and transparent. Remember that at the AGM we open our books. At the AGM we invite the public, we invite churches and people to come and see what we are doing. Therefore we need to make sure that in everything that we are doing, everything is above board.This is a plate of food as Meals on Wheels provides it, and how a plate is supposed to look. Remember, we are doing this because we care for God's people. And the manner in which we treat them, the manner in which we deal with them, should constitute how we feel, or how we believe people should be treated.Now we have also, maybe a quick one, an agricultural programme that we have introduced recently into the Meals on Wheels structure. And this is talking mainly about food production, skills training, and income generation.We always say this, and I am going to say it so that we understand it: our sole purpose as Meals on Wheels — or at least my dream as a director of Meals on Wheels — is to see the queues that we have in our branches shortened, with people being capacitated, skills being transferred to them, income-generating projects being created, businesses being created. We can always feed our people — I strongly believe we are sometimes enabling dependency. At one point we need to teach them how to catch a fish. We need to teach them how to sustain themselves. And this is a programme that the church can also dive in with us. We have got farms around. We have got agricultural specialists within Meals on Wheels. We have got skills developers in Meals on Wheels that are willing and able to say, once we have a branch or once we have a programme that a church needs us to help with, we can do that also as Meals on Wheels. Even on a smaller scale, like our conference — it does not have to be only at head office where they are doing these things. We are also saying: trust us, call us if you need us. Let us see what we can do so that we make sure that the social ills that are around us — we become the solution, the answer to them.Disaster relief — Meals on Wheels is heavily involved and we are still one of the best humanitarian aid organisations that we have, where when disaster strikes, we are there with a warm plate. We are there to provide at least temporary solutions when it comes to feeding our people on a daily basis. You will remember the floods in KwaZulu-Natal. We remember the floods in Mpumalanga and in Limpopo. We were there on the ground making sure that our people are fed. So we respond to disasters as Meals on Wheels.Like I said earlier on, skills development — we have a department which is close to my heart also in Meals on Wheels, which is called Training and Development — and in more recent times it has been called the Training and Agricultural Department — where we try to give skills to our people, where we try to capacitate our people. There are a lot of things that Meals on Wheels has done so far: canned food, where we produce leather, where we turn skins into bags, into belts, into diaries, into things that the market currently needs. So we give you a skill. With that skill, you are able to translate it into an income-generating project or a skill that can give you an income.We also have a department of caregiving in Meals on Wheels, which is a programme that has been there for years. We have hospices in Meals on Wheels. Like I said, in the TOC we have one in Wolmaransstad, within the TOC territory, where we are doing training as caregivers, where we are having people who are taking care of our frail, elderly people who cannot do anything for themselves. And this is a call to us, or from us, as Meals on Wheels to say: the church needs to be involved. The church needs to be part of this. The church needs to be the impact, the vehicle, that makes sure that all these things that are happening are done under the umbrella of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.Over the years, we have had the following — just to mention a few of them — sponsors that have made sure that the things that we are doing are relevant to our community. These are but a few of our donors and sponsors — people who have seen the value of Meals on Wheels. And I will mention a few that have really come to the party.Our government has done its part. Premier Foods, Shoprite, The Nelson Mandela Foundation, Mamba Cement — which is one of our long-term sponsors, which also has a branch, by the way, in Limpopo area, Thabazimbi, where 100% of their needs are taken care of by Mamba Cement. We have had Kaya FM on board also. The Department of Social Development, which takes care of making sure that we are compliant, making sure that everything that we do is above board. The South African government — like I said, we cannot thank them enough. The corporates that you see on the screen, the partnerships that we have created, the offshore funders that we have, the trusts and estates.And more especially you — as a church member, as a leader, as a person who wants to concentrate on this part of the work that the church needs to be part of — we need your help. We need your support. We need you to train others. We need you to become a relevant tool to our community.And I must say, and with this I will round up: did you know? Meals on Wheels is not funded by tithe or offerings, but is independently sustained on fundraising and business relations with government and other sponsors to fulfil its God-given mission. So we do not receive much from the church. But this vehicle belongs to the church. And it is our call, our plea, that the church be part of this programme. Let the church be part of this organisation. For when we hold each other, when we go forward with one another, the load and the work become much easier.Meals on Wheels is a registered non-profit organisation that has spiritual and organisational accountability to God and the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It has operational and fiduciary accountability to our government, funders, and sponsors. So we report — whatever that we get, whatever that we receive from our donors, whatever we get from people who have seen the need for Meals on Wheels to exist, we report. And this is our mandate as a church. This is our mandate as Meals on Wheels. And this is the answer that we are presenting to the community.What can I do to help?Volunteer. We need volunteers to participate in the MOWs operations at local branches, participating in the MOWs governance structure, which is our boards. We need professionals. We need qualified people to sit on our boards. We need people who can be held accountable — people who will not just be doing things for the sake of doing them, but people with great integrity, people who see the work the way we do.We need donors. We need to donate to MOWs. We can donate in the form of monetary value, or in the form of the things that we have that can make Meals on Wheels run smoothly.Fundraising for MOWs — like I said, some of the committees that we have on our boards, their purpose is to fundraise for the local branch, making sure that the local branches, the national office, and the conference offices where MOWs is situated, have proper funding and income coming through.Spread the word about MOWs and pray for MOWs. That is what we can do. And we are calling for help. We are calling for us to take MOWs as our vehicle to do the more that we want to see in our community.People do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care. I will repeat it: people do not care how much you know, until they know how much you care. Let us care for our people. Let us care enough to make sure that we raise awareness about the work that MOWs is doing, and the job that we ought to do as a church.Introspection:If your church building were to catch fire, will the community fuel its fire or help to extinguish it? Are we relevant to the community? Are we there to cater for God's people?If your church were to be closed, will the community protest against its closure? Are we relevant as a church? Or are we just existing as a church, and people do not even know our worth? People do not even know what we ought to do as a church.And I would like to thank you, members, for the opportunity of listening to me, and I want to urge us: let us be visible. Let us help to make sure that this vehicle becomes stronger than it is, and this vehicle becomes the best that we can be. And together, we can do so much more. Together, we can make sure that everything that we are doing becomes a success. Everything that we are doing becomes the epitome of what God has called us to, or what God has made sure that this vehicle becomes — a glove in a hand that the church can use to call people to his kingdom.May we be blessed. And if we have questions, we are available as Meals on Wheels. We are on the social platforms and you will see details that will follow after this presentation on how a church can become affiliated to Meals on Wheels.May the good Lord bless us all. May he keep us and may he make sure that we become the best that we are. May the good Lord teach us individually to know that the good that we are doing is not for our own glory, but for the kingdom of God. May the good Lord continue to bless us. Amen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Church Clerks: A Leader's Summary 06.04.2026 1h 36min

  The Most Underestimated Office in the Local ChurchThe church clerk is not a note-taker. They are not simply the person who types up what happened at the last board meeting. The church clerk is the custodian of the church’s institutional memory — the officer responsible for every record, every minute, every membership change, every statistical report, and every delegate submission that comes out of the local church. When the church clerk does their work well, the church functions with integrity and accountability. When they do it poorly — or when no one teaches them how to do it at all — the consequences can follow a congregation for years.Pastor Maseko’s appeal to pastors and elders to watch this presentation alongside their clerks is not incidental. It is the key. A clerk who knows what they are doing but works in a leadership environment that does not support or understand their role will constantly be fighting uphill. The pastor, elder, and clerk must speak the same language. This summary is written with all three in mind.The Eight Functions Every Clerk Must KnowThe church clerk’s work falls into eight distinct functions, and each of them matters.Record keeping is the foundation of everything else. All records of the church — minutes, membership documents, correspondence, transfer letters, profession of faith letters — are kept by the clerk. This includes the obligation to hand over everything properly when a new clerk takes office. A culture of handover is not optional. If you leave office without giving the incoming clerk a proper transition — including a crash course on how things have been done — you are leaving the church vulnerable. This is why the church should buy the clerk’s equipment. If the notebooks, the laptop, and the printed records belong to the church, they stay with the church when the clerk leaves. A clerk who buys their own material and takes it when they go has not done anything wrong personally — but the system fails.Writing minutes is the function most clerks do most often, and most clerks do it incorrectly. Minutes do not record conversations. They record decisions. The difference is significant. Whatever deliberation happens in the room — whoever said what, who agreed, who pushed back — stays in the room. What the clerk captures is the resolution: what the church voted to do, expressed clearly and completely. The “whereas” preamble is the tool that gives those resolutions context without narrating the debate. Whereas the church’s chairs have become a health hazard; whereas they keep breaking every Sabbath — voted to mandate the treasurer and deacons to acquire new chairs. That is a complete, clean minute. The action is numbered, the item is named, the decision is recorded. No one who reads it in five years needs to have been in the room to understand what happened and what was decided.Every set of minutes must include: the date and time of the meeting, the nature of the meeting (church board, business meeting, building committee — specify), the presiding officer’s name, members present, apologies, the agenda items, and the actions taken. And the clerk is responsible for following up on every action voted. The meeting does not end when the chairperson closes — for the clerk, it continues until every resolution has been implemented or formally deferred.Reporting to the conference is non-negotiable and it is failing across the TOC. Statistical reports must be sent to the conference every quarter. These reports travel from the local church to the conference, to the union, to the division, to the General Conference. When a church does not report, its members are not counted in the global church’s numbers. More practically — the conference cannot see whether it is growing or declining, cannot identify which age groups are leaving, cannot design strategies for retention, and cannot give pastors accurate reports to submit to the president’s office. The pastor’s report depends on the clerk’s statistics. When the clerk does not send them, they expose their pastor.Effecting membership changes is perhaps the most procedurally complex function. No member is added to or removed from the record book without the vote of the business meeting — with two exceptions: death (where you simply record the date of death next to the name) and resignation (where the church board alone may accept the resignation, without public discussion). Everything else — baptism, transfer, profession of faith, dropping a member as missing, disciplinary removal — requires the full church at a business meeting to vote. Not the church board. The business meeting. A clerk who removes names on their own authority, for any reason, is acting outside their mandate.Membership transfers require particular care. When a member requests a transfer out, the process begins with a letter from the clerk to the receiving church. The member is not removed from the record book until a return certificate arrives confirming that the other church has accepted them. A transfer letter is valid for six months. Dropping a member before the return certificate arrives means that person floats without membership — and if anything happens to them during that period, they are unconnected to any church. Keep them on your roll until the certificate arrives. And never transfer anyone without their explicit consent. Discovering that your membership has moved without your knowledge is a violation of trust.Session delegate submission belongs exclusively to the church clerk. Not the pastor. Not the elder. The business meeting chooses the delegate — the board recommends, but only the business meeting votes — and then the clerk submits the name to the conference secretariat office. That is the only route. The conference will not accept delegate names submitted by anyone other than the church clerk.Corresponding with absent members is a pastoral responsibility that falls to the clerk. When a member moves to another city, the clerk’s job is not simply to note their absence — it is to find them a church before they leave, inform the church in their new location that they are coming, and give the departing member the contact details of where they should worship. This prevents people from slipping away from the church entirely during transitions. It is also part of what “missing” actually means: you only drop someone as missing when you genuinely do not know where they are and cannot find them despite genuine effort. Knowing someone lives in the township but is not coming to church does not make them missing. The Church Manual forbids dropping members for non-attendance.Maintaining committee lists with their members, terms of reference, and outlined duties rounds out the clerk’s responsibilities. The clerk is the record keeper for the entire governance structure of the church, not just for themselves.The Membership Record Book: Four Things That Often Go WrongMembers must be listed chronologically — in the order they joined, not alphabetically. Someone baptised in January 2026 is listed before someone baptised in September 2026, regardless of the alphabetical order of their surnames. The membership section must never be blank while the church exists. Supporting documents for every member must be filed and kept, not discarded after use. And whenever a membership status changes, the reason must be noted alongside the change — apostasy with the business meeting date, death with the date of death, transfer with the date the return certificate was received, missing with the business meeting date, and resignation with the church board date.Profession of Faith: The Four CircumstancesThere are exactly four situations in which a member may be accepted on profession of faith, and the Church Manual is specific. First, someone baptised by immersion in another denomination. Second, an existing Adventist member unable to get a transfer letter due to wartime conditions in their home country. Third, an existing Adventist member whose written requests to their home church for a transfer have received no response — in this case, the conference must be contacted to help trace the membership before a decision is made. Fourth, someone whose membership was dropped as missing but who has remained demonstrably faithful to Adventist principles in the interim. Before accepting anyone on profession of faith, consult the conference. This is not a decision the local church should make alone.The ACMS System: What Every Clerk Needs to KnowPhumula Motha’s ACMS training walks through the four most common tasks a clerk performs in the system, and the most important thing she establishes at the outset is this: ACMS does not replace the church’s processes. It records them. A transfer still requires two readings in the church and a business meeting vote. A censure still requires the church board process. The system captures what has happened through the proper channels — it is not an override of those channels.Generating a membership list: go to Menu → Reports → Member → Member → Lists. The system displays every member registered to that church, which is why ACMS is so valuable — a lost physical record book does not mean lost membership data if the information has been properly entered.Adding a new member: go to Menu → Member → Search/New → New. Search the name first to avoid duplicates. If the search returns no results, create a new record and select the appropriate entry type — Baptism or Profession of Faith. Fill in the baptism date, the officiating pastor, gender, and date of birth. The contact information section is critical — this is how both the secretariat and the treasury department communicate with the member. Save the record. The system also allows you to add Interests — people who are studying or visiting but are not yet members. These records are separate from the membership count and serve as a pastoral tracking tool for prospects.Changing a member’s status: go to Member → Search/New → Search, find the member, click the three dots, and select Transaction. The status options are Death, Censure, Removal, Absent/Whereabouts, and Adjust Out. Death changes the member’s status to deceased. Censure records the church board process and the duration, but does not remove the member — they remain a member under censure. Removal records the business meeting decision that formally ends membership. Absent/Whereabouts records the missing declaration but also does not change the member’s active status — they remain on the roll. Adjust Out is used specifically to merge duplicate profiles, not to remove a member from the church.Transferring a member: go to Menu → Transfer → Start New Transfer. Search the member’s name, confirm it is the correct person, select them, and initiate the transfer. The system then notifies both churches as the process moves through its stages. The first and second readings still happen in the physical church meeting — ACMS records the dates of each stage as they are completed.The Non-Negotiable: Get on ACMSThe TOC’s goal is 100% ACMS enrolment — not merely capturing data, but actively using the system. For clerks who do not have a laptop, the church should buy one. This is an appeal to church boards: the clerk’s tools are the church’s tools. Every local church should have a safe or secure storeroom where church property — books, equipment, archives — is kept permanently. Things belonging to the church should stay in the church.For technical support, Sister Phumula Motha is the ACMS coordinator at the TOC office. Clerks can reach her by emailing [email protected] or calling the conference reception. The WhatsApp group for clerks is the primary communication channel for forms, updates, and guidance from the secretariat — if you are a clerk and you are not in that group, contact the office immediately.A Final WordColossians 3:23-24 is the text Phumula Motha closes with, and it applies perfectly to this office: Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters. The church clerk is not serving the pastor. They are not serving the elder. They are not even serving the conference. They are serving the church, and behind the church, they are serving God. Every name recorded accurately, every minute written clearly, every statistical report sent on time, every member traced and cared for — all of it is labour that outlasts the individual who did it and shapes the community that comes after.The church clerk who understands that will approach even the most routine part of their work with a different kind of seriousness. And the pastors and elders who understand it will give their clerk the support, the equipment, the training, and the respect that the office deserves. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Voice of Prophecy (VOP): A Leader's Summary 06.04.2026 1h 12min

  One Tool, One PurposeVoice of Prophecy exists for one reason: connecting people with God. That is the slogan, and Pastor Ngcobo means it literally. VOP is not a publishing initiative, not a correspondence hobby, and not a programme for members who enjoy Bible quizzes. It is a structured evangelistic engine designed to bring the gospel to communities — systematically, measurably, and repeatedly — until Jesus comes.The vision of VOPTOC is to prepare Trans-Orange Conference communities and beyond: people who love the Lord of the Bible, whose lifestyles are governed by the Word of God, and who are ready for the soon return of Jesus Christ. Everything else in the presentation — the structures, the coordinators, the graduation dates, the baptism targets — serves that single vision. A leader who understands this will run the department very differently from one who sees it as a departmental box to tick.What VOP Actually Is: The Community Bible School ModelThe TOC has chosen a specific model for implementing VOP: the Community Bible School (CBS). A Community Bible School is a local church that conducts regular Bible study classes for interested students using VOP lessons. Those lessons can be marked by trained individuals in the local church or sent to VOP Headquarters in Claremont, Cape Town, for marking. When a local church registers as a Community Bible School, it becomes, in effect, an extension of VOP Headquarters — bringing the lessons to where people already are.This is the critical distinction: VOP is not primarily for church members studying among themselves. It is for the community. The target is people outside the church. Every church in the TOC is encouraged to open its doors and its VOP programme to community members, because that is what the tool was designed for.The CBS coordinator is the person who makes all of this happen at the local church level. The Church Manual, 20th edition, page 107, describes the role clearly: the Bible School coordinator organises and coordinates the church’s Bible School outreach ministry to the community. This person does not work alone. They work with a committee that includes the pastor as ex-officio, an elder as ex-officio, the Personal Ministries leader, the interest coordinator, and the Children’s Ministries coordinator. The pastor is not optional — the pastor must be involved and must be seen to support the ministry.The Structure: From Local Church to ConferenceEvery church needs a VOP coordinator. In churches where manpower is limited, the VOP coordinator can be coupled with the Publishing Department — indeed, at the conference level, VOP and Publishing are already paired together. But the minimum expectation is one identifiable person in each church who is responsible for the CBS programme.That coordinator is accountable to the local church board, operates through a committee, and reports upward to the conference. The reporting chain matters because it is the data — enrolment numbers, certifications, graduation counts, baptisms — that tells the conference whether the work is gaining ground. Churches that do not report risk being deregistered at VOP Headquarters. This is not an administrative technicality — it is the mechanism that keeps the whole network connected and functioning.At the conference level, Pastor Ngcobo and Elder Lungile Kanye serve as the primary points of contact. The TOC has a WhatsApp group for VOP coordinators where forms, announcements, and updates are shared. If you are a VOP coordinator and you are not in that group, you need to be. The group is the primary communication channel for the network.Registering as a Community Bible SchoolIf your church is not yet registered as a CBS, the process is straightforward. The church clerk or VOP coordinator writes a letter or email to Sister Fiona Rodney at the VOP Headquarters accounts clerk address, requesting the registration forms. That email must CC the VOP director at Headquarters (Pastor Patrick [surname unclear]), the VOPTOC director (Pastor Ngcobo), Elder Lungile Kanye, and the local pastor. If any of these are missing from the email, the application will not be considered. Once registered, the church can receive lessons from the TOC office free of charge. Lessons obtained directly from VOP Headquarters in Claremont must be paid for, along with courier costs.Online enrolment is also possible for students, but they must be registered under a CBS in the TOC territory. This option is available through the conference office.The Courses AvailableVOP offers eight progressive stages of Bible study, beginning with Discovery — which is the entry point and the one Pastor Ngcobo focuses on most. Discovery has 26 lessons and is available in English, Afrikaans, isiXhosa, Sesotho, Shona, Chichewa, and Portuguese. The isiZulu programme has 24 lessons. Each subsequent stage deepens the study, with Faith for Today as stage two, continuing through to stage eight.What many leaders do not know is that VOP also has a dedicated programme for children. Good News for Kids (ages 7–12) has 24 lessons in English, Afrikaans, and isiXhosa. Kids’ Zone (ages 7–12) has 14 lessons. Troubleshooters for Teens covers ages 13–19. Children are not the church of the future — they are the church of today, and they are full participants in the VOP programme. Churches are expected to be enrolling children from their communities alongside adults.Reporting, Graduations, and BaptismsQuarterly reporting is mandatory. Every VOP coordinator must submit reports to VOP Headquarters and the conference covering enrolment numbers, certifications, graduations, and baptisms. These statistics are not bureaucratic exercises — they are how the conference tracks whether it is making evangelistic progress across its territory. They are also how the conference advocates for the churches at headquarters level. A church that does not report disappears from the network.Graduations require specific protocol. When students complete a stage of lessons, the coordinator emails Sister Fiona Rodney at VOP Headquarters to request certificates. Once the certificates arrive, the coordinator informs the VOPTOC department and requests an official graduation date. The conference must officiate all graduations. Churches are explicitly instructed not to organise their own graduation without a conference designee present. The reason for this is both quality and visibility — every graduation is an opportunity to demonstrate VOP’s work to the broader church, and to invite VOP Headquarters representatives to see what is happening in the TOC territory.Proposed graduation dates for the remainder of this term are set at regular intervals from April through June, with further dates from July to December. Churches are encouraged to plan graduations as zones or pastoral districts rather than individual congregations, to maximise the celebration and the witness.The Baptism Target: The Number Every Leader Needs to KnowEvery Community Bible School is expected to produce a minimum of 5 baptisms per graduation. Twice a year, every church. The mathematics are direct and Pastor Ngcobo does them publicly.411 churches. 5 baptisms each. Two graduations per year. That is 4,110 baptisms annually from VOP alone. Over two years — 2026 and 2027 — that is 8,220 souls added to the kingdom. And that, he notes, is the minimum. He believes God will exceed it.The significance of this target is not the arithmetic — it is the accountability it creates. Every leader now knows what is expected of their church. The graduation is not the finish line. The graduation morning is for celebration. The graduation afternoon is for baptism. Students who complete VOP lessons are expected to have been discipled to the point of making a public decision. VOP is not a Bible study programme that happens to occasionally produce baptisms — it is an evangelistic programme in which baptism is the planned outcome.The November 2026 Campaign and the 2027 Mass GraduationTwo major initiatives anchor the VOP calendar for this period.In November 2026, VOPTOC will conduct a public evangelistic campaign in collaboration with the SSPM department and Pastor Mavuso. This campaign is designed to be the reaping moment — the harvest of the soil preparation work that Community Bible Schools will have done throughout the year. The specific location will be confirmed through further communication, but every church should be building toward it from now.In March or April 2027, the TOC is planning a mass graduation event for a thousand children — ages 7 to 12, with teenagers from 13 to 19 also included. This is not a distant aspiration. Planning is already underway. The children’s graduations being conducted in local churches throughout 2026 are explicitly described as springboards for this event. Baptisms of teenagers who have made decisions through the programme will be part of the same occasion. Every church enrolling children now is contributing directly to the 2027 milestone.What Is Needed from Every LeaderThe conference has committed to training workshops across all six provinces in the TOC territory. Gauteng has already been covered — over 200 leaders attended. The remaining regions are being scheduled for May and June 2026. VOP coordinators must attend. Elders are strongly encouraged to attend. Pastors are pleaded with to either attend or send representation and confirm their support.The conference has also committed to coming to the churches — to district-level training, to officiating at graduations, to supporting coordinators who have ideas they do not know how to implement. The door is open. What the conference needs from local leaders is simple: appoint your coordinator, form your committee, register your church, enrol your community, report your results, and show up for the graduations.The theme for this term is Grounded in the Bible, Focused on the Mission. Voice of Prophecy is the department that operationalises the focused-on-the-mission half of that phrase. It is the engine. Every other form of evangelism the church does will be made stronger if VOP is working in the community first. When a public campaign arrives in November, the community that has been studying VOP lessons will be ready for it. When a Pathfinder visits a neighbour, the invitation lands in soil that VOP has already been preparing. The tool works. What it needs is the leaders who will use it. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL): A Leader's Summary 05.04.2026 26min

  Pastor Mbuyiseni Mahlangu, Trans-Orange Conference Director: PARLCorrected TranscriptWelcome, everyone, to this presentation and training. Today we will be beginning our comprehensive training on the work, mission, and purpose of the Public Affairs and Religious Liberty Department, commonly known as PARL. My name is Pastor Mbuyiseni Mahlangu, the director of the department.So our objective of the session is threefold. First, is to ensure that every leader here understands PARL's global mission and why it is essential to the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Secondly, to build and strengthen your capacity as leaders representing our church in the public space. Thirdly, to take a deep dive into the policies, practices, and responsibilities expected of everyone who is a representative of the department.So let us begin. We know that by the end of this training, you will be equipped with the knowledge and tools to function effectively as ambassadors for Christ, both in the church and also in the world.So, what then is PARL?PARL is the acronym which stands for Public Affairs and Religious Liberty. And PARL is the public affairs and advocacy arm of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. It carries the responsibility of promoting our identity, our mission, and our message to the world. This includes interaction with government officials, civil leaders, religious bodies, and social influencers. One of our core responsibilities is defending and promoting religious liberty — not only for Adventists, but for all people.So PARL ensures that every church is viewed as a positive and constructive presence in the society. It is seen as an asset that is committed to education, health, humanitarian aid, justice, and peace.And therefore, as leaders of the department, we know that PARL has some pillars. And we are going to look into some of the pillars that govern PARL. It operates mainly in these four pillars. Number one: justice — which is standing with the oppressed, and advocating for fairness and freedom, especially freedom of conscience, which is central to all other freedoms. And restoration — healing societal divisions and upholding human dignity. And global cooperation — working with international partners to promote peace, dignity, and human rights. These pillars guide our work and reflect God's character of love and justice. They are very important to the department.And therefore our mandate — if you understand these pillars — is that at the heart and at the core of PARL, it includes key areas of responsibility. We build constructive relationships with government leaders and diplomats and political leaders. Our mandate is also to engage in diplomatic networking, which involves attending events, participating in dialogue, and contributing to the national and international conversation about freedom and human dignity. We advocate for human rights, especially freedom of conscience and belief. And we help maintain the public reputation of our church.Ultimately, PARL then helps ensure that the church's mission can be advanced without any obstacles. Therefore, PARL functions in wide-ranging and strategic positions, which monitor global and local religious freedom conditions to identify potential threats or trends affecting Adventists or other groups. We also represent the church in interfaith and interchurch settings, always maintaining our doctrinal identity while building bridges of respect. PARL handles legal mediation when Adventists face discrimination in education, employment, or public life. And finally, we lead the church on advocacy strategy, ensuring that we are proactive, informed, and engaged in protecting freedom and justice.Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ.Because PARL works in more policy and diplomacy, it is deeply spiritual. Every Adventist is called to serve as an ambassador of Christ, and this calling sets the foundation for public engagement. We are therefore called to stand in the gap as ambassadors for Christ. And as PARL leaders, we are therefore expected to be trustworthy, true to the cause, and to stand for the right even when everyone else does not stand for it. We represent not only the church organisation, but the values of the kingdom of God to everyone on earth. So we are a voice for the voiceless, and we are people who advocate for peace where there is no peace. Therefore, with this training, we believe that you will be assisted to embody this role effectively and faithfully in every context where you find yourselves in.And as I have indicated, we function in different spheres of life. But why, therefore, is there a need for PARL? How is it founded?Since we are a faith organisation, we know that PARL has a biblical foundation. It is founded on the Bible. And we can summarise this biblical foundation of PARL in three major texts. Isaiah 58, where the chapter is indicating and promoting justice, compassion, and breaking the chains of the oppressed — the Spirit of the Lord is upon me, and he has sent me to set captives free. That is part of the functions and the responsibility, the foundation of PARL. And then Luke 4, which declares his mission to bring freedom, liberation, and healing to every soul. We are therefore founded in that text. And then 2 Corinthians 5, where all believers are called to the ministry of reconciliation. We are therefore, as members and people that believe in this mission, that every person must be reconciled to themselves and also mainly to God.So these passages then underscore that PARL is not merely a departmental function. It is part of the global mandate. Our work is biblical, prophetic, and central to the mission of the church.So our strategic objectives then focus on three main objectives.Visibility — we ensure that leaders and communities know who Adventists are and what they contribute. Credibility — building trust through integrity, professionalism, and consistency. Partnership — forming relationships with government officials, NGOs, academic institutions, and religious bodies to advocate for dignity, justice, and peace. We cannot stand far and separate ourselves from these institutions. We must be people who are part of these institutions as Adventists, so that the voice of the voiceless is heard by those who are part of these organisations.So we urge every Adventist, wherever you are, to be involved in the advocacy for peace, advocacy for justice, and the dignity of human life. And as representatives, we must position ourselves and the church as people who hold respected values and who value the voice of society. So we must advocate for our organisation — the Seventh-day Adventist Church — in the societies where we are. And as indicated, we therefore must be visible. We must lead with dignity and credibility. We pray, we build trust through integrity. And then we must have partnerships with different religious organisations, NGOs, and different government entities. Why? Because at PARL, we understand that religious liberty is essential to every human being.Religious liberty is at the core of PARL's identity.This includes the freedom of conscience. The world we live in is deaf to conscience. Therefore, we need, as leaders, to come up and conscientise the world of the ills that are found on this earth, and of the second coming of Jesus Christ that is going to solve all the challenges of this earth.Freedom — to believe, and also freedom to believe what you see as right. And as Adventists, therefore, we must not be found in environments where we impede and hinder other people to believe. We must be able to teach, with respect, our own belief systems, but allow people to express themselves, so that when they are heard, we also want to be heard and allowed to believe. Freedom must allow people to practise, worship, and express one's faith, because freedom is at the core of PARL.And we know that freedom is not only a human right — the idea of freedom is a theological necessity. Without freedom, love cannot exist. Without freedom, worship cannot be genuine. And our mission is to preserve freedom for everyone, including these different religious entities that we might not agree with. We may not agree with the belief system, but we can interact with them in dignity and also with respect. Because religious freedom is their right. It is a divine gift. A social necessity. People must be free to socially engage in religious freedom, which is also a foundation for justice and equality. If we do not allow people, if we do not speak up for people to practise their freedom, we are therefore hindering their right to worship God.And thus, therefore, as part of being an organisation that believes in religious liberty, we must then advocate for the protection of all freedoms — political, social, cultural, and economic. People must be free to engage.Also, it is important that as PARL leaders, we engage in interfaith relations.When we relate to people outside of our faith, we do so with humility, respect, and openness. When we are open to listen to the other — there is a scholar I like by the name of Levinas, a philosopher. He says, when you view someone else's culture, whether it is culture or religion, you must view them from the perspective of the other. In other words, you set aside your own privileges and step into the shoes of the people, and understand where they are. When you are done doing that, then you can bring your ideas to that environment. We must not look at other religions from the perspective of being Adventist, but we must get close and understand, so that we can be able to teach what we believe. Because we are looking to share values like compassion, justice, and dignity, without compromising our doctrines. We do not compromise on our doctrines. As we invite the other into our space, we do not compromise on our doctrines, but we look at shared values. We build bridges without blending belief systems. Our goal is mutual understanding, not syncretism. Our witness must always be fruitful and gracious as we interact with other people of interfaith backgrounds.And these interchurch relations and interfaith relations — with other Christians, we share deep common ground. We pray with them, collaborate with them in humanitarian work, and uphold shared moral values. But we avoid doctrinal ecumenism, which is an alliance that will compromise our prophetic identity. Our relationships must balance friendship with faithfulness. As we interact with them, we do not find ourselves in doctrinal ecumenism.And also, we must engage with governments.Engaging with governments requires professionalism, diplomacy, and awareness of political dynamics. When you are in a political space, you must, as a PARL advocate and as an Adventist, read the room. Do not just criticise or promote your politics. That is why as Adventists and leaders, we are required to be apolitical, so that we can engage with all political organisations, all governments, all diplomatic agencies, so that we are able to preach the Christ we believe in. We must follow protocol, respect government structures, and speak with clarity and integrity. Our presence should inspire confidence, not suspicion. We work to show that Adventists are partners for the common good, not people who are against government officials. So when you engage with governments, we must show that we want partnership, and as we get this partnership, they will then assist us in terms of the challenges that we have.So there are real issues that PARL leaders are dealing with. This could be Sabbath accommodation, school examination conflicts, church registration challenges, and workplace discrimination. These cases will then help us to apply our principles in a way that is practical. Every case requires sensitivity, wisdom, and commitment.How then do we interact with that? Let us see. There are a few solutions.Number one: if there is a Sabbath issue in your workplace, we engage your employer or educator as soon as possible with a clear written request. You provide your legal documentation supporting your Sabbath right, suggest an alternative work or exam time, and offer to compensate for any hours where appropriate. You escalate the matter to HR or legal authorities if necessary. This can be accessed through the conference and the pastorate on the ground. Please engage.There are also conflicts when it comes to exams. You submit a formal exemption request citing religious observance as early as possible. Do not wait until it is too late to submit that. Propose the alternative exam slot — it could be Friday morning, Sunday, or weekday mornings. Work with the school board to develop standing policies for Sabbath-observing students. Provide supporting letters from church leadership. Document every interaction, also for legal protection. We can also assist with the writing of letters at the conference.Other challenges would be church registration or legal recognition, which requires constitutional documents, leadership lists, and property details. You need to build a rapport with registration authorities through respectful and consistent follow-up. Work with legal counsel to ensure compliance with national legislation. There are legal channels in the church where you can work with and be guided legally. Engage PARL at the conference and union level for government-level advocacy, and request review meetings if applicable and if a situation is denied. So we must be diplomatic in everything that we do.As I have indicated, whether there are school matters, whether it is church registration, you consult first. Whether it is Sabbath accommodation, you consult — you do not fight the institution where you are.And then there are instances where workplace discrimination takes place. You file an internal grievance report, request reasonable accommodation under the law — labour law. You seek legal advice. Provide the church with your religious practices documentation. And if unresolved, escalate the matter to the Labour Commission or Equality Tribunal. Maintain professionalism and composure throughout the process. Always seek advice.Therefore, as a leader of PARL, there are skills that are needed.Number one, you must be emotionally intelligent — which simply means understanding people and situations. Read the room. Do not talk out of context. Read the room and understand how to engage with people. Silence is sometimes the best solution to our problems. Do not just talk — read the room and understand how to engage with people.Another skill is diplomacy — speaking wisely and respectfully. Do not be rough. Do not shout at people. Be diplomatic, be smart. The goal here is not to win every argument. The goal here is to represent the Christ who lives in you.You also need skills of crisis communication — which simply means staying calm under pressure. When there is pressure, you remain calm. You do not fight, do not throw tantrums, but you remain calm as a leader.So when you do all that, you become a person who understands that you are able to solve and engage all crises that might arise. Very, very important — as a crisis communicator, you speak clearly, you are calm, and you speak accurately when facing certain challenges such as religious freedom violations, media scrutiny, political tension, public misunderstanding of the church's beliefs, or emergencies involving church members or institutions.Most importantly — I cannot stress this enough — emotional intelligence is very important, which is the ability to understand, regulate, and respond appropriately to emotions, both your own and those of others. So you must therefore regulate your emotions. Do not be an overly emotional person. Always remain calm.We therefore wish you well as leaders who are going to be leading the department. May God bless you. Speak for the voiceless. Seek justice. Seek peace. Seek freedom for everyone. Blessings to you all. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Possibility Ministries: A Leader's Summary 05.04.2026 35min

  Pastor Treasure Nkuna, Trans-Orange Conference Director: Possibility MinistriesCorrected TranscriptAll right. Greetings, beloved, in Jesus' name. We are so thankful for the opportunity that we have to minister and to work with you. My name is Pastor Treasure Nkuna, and I am the Possibility Ministries Director, together with you. I am your team leader and we are here to work together with you, even as Possibility Ministries leaders across the Trans-Orange Conference. We are so thankful that you are a part of this ministry and a part of this leadership training. I am so excited to be here with you and I want to just start our training and talk to us so that we can minister together.But before we start, let us start with a word of prayer. Father in heaven, thank you so much for the privilege you have given us to be together as leaders within the Adventist Possibility Ministries. Be with us now, even as we enter this particular training and session. This is our prayer in Jesus' name. Amen.Beloved, thank you so much. This is Adventist Possibility Ministries, and we are here together as leaders, and we are here to work together within this ministry. This is one of those ministries that most people do not know what to do with within the churches. Some churches do not even have this ministry. But I want to guarantee — this is a very broad ministry, and all of us can benefit from this particular ministry.There are myths and legends out there. People say, well, we do not have disabled people in the church, therefore there is no need for us to elect an Adventist Possibility Ministries leader. Yes, there is a need for you to do that. You might not have a disabled member in the traditional sense, but you have widows. You have orphans in the church. Those are your demographic. They form a part of our ministry as well. More than that, our ministry is so huge. It is so huge. It goes beyond the church walls. It even includes our community members as well. And so I want us to work together, even as we go through this particular session and this training, and be able to work together in this particular ministry.Let me start off with a passage of scripture. But before I read this scripture, look here. This is our Possibility Ministries logo — the Adventist Possibility Ministries logo — and we are saying everyone must be included within the church. Next to it is another ministry that very few people know about. This is our Adventist Deaf Ministries. That is the international logo for the deaf as we have it within our ministries. But I want to start with this text so that you appreciate the biblical foundation of what we are doing in our ministry.Moses felt that he was disabled. He felt that he was so disabled there was nothing that he could do. He could not participate in mission. He could not participate in kingdom work. Watch what the Bible says in regard to that kind of thinking, which is so prevalent within our church spaces as well.Moses said to the Lord — Exodus chapter 4, verse 10 and 11, pardon me. Moses said to the Lord: Pardon your servant, Lord. I have never been eloquent, neither in the past, nor since you have spoken to your servant. I am slow in speech and tongue. This is Moses referring to himself, thinking about himself, thinking about all his limitations, thinking about the things that are impossible for him to do, even as much as God has called him to be a part of the mission. But watch what the Lord says. The Lord said to him in verse 11: Who gave human beings their mouths? Who makes them deaf or mute? Who gives them sight or makes them blind? Is it not I, the Lord?That is such a profound verse. The first time I heard this passage of scripture, it was from a lady back in Cape Town, several years — over 12 years ago — I bumped into this lady. She was using crutches. She was disabled on her legs and she was speaking to us and just referring. Actually, she was not just speaking — she was preaching on this text. It was heart-moving, and I was so impressed by that, that I have never remained the same. And this text has remained in my mind. And she said: I am the way that I am, because the Lord is the one that made me like this.Beloved friends. It does not matter who our demographic is in our church. All of us, including those with possibilities or with limitations, are made and have been created by God. They are in the image of God, because God has made them the way that they are. It is in the text. It is the Lord saying: is it not I, the Lord, who has given mouths, who has made them deaf, who has made them mute, who gives sight, who makes them blind?Do you remember that story in the New Testament? Who sinned that this man should be blind — is it the parents that sinned? And God says, no, no, no, no. No one has sinned. This has happened for the glory of God. And beloved friends, we might be sitting as Adventist Possibility Ministries leaders. Some of us that are here have limitations. I have sight limitations. I have a limitation without my glasses. I can barely see. I am like the man in the New Testament — I see people walking like trees. But we have an opportunity to minister to those that are like us, to those with so many possibilities, and we are able to show them how many possibilities they have and how much they are a part of this church. All of us are part of the church, and we are thankful to God that even us, who have limitations, have other possibilities that we can contribute towards the church as well. And so it is the Lord that has made us and that has created us.Watch what Ellen White says in Testimonies to the Church, volume 3, page 511. Talking about — and this is what gave rise to our ministry — this particular statement: I saw that it is in the providence of God that widows and orphans, the blind, the deaf, the lame, and persons afflicted in a variety of ways have been placed in close Christian relationship to his church. This is what Ellen White says. It is by God's providence that this demographic has been placed in close relationship with God's church.So when we talk about Possibility Ministries, we are not just talking about the blind, the deaf, the lame, the slow to read, and so forth. No, no, no. We are talking about all persons who are afflicted in various ways. We are talking about widows. We are talking about orphans. It is our ministry that speaks to that particular demographic. That is our target market: the widows, the orphans, the blind, the deaf, the lame — persons with a variety of afflictions. That is our target market and our target demographic that we work with.And so as an Adventist Possibility Ministries leader, you need to expand yourself. When we talk about orphanages, orphanages fall within the purview of your ministry and your department. When you talk about the widows, they fall within the purview of your ministry. When we talk about widows and widowers, they fall within your ministry, because they may have limitations. If I was married, and my spouse passes away and I am left alone at home, I have a limitation. I am a widow, I am a widower, I have a limitation. And it is this ministry's job to enter that space and be able to work with that particular group of people.I know we take widows and orphans and throw them to Family Ministries. Beloved, let us not get it twisted. This is the demographic of our department, and we need to be able to work with everyone.So, we want to restore. That is the key phrase I am going to use. I am using this as a framework for our training so that we understand this word RESTORE. I am preaching restoration everywhere — restore, restore, restore — even in my other ministries and work. I am preaching restoration because at the end of the day, God wants to restore all of us back to his image, one way or the other. And one of the things that God wants to restore is the fact that in God, there is space for all of us. In God, there is space for all of us. The preaching of the gospel goes to everyone — all kinds of people, languages, tongues, kindreds, men, even abilities and disabilities. The gospel reaches all of us, and God wants to restore us to his image. And I am using restoration as a framework for us to speak to specific areas of our ministries.Follow with me even as we go through this framework. When you think about yourself as a Possibility Ministries leader, there are outcomes, certain outcomes that you have in mind. There is a goal, there is a result that you are looking for.When you talk about the Results dimension — the R in the acronym RESTORE — the results dimension: what is the result? What is it that we want to see happening in the church for us to say that we have succeeded? I am submitting to us that inclusive participation is the end goal that we are aiming for. Your goal as an Adventist Possibility Ministries leader is inclusive participation and inclusivity in the church of God.I am talking about our committees — they must include people that we call people with disabilities. We must include. Our boards must include. Our executive committees must include them. Our elders — elders can be elders with limitations as well, whether they are deaf or blind. They must be able to be included in leadership, even in worship. We want to see people that we call people with disabilities in the praise team. They are a part of our song service. I might have a vision limitation, but because I have a vision limitation, it does not mean that I am not eligible for office. It does not mean that I am not eligible to participate in worship. It does not mean that simply because I have a slur in my speech and, like Moses, I cannot express myself well — I am slow in speech and my tongue is slow — just because I have those limitations, it does not mean I cannot contribute in a Sabbath school lesson. It does not mean that my theology is twisted. No. I can participate in worship and in church activities, as long as us as Adventist Possibility Ministries leaders create that inclusive participation and culture.And so we are charged. I want to start with the end in mind. This is the end product. Your church might not be there now, but that is what we are aiming for. We are aiming for this inclusivity. We want a church that is inclusive — that includes everybody. Yes, the child might be what we call a slow learner. Does it mean that if the child is a slow learner, they cannot participate in the Pathfinder programme? We want to see them participating. We want to see them going through the classes, going through the curriculum. We want to see them invested.Simply because I cannot march — does it mean that I cannot participate in the ministry? I can participate in the ministry. And so I, as an Adventist Possibility Ministries leader, need to become an advocate and a voice for those who do not have a voice, so that there is inclusive participation in the church in different ministries and other avenues of the church. That is the Results dimension that we are aiming for.When it comes to the E — the Essential dimension: what is at the core of our ministry? What is at the heart of our ministry?Yes, we know the goal is inclusive participation. But what is at the heart of what we are doing? And the heart of what we are doing is human dignity. We are saying all of us — limited or unlimited, whatever the case might be — we all deserve to be respected, to be recognised, to be valued, and for human dignity to be upheld and established. That is what we need.Think about our bathrooms. Think about church bathrooms. This is one thing — when churches plan to build their churches, they never consider us. They never consider us at all. Because I am in a wheelchair, we are building churches with stairs. How am I supposed to get into the sanctuary itself? Is it human dignity for me to get to the foot of the church and I must be carried? Is that human dignity? Is it human dignity for people to be pushing me with a wheelbarrow and leaving me at the gate of the church? Is that human dignity?Think about the man who was lame on both legs in Acts chapter 3. Where is the human dignity in the fact that church members would take him, leave him at the gate of the temple, then step into the church to worship and then pray? That is one of the most disturbing stories I have ever read. They take the man who is lame on both legs, leave him at the Gate called Beautiful — this is Acts chapter 3 — then get into the temple, pray to God to heal the man that they left outside of church. Where is the dignity in that? But what we are saying is that it does not mean you must leave the lame outside. If you have the ability to carry the lame from his home and leave him at the Gate called Beautiful, take a further step and get him into the temple. Why couldn't they carry him into the temple?And I love that story so much because when God sends his leaders, when God sends Peter and John — whom I want to call Possibility Ministries leaders — they did not just throw money. They did not just give money. They said: silver and gold we do not have, but in the name of Jesus, rise up and walk. And when they enabled the man, watch what the Bible says — when the man was healed, all that they did, in a nutshell, was create inclusive participation in the temple. That is why the man leaves the gate, enters the temple, and praises God. Because that is what we want to do — to say, we will no longer leave other members outside of the church, even proverbially so. We want them included in our worship. We want to hear them singing. We want to see them in the choirs. It cannot be that simply because I cannot hear, I must miss out on the sermon of the day.We do not want to carry those that are deaf to church and then not provide for them. It is our responsibility as Adventist Possibility Ministries leaders to create that inclusivity and restore the human dignity in our people. Let us get people to do sign language. You will be shocked — some of our Pathfinders have done the sign language honour — they know how to sign, they know how to speak sign language. Why are we the only ones left behind? Sign language has been recognised in South Africa as an official language, and yet we are not including it. It is so fascinating when we see it happening on our televisions — they are included to serve the country. It is even much better when the Word of God is preached and there is someone sitting next to the preacher, giving sign language, speaking and preaching and praising God, so that those who cannot hear, or cannot speak, are also able to understand what is being said. And we can reach the world — the Bible says the gospel must be preached to every kindred, every tongue, every language — including those with sign language.And so we want to restore human dignity. That is the essence of what we are doing. We want bathrooms that are functional. We might not always do events only. Please move away from events. The only thing we are always forever doing is events. Start the project. Start the project. Do we have rails where those who are disabled are able to hold and balance themselves when they are in our bathrooms? Do we have signs in our parking at our churches where there is allocated parking for those who are disabled — those with the stickers? Everyone is doing it except the church. It is done in the malls, it is done at fuel stations. It is time for us to enable our people and restore human dignity. That is the core and the essence of what we are doing.The Social dimension of our ministry: we want to create a community and a society where everyone belongs. That is what we do. We are creating a space where everybody belongs. Everybody belongs. Everybody belongs.Some time last year, I was confronted with a situation. We were having holy communion at a church, and as we were having holy communion, there was a member from the community who was in a wheelchair. He does not have both legs. And as we entered that space of communion, for the first time the church was confronted with this situation — what do we do? Does he participate in communion? Does he not participate in communion? They came and asked me as a pastor: Pastor, what do we do? I said: wash the man's hands as we are all washing hands, and he is going to participate in communion. Others were unhappy and unsettled. But we are told that we need to wash feet first. What then? Everybody belongs — even those who do not have legs can participate in communion. It is that type of inclusivity that we are reaching out for.Even those that we minister to in the community need to be able to belong. We want our people to belong. I see that the church — sometimes churches are packed — because I am short-sighted, I cannot see that far: where are the projectors that can magnify, so that my vision impediment does not literally become an impediment for me to access the Word of God? Sound systems — where are the sound systems for people who cannot hear very well? So we need to be able to say that we belong, and let those who are in the community also feel and know that they belong in the house of God. So that is the Social dimension of our ministry.And at a Strategic level — the T in RESTORE — I have mentioned this as a result: intentional inclusion. Our strategy needs to say: we are going to be intentional about including our people in every cycle and section of church life. In communion there must be inclusion. In leadership there must be inclusion. In participation of activities there must be inclusion. In worship participation there must be inclusion. You cannot have so many chairs that are fixed to the ground so that if I come with a wheelchair there is no place where I can sit. There must be inclusion for everyone and for all of us. Orphans must have a space. Widows must have a space. Because I am an orphan and I have no parents, does not mean that I must lose out on parental benefits. Our ministry is able to assist the orphans. I am not just talking about orphanages that are out there. I am talking about orphans that come to church every single Sabbath. Child-headed homes. Every single Sabbath. Orphans of age. Widows and widowers that do not have anyone to assist them because they are limited.Some of our people are widows with limitations. About two years ago, I had another opportunity of meeting a lady in the community. How I met her was through a community project that we were doing. This young lady comes and she starts talking about her mother and everything that they are doing, and they came to collect the parcels because we were distributing food. And they were saying that they needed two parcels because they needed to take another parcel to their mother. I said: but where is your mom? Why are you here alone? Why did you not bring your mom? She said: my mom cannot even walk. She is bedridden. Literally. And when she said bedridden, she was actually dignifying the situation, because the old lady was sleeping on a couch. She could not walk. She had no mobility whatsoever, no wheelchair, nothing. To such an extent that she could not even access the SASSA benefit because she has no mobility.There is so much going on in the lives of our people. Our people are shut in. Communions are not taken to them. And it is our responsibility, intentionally so, to advocate for them and say: no. You have given communion for those who are in church — let us go to the shut-ins. Let us go to those who have no mobility. Let us go and provide them with communion as well. And sometimes we do an injustice to our people because we then want to transport them — no, the church is going to transport them and bring them to church because it is an inconvenience. It is our responsibility. You do not need the whole church. One elder, one deacon, one deaconess, yourself as a Possibility Ministries leader, a basin, a cup, four cups, five cups — you go. You go and give communion. We must be intentional about our inclusion. That is our strategy at a strategic level.And at an Organisational dimension — the O in RESTORE — this is how the ministry is organised.In most churches, you are left alone as a leader to fend for yourself, to figure out the programmes, to figure out what to do. Nobody even tells you what you must do. Now a year goes by. You are the leader. You do not even know what you are leading, or who you are leading, or what you need to do.And I use this illustration so much, I want to use it because it is helpful. Jethro says to Moses: you cannot do everything alone. You cannot do everything alone. You need people to help you. Set committees in place. Have an Adventist Possibility Ministries committee — people that can work with you, people that can understand the dynamics, people that can be close to that committee and make decisions and be intentional about the strategies that we have in place in order to make everyone feel that they belong and that they are included in the ministry.So have a committee that you work with. As an Adventist Possibility Ministries leader, you are a member of the church board. Hear me well — you are a member of the church board. The church must give you a budget. The church must have a budget for you, because there is so much that you need to do for orphans, for widows and widowers, for the deaf, for the hard of hearing. There is so much that you need to do.Some of our churches are already online. Our services are online, yet we do not have subtitles. I can watch — say a church in KZN is online, they have a service. However, I cannot hear what they are saying, and it looks like this is the church I need to belong to, but there are no subtitles. Have people in that space who can write subtitles, who can type. Take those who have done sign language — let them put subtitles that your editors can add so that people are able to understand what it is that we are saying.And so have a committee. You are part of the board as a leader. I know at district levels we may not always have Possibility Ministries representation, but at conference level we have that office. And as your team leader, I am saying to you: let us work together. Let us come together. Let us share experiences. Let us share ideas. Let us broaden our perspective of the ministry and resource you. At conference level, we are ready to resource you. We are ready to give you ideas. Invite us. Talk to us. If we need to come to your church to advocate for intentional inclusivity, we can assist you to do that. But we are here to work with you, to minister with you.So the structure is: yourself as the departmental leader, with a committee. You are also a member of the board. You report to the board and the business meeting. You also report to the conference. In some districts that are further along, we can even have an Adventist Possibility Ministries leader or coordinator at district level, who will sit down and say: what are we doing in our different churches for Adventist Possibility Ministries? And they come to the conference and form part of the Adventist Possibility Ministries council at conference level, where we share ideas and stories of what we are doing.And when it comes to Performance — the R for performance in RESTORE — equitable access. That is what we want. Equitable access. We want access. That is what we want. That is how you measure whether you have worked or you have not worked. Have you created access? Access to the Word of God for those who cannot hear, by providing someone to do sign language. For those who cannot see — have you investigated if there are Braille Bibles? Equitable access. Access to the sanctuary of worship itself. Access to holy communion. Access to communion with God. There is so much access that we are trying to create through this ministry, and we need to be able to do that.Some of our churches have double stories. Do we have elevators? Do we have accessible assistance? Do we have parking? Our parking is sometimes too far for those in wheelchairs. Some churches have designated parking, but with my wheelchair, it is so difficult for me to get to the church because the ground is not prepared. There is no slab that has been laid. Sometimes the step is so high I cannot push myself up there. So we need to be able to create this equitable access. That is how you measure your performance at the end of the year. You started the year — now create that access.Mirrors are sometimes so high. How do our people use bathrooms? How do they gain access to ablution facilities? Some facilities are too high. Some are too low. But we need to be able to create access — equitable access — and that is how we measure performance.The experience — the Experiential dimension — the last E in RESTORE. How are people experiencing you as a leader? Do they think you are engaged? Do they think you are not? How are members experiencing your church? How are those with the limitations we spoke about experiencing your church? Do they come to your church and feel: there is nothing here for me, there is no way this church is going to cater for my needs? No. What you are aiming for is a welcoming environment. That is what you are aiming for — a welcoming environment. That is what we need to create, from the gate to the sanctuary, from the entrance to the altar. We need access. Access in leadership. Access in worship. Access in the actual building. We need to create a welcoming environment. Do not give people funny looks because they walk differently from you. You need to be able to create that welcoming environment. That is what we need to be able to do.Moses was a part of God's ministry. He was a leader. His theology was in order. When the children of Israel were out of order with their full ability — his brother Aaron was more able-bodied than he was — Aaron led them to worship that golden calf. But Moses restored faith in the true God, with his own limitations. The fact that he was not eloquent — a disability did not mean that he could not lead. In fact, the Bible calls him the greatest prophet in all of Israel. With his limitations.And so we need to create that welcoming environment for our people.The book of James chapter 5, verses 13 to 15: Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone happy? He should sing songs of thanks to God. Is anyone among you sick? He should send for the church leaders. You are the church leader. Am I suffering? Am I finding discomfort? You are the leader to be called for. That is what I wanted to bring out of this text — to say: you are the church leader that should pray and do something for those who have limitations, for those who might be suffering.Now, disability is not a sickness. It is not a sickness. Simply because I have limitations does not mean I am sick. But I might be suffering. And I might be suffering because of the environment that has been created. And it becomes our job to restore — restore human dignity, to give our people access to all that they need, so that they are able to be fully present.So write to our office. Give us your stories. Give us your proposals. Give us the challenges you are facing so that we can be able to help you. And my prayer is that may God help you, may God be with you, because you have been called for such a time as this to lead this department, to do a simple thing — intentional inclusion, equitable access. That is what we are aiming for. Human dignity — that is what we are aiming for. A welcoming environment — that is what we are aiming for.God bless you. May God bless you in your ministry as a leader and bless you, even as you create this access and welcoming environment for all of us so that we can worship God. May God keep you. In Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Amen. May God keep you and bless you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Education Department: A Leader's Summary 05.04.2026 1h 8min

  Pastor Treasure Nkuna, Trans-Orange Conference Director: EducationCorrected TranscriptGreetings, everybody. My name is Pastor Treasure Nkuna, and I am the Education Director of the Trans-Orange Conference, and it is indeed a privilege and a pleasure — pardon me — for me to be engaging with you through this particular virtual platform for our virtual summit, or leadership summit. And I am so thankful that we could be here, all of us as leaders within the Trans-Orange Conference, and across the globe for that matter, participating in our leadership training under the Education Department. And for that we thank God and we are thankful that we could be here and could be a part of this leadership training.This is where we engage one another. This is where we equip each other with tools to be able to expand the work of ministry, to be able to unpack what is before us as an education department. And I consider myself blessed that we could be a part of this particular summit, our virtual platform together, for us to share thoughts on what God has in store for us, and also our participation as leaders within the work of ministry, especially as God has planned it for each and every one of us.Now, I want to just share my screen with us so that we are a part of this particular training together and that we are able to keep track of our particular presentation. And so this is the presentation as we have it, and I want to just share this with us so that we are together on this particular presentation. I am not going to do a full screen share so that we can all track with one another and you can still be able to engage and participate in this particular presentation. So this is the Education Department, and this is what we are going to do, even as we start this morning — or perhaps whichever time of the day you are watching this broadcast.So I want to request that we start with a word of prayer, even as we get into our virtual summit. Let us pray together.Father in heaven, we thank you so much for the privilege that you have afforded us to be a part of this virtual training. Thank you, dear God, that we could be together in all of this as leaders of the Education Department and those that are interested in the department. We are thankful, dear God. And so we ask that your Spirit may be with us, even as we go through this particular training. And so I ask that you be with my leaders, even as they follow, even as they trek through this particular training and presentation, as we equip the saints for the work of ministry, in accordance with Ephesians chapter 4. We ask that the Spirit might be with us. Bless everyone and bless all of us in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.I want to start our presentation with a text from the book of Colossians, chapter 2, verse 8. Now, one of the things that is going to be particularly interesting for all of us within our conference, within the Trans-Orange Conference, is the vision that we have for this particular department. And I want to thank God that we have been called for a time such as this — all of us as leaders in our local churches, as leaders within the conference, as leaders in the union, the division, and the General Conference. We have all been called for a time such as this, to make a contribution towards the greater part of the mission of God's work. And so we are thankful and we are excited about what is ahead of us.We have been with the Lord in prayer. We have been engaging not only in prayer, but with leadership. We have been engaging with our leaders in higher organisations, such as the union, participating and exchanging ideas. We recently came from an education advisory where we were just thinking together around what is it that this ministry is about, what is it that we are doing, and how are we going to impact the demographic that we have been assigned to. And it is indeed a privilege for us to serve together with you. And we thank God that in whatever time that we have, the whole aim is not to do everything — the aim is to do something and to move something in the greater scheme of the mission that we have, both as a church, but also the missional calling that we have as individuals within the church of God. We have been called for such a time as this, and so we thank God for that particular exciting news that we are part of this.Now, there is a lot that we will share together over the course of this tenure. We will cast the vision of where we are going and what it is that God has placed in our hearts and in our minds, not only as leaders but also within the committees that we find ourselves in. And we will share that with us over the course of time. But this particular session mainly focuses on equipping ourselves for the work of ministry, even as we have it within the Education Department.I want to start with the book of Colossians, chapter 2, verse 8. And the New International Version is what I am reading from. It says: See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ. Colossians chapter 2, verse 8.Now, I pick this text for us as a starting point, even as we begin to talk about the Education Department or education ministry and how it fits within the greater scheme of God's mission and God's particular work. And we can extract a powerful lesson from this particular text in Colossians chapter 2, verse 8. And I want us to really look at what the apostle Paul is sharing with us in this particular text.See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ.What the apostle Paul is doing as he is writing to the church in Colossae is presenting to them the reality that they find themselves in as a people and as a church. He is saying to them in this text that there are philosophies that are out there. And the word philosophy, even as it is used in the passage of scripture, should not be a very complicated word. In its original terminology and etymological origin, it would mean the love of wisdom — that is what philo and sophia would mean — the love of wisdom. But however, what is embedded within that particular term is the idea that, as we live as people, there are ideas, there are belief systems, there are assumptions that govern us, that help us and make us make the decisions that we make. There are philosophies that govern us to that effect. The fact that you are doing whatever it is that you are doing right now is informed by a certain assumption, by a certain idea, by a certain belief system, and so you subscribe to that particular philosophy. And because you subscribe to that philosophy, it leads you to make the decisions that you find yourself making.So I want us to start — by way of example — let me make reference to the book of Genesis chapter one. In the book of Genesis chapter one, God creates human beings, and as God creates human beings, he creates both male and female — Adam and Eve. And you would remember in the passage of scripture that God created them and left them, as it were, with a clear instruction. He left them naked. Okay? Now, because God left them in that state — the Bible tells us that over the course of time, Lucifer, in the form of a serpent, comes to Adam and Eve and, you know, goes through several things in that passage of scripture. Very fascinating, and I wish if you have time you would just go through that passage of scripture. He comes to them and says, did God say that you must not eat of the fruit of that particular tree?Now, I want you to listen to the question that Lucifer is asking Eve in this conversation that he is having with her. Did God say that you must not eat? So the issue is not the fruit itself. That is not the issue, because God created that fruit. The issue is: who prohibited you? Who said that you must not eat? And the response is, yes, the Lord, God, said that we must not eat. And he takes issue with the fact that they are not eating. Now, the eating part is the action. Them, Adam and Eve, not eating — is because there is an assumption that they have. There is a belief that they have. And that belief is that God said to them: the day that you eat, you will die.Now, God came to Adam and Eve and said: if you eat of the fruit of this tree, from the day you eat, you will begin to die, or you will die for that matter. Now, that governs their behaviour. That governs the way they do things on a day-to-day basis. As they see this fruit and other fruits, they avoid this food. They avoid eating this fruit, they eat other fruits except this fruit, because it was not everything that they could eat. They could eat other things that God had given them — the nuts, the other fruits that he had placed in the garden — but this one, do not eat. The day you eat, you are going to die. Now, that builds that philosophy, that builds that belief system, that builds the way that they decide to do things.Then enters Lucifer into the picture. When Lucifer enters the picture, he introduces a new concept to them. He introduces a new belief system to them. He says to Eve: it is not true. He challenges the assumption that is in there. It is not true that the day that you eat, you are going to die. In fact — and here is the introduction of the new assumption — if you eat of the fruit of this tree, you will actually become as wise as God himself. So now you have two ideas. The same fruit, the same tree, but there are two ideas as to what will happen when you decide to eat. One idea says, if you eat, you are going to die. The other idea says, if you eat, you are going to be as wise as God himself. So which assumption are you going to take? Which philosophy are you going to subscribe to?And so we know from Genesis chapter 3 that they decide to subscribe to Lucifer's philosophy — to his deceptive philosophy, which the Bible then says, after they ate — we know the rest of the story, and because it is our story — we began to die. Now, because human beings started dying, it then becomes proof that the philosophy that God had given was actually the truthful one. And that is profound in so many ways that we do not have time to go through. Because it is one thing to hold an assumption. Then the question is: which assumption is true? Which one is truth? Both of them sound reasonable, both of them sound like they have benefits, both of them look good. For that matter, as it were with Eve — it looked good and desirable to eat. However, which one is the truth?And we find ourselves where we are today. We find ourselves having fallen into sin as human beings because we changed our philosophy, and we subscribed to Lucifer's philosophy through Adam and Eve, and we took the fruit, we ate the fruit, and now we are where we are because of that philosophy.And because of that — and I am using that as an illustration to expand on Colossians chapter 2, verse 8 — Paul gives us the same warning to this day. That be careful. Be careful that no one takes you captive. Now, that captivity has got nothing to do with physical restraint, but it is the captivation of the mind. And that is the space that you and I work with as education leaders. The captivation of the mind. The battle that we are in, beloved — the battle that we are in, whether it is a spiritual battle — it all takes place in the mind. The book of Corinthians talks about the weapons of our warfare being mighty through God, for the pulling down of strongholds, for changing the imagination, because the battle is right here — it is in the mind. It is in what philosophies we subscribe to.Now, Paul gives us the same warning. He says: see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophies. Now, he is not against philosophy. I want you to understand that text. He is not against philosophy. What he is warning us against is which philosophy you subscribe to. Where does your philosophy come from? Where does your understanding of doing things come from? And I am spending time on this because you are going to see how this relates to our ministry of education, how this relates to the classrooms, how this relates to the learners, to the children that we find in our churches and in our schools, whether public schools or Seventh-day Adventist schools. You are going to see how relevant this becomes.And so it says, be careful that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophies. Then he says the issue is the source of your philosophy. He says, on one hand, there is philosophy which depends on human traditions and the elemental spiritual forces. Now, I do not need to complicate this, but the phrase elemental spiritual forces in its original Greek text refers to what is known in philosophy as first principles. So be careful that no one holds you captive with philosophy that depends on, one, the concept of first principles, and secondly, human traditions. Now he says those two things — the philosophies are hollow and they are deceptive. Then it says, as opposed to a different kind of philosophy, which is Christ himself.Now, when we talk about Christ, we are not just talking about a person that lived and died and resurrected and ascended and is coming back again. We are talking about a philosophy. Christ is a philosophy. Christ holds certain philosophies. Christ understands the world in a particular way. Christ interprets the world in a particular way. Christ does things in a particular way. And Paul is saying: there are two philosophies — a philosophy based on human traditions and the elemental spiritual forces of first principles, and a philosophy that is based on Christ. He says, be careful that no one gives you this philosophy that is based on human tradition that holds you captive. But rather subscribe yourself to a different philosophy, which is a Christ-centred philosophy.Now, it becomes important for us to appreciate this idea, because this is what distinguishes Adventist education from the rest of other educational systems. And that is that our Seventh-day Adventist educational system is based on Christ's philosophy. It subscribes to the philosophy of Christ. Our curriculum subscribes to the philosophy of Christ. What we do on our campuses or in our schools subscribes to the philosophy of Christ. How we teach is dependent on the philosophy of Christ. How we choose what we wear depends on the philosophy of Christ. What we eat depends on the philosophy of Christ. So everything that we do then is Christ-centred and it depends on a Christ-centred philosophy, as opposed to philosophies that are based on human traditions, that are based on elemental spiritual forces or the principle of first principles as it were.And so we are challenged then by the Bible to subscribe to the philosophy of Christ, as opposed to a philosophy that is based on human traditions and that is based on elemental spiritual forces.Now, the Seventh-day Adventist Church understands this very well, and I need us to appreciate and understand this. We have governing documents within our ministry. We have governing documents that you have been exposed to, and one of them would be the Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual. And we know that the Church Manual helps us govern our local churches and how we do things within the local churches. Then there are other governing documents which are just as important. I want to challenge us to grow. We are education leaders. We cannot be education leaders and just think like everybody else. We need to expand. We need to grow. We need to expand the way that we think, so that when members begin to ask us questions, when parents ask us questions, when other educators or people ask us questions, we are able to defend the faith as it were. We are able to explain why we do things the way that we do.And I want to challenge us to read the Church Manual, go beyond the Church Manual, and read what we call the Working Policies of the church. These are our union Working Policies, division and General Conference Working Policies. There is an abstract I want to share with us from the General Conference Working Policy, which is section FE 05 10 of that Working Policy. Under the Education Department, there is an opening line there: The Seventh-day Adventist philosophy of education is Christ-centred. It is as if the church was reading Colossians 2, verse 8. The Seventh-day Adventist philosophy of education is Christ-centred. In other words, as we minister — as Adventist education leaders, as we minister as educators, as we minister as teachers, or principals, or governors, or administrators within the entire education system — the Seventh-day Adventist Church is saying: the Seventh-day Adventist philosophy of education is not centred on human traditions and elemental spiritual forces — no. But ours is Christ-centred. That is a powerful and profound way of opening policy.In other words, when the church opens with this line, it is saying: the policies that will then follow, the policies that govern our ministry, emanate from the fact that our education, our philosophy of education, is Christ-centred. And I do not want us to lose that. I do not want us to lose the fact that we are Christ-centred. It becomes important for us to hold on to that particular idea because it is just as important.Now, if we are Christ-centred — and I have shown you by way of illustration how we fell into sin, because we subscribed to Lucifer's philosophy as compared to subscribing to Christ's philosophy — and because of that, Genesis chapter 3 is known as the fall of man. We minister to a fallen demographic. That is who we minister to. We minister to a fallen demographic, not because we are not fallen ourselves, but human beings have fallen into sin, and we find ourselves in this demographic. And because we find ourselves in this demographic, we have a very unique and very special opportunity to lead in this ministry through the education system.We have a part. There is a statement by Ellen White in a different quotation — not the quote that I am going to share with us — where she says, in the book Education by Ellen White, she says: the work of education and the work of redemption are one. Oh, that is profound. That is profound — that the work of education and the work of redemption are one. And so we are not just teaching. We are not just interested in learners learning subjects. Whether it is English, Afrikaans, Sesotho, Setswana, Zulu, Xhosa, regardless — Physics, Mathematics, Social Sciences, Life Orientation, Coding and Robotics. That is not all that our learners, our demographic, is interested in. But because we subscribe to a Christ-centred philosophy, we have a bigger work, which is the work of redemption.Now, watch the statement by Ellen White from Christian Education, page 63. Here is what she says: The true object of education is to restore the image of God in the soul. That is the object of education. I know that we say the object of education is that our children should pass primary school and high school and get their matric certificate, pass their higher education and learning, and get their diplomas or get their degrees — cum laude, summa cum laude, get their bachelor's. I know sometimes that is what we think. But there is a bigger object of our education, and that is to restore the image of God in the soul. And so your function as an education leader is not just to make sure that the kids have extra classes — which is just as important, and I will show us how important that is — but ours is beyond that. And perhaps the most important is to restore the image of God in the soul. That is the object of education.And so I have built us a framework through which I want us to go through this particular training. I have built a framework for us that I want us to go through. I took the word RESTORE, and I am going to show you how the word RESTORE is going to be used as a framework of understanding what our function is as education leaders. And the reason why I am putting together this framework is for us to remember it. If you do not remember everything, remember the word RESTORE. The true object of education is to restore the image of God in the soul. That is the true object. When you are in meetings, when you are sitting in committees and councils and church boards and school boards, remember this — the true object of education is to restore the image of God in the soul. As you make decisions, ask yourself: how does this decision restore the image of God in the soul?So I want us to capture this object, this main focus, this main aim, through the word RESTORE, and use that as a framework. Let me break down the word RESTORE for us. And here is the word — RESTORE. I have to look at these elements — it is not a lot: one, two, three, four, five, six, seven elements. Seven elements that we are going to use as a framework of understanding our ministry and our work within the Education Department or the education ministry, through the word RESTORE.The letter R stands for Results. The letter E — Essential. The letter S — Social. The letter T — I have extracted that from the word Strategy. The letter O — Organisational. The letter R — Performance. And the letter E — Experiential. That is the framework we are going to use to go through this particular training.Now, to put a disclaimer out there — there are other frameworks that we can use to present and to make this particular format. There is a minister who has greatly inspired me, Pastor [Amia Simvuneno / inaudible], and we have gone through different trainings with him for different things in different aspects, training the local churches. And I have had to rework our framework so that we are able to capture this, even from the writings of Ellen White. So here is the framework, and I want us to go ahead and just dive into it.The first dimension I want us to look at is the Results dimension.I want us to start from the very goal. I want us to start from the end and then build towards the beginning. I want us to start from the end so that we understand what is our product, what is it that we are looking at, what are the results that we are looking for, so that as we start there, we are able then to build towards this entire goal. We begin with the end in mind, and that is the result. At the end of the day, our goal — the results we are looking for — is not just a 100% pass rate, which we need by the way, which we need. However, at the end of the day, the result we are looking for is the image restoration within our demographic. We want to restore our demographic into the image of God. That is what we want to do. That is the result that we are aiming at.And there is a lot that comes into the image of God, and when we have time, we can expand on what the image of God is, can expand on what the image of God looks like. Because when we look at ourselves — and I can just put it out there boldly — a 30%, a 35% pass rate does not resemble the image of God. Because our God is an excellent God. He is a God that aims at excellence, and so we must aim for that 100% pass rate. The entire class has passed — 100%, great. The entire school has a 100% pass rate. But we also want to say every single learner must have a 100% pass rate. Because we are restoring the image of God in several dimensions — from the mind, to the heart, to the soul. We are restoring the image of God. That is what we want to do — in the mind, in the heart, in the soul, even in our hands. We want to restore the image of God.Now, from Genesis chapter 3 and Genesis chapter 1, we know that we were formed in the image of God. That is Genesis chapter 1. We know that we were formed in the image of God. But because we were formed in the image of God, something happens in chapter 3 — because we subscribed, excuse me, because we subscribed to a different philosophy — Lucifer's philosophy instead of Christ's philosophy — the image of God was then deformed. We were formed in the image, but the image was deformed. And that prefix D means that it was distorted. This image that existed, this formation that existed, was distorted.Now, the challenge then that is raised by the Bible in the book of Romans chapter 12, verse 2 — or verses 1 and 2 — is the fact that even after we were deformed, even after we fell, there are some people that then conform to the sinful secular mind, that conform to the thinking of this world, that conform to the way the world does things. Romans chapter 12, verse 1 says: do not be conformed. So to conform is to fit in — that prefix con- means to fit into and take the shape of. So we have a responsibility.Now, remember, we said that our philosophy of education is Christ-centred. It is not based on human traditions and the elemental — it is Christ-centred. Now, if it is centred on Christ — John chapter 1, verse 1 — in the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. Our philosophy is based on the Word. And the same Word in Romans 12 tells us that we should not conform, should not fit into the secular mind, but we should be able to present ourselves differently.Now, we were formed in the image. Sin came in. Lucifer introduced his philosophy. We were deformed. But then after we were deformed, we have some good news. We have an opportunity to be reformed. We have an opportunity to be reformed, which is what Romans told us — to be reformed by receiving the mind of Christ. To be reformed, to change. We were formed. We know that we deformed. And after our deformation, some conformed. But as an education ministry, we have a golden opportunity and ministry to reform the minds of the people, the minds of our demographics, so that we are ultimately able to be transformed. That is what we are aiming for. We were formed, we deformed, we conformed, we have an opportunity to reform, so that at the end of the day we can be transformed back into the image of God, and the image of God can be restored in us.Now, that is the goal as we teach, as we educate. It is not just about the content of the lesson. It is not just about understanding the formulas within mathematics and the equations. It is not just about that. It is about the fact that as we are educating mathematics, as we are teaching our learners coding and robotics, as we are offering extra classes and trying to shape the minds, we must also shape the mind to be like that of Christ and transform the mind.Never underestimate the power of this ministry. From January to December, from any other time, the period that you have of your coursework or of your learning — we as an education ministry have a year-long evangelistic campaign of reforming and transforming and restoring the image of God in the lives of our people. And so we start right there, to say, as we do the things that we do, as we come up with programmes in our local churches, as we sit in committees and councils and boards and come up with programmes — aim to restore the image of God. Ask yourself at all times: how does this restore the image of God? If it is Education Day, and it is an Education Emphasis Day at the local church, how does this restore the image of God? How does the content that we are going to present for the day restore the image of God?Let us go to the next dimension from our letter RESTORE, which is the alphabet E — the Essential dimension.In essence, I am an education leader at the local church. Pastor, Education Director, I understand you are saying that our goal, our object, the output, the outcome we are looking for, is to restore the image of God. But I need to understand — how do we do that? What is the essence of what we are doing on a day-to-day basis?I just gave you a clue in the previous slide that Christ himself is a philosophy. Not only is he a philosophy, but the Bible tells us that he is the Word himself. John chapter 1, verse 1: In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, the Word was God. Verse 14: The Word became flesh, and dwelled amongst us and lived with us. 1 John chapter 1 — we beheld him, we touched him, we ate with him, we heard him, we saw him, we felt him. He was amongst us, but he is the Word. He is the Word of God in flesh form. That is who Christ is.And so the essence then of our education ministry is nothing else but the Word of God. That is the essence of this department. And so before we can understand textbooks that were written by human beings — which we need — before we can just engage in the curriculum, we need to engage and submerge ourselves in the Bible. And this is very important and very key.Let me give you an illustration. As an education secretary or leader in your church, you have teachers in your church — educators, principals, heads of institutions, those that work in districts and all kinds of areas of the education system. You have them in your church. You even have learners in your church. So now you have both the teacher and the learner and the administrators within your demographic, within your church.Now, let me give you a scenario. Here is a teacher from whichever district — I am not going to mention names. This teacher is Adventist. Now, they find themselves teaching either in an Adventist institution or teaching in a non-Adventist institution. Let us go by way of example. Teacher A — let us say Mr. A — is teaching in a non-Adventist institution, and Mrs. B is teaching in an Adventist institution. When they get to the classroom, both of them are, let us say, science teachers. As they get into that classroom, Mr. A takes out his textbook, and Mrs. B takes out her textbook. Two different settings. Mr. A then, as he is teaching, is busy teaching the concept of photosynthesis. He is showing the learners how there is a need for the sun for plants to grow — they need the nutrients from the ground, they need the sun, they need the air, they need oxygen, hydrogen, whatever the case — and he shows how the entire process works. And Mr. A then makes a concluding statement: without the sun, it is impossible for plants to exist. We need the sun for plants to exist. That is Mr. A.Now, you might think there is nothing wrong with what Mr. A has taught. Why? Because it is in the syllabus, it is in the textbook written by whoever, it is right there in the textbooks. But here is Mrs. B, in an Adventist institution, who now has the curriculum. But Mrs. B has read the book of Genesis chapter 1. Mrs. B has read somewhere in Genesis chapter 1 that plants could exist and existed before the sun was created. She knows that plants existed on day 3 and the sun only came and existed on day 4.Now, Mrs. B is teaching the class and is able to balance the curriculum and say to the learners: this is how photosynthesis works. Yes, the sun is needed for the growth of the plants, and as they grow, they need nutrients from the ground. And then Mrs. B makes the concluding statement: as much as the plants need the sun, they can exist without the sun. Where do you get that from, Mrs. B? Because the book of Genesis chapter 1 tells us that plants existed on day 3 and the sun was only created on day 4. Do you see the difference in the quality of the education?Mrs. B could even be teaching in a non-Adventist institution. Let me give you another example. Here is Mrs. X. Mrs. X is also teaching in a non-Adventist institution, but Mrs. X not only teaches the curriculum, but has a biblical foundation to how she teaches. Let me show you. She is now teaching geometry or whatever her subject is. She is teaching the learners the concept of time, and the calendars, and the days of the week — first day to the seventh day. One teacher teaches Monday to Sunday: Monday is the first day of the week. Mrs. X is teaching that the first day of the week is a Sunday. Why? Because according to the book of Luke chapter 23 and 24, on the first day — which was Sunday — Christ resurrected. Do you see the difference of what the Bible can do to the content of what you are teaching? That is exactly what we are saying — our education is Christ-centred, it is founded on the Word of God.So for Mrs. X, her learners will know not only that the first day starts on a Sunday and ends on a Saturday as the seventh day, but she is also going to teach them that actually, a new day does not begin at midnight. Unlike Mr. D, who is teaching in another institution but has no biblical foundation — he is saying, no, the day starts at midnight, 12 o'clock, 00:00:00, that is when a new day starts. Mrs. X is able to say: but according to the Bible, a new day begins at sunset. And because she is able to do that, she has completely given them a different philosophy of education. And that is the essence of what we do within our ministry. Even as we make decisions, they need to be Bible-centred.Let us keep moving — RESTORE. When it comes to the letter S, we are talking about the Social dimension of our ministry.So we know that the first was the outcome — what are we working towards. We know that the essence of it is that we must use the Bible as our foundation. We understand that every learner has fallen — was formed in the image of God, but somehow that image was deformed through sin. And perhaps they conform to the way they engage with their society and their communities and all kinds of things. And we have a responsibility to then reform their way of thinking, their way of doing things, their way of dress, their behaviour — we have that responsibility of reforming until their entire life is transformed and character has taken a different formation. We know all of that.Then this social dimension speaks to how that learner, our demographic, engages with the rest of society. Do they live for themselves and give nothing back to the communities they live in? Live at home, come to school, learn what they learn, and then go away. How do they deal with their engagements with the community? And within our ministry, we then say we need authentic communities. What this means is that our schools themselves need to be a safe community.And so as an education leader, what does this have to do with you? You need to advocate for the safety of your learners, your demographic that is in your local church. How do we ensure that our schools are safe for our children, in a world where schools are now infested with drugs and our societies have gangs and all kinds of things? How do we deal with those social issues that affect our demographic? How do we build an authentic community? How do we then say to our learner: it is not just about books, but you need to engage with the community, engage with society?At times we do this through community service. And it is important that we then begin to teach our kids, our learners, our demographic, to engage with the rest of society, to do projects, to participate in society, to be responsible citizens within that particular community where they find themselves, whether the agency was the church creating a community project for the learners, whether it was participating in community service at the school or through the school. Regardless of the agency, we need to then teach our learners — or our students, for those in higher education, those on public campuses, those on Adventist campuses — to say: we need to engage with our communities.So there is a lot, as an education leader. You need to look for opportunities. How do I take the demographic that is at my church and make them participate in the community? How do I make them understand how their education is linked to the communities where they come from, so that they do not just do a once-off event but make an impact within their communities?And so there is a social dimension to that, because we are in the business of restoring the image. Christ did not just stay up in heaven but came to his community, our community, our world, and engaged with us. He incarnated, sat with us, understood our challenges, empathised with us. We live in a society where people do not empathise. Young people would rather laugh at someone being bullied on the internet. But no, no, no — we need to teach them to empathise, to be moved the way Christ was moved by our own ailments. And that is how they engage in society, and that is how we restore our communities.Let us move on to another dimension of our ministry. The letter T comes from the Strategic dimension.What is the strategic dimension of this particular ministry? Our strategy is to look not only at having authentic communities, but to engage with our community. Now, different communities. My demographic is that I have learners in my local church. I have students in my local church. I have educators in my local church — principals, administrators within the education system. How do I strategically engage them within the community? Secondly, how do I impact the community where I find myself in? Because, as much as departments within the church might create campaigns and all of that, you have a lifetime campaign to restore the image of God even within the community where you find yourself.So how can I do that? By way of example — some of you are running extra classes in your own local churches. So you now have a mixture in your classroom, or you are doing a vacation Bible class. Now you have a mixture — you have Adventist learners and non-Adventist learners. You have an opportunity right there to engage at a strategic level. Or let us expand this. Now it is no longer just a class — you are running an online study group. You have a missional opportunity, a strategic opportunity, right there.Let us expand the vision further. You have a church, you have buildings in your church that are not being used for much — you have a strategic opportunity to even start a preschool. Remember the governance documents we spoke about: when you read the Church Manual under the education department or ministry section, it will tell you that preschools belong to the local church. So we expect that local churches should be opening preschools. Local churches should be running and establishing primary schools, because we have a strategic dimension to say, as part of restoring the image of God, we are going to start the preschool so that we can get the learners of the community, the children of the community, teach them the philosophies of Christ, mould them and form them, change their characters.Not only are we going to create preschools — we are going to start a primary school, because we want our preschool to feed the primary school. Even in the primary school, we are going to mould strategically. We have a strategy of restoring the image of God, and we can do this through several initiatives, even as we emphasise Christian education on our Education Emphasis Days. We can even ask the parents right there.One of the reasons why our parents, our learners in our churches, are not going to Adventist institutions is not because Adventist education is expensive — no. It is because we do not have enough schools. We do not have enough schools. Within our conference, we only have two primary schools. Can you imagine? Two primary schools. I am going to get the statistics — how many children from the age of 0 to the age of 18 do we have within the Trans-Orange Conference? How many schools do we have? Two primary schools. One is in Thabong — it is attached to Thabong Central Church — Maranatha Primary School. The other one is in Soweto — it is attached to Orlando West Church — which is Orlando Seventh-day Adventist Primary School. Those are the two primary schools that we have.When are we going to start opening other primary schools? And by the way, primary schools belong to the local church, governed by the local church. That is what policy says. Because we need to be able to do that. Let us create opportunities for our learners. Then we will not have some of the other problems that we are facing currently — our learners being forced to go to schools on Sabbath. Why? Because there is no other opportunity. The school subscribes to a different philosophy. The learner subscribes to a Christ-centred philosophy. Now the two are at loggerheads. The learner says, Christ must come first, I must be in church on Sabbath, I must keep the Sabbath holy. The school is saying: no, come to school. Now there is a clash between Christ's philosophy and the philosophy based on human tradition, and these come into loggerheads. The learner is split, confused. Parents are confused. Because we have not created opportunities to solve this problem.We are restoring the image. The letter O has to do with our Organisational dimension.How is this ministry organised? Now, I am going to circulate through our platforms a document that will help us understand how our ministry is structured.At the local church, obviously, as an education secretary and education leader, you are a member of the local church board. Let me start with yourself. You are the education leader, the education secretary, at the local church. You do not work alone and in isolation. You need to have a committee — an education committee — that helps you meet all the things that we are talking about: meet the goal of restoring the image of God, community engagements and all these strategic plans and biblical foundations. You need a committee. Just like Jethro said to Moses: you cannot work alone. You need a committee to work with. So that when you go to the board and you sit in the church board, you are representing a committee's decision, a committee's thinking. That is what we need — not an individual deciding. You are the planner, you are the one who decides what happens on Education Emphasis Day, you are doing the Sabbath school, you are preaching, you are doing the afternoon programme — no, no. You are going to lose it, like Moses. And Jethro was right — he might have been a heathen, but he was right to say: you need a committee to work with, people to work with you.So you establish at your local church — do not just work alone in silos — establish a committee that you are going to work with.Now, if your church already has a school — I am now thinking about Maranatha Primary School, thinking about Orlando Seventh-day Adventist Primary School — if you are the education secretary, the education leader, and your church has a school, you are also a member of the school board. Now, you need to know this because when it comes to the board, the church board is going to ask for reports from you and the principal of the school. What is happening with the school? How are we meeting the goal of restoring the image of God? That is the question that the church board will be asking, and we need to make sure that we are structured like that.Now, not only are you part of the church board, not only do you have a committee, not only are you part of the school board if you have a school already — you are also part of the conference education, or the district education, council. If your district is so advanced and has the privilege of having an education department at the district level, you are a member of that council as an education leader. All churches within your district, all education leaders, coming together with one person leading that group, saying: what are we doing in our churches? How are we restoring the image of God? Are we establishing preschools? How many preschools do we have in our district? How many primary schools do we have in our district? All of that shaped together, organised. Now, your district — if you are an education leader at district level — you are then part of the conference education council. We will share the rest of the structures within the conference, but these are the committees and councils that you find yourselves in, and we need to be able to move with that.I need to move because we do not have a lot of time. The letter R comes from Performance dimension.How do we measure progress? How do we measure whether we are successful or not? Every church will have its own KPIs and how it meets the demands and measures progress. But we measure progress by looking at the quality of the character of our children. When we come to church, if I look at our demographic that we work with — are these kids representing the image of God? That is how we measure, because ours is quality. We are looking at character formation.And there are more practical ways that we can use. We have those Education Emphasis Days, we have those Education Weeks of Prayer. If we are running schools, as an education secretary, you ensure you go to the school, you go to the principal, you say: what can we do as a church, in the school, to help you? Can we run the week of prayer? Can we, twice a year, do the week of prayer as a church, as a department? We will sponsor the speaker to come and speak to the learners, preach to the learners, the whole week — twice a year, or four times a year. You have a spiritual master plan. A spiritual master plan. So as an education secretary, have a spiritual master plan that you are going to use in order for you to engage with the community — both the community within the church and the community outside the church.So we have things we are doing — we are not aiming to do everything. Please do not try and do everything. But do something. Make an impact. Report. Have reportable outcomes. You will not know if you are making progress or not if you do not report. If the committee does not hold you accountable, if the board does not hold the education committee accountable, we will not know whether we are making progress or not.Are we improving in terms of the results? Are our learners eating well in order for them to progress well? What does the pass rate look like? You know, sometimes you might not necessarily have a school, but what about your demographic at your local church? How many learners do you have? How many of them are in grade 1? How many are in grade 3, grade 4? How many are in matric? How many are in high school? I understand the POPIA constraints and all of that. Speak to and engage the parents. Engage the results of the learners. Are we passing? What is the pass rate of your local church? Let me simplify it that way — what is the pass rate of your local church? Did you have 100% pass rate? What have you done for those learners in terms of motivation, in terms of character formation? Even as we go, we are interested in those details. We need them at conference level.We are restoring the image. The last section has to do with our Experiential dimension.This finally asks the very simple question: what do people experience when they experience you as a leader? What do they experience of their teacher? What do people experience when they step into your classroom? What experiences are we giving people at our local church? Are we giving church members an experience that says: the education department never does anything, it never works? We know they do not work, they do not do anything the whole year, they appear once. What experience do people have? What experience do parents have of you as an education secretary, of you as an education committee? Are you engaging them? Are you interacting with the learners? Are you concerned? Are you coming up with programmes to assist the learners at the local church?When parents and learners are frustrated because the district is demanding that they be at school on Sabbath, are you saying the elders and the pastor will deal with that? Or are you engaged as an education secretary to assist, to say: the constitution allows them to have their religious freedom, they have religious rights. What is your role in that? Are you alleviating problems that learners are having as a ministry?Because what we have is a ministry. Because at the end of the day, we want to restore the image of God. And you want to restore the image of God when our demographic is going to church on Sabbath. You might restore other things — the moral things, the character — but what about the requirement from the Bible that they need to be in church? They need to worship God freely on Sabbath. That is just as important. Talk to our office. Engage our office, engage the elders, engage the pastor, engage your lay leader, engage everyone. Let us work together so that our demographic — our teachers, our parents — might have a better experience of this particular ministry. And at the end of the day, we can restore the image of God.Let me close with James chapter 3, verses 13 to 15. Same concept that Paul spoke about in Colossians. James presents to us two kinds of wisdom. Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom. But if you have bitter envy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not boast about it and deny the truth. Such wisdom does not come down from heaven, but is earthly, unspiritual, and demonic. Very strong language there. But he shows you two kinds of wisdom — one that is heavenly, and one that is earthly.The one that is heavenly — how do we see that there is wisdom in this person, in this land, in this demographic? How do we know that we have educated? It is when we see a good life. When we see the deeds, when we see the humility. Then we know — this learner has been educated. This student is living a good life. This is a product of Adventist education that is Christ-centred, that has a biblical foundation. The life is good. The activities, the deeds, are good. But they do it also with such humility. We know that they have heavenly wisdom.But if our demographic has envy and strife and selfish ambition — what are your ambitions? I want to have this and that, I, I, I, and they have this selfish ambition, no engagement in the community, I do not participate, what does the community do for me? — then we know that that wisdom is not a heavenly wisdom.But my prayer is that we can restore the image of God. The true object of education is to restore the image of God in the soul. That is our object. Through this — RESTORE. That is what I want to share with us. Restore, restore, restore. We will preach this — restore, restore, restore. We are restoring the image of God. The true object of education is to restore the image of God. May God bless you in your ministry.We are excited about the work you are already doing. We are thankful to God for what you are doing, the efforts that you are putting in. Tell us about them. Report it to the Education Department so that we can know exactly what you are doing, celebrate with you, support you, resource you, help you plan, be with you through it all. Our office is open. Talk to me. I am Pastor Treasure Nkuna. Write to my email — [email protected]. You already have my email. Send it to my email. Send me your report. Send me your challenges. Send me your stories. Send us everything that you have. Send us your plans. Invite us to your meetings — where we can, we will be available to work with you, with the goal of restoring the image of God.May God bless you. May God keep you, in Jesus' name. Amen and amen. We are restoring. That is what we are doing. May God keep you. May God bless you in Jesus' name. Amen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Music Department: A Leader's Summary 04.04.2026 1h 11min

  Pastor Zwelithini Maxwell Mavuso, Trans-Orange Conference Director: MusicCorrected TranscriptSo this is the TOC Music Workshop 2026. My name is Pastor Zwelithini Maxwell Mavuso, TOC Music Director. And it is a blessing that we share this material together. And we gather today in grateful acknowledgement of God's goodness and the privilege we have to serve him through music. I extend warm greetings to all music leaders, to choir conductors, choir members, and the congregation at large, and the worship coordinators, the praise team. And yeah, your dedication to excellence in worship is commendable. And we congratulate you for such a commitment, and together, we will explore the sacred calling of music ministry within our beloved Seventh-day Adventist Church.Now, I want to begin by sharing with you briefly what we call the implementation plan. Under our theme, we have the phrase — Singing as it is Written. This is our theme: Singing as it is Written. And we have about three or four pillars under this beautiful theme.Pillar number one says mission. And under pillar number one — mission — we have a goal, and our goal in this Trans-Orange Conference is to align all music ministry activities with the mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, proclaiming the everlasting gospel and preparing people for Christ's soon return.Now, we have very beautiful objectives. Number one is to ensure that the selections of music are biblically grounded and doctrinally sound. These are selections of music, and the objective is to ensure that those selections are biblically grounded and doctrinally sound. Number two, our objective is to promote music as a tool for evangelism and discipleship. Number three, to strengthen congregational singing to foster unity and spiritual growth. So music is a powerful, blessed tool.And we also have what we call some key performance indicators — like 100% of worship songs reviewed for biblical and doctrinal alignment. But we know that some of the songs in our hymn books we do not even know. Some we have never attempted to know them. And we are calling music conductors, music coordinators, praise teams, choir conductors — let us go through the hymn book, Orstes Stabeluweni or whatever you call it. Let us go through that one from number one, and make sure that maybe by the end of 2028 we have at least covered 100% of this songbook or hymn book. At least one evangelistic music event should be conducted annually within the territory of the Trans-Orange Conference. And this is what is going to happen. Our objective is to see a 20% increase in congregational participation in hymn singing by the end of 2028.Pillar number two is actually prioritising planning. And the goal there is to establish structured, sustainable, and coordinated music programmes across the conference. And our objective is to develop annual music ministry calendars for local churches, including the districts too. Number two, to provide training workshops for choir directors, musicians, and worship leaders. To create standardised guidelines for worship services, and especially the special events. And maybe you can ask: what is our key performance indicator there? At least if we can do two regional training workshops conducted annually. And then we see 80% of churches implementing structured choir and music programmes. And we want also the annual evaluation reports submitted by all districts of music ministry activities. Hallelujah.Under pillar number three, we are looking at development. The goal is to build capacity and nurture talent for sustainable growth in music ministry. And some of the objectives there actually is to intentionally identify and mentor young musicians and choir leaders, and encourage the composition and production of original Adventist music. And also our priority is to invest in resources — like the instruments, the hymnals, the technology — to support the music ministry. And I can guarantee you that the 30% increase in youth participation in music ministry by the end of 2028 is going to be realistic. At least two original gospel-centred music projects should be produced annually. And you can agree with me that 70% of churches will be equipped with basic music resources — not only by end of 2028, but by end of 2026. Hallelujah.And so, the purpose is to equip music conductors with skills in choral arrangement and the conducting techniques and the worship leadership too. So frequently, we need to at least twice annually have these workshops. For example, March, April, May, June, July, and somewhere there by the beginning of August, mid-August, we should be saying this is what we have done in terms of the workshops and the clinics. Hallelujah. And the target group should be the local church choir conductors, the praise teams, the musicians, and the pianists, the organists — you can name all those ones — and the outcome, my prayer is that we see improved choir quality and leadership capacity.And so let me briefly mention that Singing as it is Written is a congregational singing initiative to develop and improve congregational singing. Our belief is that if we have improved the congregational singing, we are going to have improved quality choirs and quality choir singing. And the purpose is to revive and improve congregational singing intentionally in all our local churches within the Trans-Orange Conference.And so, under the activities there, we expect to teach hymn singing techniques during Sabbath services, to introduce hymn history segments to deepen appreciation, to promote the Adventist Church hymn book with the music notes — some call it Crisien or Kristene or Kristene. The outcome is stronger congregational participation and worship engagement. Singing as it is Written is a congregational initiative.And we want also to see choir development programmes, and the purpose is to produce quality choirs capable of ministering even at conference or union level and community events. And the activities should include voice training workshops and repertoire development, together with doctrinally sound music. And so, promoting annual choir festivals — and this is for showcasing excellence. Hallelujah. And I can tell you right now that my prayer is that excellence becomes part of our nature.We are also promoting mission-focused music outreach. The purpose is to use music to reach and change the communities, to use music to reach the unentered areas, including the marginalised out there. Through music, we are saying, we can reach out to them. We can minister to them. You are talking of activities like street, or park, or community hall evangelistic singing. Music support for evangelistic campaigns. And we are also praying that we will be able to record and distribute mission-themed music. We should be able to record and distribute mission-themed music.And together, we see the evaluation and monitoring. These are quarterly reports submitted by the local church or the district music leaders to the conference music ministry department. And the indicators there are that we will see an increase in the number of trained conductors. Choir participation in conference events is going to keep on growing and improving. And also congregational singing engagement levels, thereby fostering spiritual growth. But also the distribution and use of Ukrastobenang, Ukras, die Slaweleweni — these hymnals. We need to prioritise distributing them so that each and every member at least can have these hymnals in their hands.And also we want to see an annual review, usually conducted in December, to assess progress and set goals for the following year.Now, there are going to be resources needed. Number one is qualified music trainers and clinicians. So these are some of the resources that are needed — qualified clinicians, the hymnals with the music notes, the audio-visual equipment for training, the budget for workshops, the travel, and the promotional materials.And in summary, this plan ensures that the Trans-Orange Conference Music Department remains grounded in the Bible and focused on the mission, while fostering excellence and growth in music ministry. The theme, Singing as it is Written, is reflected in every pillar — mission, learning, and development — making music a powerful instrument for worship, for evangelism, and discipleship. And it is my prayer that as we take on this journey, we may prioritise mission through music ministry.Now, today our point number two — we are looking at the performance versus the worship tension. Performance versus the worship tension. And these — I am going to present quickly — are the core tensions and the priorities within the Seventh-day Adventist Church's approach to worship and music.So these are the core tensions and priorities. Number one: the performance versus worship tension. And I am going to explain it briefly. A recurring theme in Seventh-day Adventist Church guidelines in terms of music is the fear of showmanship. You see, the theology emphasises that worship is an audience of one — God. Any element that draws excessive attention to the human performer is seen as a distraction. So the goal through music is to exalt Christ. Hallelujah. The goal through music is to exalt Christ.There is a risk. Sometimes, sometimes, sometimes, the energy may end up being given to the performance, the singer, the individual. However, I want to make this declaration: the goal of music is to exalt Jesus Christ.There must be an intellectual and emotional balance. You see, the Seventh-day Adventist Church philosophy is cautious about purely emotional worship, by advocating for music that engages the intellect as much as the emotions. So the church aims to prevent worship from becoming a temporary sensory high. This is why there is a strong emphasis on lyrical fidelity. The lyrics must be doctrinally sound because they are considered a form of preaching. Amen.And number three, there is also a need for cultural sensitivity. Let me mention that. The 1972 and 2004 updates specifically address musical styles — you remember that one. They generally discourage the syncopated rhythms or the rock idioms. And the rationale is the belief that certain rhythms are inherently tied to worldly or sensual environments. So the challenge, as the church is a global body, is that applying these standards across different cultures requires a delicate balance between universal principles and local musical expressions. So in everything we do, we know that we have to respect that cultural sensitivity issue. Hallelujah.So there are biblical foundations when it comes to music ministry. And I am going to cover this briefly. Our approach to music and worship is firmly rooted in scripture. From the Psalms of David to the new song of Revelation, music occupies a central place in God's plan for worship. The Bible contains over 500 references to music, singing, and musical instruments, demonstrating clearly that music is not an afterthought in worship, but an integral component of our spiritual experience.I take it from 1 Chronicles 23 verse 5. We read of 4,000 Levites who were set apart specifically to praise the Lord with musical instruments. This was not casual or haphazard music making. It was organised, trained, and dedicated service to the Almighty. Similarly, our music ministry today requires the same level of dedication, preparation, and spiritual commitment.And so there is what we call an Adventist perspective. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has always recognised music as a vital element in worship and Christian experience. Our pioneers understood that music could be a powerful force for good or evil, and they established the principles that would guide our musical choices and practices. And we believe that music in worship should: number one, glorify God and exalt his character; number two, encourage spiritual growth and devotion; and number three, unite the congregation in worship. So music is a powerful tool for unifying God's children.What about music as worship? You see, true worship engages the whole person. And that is what we are saying in the music ministry — that true worship engages the whole person: the mind, the heart, and the soul. So music has the unique ability to touch all these dimensions simultaneously. When we sing, "Holy, holy, Lord God Almighty" — you know what we are doing? We are not merely reciting words or producing sounds. We are participating in the eternal song of the redeemed. We are joining our voices with angels and archangels in adoration of our creator.So, if you read Colossians 3 verse 16, the apostle Paul instructed the Colossians to let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms, and hymns, and spiritual songs — singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord. Just imagine, this is in the Bible. So this passage reveals several crucial elements. Number one: music should be filled with Christ's Word. I am going to repeat this one — music should be filled with Christ's Word. Number two, it should teach and admonish. It should flow from hearts filled with grace. Its ultimate direction is to be toward the Lord. Amen.And so the SDA philosophy of music offers principles that guide us. Understanding our musical philosophy is very important for us today. The Seventh-day Adventist Church's philosophy of music is not based on personal preference or cultural trends, but on biblical principles and the counsel of the Spirit of Prophecy. This philosophy serves as our compass, guiding us through the complex musical landscape of our modern world today.So our musical philosophy encompasses several key areas. And I am going to mention a few.Number one: the sacred nature of music. We believe that music, being a gift from God, carries inherent sacred potential. However, this potential must be realised through conscious choice and careful application. Not all music is appropriate for worship, just as not all words are suitable for prayer.Number two: the power of music. Music has tremendous power to influence thoughts, emotions, and behaviour. This power can be harnessed for good or evil. As Christian musicians, we have a responsibility to use this power for the advancement of God's kingdom and the spiritual enrichment of his people.Number three: excellence in music. God deserves our best. This does not mean that only professional quality music is acceptable — no. But it does mean that we should strive for excellence within our abilities and resources. We should strive for excellence. Preparation, my dear friends, preparation is key. Dedication — these are spiritual disciplines. When applied to music ministry, the result is excellence.Number four: congregational participation. And this is a very important key — congregational participation. While special music and choir performances have their place, the heart of worship music is congregational singing. Our music should encourage and enable the entire congregation to participate meaningfully in worship.And we also have what we call the three parts of music. And it is my call that we should intentionally strive to understand the three parts of music. These are very important musical elements.Number one: melody. We call this the soul of the song. The soul of the song is the melody. How do we define the melody? Melody is the tune — the succession of single tones that forms the main musical line. It is what you hum when you remember a song. So in worship music, the melody carries the words and serves as the primary vehicle for congregational participation.The melody is very important, and so there are what we call characteristics of good worship melodies.Number one is singability. The melody should be singable. A good worship melody should be easily sung by the average congregation member. This means: number one, a reasonable vocal range — typically one octave or less for the congregation. Number two, logical melodic movement without excessive leaps — some call them excessive leaps. Also, it should be memorable and natural — a natural phrase, attractive. And this will enable people to remember. That structure cannot be forgotten. And also the tempo should be appropriate for congregational singing.Number two under the characteristics of good worship melodies is beauty and dignity. Let me explain this way. Worship melodies should reflect the beauty and dignity appropriate for addressing the King of kings. Remember, we are singing to the King of kings. While simplicity is valuable, the melody should still possess beauty — a beauty that honours God.Number three, a good characteristic of good worship melodies: support for the text. That one cannot be left out. The support for the text. The melody should enhance and support the meaning of the words. So joyful text calls for uplifting melodies, while contemplative text calls for more reflective musical lines. You see what is happening.And there are some biblical examples — the Bible speaks of melody in worship contexts. If you read Isaiah 51 verse 3, it promises that God will make the wilderness like Eden and the desert like the garden of the Lord. Joy and gladness will be found in it — thanksgiving and the voice of melody. There are many. If you also check the Psalms, they agree with what we are saying. All right.Number two then will be what we call harmony. So there is melody, there is harmony. And I always say harmony is actually the supporting beauty. Yes — harmony is the supporting beauty. And how do we understand harmony? Harmony consists of the simultaneous combination of different musical tones. While melody provides the main line, harmony adds depth, richness, and emotional colour to music. In choir work and instrumental accompaniment, harmony plays a crucial role in creating the full worship experience.There are types of harmony in worship music. Let me mention a few. Like the vocal harmony — the soprano usually carries the melody in vocal harmony. The soprano carries the melody. The alto provides lower harmony — often in thirds and sixths. And then the tenor, the male voices, harmonising above the bass. Then you have the bass — it provides the foundation or root tones. And then we have the instrumental harmony — piano, organ accompaniment, orchestral arrangements, guitar, and other instrumental combinations. All these ones fall under harmony, these types of harmony.But the harmony has a very peculiar significance. The harmony in music serves as a beautiful metaphor for unity in the church. Just as different notes combine to create beautiful chords, different voices and personalities in the church body work together to create a harmonious witness for Christ. Hallelujah, hallelujah. Ellen G. White observed in the book Education, page 168: The voice of song should be distinctly heard in every household. If these suggestions were carried out, many more than now would learn to sing. A special effort should be made to bring the art of singing to perfection. Just imagine.Guidelines for worship harmony. I just have three or four. It says: appropriate complexity — harmony should enhance, not distract from, worship. It should be tasteful arrangements. And the call is to avoid overly complex or showy harmonic progressions. The harmony should support the melody — harmony should always support and complement the main melodic line. So it should also consider the congregation. When leading congregational singing, harmony should encourage rather than intimidate participation. Yes, that is very, very true. Amen.And then number three is what we call rhythm. Rhythm is the heartbeat of music. How do we define rhythm? We say rhythm is the pattern of beats and accents that gives music its temporal structure. It is the element that makes music move through time and provides the framework upon which melody and harmony are built. Such a beautiful thing.Now, there are components of rhythm, and these components are very critical. Components of rhythm include the beat — the steady underlying pulse of music. That is the beat, like a heartbeat that remains consistent throughout the piece. And then we have got the metre — this is the organisation of beats into regular patterns, typically groups of two, three, or four beats. And then we have the tempo — this is the speed at which the music moves, measured in beats per minute. And then we have got also what we call rhythmic patterns — the specific arrangement of long and short notes that create the characteristic rhythm of a piece.Rhythm in worship — there must be balance and appropriateness. Listen, rhythm is perhaps the most controversial element of music in worship settings. Why? Because different cultures and generations have varying perspectives on appropriate rhythmic styles for worship. You understand that. So our approach must be guided by biblical principles rather than personal feelings.However, we realise that there are principles for worship rhythm. And number one is dignity and reverence — the rhythm should contribute to an atmosphere of reverence and worship. And number two, text emphasis — rhythm should support and emphasise the meaning of the words. Number three, congregational engagement — the rhythmic feel should encourage congregational participation. And then cultural sensitivity — already explained that one — that while maintaining biblical principles, we can appreciate diverse cultural expressions in rhythm. And then avoid extremes — both overly complex and overly simplistic rhythms can distract from worship.And then we also have what we call a biblical perspective on rhythm, and I find it in the book of Psalm 150. Psalm 150 mentions various instruments with different rhythmic characteristics. It says: Praise him with the timbrel and dance, praise him with stringed instruments and organs, praise him upon the loud cymbals, praise him upon the high-sounding cymbals. You see that one.And so moving quickly, we see that there are seven principles of Seventh-day Adventist Church music. And these are our guiding principles. The Seventh-day Adventist Church has developed seven fundamental principles that guide our musical choices and practices. These principles, derived from scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy, serve as a framework for evaluating and selecting appropriate music for worship and ministry.Principle number one: music must glorify God. And there must be a scripture foundation. That is why the Bible in 1 Corinthians 10 verse 31 says: Whether therefore you eat or drink, or whatsoever you do, do all to the glory of God. So this principle stands as the supreme test for all worship music. Every musical choice should be evaluated through the lens of whether it brings glory to God. This includes the musical content itself, the manner of performance, the attitude of the performers, the effect on the listeners. This cannot be ignored. So what is the practical application there? We are saying: choose songs with theologically sound lyrics. Number two, perform with excellence and reverence, and keep the focus on God rather than on yourself or other individuals. Music is the tool for worshipping God and spiritual growth, okay? So we have to consider the spiritual impact on the congregation. Amen and amen.All right. Now I also want to mention that music should support and enhance the gospel message. You remember the text in Romans 10 verse 15, where the Bible says: How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things. So music in Christian worship should never be merely entertainment or an aesthetic experience. It should actively support and enhance the presentation of the gospel message. There are key elements here — just to mention a few: the lyrics should contain biblical truth, musical style should complement the message, special music should support the sermon theme when possible, and all music should point people to Christ.So of course our music should be appropriate for the sacred setting. You can read with me Psalm 89 verse 7. Psalm 89 verse 7 says: God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, and to be had in reverence of all them that are about him. You see what is happening. So music must be appropriate for the sacred setting. The context of worship demands music that creates and maintains an atmosphere of reverence and worship. This does not mean music must be sombre or dull. Remember, reverence is not dull. Okay? Reverence does not mean dull. But it should be fitting for the presence of the Almighty. Hallelujah, hallelujah. So considerations for appropriateness are as follows: musical style and genre, volume and intensity levels, complexity and sophistication, cultural and generational sensitivity. And if you consider all these ones, then you and your music are appropriate for that occasion. Amen.Principle number four: music should encourage congregational participation. I find it in Ephesians 5 verse 19: Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord. You see. And while special music has its place in worship, my dear friend, the primary focus should be on enabling the entire congregation to participate meaningfully in musical worship. Hallelujah. Some proposed strategies for encouraging participation: one of them is to try and choose familiar hymns and songs depending on the occasion. But when it is time for worship, especially the divine worship hour, you can choose familiar hymns and songs to promote congregational participation. And provide clear music leadership. And if the conductor or the music leader knows what should be done, then the tempo will be correct, and the volume will be appropriate.Principle number five: music should demonstrate excellence and preparation. This time I am going to give you the scripture from 1 Chronicles 15 verse 16: And David spoke to the chief of the Levites to appoint their brethren to be the singers with instruments of music, to sound aloud and lift up the voice with joy. You see. God deserves our best effort. This principle calls for thorough rehearsal and preparation, developing musical skills and abilities, using quality instruments and equipment, striving for excellence within available resources. So there is going to be a balance. Excellence does not mean perfection or professional quality only, but it does mean giving our best effort and taking music ministry seriously. I just thought I should really emphasise on that one.I can tell you right now that if you look at the book of Job chapter 38 verse 7, we see that from creation, music is understood. When the morning stars sang together — can we repeat that? When the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. You see? Context and meaning: this beautiful passage occurs in God's response to Job from the whirlwind. As the Almighty describes the wonders of creation, he reveals that music was present at the very foundation of the world. The morning stars and sons of God — referring to angels — they participated in a cosmic celebration of praise. So music — from creation. Amen.However, there are theological implications. Looking at the divine origin of music: the verse establishes that music originated with God. Yes, yes, yes, yes, amen. Music originated with God and was present at creation — at creation itself. Music is not a human invention but a divine gift. This is a divine gift that reflects the very nature of heaven.So music is worship. The context shows that this festive music was worship — praise offered to the creator for his marvellous works. This establishes worship as music's highest and most appropriate function.There is a cosmic scope of music. Music is not limited to human experience, and I want us to appreciate this. Music is not just limited to human experience only but extends throughout God's creation. We participate in something far greater than an athletic performance when we engage in worship music. We participate in something that is heavenly. Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah.So Ellen G. White's commentary also indicates that Job chapter 38 verse 7 is actually a call to a godly pattern for our musical worship — to be after the heavenly model revealed in this ancient text. It is not only about ourselves but it is about God.Right. Briefly — what is the music leader, and what are their responsibilities? According to the SDA Church Manual, page 92, this is the official church guidance that music leaders in the local churches — this guidance indicates that there is a collective wisdom and experience, and it must be seen in the way the music leader conducts themselves as they carry out their work.What are we saying, Pastor? You see, these are responsibilities of music leaders. And one of them is spiritual leadership — spiritual leadership through music ministry. You see, music leaders are first and foremost spiritual leaders. They should maintain a strong personal devotional life. Now we see in the Church Manual, SDA Church Manual page 92, this guidance that the music leader should maintain a strong personal devotional life, and also model Christian character and behaviour, and understand their role in facilitating worship — that this is not about performance but about the worship of God.So there are duties of a music coordinator. The music coordinator serves as the primary liaison between the pastoral staff and the music elements of church life and the congregation and everyone else. This role requires both musical competence and administrative skill. Hence, we want our music leaders and choir conductors to continuously go through training workshops. Amen.Now, the primary duties and responsibilities are: to coordinate the worship service, to plan and coordinate all musical elements of worship services, select appropriate hymns and songs for congregational singing, schedule and coordinate special music presentations. And also organise and direct church choirs and musical ensembles, plan rehearsal schedules and manage rehearsal time effectively, select appropriate repertoire for various groups. And those are some of the responsibilities of the music leader.To lead congregational worship — the choir serves as a musical nucleus that encourages and supports congregational singing. But also to build community — fostering fellowship and unity among participants. And also evangelistic outreach — to serve as a tool for community outreach and evangelism.I just want to maybe mention that music is key when it comes to the gospel of Jesus Christ. There is an inseparable connection. Music and the cause of Jesus Christ share this connection that extends from creation to the eternal kingdom. And it is important that we understand this connection.And when we read Matthew 26 verse 30, we find Jesus and the disciples — they sang hymns after the Last Supper. You remember — they sang hymns. Jesus and the disciples, after the Last Supper, they sang hymns. Acts chapter 16 from verse 25 — what happened there? Paul and Silas singing praises in prison, leading to the jailer's conversion. Just imagine. They sang songs in prison, leading to the jailer's conversion. Early church worship included, according to Colossians 3 verse 16, psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs. And the book of Revelation describes eternal worship with music and song. Amen.So music is a gospel communication tool too. It has the unique ability to engage both emotionally and intellectually. You remember that one.So I am very excited to realise that even in evangelism, music can attract and create interest. The quality music programmes attract community interest and provide opportunities for gospel witness. So community concerts open doors for relationship building. Musical excellence demonstrates Christian commitment to quality. Hallelujah.Music plays a significant role in spiritual decision making. Appropriate music creates an atmosphere for spiritual response. Invitation hymns facilitate public commitment opportunities. And music during altar calls supports spiritual decision making. Congregational singing demonstrates community acceptance and welcome.So music serves as a form of divine revelation — because God reveals himself through the beauty and the order of music. Musical harmony reflects divine character and heavenly reality. Creative musical expression demonstrates human beings created in God's image. Worship music provides glimpses of heavenly worship. Hallelujah.So music is a powerful evangelistic tool, and we encourage that we make use of these mechanisms of musical evangelism. Alleluia. Music can create common ground, bridging cultures, creating community attraction. And all those things. And the music is able to reach where sometimes we cannot reach. So the music can enhance the effectiveness of evangelistic campaigns. This is beautiful.What about follow-up and retention? Music programmes provide ongoing involvement opportunities for new interests. Even the choir and instrumental groups create community connections. Musical activities facilitate integration into church fellowship. And ongoing musical involvement supports spiritual growth and commitment. Alleluia.I love the text in Psalm 95 verse 1: O come, let us sing unto the Lord, let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation. So salvation and music cannot be separated, and music is a powerful tool in helping the new members find a place they can call home. Hallelujah, hallelujah.1 Corinthians 14 verse 15: I will sing with the spirit, and I will sing with the understanding also. Alleluia. So there is power in united voices — spiritual unity. When a congregation sings together, they experience and demonstrate spiritual unity in powerful ways. Individual voices blend into corporate expression, thereby creating and promoting unity. Alleluia.I also want to mention that the accompaniment must play a supportive role, not a competing role. The accompaniment — the piano, the organ — plays a supporting role that supports rather than dominates. During congregational singing, the accompaniment must support, not dominate. This means appropriate volume — the sound level that encourages rather than overwhelms the congregation. A steady tempo — consistent rhythm that helps congregations stay together. Clear harmony — chord progressions that support the melody line. Everything must be clear there. Hallelujah.I believe we have already covered most of the very important things I needed to make sure we addressed.But before we close, I should mention that we correctly appreciate music creations, arrangements, and adaptations. However, I have this special message: some musical adaptations are acceptable — acceptable when they make music accessible to available resources, like the instruments and the voices. Hear that. When they preserve essential melodic and harmonic content. When they maintain spiritual and worship integrity. When they follow established musical principles and practices.There is what we call inappropriate alterations. And we need to avoid changes that significantly distort the original melody or harmony. Avoid that. Avoid changing the character or mode of the song inappropriately. Avoid changes that create confusion or difficulty for congregational participation. Avoid changes that reflect personal preference rather than musical necessity.May the good Lord bless you. And I strongly believe that this was a very learning, very informative session. And I pray blessings as you are going to be blessed as we invest in the local talent, as we develop the congregational singing, as we improve the quality of our choirs, as we improve the skills and the capacity in terms of our human resources — the choir conductors, the music leaders. I pray that you may participate and be involved in this work. May the good Lord bless you, and richly bless you as you do your best. We want you to know that we are seeing your good work. May the good God bless you. Your work is highly valued and you are important. May the good God bless you.Let us pray. Dear heavenly Father, we pray, heavenly Father, that because of this music ministry, many souls may be led to Christ, and our names be written in the book of life in heaven too. For we ask in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. Thank you so much. Have a blessed day. God bless you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Health Ministries: A Leader's Summary 04.04.2026 48min

  Pastor Treasure Nkuna, Trans-Orange Conference Director: Health MinistriesCorrected TranscriptGreetings, everybody, and in the name of Jesus Christ, we are so thankful that you are able to join us for this leadership — virtual leadership summit, leadership training — and to God we give all the glory and all the praise. And we are thankful that we could be gathered here and share some thoughts together with yourselves as health ministries leaders. And we are so thankful that you have taken the opportunity to be a part of this ministry and that you have allowed the Lord to use you so that you can minister to his people one way or the other. And we are saying to God be all the glory for all the good things that he has done.I want us to start our session. And permit me to share my screen so that we are all on the same page. And once again, this is the health ministries. Let us open with a word of prayer.Father in heaven, thank you so much for the privilege you have granted us and permitted us to be part of this health ministries. Even as we engage the leaders of the health ministries department, we pray for your guidance. May the work of the Holy Spirit be in us, speak to us, and allow our minds to expand and be able to appreciate our role in this ministry. This is our prayer, in Jesus' name. Amen.Leadership, we are so thankful once again that you are a part of the health ministries, and we are here to participate as health ministries leaders. And perhaps as an icebreaker, we start with our logo so that we understand health ministries. There is a logo right there — the health ministries logo. And I wonder, as you are seated there, do you understand this logo? Do you know what this logo means? Yes, I am referring to this one. Do you understand the logo? Do you know what it means? What do you see? At least three elements to that logo. And I wonder if you see all three elements. And yes, you have guessed it right. The first one is the round circle — it is the globe, right? So that represents the entire world, that represents the globe, the world itself. And yes, the three flames that you see there have to do with the gospel — the Three Angels' Messages that we are preaching in these last days. And yes, you guessed it right — the hand that you see there. That is a right hand. That is what you see there. It is a right hand, and that right hand represents the fact that health ministries is the right hand of the gospel. And that is correct — the gospel throughout the entire world. And thank you for being a part of this ministry.I want to start off with a passage of scripture. There are a number of logos that you will be seeing throughout this presentation somewhere. The bottom one that we added there is the Adventist AIDS International Ministries. It is an independent ministry. However, it is still attached to health ministries, and so we sometimes interchange them and use them. And if possible in your church, it might not just be the health — you might not just be a health ministries leader. You might also be the HIV and AIDS leader or coordinator in your church. Both departments or ministries might be given to yourself as a leader, or you might be the health ministries leader and someone else is the HIV and AIDS ministries leader. There is nothing wrong with that — we work together, hand in health, for the salvation of mankind.Colossians chapter 2, verse 8. It is one of my favourite passages of scripture, and I need to just share this with you so that you appreciate what the Bible is saying there. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophies. That is what the Bible says — through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world, rather than on Christ.My apologies. I just want to switch this off so that we are not disturbed, beloved, even as we engage together. Yes, that is what we are here for — we are here to be ministers in the vineyard of God. However, there is a warning that Paul gives to us. See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow or deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the elemental spiritual forces of this world, rather than on Christ. What Paul is doing here for us is sharing with us that there are two kinds of philosophies in the world. The philosophies that are based on human traditions, on the elemental spiritual forces, and a philosophy that is based on Christ. These are two separate philosophies. Two separate philosophies.For example, by way of example — let us go to the book of Genesis. When you read the book of Genesis chapter 2, God has created mankind, and God decides to put fruit, or different fruits and vegetables and seeds and roots and all kinds of things that he had placed in that particular garden. And God says, there is one particular one that I would want you not to eat. All right? There are things to be eaten and there are things not to be eaten. So God — this is the law that God puts out there for them to understand, for them to appreciate. And the Bible tells us that Lucifer — God says to them actually, the day you eat, you will die. The day you eat certain things, or this particular fruit, you will die. All right? Now, that is a belief system. That is knowledge, that is information that God has given to them.Then enters Lucifer into the picture. And when Lucifer enters the picture, he comes up with a completely different hermeneutic, as it were, comes up with a completely different philosophy, completely different assumption and idea. He says to them — asks them a question — did God say that you must not eat? And they said, God said we must not eat. He says, no, no, no. It is because God knows that the day that you eat, you will be as wise as God. There is benefit to eating this thing — go and eat. And they now have to decide. Are they going to follow the philosophy of God, and the teachings of God, the law of God? Or are they going to obey Lucifer himself? We know the rest of the story. They decide to obey Lucifer, and when they obey Lucifer, mankind fell into sin.And so the Bible gives us the warning that even within health ministries, even within the economy of health, there are always two opposing forces. There are always philosophies and sophistries that are based on human traditions, elemental spiritual forces. Then there is a philosophy that is based on Christ, that is based on God, that is based on the Word of God itself. And I want to encourage us to follow a philosophy that is based on the Word of God. If we do that, we will begin to understand certain things with a biblical perspective, a biblical understanding, and a biblical worldview. And it is important for us to do that. Because we live in a time where almost everybody has an idea on what you must eat, what you must not eat, what you must drink, what you must not drink, which doctors you must consult.Where we come from in this country, in the Trans-Orange Conference, you know the forces that are there. You know the spiritual forces that are there, the views that say that look, if doctors cannot do it for you, if medical practitioners cannot do it for you, try medical missionaries. If medical missionaries cannot do it for you, we have other traditional doctors that can do it for you. Nowadays, the traditional doctors are in their homes, others are online. It is a lot of things that are happening. Others are saying, do not just consult traditional doctors — consult the seers themselves. They are seers, people who can predict the future. We live in a very complicated health system. Some are health practitioners, others are not health practitioners, others are self-appointed, others are not self-appointed. Others are trained psychologists, psychiatrists, others are not. Others are chancetakers. It is a complicated system.However, the Bible gives us this particular warning: see to it that no one should take you captive. Now that word captive is very powerful because it has to do with the mind. It has to do with the mind, and the Bible is saying to us: guard your mind. Guard the information you put in your mind. See that no one takes you captive, because what the devil wants is to capture our minds, to capture our thinking. And if the mind is captured — whether it is through wrong information, whether it is through deceptive or even empty and hollow information — the devil will use every trick. But we have a divine weapon. The Bible says the weapons of our warfare are mighty through God, spiritual in nature, mighty through God, for the pulling down of strongholds, imaginations, anything that comes against the knowledge of God and of Christ. And that is what we have, beloved — which is the Word of God. And we want to give clarity.There is a lot in this ministry. There is a lot of information out there. People Google. People self-diagnose. Let me tell you, people get on ChatGPT, write their symptoms, and self-diagnose and find remedies. There is a lot that is happening within the health ministries. And we have a responsibility as health leaders — responsibility to provide leadership, to provide guidance, to provide clarity, to clear the fog in the midst of this confusion, in the midst of information that is so overwhelming.Over the course of time, we will learn. We will educate each other and unpack some of the concepts that we even use loosely. Medical missionary — who is the medical missionary and who is not, who qualifies and who does not qualify? There is a lot out there, and we have a responsibility as health ministries leaders. But see to it that no one takes you captive through hollow or deceptive philosophies, which depend on human traditions and elemental spiritual forces of this world rather than on Christ himself. And I pray that the Lord can lead us and help us even as we navigate this ministry ourselves as health leaders.There is a quotation from Ministry of Healing, page 146, that I want to share with you, which becomes very important. This is a very loaded statement that is important for you to know and understand even as a health ministry leader, to understand it. So here is what Ellen White has to say: In teaching health principles, keep before the mind the great object of reform.I could stop right there. In teaching health principles, keep before the mind the great object of reform. All right? So that is what we are here to do. The greatest thing that we are here to do as health ministry leaders is to reform — is to restore. For lack of another way, is to restore. She uses the word reform. I know there are a lot of concepts out there about reformers and what, I am not talking about that. But I want you to understand that we have the great object of reforming. Now I am going to explain the concept of reforming from a biblical point of view so that we do not get confused as to what reforming is and what it has to do.So in teaching health principles, keep before the mind the great object of reform, that its purpose is to secure the highest development of body and mind and soul. All right? If you are looking at the demographics that we work with, there are three areas that are important for you as a leader. That is your target. The body, the mind, and the soul. Well, Pastor, what must I do with the body, mind, and soul? It is your responsibility as a leader to restore, to reform the body, the mind, the soul. All right? So it is going to be important for us to know this. She goes on: in teaching health principles, show that the laws of nature — being the laws of God — are designed for our good. This is what you need to do, even as a health minister: you need to show people that the laws of nature, being the laws of God, are designed for our good.Now there is something that you need to understand. This phrase gets thrown around very easily: that the laws of nature are the laws of God. You need to understand this phrase. The laws of nature being the laws of God. In other words, it is God that has established the laws of nature. It is God who has decided how our bodies are going to function. It is God who has decided that if you jump, your body is going to come back down. It is God who has decided that the skin needs to become elastic or not become elastic. It is God who has designed the entire body, the mind, the soul. It is God who has designed all of that. He is the one that has put together the mind and fashioned and shaped the mind the way it is. He is the one that has put together our emotions, our soul, the seat of our emotions, everything. It is God who has designed it that way. It is God who has decided for the body to be the way that it is. And because it is God, we would do ourselves a favour by subscribing to the philosophy that is based on Christ, that is based on God, rather than philosophies that are based on human traditions. So it becomes important for us to know that. And we need to show that the laws of nature, being the laws of God, are designed for our good — that obedience to them promotes happiness in this life and aids in the preparation for the life to come. It promotes happiness in this life. When you live a holistic and healthy life, you will be happy in this life. That is what she says. And it also helps us prepare for the life to come. There are so many things we are yet to see — no eye has seen, no ear has heard what will take place in the life to come. But these laws of nature, if we obey them, help us to prepare for the life to come. So this becomes a very important ministry.And I want you to absorb all of this. In everything that we do, remember the word to reform or restore. Because of how the word reform has been mixed around and used, I am going to use the word restore. When I use the word restore, for the benefit of us digesting this particular session and making it easy — it is not going to be a long session, but it is going to help us to go through this particular training — I am going to use the word RESTORE as an acronym.Remember the way to RESTORE. If you forget everything, remember: our objective is to reform. Our objective is to restore. What are we restoring? We are restoring the image of God. And I am going to show you how. However, this is an abbreviation for several things. I want us to look at seven elements. I want us to work through these so we understand our work and our ministry. I want us to look at the Results, I want us to look at what is Essential for our ministry, I want us to look at the Social aspect, the Strategy, Organisational performance, and Experiential. I want us to look at those elements and I am going to run through them and show you how we can do this within the ministry.So the Results — this is the outcome. If you want to measure yourself as a health ministry leader, what are you doing? What is your end goal? What is the outcome that you want? At the end of your ministry, at the end of your term, whether you are serving for a year or for two years, or you have been there for a long time — what is the goal? The goal, the result that we are looking for, is reformation — image reformation, or image restoration. We want to reform and restore the image of God. We need that. That is the goal of what we are doing — to restore and reform so that we can all reflect the image of God. Every one of us was created, or has been created, in the image of God.And I am going to show you something. This is an abstract that has been taken from Pastor John Wesley Taylor — credit is given to him for this particular material — but I want to share with you so that it is easy for us to understand. We were formed in the image of God. But because of the fall, because we fell in Genesis chapter 3, the image of God was deformed in us. Body, mind, soul — the image of God was deformed. And because it was deformed, human beings found themselves conforming. We were formed. We deformed. In other words, we changed — our bodies have changed, our minds have changed, our emotions have changed. Everything has been deformed. And because of that, human beings find themselves conforming. And this word conforming comes from the book of Romans chapter 12: do not conform to the standards of the world. Some of us have conformed with mental health issues, we have conformed with emotional issues, we have conformed with physical issues. We have conformed to the standards of the world, we have subscribed to the philosophies of the world — what is acceptable, what is not acceptable, what can go, what cannot go. We have conformed. Sometimes we even teach the standards of the world that might not necessarily be based on Christ, but that might be based on human traditions and other philosophies.But because we are in the business of reforming — as much as we were formed, and we deformed, and others are conforming — we have a ministry opportunity to reform. That is what we have. To reform. And we reform right here, beloved. It starts in the mind. Our job as health ministries leaders is to reform — to change the way that people think, the way that people understand, the assumptions, the philosophies that they have. That is what we are dealing with here. And when we get that right, we will see people transformed. We will see people reflecting the image of God once again. And that is what we are aiming for. So when you think about the Results dimension of our framework, of our ministry, our job is to reform and to bring people back to the image of God — both in their bodies, in their minds, and as well as in their souls. And that is what our ministry is centred around, and that is the goal that we want.What is the Essential? If you think about our health ministries — what is at the core of what we are doing as a health ministry leader? What is at the core of what we are doing? We are aiming at getting holistic health. That is what we are aiming at — holistic health. At the core of our ministry is holistic health. You cannot, as a health ministry leader, only emphasise exercising because you are athletic, and say people must just run. That is not holistic health. It is your responsibility as a health ministries leader. Are people physically active? Are they healthy physically? In terms of motion, in terms of what they consume, in terms of what they eat — are they healthy in that aspect? Are they healthy in their minds? Do people have mental health? Are people healthy emotionally? Are people healthy spiritually? So we are aiming — the essence of what we are doing, what we are aiming for, is holistic health.So your ministry as a leader is to look at the body, the mind, and the soul. Even your programming — even the programmes that you put together — must speak to those three particular aspects. If I come up with a health programme, what is this health programme speaking to? Is it speaking to the body? Is it speaking to the mind? Is it speaking to the soul? So with holistic health, it has to speak to all three. You cannot serve the whole term speaking only about the body. What about the mind? What about mental health awareness? What about the soul? What about emotional awareness and emotional health? These are things that we need to look at essentially. In our department, we deal with holistic health.When you look at the Social dimension — and if you are following, I am looking at the word RESTORE, and I am trying to give us tools that can assist us as we develop this material — the social dimension is that we provide community support. That is what we do as health ministries. We provide community support. Whether we are looking at the community within the church or looking at the community outside the church, we are providing community support. That is what we are doing. We need to support our people.You know, sometimes I find it fascinating that some of our health ministries leaders — let me put it differently. There are 52 weeks, 52 Sabbaths in a year. Out of the 52, you can remove camp meetings, you can remove district programmes, you can remove other programmes, holidays, and all of that — remove all those programmes, and we are left with very few Sabbaths. Then you find leaders — everyone is fighting to have a Sabbath. Everyone is fighting: it is health ministries Sabbath, I also want a day, I want to appear at least once a quarter.My friends, beloved brothers and sisters, our job is bigger than just the Sabbath. Our job is bigger than just one day in a year of doing health ministries. Yes, get the date for health ministries days, but our job is bigger. When you read the Church Manual, the manual tells you that we do health programmes. Health programmes and activities — those are very key words. We do not run for events. We do not specialise in events. Our job is not to specialise in events. There are people who will do events — let them do events. Ours is to design programmes and to design activities that people can participate in.And so at a social dimension, what are the programmes that are in place that you and your ministry are offering for your church community and for the community your church is based in? You are not a health ministry leader just for your church. You are a health ministry leader for the community. Your health ministry must not only be known by church members. It must not only benefit church members — it must benefit the community.Have you started a community club? Have you started a community diet club? Have you started a community running club, a community walking club? Have you started something? What is it that your ministry at the church is contributing towards the community? I am not talking about a once-off programme. I am not talking about a once-off event. I am talking about a programme. How many people in our communities have a smoking problem? Do we have stop smoking programmes for communities? Do we have stop using drugs programmes for communities? There is so much that we need to have, both for the church community and the communities that our churches are found in. And it becomes important that we provide that support. And your responsibility and job as a health ministry leader is to then come up with programmes.We have some of these programmes. We have them. We can equip, we can share notes as to what are the programmes that you can do within your particular community and church community where your church is based. Do you have an HIV and AIDS support centre or support group? So many people are suffering with HIV — both within the church and outside the church — at a physical level, mental level, and even emotional level. What support is your ministry giving towards those who are affected and those who are infected? And so it becomes important that we understand that in terms of our social dimension, we provide community support.There are so many things that we can do in our communities. Have we started those health centres? Health centres. Part of the things we are going to share with you — and by God's grace and through your prayers and support and teamwork — we should be able to start clinics, beloved. We should be able to start clinics within the Trans-Orange Conference. We do not have clinics. Some of our churches, we have mission houses that are dilapidating, that are falling apart, which we could convert into clinics. Yes, there are processes — you have to talk to the conference and so forth, you have to register, we understand we have to do that. But my point is: have you at least initiated the idea of starting a clinic? How many nurses are retired in your church, just sitting, waiting for you as the health ministry leader to come and say, come and volunteer your time? How many doctors are in your church that can volunteer their time? How many medical missionaries are there in your space that can volunteer their time? And we can coexist and begin to build health centres, health clinics that provide holistic health. We have so many opportunities within our community that we can work with.Now, when you think about the Strategy — strategies that you can employ in your department, your ministry at your local church — we have several things that we can do. But ours is a targeted outreach. That is what we are here to do. Ours is a targeted outreach. We address real health needs within our communities. That is what we are doing. When it comes to health issues, you as the health ministry leader, you are the go-to person. If people need advice or counsel, it is you who must be able to say — even if you do not know everything — you should be able to give the referrals and say, talk to so-and-so, they can help you. Verified information must be at your fingertips.And so our strategy is targeted outreach. We do not just do outreach for the sake of doing outreach. We do not just feature as a by the way. And remember this — the logo is right there by our side, we are the right hand of the gospel. And what that means — being the right hand of the gospel means that the gospel gains access into the communities because of health ministries.I guarantee you, go and try this. Go and try this. Establish — while the church is planning an evangelistic campaign somewhere around November, somewhere around October, towards the end of the year — start at the beginning of the year with health programmes in the community. Reach out to those people. There is no one who does not want to be healthy in our communities. Everybody wants health. Everybody wants health. Provide health ministries and see how that opens doors for the gospel. See how many baptisms will come because you as a health ministry leader established relationships and provided health ministries towards individuals. They open their hearts. Do you know what a privilege it is for someone to trust you with their health? Do you know the privilege? Do you know what an honour that is? Do you know how heavy that responsibility is — for someone to entrust their life, their health, in your hands?And so it becomes important that our information must be correct. Everything that we do must be well prepared and targeted, and we are then able to provide strategically those ministries that reach out to those in church and those that are outside of the church. And so at a strategic level, our programmes need to do that as well — they need to speak to those particular areas of ministry.Now, Pastor, I hear all the grand ideas you are talking about — how the ministry needs to work and all the strategies and how we must build groups in our communities and encourage holistic health and open HIV and AIDS support centres. I hear you, Pastor, but I am just one person. I am just one person. And yes, it is true that you are just one person. However, I want to encourage you. Work with a community. Do not do everything alone. You might be the accounting officer, but work with a community. Whether you are in a big or small church, find people that are going to work with you in your ministry. You might be coming from a small church — find two or three other people that can form part of your committee. It does not have to be everyone. You do not need a huge group. Others are in your community by virtue of their offices. Find a few people to form part of your health ministry community or committee, so that you are able to work together.So I want to encourage you to do that, so that even when you sit at the church board, now let me assist you — it starts with you as the health ministry leader. Then you have a committee that you work with, or a council — health ministries council — that you work with. Above that is the church board, because you report to the church board. You report your targets, your ministries, and everything to the church board. The church board must know: what is this ministry doing at the local church? What is this ministry doing within the communities? What are the fundings we have received for a particular project that you are doing in your community or through your health ministries? What are the targets? How have we restored the image of God? How have we improved the health system, the health economy, the health status of our communities?Yes, we do health surveys. But since you came into office, how have we improved at different levels? You could even decide that your speciality is children, and as a health ministry leader, your demographic focus becomes kids. Or your demographic focus becomes the elderly, senior citizens. Or your demographic becomes young professionals. You can choose the demographic, or you become holistic and cover everybody. But you can choose men's health, women's health. We can choose and tailor-make the demographics, but we need to be organised. Report to the committee, work with the committee, they deal with operations, report to the board, report to the conference, report to us.Let me show you — once you are a health ministry leader at your local church, you are a member of the board, but you are also a member of the health ministries council in your district. Did you know that? Did you know that your district is supposed to have a health ministries council? These are health leaders from all the churches within your district coming together, with one person leading out, doing a very simple thing at district level. Good people — what are we doing in our churches? What are you planning to do? How can the district support? Once we have done what we were planning to do, what have you done? What is the report? And we populate the report. We measure our progress. We are able to say that there is something that we have done.Because the health ministry leaders of the district form part of what in my department we call the health ministries council. These are leaders from different districts, and they form part of the health ministries council at conference level. This is where we ask: what is the work that is being done in your district? How many churches do you have in your district, sir? Say, all right, in my district I have got 16 churches. All right — what are they doing? What are all 16 churches doing in terms of health? And we consolidate the reports. We work together.At conference level, my department, my responsibility is to help you, support you, resource you, give you material, work together, come to your district, come to you, and do the work of health. Work with you to establish this project. We can only do it with you. We are there to support. I do not mind how wild your idea is — bring it, let us work through it together, let us put it together. There might not be funding — let us work together and see where we are going to get this funding. But that is how we are organised. Do not do everything alone. This is the exact same thing that Jethro told Moses in the Bible. Moses, you are going to have a headache dealing with 600,000 Israelites alone — but group them, work with them, work with committees, work with boards and councils, so that we are able to do the work of ministry together.When it comes to Performance, we are talking about outcomes. You need to be able to track your outcomes. It cannot just be event, event. What are the outcomes? How are you going to measure those outcomes? How are you going to measure that at the beginning of your term you measured the health status of your church? I mean, I could ask you a question: is your church healthy or not healthy? What is the status of your church? A simple thing — you could take blood pressures of your entire church and give yourself a report as to: is this church healthy or is it not healthy? And at the end of your term, after one year or two years, take the same measure again and ask yourself: have they improved compared to when you started? And when you are ending at the end of that term, that is how you then check and measure outcomes. Because that is the Performance dimension. Are you doing some work?It is time that our plans must come from our minds, come to paper, and step away from paper and become reality. Good ideas do not go anywhere. They are like seeds placed on a shelf that do not go anywhere. If we do not plant those ideas in fertile ground, they might just remain seeds on the shelf. But we need to be able to plant them. We need to be able to work with them. We need to be able to bring them to life. Start those health centres. Get professionals. Talk to us. Let us do those programmes together.If you are going to be planning a health expo — that is a big one. There are so many litigations around health expos, and we are going to talk about that. We will do a separate training on health expos: how to put them together, who are the necessary professionals that you need there, because it is not everybody that can do a health expo. So many people have taken us to court because of health expos — false information sometimes, or someone getting worse. But health expos are good when we do them well. So if you are working on a health expo, what is the targeted outcome? Is it just to tick a box and say we had a health expo? Is it to create awareness in a particular area? Those are targeted outcomes that you need to have in place in order to measure your progress.Then comes the last part of our Restoration framework: the Experiential dimension. The question is: the people that you minister to, the demographic you minister to — how are they, what is their experience of your ministry? What is the experience? Do they feel like you are not doing anything for the church and the church is becoming unhealthy, and you are there as the health ministry leader, yet encouraging everybody to be unhealthy? Do they feel like your ministry as a health ministry leader is too extreme — you are so extreme that people are losing their faith? You have your shortcomings. What is people's experience of your health ministry department? What is their experience?And I want to encourage us that we need to aim at practical engagement with people. People must be able to talk to us, must be able to approach us, must be able to say: I can go to this person when I have this problem and they will be able to assist me at a practical level. At a practical level. It is not just about prayer. Yes, it is prayer, but we also need a practical thing to do so that we are able to enhance this particular ministry.All kinds of ministries, all kinds of things are attached to health ministries, and we need to be able to assist them. There are several resources. You can go on our websites — Google these websites, they are very helpful. Go to the AIMS website and see what we do there. There is so much that we are doing there under the AIMS ministries under HIV and AIDS. There are so many projects that we are doing. There is so much for young people. Go to our Youth Alive website. Look at what we are doing for young people when it comes to questions of health. So many young people are being taken out of drugs, so many young people are recovering. Go to the Adventist Recovery Ministries website — it is global. Go to that website. See how many people are being delivered from addictions, how many people are recovering. Go to the Breathe Free, go to the Lifestyle Coaching. There are so many websites you can go to. Go and look at the work that we are doing. Get the resources. Let us help you. Let us work together to grow your ministry within your department.I want to close with a passage of scripture that has become so important for this ministry. James chapter 5, verses 13 to 15. Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone happy? He should sing songs of thanks to God. Is anyone among you sick? He should send for the church leaders — and they should pray for him.Watch what the Bible is saying. Is anyone suffering — suffering physically, suffering emotionally, suffering mentally? Is anyone suffering? They should pray. There is a place for prayer. Is anyone sick? They should send for, they should call for, the church leaders. You are the church leader. The Bible says if anyone — it does not say church people only, it does not say community people only. It says if anyone is sick. Guess what? Their first point of contact is the church leader in the health ministries, which is yourself. The Bible says they must call for you, and you should pray for them. I know some translations say they must call for the elders of the church — that is okay, that is one translation. My translation says they must call for the church leaders, and you happen to be the health ministry leader. They should pour oil on him in the name of the Lord. Look at it — it is not just prayer that you are offering, but there is the practical side of things that you are also doing in order to help those who are sick, those who are suffering, in the name of the Lord. The prayer given in faith will heal the sick person, and the Lord will raise them up. If they have sinned, he will also forgive them.Watch what is happening there. It is not just the physical sufferings. It is not just the mental and the emotional. It also speaks to the soul as well. If they have sinned, God will forgive them. And so we have a huge ministry and a huge responsibility.And my prayer is that God can help us. This is not the last — we are going to do more trainings. Participate so that we can equip you. We can resource you, we can give you material. This is just an introductory training. There is so much that we can do in order to train and equip health ministries leaders. If possible, we will even put you on a programme where you can get a certificate. I am talking about an accredited programme where you can become certified as a health ministry leader.May God keep us. May God bless us in all that we are doing. Remember, our objective is restoration. Our objective is reform. That is what we are aiming for. And I just want to quickly go back to that statement by Ellen White: In teaching health principles, keep before the mind the great object of reform. This is the great object of reform. May God be with us.Write to me. Write to my department. Here is our email: [email protected]. Flood me — but do not send me health information. Do not send me that, all right? Send us reports. Send us stories that are taking place in your church. Send us your initiatives, your projects. Send us your proposals — where you need help, where you need assistance. Send it to us so that we are able to work with you, assist you, support you, resource you, so that your ministry can be impactful, even in the communities where you work.So may God bless you, may God keep you, and I am praying for you. We are excited about the work that you are doing. You are doing so much in your local church, for the people in your local church, for your community. Some of you — we already have reports, we know what you are doing, we know what you are up to. And we thank God that you have been chosen for such a time as this. May God keep you. May God bless you. In Jesus' name. Amen and amen. Amen and amen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Sabbath School and Personal Ministries: A Leader's Summary 04.04.2026 1h 5min

  Pastor Zwelithini Maxwell Mavuso, Trans-Orange Conference Director: Sabbath School and Personal MinistriesCorrected TranscriptI greet you in the wonderful name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Congratulations for joining this summer school — Sabbath School and Personal Ministries training for Trans-Orange Conference, 2026. I am your host. I am your trainer, Pastor Zwelithini Maxwell Mavuso. And it is my prayer that you are going to be blessed. You are going to be transformed, and our leadership skills are going to keep on improving as a result of this training.Allow me then to begin sharing. There you are, there you are — Sabbath School and Personal Ministries. It is my prayer that our Sabbath schools may become more evangelistic. More soul-winning focused. And not just for entertainment, but for soul winning. This is our training workshop for 2026. Sabbath School and Personal Ministries 2026.We are going to move very fast, and we are looking at the mission and objectives of the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries. Okay. We are sorry about that — the people setting up here. Okay, thank you very much.Let us begin with a word of prayer. Dear heavenly Father, we thank you for Jesus. We thank you for the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries training and equipping workshop. We pray that you will be with the listeners. You will be with the lay leaders. In the name of Jesus, we pray that your church may continue to grow. In Jesus' name we pray. Amen.My name is Pastor Zwelithini Maxwell Mavuso, your trainer for Sabbath School and Personal Ministries. We are going to be looking at the mission and objectives of the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries.Before we go deeper — before we dive deeper into the mission and objectives of the Sabbath School — I just want us to share briefly on the implementation plan for Sabbath School 2026. Our implementation plan.The main theme for the Seventh-day Adventist Church is Grounded in the Bible, Focused on the Mission — grounded in the Bible and focused on the mission.The vision of the Sabbath School is to cultivate a Christ-centred Sabbath School that equips members with a deep understanding of scripture, and fosters spiritual growth, and mobilises the church for active mission service — locally and globally.And we do have what we call the core objectives of Sabbath School. This is communion with God. The aim is to deepen personal and corporate prayer life, to grow in Bible study and worship, to promote a consistent and meaningful Bible study and application in daily life.We also have what we call the structure of the Sabbath School class, which is between 6 and 12 members per class, depending on local church size. And the grouping method is based on geographical proximity — in other words, we are saying same neighbourhood or nearby areas. That is how our classes should be grouped.And then we do have a class leader — the class leader is also called the class teacher. They facilitate Bible study, coordinating prayer and organising the outreach. But also we do have the assistant leader, supporting the Sabbath School superintendent. But this leader focuses on new member integration. Then, of course, you would have your Sabbath School secretaries — they maintain the class records, the Sabbath School offering records, and the Sabbath School activities. These are the secretaries. And then the Sabbath School teacher basically facilitates the class discussion. That is the Sabbath School teacher. They facilitate the class discussion, the lesson application to our daily life.But also we have the mission coordinator. They basically plan outreach activities and they enforce reporting. Okay.I also want to share with you briefly the Sabbath School weekly programme. The Sabbath School weekly programme — according to the Sabbath School manual — should be 9 AM to 9:55 AM only. And then from 8 AM, we encourage the teachers to meet. This is called the teachers' meeting. So the teachers do meet, and as they meet here, they basically look at the Sabbath School lesson together, briefly. Then by ten to nine, we have the chorister, we have the church in song. And it is important that we respect the time from the Sabbath School so that all the programmes of the day will end on time.And then the Sabbath School weekly class flow is that — instead of one hour, we can limit it to 45 minutes — when we have an opening prayer, and then we have a brief mission story. This is coming from the class members. These are midweek outreach updates, just for 5 minutes. We have a brief mission story from one or two class members, and then we have 30 minutes of Bible study. This is what we call the lesson discussion, where there is scripture reading and application to daily life. And then there is mission and outreach planning for 5 to 10 minutes, where people share testimonies and plan community activities. And then we also have prayer time and fellowship time — members pray, and we pray for each other. This is where we build community, and we also plan intentionally how we continue growing in the Lord. And then by ten to eleven, we expect that this is now the song service in preparation for the main service. All right.Now, during the week — or midweek Sabbath School class activities — may depend greatly on the environment and the context down there. However, there is what we call home and community prayer meetings by the Sabbath School class. This is an action unit meeting, at one of the Sabbath School class members' house, or a neighbour's house, and we go into Bible study, we go into prayer as an action unit.And then we also have what we call social time within the action unit. This is where we share meals, we walk together and do activities together. These are activities that strengthen the bonds, and we celebrate also our members' birthdays. But the action unit is also intentionally there for mission, where we adopt a local church outreach project — for example, visiting the sick, mentoring young people, food distribution, visiting the hospices around us, visiting the children's homes around us. So as an action unit, as a Sabbath School class, we need to identify our mission project.We do have Sabbath School key activities and strategies. For example, the quarterly teacher training — we believe that for our Sabbath School members to continue growing, the teachers should be growing too. And we promote godly teacher training. These are workshops on lesson preparation and the teaching methods, you know, and the spiritual leadership by the class teacher, and the Sabbath School superintendent, and all those coordinators.We are also looking at the small group Bible study, where we encourage interactive class discussions and personal testimonies. But also there is what we call community outreach day, and this can be a key activity where we organise visits to hospitals, to orphanages, go and clean up the community, et cetera, et cetera. However, the visitation programme to our absent members cannot be left out. The visitation programme to our visitors will encourage consistent attendance, because it acts like an ongoing care ministry.Maybe you are asking the question: how are you going to evaluate this? Maybe I can mention that the best evaluation method would be the quarterly surveys and the testimonies, the class discussions, and the leaders' reports. The feedback forms and those observations, when they are reported and they reach our offices. The mission reports, the photos. But also we need to intentionally have what we call a discipleship tracking sheet, where we are able to know if our new members and our old members are really intentionally being discipled.I can mention that there is a new member discipleship path that should not be skipped, okay? Where they are welcomed and oriented, assigned to a class when the right time has arrived — remember, the nearest geographically. And then there is mentorship, where the new member is paired with a mature member for 3 to 6 months. And then they attend special Bible study sessions where we intentionally dive deeper into the Seventh-day Adventist fundamental beliefs, and prophecy seminars, and doctrines — the Ten Commandments and the doctrines. And then we encourage active involvement — when they join, they participate in outreach and fellowship activities.So that is briefly part of the Sabbath School implementation plan.Now, back to our mission and objectives of the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries.Number one: the mission of the Sabbath School is to be a system of local church religious education where we build faith and we build practice, where members grow intentionally.Now, the local church Sabbath School builds faith through the study of the scriptures and doctrines and teachings of the SDA Church Fundamental Beliefs. Maybe you are asking about the practice — the Sabbath School builds practice through total member involvement, yes, and the application of the biblical principles of the SDA Church to the individual lives of the Sabbath School members.And so the successful Sabbath School has these following elements. Number one is outreach. Number two is soul winning. The Sabbath School should be one of the greatest instrumentalities and the most effectual in bringing souls to Christ. I find it from Counsels on Sabbath School Work, page 10, by Ellen G. White.Now, there are objectives. Number one: study of the Word. This is where we train all church members on the Grounded in the Bible and Focused on the Mission. What about involvement? What about community outreach to unentered areas? This is also one of our main objectives — community outreach to unentered areas. And then of course we have world mission emphasis.I can tell you right now that from the old Sabbath School manual, the Sabbath School was developed to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ, in response to the command of Jesus, and secondly, in the setting forth of the Three Angels' Messages. Just imagine. In loyalty to this original purpose, the Sabbath School continues to communicate the good news with objectives to win, train, and involve in God's work — men and women, youth, boys and girls in all the [TOC/inaudible] territory. To win, train, and involve. I must repeat this: to win, train, and involve.Number one: study of the Word. The Sabbath School helps students understand the gospel and make personal commitment to Christ and his Word. This is where they grow spiritually through study of the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy.The Sabbath School actually accomplishes the Grounded in the Bible and Focused on the Mission in this way. Let me explain it briefly. You see, we live in a world where things are changing — there are conflicting voices everywhere. However, the church must remain steadfast. The church must remain rooted in God's unchanging Word and committed to his divine mission. So our foundation must always be the scriptures, which are a timeless revelation of God's will. You see, friend, the Bible is not just a historical record. It is the most powerful book in human history. So every Adventist should be grounded in this powerful book.How do we accomplish this? You see, we train all church members on being grounded in the Bible, leading souls to Christ through baptism. To be grounded in the Bible means to allow God's Word to transform our hearts, renew our minds, and guide our actions. It calls for faithfulness to truth in an age of confusion, and for obedience to God's will even in challenging times. Scripture provides a way to achieve holiness and happiness and prosperity and eternal life.So, through all its ministries and programmes and initiatives, the church must support this ultimate goal: grounded in the Bible and focused on the mission. So the church's mission is not optional. It is the very reason we exist, and God encourages everyone to spearhead in proclaiming the gospel. So being grounded in the Bible and focused on the mission means working in harmony — you see, by leaders, and all the workers, the pastors, and all the young and old. We each contribute our gifts for the advancement of God's kingdom. It is a call to integrate our efforts so that every programme of the church — from worship to community service — reflects the heart of Christ's mission.What about involvement? You see, the Sabbath School fosters many-sided involvement and participation. Members participate in the weekly Sabbath School programmes, Sabbath School lesson and classes, and develop projects for recruiting new members and developing spiritually. So our aim is that each member — new member and old member — we are strengthening our faith. Through this engagement, our spiritual well-being will improve. Maybe from 50% to 100%, from 80% to 100%. That is our prayer. And as a result, we will then develop a master plan. All right.And a high retention strategy. You see, for Sabbath School and Personal Ministries, the higher retention strategy involves transitioning from a programme-focused model to a relationship-focused model, aiming for 80 to 100% engagement, by fostering community and also providing purposeful service roles and nurturing spiritual growth.So, Sabbath School engagement strategies — you remember reaching in. Through the action unit, the Sabbath School action unit, if we reduce the class size to 6 to 10, 6 to 12, depending on the church size — this will foster deeper relationships and make it easy to identify the missing members before it is too late.And a higher retention strategy would encourage something like participatory discussion. So we need to shift away from lecturing. And we use a 3 to 4 key questions approach that encourages members to share personal applications, testimonies, and experiences, and this would create a lively interactive environment rather than a lecturing room.And we already spoke about the teacher training and evaluation, and we are just saying: let it be regular — the training of our facilitators, the training of the teachers, and the methods. Let it be regular. Right.What about the daily study promotion? We encourage in the Sabbath School — we have the Sabbath School lesson app and the PDF lessons for family studies, to build discipline and keep members engaged with the Word of God throughout the week. The Sabbath School app and the PDF lessons on the website are free and available for us to download.And then we have the reaching out — this is the Personal Ministries member retention strategy: reaching out. You know, total member involvement. So now these TMI — total member involvement — groups, action units, meet during the week and foster a community and they plan outreach. And this makes service a way of life. You know, you do not wait for the Sabbath for you to do something for God, but you meet with your class during the week and do something for God.So we are talking of service-based evangelism, where we organise regular community service projects — food banks, health seminars, health expos, community gardens — combined with reflection sessions. We connect service with personal wellness and spiritual growth. And this is going to make sense to our community members.And what then follows is to train a team in your local church. Have a team — a team of people ready to visit, to conduct the visitors. In other words, every time we have visitors, let us make sure that after the service we conduct them, check if they managed to get back home, check if they would like to be assisted to come next time, check if everything is okay. You create a welcoming culture where members — not just ushering only — but there is a connection between the members and the new people. And you are preventing this stigma where they are going to be feeling like strangers forever. So it is a beautiful strategy that we plan to reach out to the new members and to the visitors.However, we are also focusing on the mentorship for new believers. We assign a special care mentor to new believers for at least 3 to 6 months, even a year. And these offer spiritual support, the books, the home visits, and you are establishing a solid foundation for those new believers. When we invite the new believers to share testimonies for 2 to 3 minutes — you know what is happening? You are fostering accountability, you are fostering growth and involvement. And this is how their faith is going to be strengthened when they are involved.What about digital integration? Some say, depending on the environment or infrastructure. But I can confirm that through social media and online Bible studies, you can keep members connected to the church community. Through digital integration, we are able to keep members engaged in God's Word — weekly, daily. And you should not wait, but right away, find ways to also make use of the digital platforms available. All right.Those are part of the retention strategies. I have also learned that we need to intentionally celebrate the members' achievements. We need to recognise their efforts, you know — their anniversaries, their wedding anniversaries, their achievements — we need to recognise that. And you know, we believe that implementing these strategies will ensure a warm, participatory, and service-oriented environment. And you know what? If you implement this, we strongly believe that you will begin to keep more than 20% of your old and new members, and as they are involved in fellowship, service, and spiritual growth, you too are growing in the Lord. Amen.Now, what about the community outreach, where we are saying, to reach more than 50 unentered areas, including the marginalised, in the Trans-Orange Conference? Personal Ministries and Sabbath School Department — we have actually, as part of the mission, encouraged each district to provide us with 5 unentered areas. However, for this to be accomplished, we have mapped out a path where we begin the preparations of these unentered areas this year, 2026. And then we ask each district to at least identify one ready site so that we begin the process of funds application — one in 2027, one in 2028, and then we will leave another one for the new incoming leadership in 2029. They will find a site ready and funded.So the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries helps members catch a vision of the church's mission in community, train members for service, and inspire them to witness. So entering these unentered communities needs the involvement of the members — all of us, young and old — to be involved. And to quick-start mapping unentered areas and conducting community surveys in 2026, followed by friendship evangelism. We believe that where friendships are genuine, people will be interested in our product. We are also looking at literature distribution, small group Bible studies. And this will culminate in a 2027 harvest, by our 26 districts. And total member involvement is key to empowering members for service. Amen.Now, that is going to be Phase One. Phase One is soil preparation. This is now until December 2026: soil preparation. Once the surveys are done and unentered areas are identified, we continue with the community survey so that we identify what we call the needs. We identify the needs. We identify the cultural barriers and the demographics. Then this will be followed by literature distribution — books — and perhaps meetings. And support of these communities during their bereavements and during their other social activities where we can, we bring in community services. We implement health ministries, health expos, cooking schools, and community development projects. And this will build trust. But also we need a prayer ministry — a neighbourhood prayer ministry. You can organise members to pray for specific homes in the unentered areas, to pray for specific leaders within those unentered areas that you have identified.Then Phase Two is the cultivation and planting, okay? Where the action units, the Bible studies, the VOP in the homes — these activities are taking place. Friendship evangelism — building personal friendships with neighbours and inviting them to those community events. And then you also bring in media evangelism, using your digital platforms to share testimony videos and offer online Bible studies.Then we will see Phase Three, and Phase Three is the harvest, and this will be 2027. Where now we are harvesting. You are talking of public meetings. Where you conduct evangelistic meetings based on the needs you identified in Phase One. We do not want to scratch where it does not itch. Your evangelistic meetings are based on the needs identified in Phase One. Sorry about that.And then follow-up. So immediately, we offer discipleship classes to these new believers, so that they integrate, you know — you integrate these new converts into the church life. In some areas, we have to leave a dedicated Bible worker to continue doing the follow-up.And so I am asking myself this question: how do we prepare unentered areas for 2027? Number one: you have to adopt the area. You have to talk about the area, look at the area, decide to adopt the area as your mission project. And then you encourage each Sabbath School class or local church to also adopt a specific unentered village, unentered town, or unentered neighbourhood.And then we need to speed up the training of workers — how to give Bible studies, how to conduct Sabbath School studies, how to offer Bible studies to the interested people in the community. And we need to continue launching the literature distribution — launch a literature campaign, you know? And through this literature, we are answering the questions we came across during Phase One.What about the community health expo, the lifestyle seminars? Use the health expo. Use the health expo as the entering wedge — to open the hearts, to open the doors. Remember, more than 50% of the communities where we reside are already religious. You know, they already have their churches. And through the health expo, we are able to open those hearts so that they are receptive to our product, so that they are receptive, they are interested in what we have to offer. Do the health expo — plan the health expo long before you talk about the evangelistic series. Work on community health. Work on lifestyle support methods for that community. And this is what we call the entering wedge. All right.What I can share with us is that there are advantages for soil preparation. And this will help the new members to stay in the church. In other words, the preparation increases receptivity. All right? And it is not about just baptisms. It is about: are they grounded in the Word? Are they grounded in the Bible? And this preparation of the soil will increase receptivity, thereby increasing retention. So we need to prepare. And people are more likely to attend our meetings when they trust the messengers. Very good. So preparation of the soil promotes trust. The people will attend because they trust. They have trust in the messenger too. So in mission, people do not only trust in God — they need also to trust the messenger, if he is not bringing them poison. Right?How do we come up with an effective follow-up? Once the prior cultivation has taken place, the harvest is more ready for decisions. And remember, the harvest belongs to God. However, we have a duty. We have a duty to make sure we create an effective follow-up. Through the preparation and the cultivation, we are saying the harvest is more ready for decisions. And I can tell you right now that what you are going to see is sustainable growth. The goal is not just a high head count, no. But forming genuine relationships is the goal. The genuine relationships that lead to lasting transformation.So let me break it down briefly. In this community outreach, the classes develop programmes to involve members in soul-winning activities. So listen — our total member involvement begins with the Sabbath School class. And each member, including the teacher, including the elders, should belong to a Sabbath School class. And this is what we call the home cell growth plan — through the Sabbath School action unit. Each and every member is involved.Now let us move quickly to the world mission emphasis. You see, the Sabbath School actually has a clear vision of the church and the local mission of the church. It promotes a personal, systematic, and self-denying commitment to the support of the world mission, and fosters in members a desire to help fulfil the gospel mission.I love the book Counsels on Sabbath School Work by Ellen G. White, page 53: Every day, some portion of time should be appropriated to the study of lessons. And we are saying this will happen in the Sabbath School class. And in Counsels on Sabbath School Work, page 41: Parents, set apart each day a weekly time for the study of the Sabbath School lessons with your children. Amen and amen.So you can see that the Sabbath School teachers should lead by example by faithful daily study of the lesson. Do not come to teach a lesson you have not dealt with before the class time. Yes. The Sabbath School teacher — during the week, go through the lesson, acquaint yourself, go through the lesson, make sure you understand the lesson.So the Sabbath School is calling all members. The plan is to enrol in the Sabbath School every member of the church — the children and all the age groups. Let us enrol all of them in the Sabbath School. And everyone, including community members who would desire to be Sabbath School class members — let us enrol everyone into the Sabbath School class. And you know what? This will result in a growing attendance. And if our Sabbath School classes can grow, it is then up to the Sabbath School superintendent and the secretary to find ways to restructure the Sabbath School class, so that once the Sabbath School class has grown from 10 to 20, it then means we need to pick some spiritually mature members within the class and divide that class into two. Every time the class has grown, we need to restructure the class so that we maintain a medium-sized class. All right.What about hospitality emphasis? You need to intentionally come up with a Christian hospitality plan. But this begins with each individual member. And we are saying every member should be encouraged to be friendly and hospitable. And during our Sabbath School, let us make sure there are greeters by the door, greeters by the gate, welcoming people, even calling people to come in for prayer, you know? The greeters, those ushers, whatever you call them, should be appointed by the Sabbath School council to welcome at the door those who come to our Sabbath School. They need to be welcomed. We need to make them feel at home. Make sure the guests are entertained. Make sure the guests do not feel like strangers. All right.There should be plans also for nurturing the spiritual life of newly baptised members by involving them as soon as possible — continuously, very good — involve them as continuously as possible in active and meaningful service. We need to involve the new members. We need to find a way to involve them. Amen.Now, I want us to briefly look at the community emphasis — the community needs assessment. What then — we are saying, begin with community entry events. Begin with community entry events. All right. The community entry: we need to visit the community leaders. We need to visit the chief, the induna, the ward councillor, the civic leaders, the police commanders in that area, the clinic in that area, the schools in that area. We need to visit these entities. We need to begin with community entry events after the needs assessment has been done. Remember, we cannot address the community needs without going to the community leaders. We do it together with them. Actually, what I have learned is that these community leaders, including social development, they already have a needs assessment on their desk. And if we go to them, they will avail some of the deeper information about their community to us for free. Make sure you begin with community entry events. Some even take advantage of special days — like holidays, like Youth Day, June 16 — they take advantage of the special days. Hallelujah.I want us to briefly also talk about the Sabbath School offerings. Our research reveals that if you look at the tithe envelope — we even call it the tithe envelope, you know — more than half of the members only put tithe in that envelope. Some: the tithe is 100% faithful, and then the offering is just R5. So the offering does not match with the faithful tithe. So in the envelope, we do not have a faithful offering. And so we want to appreciate and uphold those that are still faithful in terms of the offerings. And we pray that the good Lord continues to bless you as you are growing every day in terms of the offerings.And so, to solve this continuing problem, we establish a goal for Sabbath School mission offerings and encourage that members should intentionally plan to give a faithful offering. We are calling for the restoration of the Sabbath School offerings, the birthday offerings, the Sabbath School expense offering, and the Thirteenth Sabbath offering. Please make sure every day, by your Sabbath School desk, the plates for the different Sabbath School offerings are intentionally restored. Hallelujah. All right.I think we have covered much for today on the Sabbath School and Personal Ministries.It is the responsibility of the Sabbath School superintendent to make sure that all the divisions of Sabbath School are covered. There are division leaders, you also have the teachers for those divisions. It is the responsibility of the Sabbath School superintendent and the Sabbath School council.And what is this Sabbath School council? I can report that the Sabbath School superintendent is the chairperson of the Sabbath School council. Then you have the Sabbath School leader, the assistant leaders, the Sabbath School secretaries, the council secretary, the division leaders, the assistant secretaries, the Personal Ministries leaders, and an elder. One of the elders, or the elder and the pastor — and you have your Sabbath School council.And the responsibilities there are to facilitate weekly the running of the Sabbath School — the entire Sabbath School, the plan, the whole year plan of the Sabbath School. You need to hold regular meetings for the Sabbath School council for your Sabbath Schools to go well. You need regular meetings for the Sabbath School council. Right.Also, the Sabbath School council should empower the Children's Ministries. Amen. All right.Without going into detail — my aim for today is not to deal with the job descriptions — however, I would want to mention that the Sabbath School secretary has a responsibility to manage the Sabbath School records, the Sabbath School offering records. And once all the offerings are recorded, the money is then handed over to the church treasurer for banking. All right? And you should receive a receipt indicating that the Sabbath School offerings have been received.And then you also need to have a master file. You should have a master file. This master file can include the membership, the Sabbath School membership, the attendance, the class cards, the Sabbath School offerings, the guest days, the daily studies, the people baptised through the work of the Sabbath School, the branch Sabbath Schools, and many, many other activities. You need to have that master file.Thank you so much. Also, the secretary has a responsibility to transfer members between classes. Members or parents or children who want to transfer classes should do it through the Sabbath School secretary, so that we know that this member is no longer under class B but is now under class G. You understand? But also the parents who want to transfer their children to another class must first discuss with the secretary. And the secretary will make their request to the Sabbath School council, actually, and then they will have to adjust the Sabbath School records. And the children have to be transferred after every year — they have to transfer classes, because the children's classes are age-based. Right.I think we are fine with that.It is prudent also that the reporting should never be undermined. This reporting is usually about attendance — the Sabbath School attendance, the Bible studies given, the action units, mission work, the projects out there for each action unit. It should be on the Sabbath School records. The baptisms from Personal Ministries, the literature distributed, and the investment and mission offering — it should all be on record. Right.So the Sabbath School members must receive updates on what the Sabbath School is doing, including the offerings. Every week, make sure there is a report about the offerings. So next week, we give a report about the offerings from last week — just like that, throughout the whole year. The Sabbath School members must receive updates on what the Sabbath School is doing, including the offerings report. Reporting to the Sabbath School membership is also key to more involvement, because where there is transparency, there is going to be trust. There is going to be involvement. Right. All right.Let me now stop sharing this one and move into another one.So the last part today is building a soul-winning Sabbath School. We find it from Counsels on Sabbath School Work, page 10: The Sabbath School should be one of the greatest instrumentalities and the most effectual in bringing souls to Christ. All right. You encourage activities outside of Sabbath School time, and do all those activities as a Sabbath School class or action unit. All right.And the Sabbath School is a great school for evangelism. The Sabbath School leader must work closely with the pastor and the elders and the Personal Ministries leader so that outreach plans for the church are coordinated. All right.So teachers and workers in every department of the Sabbath School work — I address you in the fear of God and tell you that unless you have a living connection with God, and often bow before him in earnest prayer, you will not be able to do your work with heavenly wisdom and win souls for Christ. That is Counsels on Sabbath School Work, pages 75 to 76.May the good Lord bless you. And I believe this training material will benefit us and bless us, and transform us for Jesus, and we will have better Sabbath Schools. God bless you. Bye. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Treasury Department: A Leader's Summary 03.04.2026 1h

  Vicky Ziqu, Trans-Orange Conference TreasurerCorrected TranscriptI greet you all in the wonderful name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. This is the Treasurer of the conference, and the reason for this recording — this presentation — is to facilitate our promotions. As we know, every time at the beginning of the term, we do presentations which are intended to align the treasurers on the ground with the department's expectations and align with everything.I need to share a document with you. It is an honour and a privilege to be presenting this promotional presentation to you. We thank God for life and for the opportunity to be able to labour and work in His vineyard. It is a privilege indeed, because we are not worthy to be doing His work. We are not worthy to be taking God's position, because He actually can do this by Himself. But He decided and He chose to labour with us and work with us. And therefore, it is important for us to understand how critical our role is and how important our function is.And therefore, if we are to begin with our presentation — I also want to thank you for making an effort to take time to go through it.The Treasury Department exists to support, strengthen, and empower the local treasurers in the faithful management of church resources. Local church treasurers play a vital role in the life and mission of the church by ensuring that financial resources are handled with integrity, accuracy, transparency, and accountability. Their work is not merely administrative — it is a sacred responsibility of stewardship that supports the mission, growth, and witness of the church.Now, this presentation is intended to promote the Treasury Department as a key support structure to local churches, particularly in areas of financial reporting, policy guidance, internal controls, accountability, training, and compliance. The department seeks to work closely with church treasurers to build confidence, improve financial understanding, and ensure that all financial processes are carried out in an orderly and responsible manner.The presentation further emphasises the importance of equipping local church treasurers with the knowledge and tools to fulfil their duties effectively. This includes accurate record-keeping, proper banking procedures, timely reporting, safeguarding church funds, maintaining supporting documents, and adhering to denominational policy and financial procedures. Where these responsibilities are carried out faithfully, the church is better positioned to operate effectively, maintain trust, and advance its mission.When we talk about the church, we are not talking only of the church as a local entity, but of the world church. Which means when the church is better positioned, the conference is also better positioned, and all the higher bodies involved. In promoting the Treasury Department, the aim is also to strengthen collaboration between the conference and local churches, ensuring that treasurers do not work in isolation, but are supported through regular communication, training, and guidance. A strong partnership between the department and local church treasurers contributes to better governance, improved compliance, reduced risk, and a strong culture of stewardship across the conference.Ultimately, this presentation affirms that the local treasurer is both valuable and essential. By promoting the Treasury Department, we are promoting faithful stewardship, accountability in ministry, and responsible management of the resources entrusted to the church of God.Now, my treasurers — before I even begin with the next slide, I would like to appreciate you and acknowledge that you are working very hard. And I want to mention to you that I pray a blessing upon your lives, because the work that you are doing on the ground is voluntary work — but when you are volunteering, you are sacrificing, and the Lord takes note of that. That is very much acknowledged, and that is why we are praying that you be blessed and protected — not just yourself, but your families as well. Whatever you touch, may it receive a blessing from the Lord.Now, according to our Church Manual — we are making reference to the latest updated Church Manual, which is the 21st edition of 2025 — when we read from pages 91 to 125, which speaks to what is relevant to the treasurers of the church, the local church treasurer's responsibility and reporting is described as follows.The Church Manual describes the functions to say that the church treasurer is: one, a custodian of local church funds — which includes conference funds, local church funds, and auxiliary funds, meaning that even if you have fundraised somewhere, or facilitated investments as a church, you are responsible for all the finances and funds of the church.Now, the funds must be properly recorded, deposited, safeguarded, and disbursed — only by board and business meeting approval — for the local church funds. What does this mean? It means that you do not spend without having gone through your church business meeting to acquire a resolution, or minutes that speak to your spending.Of course, when we are talking about this, we are also referring to those monthly standing expenditures at the church level — your municipality bill, payment of the janitor, buying of electricity, and all those needs and necessities of the church. In that case, it does not require a business meeting approval each time. It can be resolved once for that particular period under which you, as the treasurer, are responsible. You would come into the office and find that the previous treasurer has been doing that. Of course, there may be a need for a review or an increase, which is why it is important that you receive a proper handover from the outgoing treasurer.Now, for any special or additional expenditures — for example, sending a representative of the church to a certain organisation's event, or a higher body's event — it requires that the church business meeting be convened for it to be approved. It will obviously start at the board level, where the board will see the need that a member belonging to a certain department needs to go and represent the church at a specific event. So what it does is that it needs to get a board recommendation, which then goes to the church business meeting. Once it is voted, then it can be minuted and a resolution can be produced. This is quite critical and important because it is also required for audit purposes. One of the important documents you are required to present when you are being audited is those minutes — so that it can be seen that you followed the procedure and that you are compliant with governance.Our church is one that operates according to a governing framework — which is why we have a Church Manual guiding us at the church level, while at the conference level it is policy.The conference tithe and mission funds must be remitted promptly to the conference treasurer — meaning to the TOC in our case. That is the responsibility of the treasurer on the ground. Then also: to keep records of what is received, what must be issued and recorded, and to maintain records accurately and have them audited as required.I made mention of the Church Manual page reference so that you can find this for yourself.Reporting at the church business meeting. The Manual states that reports of all funds received and disbursed by the church treasurer should be presented at a regular business meeting of the church, with copies provided to the church officers.How, as a treasurer, can you do this — you will see later where I was talking about the finance committee, which would have been constituted for your church for your support. The importance of that is that if it is not the church board that would have had oversight of the work that you have done, the church finance committee can do that.This covers all funds received and disbursed, including tithe, mission, and offerings, and local church funds. Let me stick to the finance committee because I want to encourage and emphasise the importance of having finance committees to provide oversight — they also assist with clarifying things at the church board level and with reporting as well. So it is the function of the finance committee to ensure that when you are reporting at the church business meeting level, the finance committee must have had oversight and scrutinised the report with you. This is where copies of the receipts can be reviewed — the receipts that support the transactions that will be reflected in your report.And regarding business meeting reporting — according to the Church Manual, Chapter 12, it states that a church business meeting reporting example includes the treasurer's finance report.We cannot emphasise this enough: the church treasurer needs to make sure that when there is a church business meeting, there must be a standing agenda item for financial reporting on a quarterly basis. On a quarterly basis, there must be a church business meeting, and as part of the agenda, it is the treasurer's report. You are advised to report in the following format: the tithe received and forwarded to the conference; the mission offerings received and forwarded to the conference; and what remains as church funds, as well as how the expenditure was done — how those funds were expensed. There is no single prescribed format — you can come up with your own. However, if you need assistance, you can speak to us and we will produce a reporting template for you. What is important is that the template must clearly reflect these four critical areas.We also encourage that your finance committee be constituted by people who are already in leadership roles, but when you are choosing an ex-officio member, you can choose someone who has a background or expertise in the finance field.And now, what is the other critical aspect? It is transparency and accountability. This reporting type and structure ensures transparency and accountability.The practical reporting expectation from the Church Manual is as follows. On a monthly basis, you are expected to submit the trust funds report to the conference — stating what is due to the conference, what deposit you have made, and how it is broken down. That is monthly. And then on a quarterly basis, as I said earlier, you report to the church board, through the finance committee, and then to the church business meeting.It is also important that on a quarterly basis you do report, because it enhances and encourages members to be faithful, and they appreciate transparency.The member transparency report is also one of the reports that you need to do. What does this mean? Amongst your working papers, there is a sheet that you need to be completing — I refer to it as a tithe ledger, a location tracking sheet, where you will have your members recorded. You do not put figures, but you just use either a tick or a cross, indicating under each month against each member's name. You will have the list of members, and you will have the twelve months. On a monthly basis you need to be ticking to say, for this particular member in January, whether the member was faithful in returning tithes and offerings or not.This is the same document that you provide to the stewardship leader, so that the stewardship leader can assess the level of faithfulness of the church members and know when and how to do the spiritual emphasis, revival, and address matters of stewardship with finances at the church level.And then on an annual basis, you can do a consolidated report — consolidating those categorical reports to give one comprehensive overview. A critical part of this is that you would have served that annual period or, in some cases, it becomes a two-year period. So it is important to report also at a church business meeting on an annual basis, meaning across all four quarters, there will be one consolidated report covering: tithe received for the full year and forwarded to the conference; mission offerings received and forwarded for the full year; and local church funds received and disbursed for the full year.What then to include in such a report at the business meeting? Total tithe received. Tithe forwarded to the conference. Mission and offerings received and likewise forwarded. And notes on stewardship and transparency initiatives — optional, but encouraged. These notes are a preamble you would give to the church board and the church business meeting as a whole — showing how you are working together with the stewardship department and emphasising achievements during your term as treasurer. Because we are operating formally — like a business — it is important to carry out our work accordingly.Internal controls. Now this is an important section, and I call it emphasis. You know why? Because we already have our auditors who will be training on the technical work. We also have video clips that we will share — clips recorded within the previous triennium — and the intention for those was to give a technical induction and technical overview on how the work is being done. Even though some have moved to ACMS, we are still supporting the manual system until all churches have enrolled.This is just to briefly emphasise the process as it is supposed to be done.After collection by the deacons in the worship setting, you as treasurer need to prepare. You need to have your count sheet ready. The count sheet will accommodate signatures — and those signatures are of three people, as you are expected and advised to count with a minimum of three people, for confidentiality and verification purposes.When going to count, make sure you have your treasurer and your assistant treasurer — both of you opening the envelopes, seeing what is inside, counting the contents, and verifying whether the amount inside matches what is written on the envelope. If it does not, you need to approach the member right then and there to say: you have written here that you have inserted a certain amount, but we see it is only a different amount. It is important to attend to it immediately.Then you are also going to count the offerings collected during Sabbath school and during divine service. When counting those, you are assisted or accompanied by either an elder or a deacon — counting together to verify. There is a sheet amongst the working papers that is segmented into denominations: the two hundreds, the one hundreds, the fifties, the twenties, the tens, and the coins right down to the minimum — which I think should be 10 cents, because I do not think we are still using 5 cents. You need to count how many of each denomination you have and verify with each other. If you have counted them, you give them to the next person to verify that what you have counted is correct. When you write the amount on the count sheet, all three of you must sign at the bottom — because you would have verified and confirmed the figures to be correct.The next step is recording — as the treasurer, you take the information from the count sheets and the receipts and you record it. We are using the cashbook system for the manual traditional system, and we also have ACMS for those enrolled on it, where you record on the basis of the envelopes and count sheets.After that, you do your bank or cash reconciliations. You then prepare for reporting — preparing the report of how much you have collected and how much you are sending to the conference. You deposit at the bank and send. And we also encourage the use of EFTs — electronic funds transfers — to minimise working with and handling cash. This is also for safety. Do look for the best possible ways of handling cash. The minimal, the better. We do know that lately our churches are being targeted by criminals who know that there are funds present because of offerings. However, we still support cash handling because there are still members who prefer to offer with cash.Do promote bank accounts and allow people to transact using their phones. Look at QR codes that can enable members to transact digitally. There is also the SevvMe app that we are encouraging. In that way, we slowly phase out cash handling and minimise it as much as possible.You will also be reporting on a quarterly basis and at the church business meeting as we said. But it is also important to report on a project basis — for example, if you are extending the church, renovating, building additional rooms, a vestry, or whatever structure you are building — it is important to report from time to time as you are promoting the project and handling those funds. And then also the annual handover that I alluded to earlier.The auditing part. The conference can request to audit a church — it is the prerogative of the conference to write to a church and request an audit. And the church can also voluntarily write and request to be audited, and we can respond to that.So this was just an overview. It is quite critical and important that at the counting stage you are not doing it alone. This also helps to protect you. Those of you who have been treasurers in the previous term will remember when we emphasised this to say: it is meant to protect you, to cover you, and to ensure that there is a smooth transaction and clear accountability and verification of the funds being collected. Internal controls are very much important, and we request and emphasise that you strictly comply with them.Compliance. The compliance we are talking about is monthly remittance to the conference. This assists a great deal with the conference budget. What do I mean by this? As a conference, how we operate is that on an annual basis, we come up with a budget within which we will operate. The budget comprises income and expenditure, and this is always based on the previous year's funds received.When budgeting for income, we need to be able to collect 100% of that income on a monthly basis. Meaning that if as a conference we have budgeted for — as an illustration — R100,000 for the year, and we divide that by twelve months, we need to collect at least R8,333 per month. If we do not collect that, we would have also budgeted to spend that same R8,333. If we do not receive the income we have budgeted for, then it means we are not in a position to function and operate, to carry out our expenses and operate. We cannot pay salaries. We cannot pay municipality water and lights. We cannot carry out any other operations, even providing services at the church level.So it is important that as a treasurer you understand that the conference is budgeting on your faithfulness — on you faithfully remitting on a monthly basis. And therefore it is important that you comply on a monthly basis. If you do not comply, you are putting the conference in a position where it is unable to carry out its monthly obligations in terms of expenditure.Reporting also builds trust with members and encourages them. It also protects you as a treasurer. So you need to comply — not just for the purpose of complying, but for the purposes of doing your work transparently and also having the responsibility of encouraging your members and bringing hope to them.Lately, we receive a lot of complaints, though some have not been verified. And unfortunately, there is a growing rumour spreading amongst members that certain treasurers are embezzling funds and misappropriating funds, and some members are being discouraged from remitting directly to their churches. Please refuse that your name be associated with such things, and show that you are faithful and remitting. And I also want to appreciate those who are faithful in doing so and who are doing their work — they are making sure that the mission of the church is being carried out.Bank signatories. You cannot be a treasurer who is responsible and accountable for the custody of church funds and finances if you are not a signatory on the bank account. Because you deposit money into the bank account, you must be one of the signatories, together with two additional members, as the bank requires — making three signatories in total.Your responsibility also includes making sure that you convene finance committee meetings regularly, in preparation for reporting, for budget purposes, for project goals the church has, for auditing reports once an audit is complete, and also for investment initiatives. Because there are churches that initiate investing accumulated funds for projects — like building or acquiring property for worship, or centres of influence — where you can raise funds in the form of investing somewhere, and the returns on that investment assist you to build or acquire that property. Whatever project affecting finances exists, you need to have your finance committee providing oversight. For clarity purposes, when you go to the church board, the finance committee should be able to report with you on those matters. This is also to protect you, to safeguard yourself as a treasurer — having people who are assisting and strengthening your hand in the work you are doing.Finance committee composition. This is very important — I cannot overemphasise how important it is. Because we have people who are challenging this composition, and I do not have a problem with that challenge. However, the Church Manual does not stipulate clearly how the finance committee is composed. And therefore, we are using a conference and union-based model.In this model, the local church treasurer is the chairperson — just as I am the chairperson as conference treasurer. The assistant treasurer is the secretary. Then you have the stewardship leader, who is also a member of the committee. In our case, we also have Pastor [Maslang / inaudible], who is our stewardship director here in the office, who forms part of the finance committee. And then we have other members. The approach the conference is using is to have people with expertise in the finance field.At the church level, we recommend having the head elder — because we also now have female elders — as part of it, as well as the head deacon or head deaconess. That is the church's prerogative to decide. And then you should additionally have an ex-officio member who is not a church board member. This is where you are able to exercise the option of — if none of the five people are finance professionals in terms of their work — electing someone who has a finance background to assist and form part of the finance committee, because you do need that expertise in your community.These five people: the treasurer is the convener of the meeting as well as the chairperson. It is very much important. The argument that the stewardship leader should be chairing the finance committee — the stewardship leader should be chairing the stewardship committee if such exists, because stewardship is broad and is not only finance-related.For those churches that are smaller and may not have assistant treasurers: you remain the chairperson, but you can request the elder to chair while you are presenting and working as secretary of the finance committee. That is also allowed.What we are recommending to you is: please speak to your elders and pastors to set up the finance committee to work with you, support you, and strengthen you. We will also write to you with the terms of reference, communicating the composition of the finance committee and what those terms of reference are. You can also amend and add to them, so that you are able to safeguard and manage the resources of the church efficiently according to your context and preference.Challenges we are facing. These are not exhaustive — they are the most common ones that have come to our attention. We will have added others by the time the full presentation is shared.We are currently facing a serious issue of non-compliance on remittance — either the church is not remitting at all or is not remitting on time. As we circulate the trust fund statement from time to time, there will be churches showing blanks or inconsistencies in their remittance. We require and appeal to you as treasurers to please assist us with this, and to please remit on time. For the reason I stated earlier — it is good governance and good practice to ensure you comply and do your work. You will also be completing your work in a shorter space of time, which makes it easier. Because if you wait for the work to pile up, you are creating a lot more work for yourself as a treasurer.If you are not remitting 100% this month, and we have budgeted for expenditure to match that income, we will be overspending. We will be operating at a deficit, and a deficit is not good governance or prudent financial management.We also experience reports of embezzlement of trust funds by treasurers — they keep funds with them and end up using those funds. I do not know what circumstances have led to this in each case, but there are reports in different districts of treasurers who have embezzled funds, cannot account for them, and have misappropriated them. I need to make known to you that this is a criminal offence. At the church level, a case can be opened against a treasurer for misappropriating funds. If there is proof and evidence, you can go to jail and serve time, because in South Africa, the law states that a criminal offence is reportable and is accounted for.There are also rumours being spread about churches. For instance, just before and after last session, there was a WhatsApp message circulating amongst members saying that a particular church was remitting only 30% of trust funds to the conference instead of 100%, keeping 70%. This was propaganda. Why do I say that? Because it is not possible to have three different churches doing the exact same thing — that message was being edited. At some point it was Church A, then Church D, then Church Z — and it was circulated amongst members. When that happens, it raises our eyebrows. It is unfair, because it takes away credibility. It also ruins the treasurer's reputation. So let us protect ourselves by reporting and making sure that we are transparent so that such rumours cannot be substantiated.I must say to you, however, that when we received those reports, we had meetings with those particular churches. We got to the bottom of it. Some of those churches have been audited, the audit has been concluded, and the reports are being given to the churches — if they have not been given already. So we do go on the ground to hear what the problem is, check, verify, and even initiate an audit at the ground level.We also have a situation where church boards and church business meetings sit and vote not to remit trust funds to the conference. Brothers and sisters, I must say: if you are in that situation, your first responsibility as a treasurer is to advise against that, because your responsibility is to respect the members' faithfulness. When they have remitted those tithes and offerings, you send them to the conference as trust funds. You need to advise against the withholding of trust funds.The other thing — you need to make it known to the church that the faithfulness is not to us as an office; it is to God. We cannot take God's position. When the church board votes on trust funds not being remitted, they are in contravention of the Church Manual, because the Church Manual states that trust funds are the funds that belong to the conference and must be remitted timely to the conference.Please do familiarise yourself with and read the Church Manual. It is available as a PDF — you can download it from the GC website. The latest edition is updated. In the office, we do not yet have the hard copies. I know some of us prefer hard copies. We do not have those updated hard copies at the moment. As soon as they are available, you will be made aware of that.Those churches that are sitting and resolving to withhold funds and not send trust funds — they are using the wrong way of expressing their grievances and dissatisfaction. If they are not happy with the conference office, they need to follow a procedure. There is a Church Manual that speaks to how to address and deal with things that are not done well and that are causing grievances. There is a policy that speaks to that as well at the conference level — and those are the ways and means through which you must resolve such matters, as opposed to voting to withhold trust funds. And when trust funds are withheld, we never withhold the pastor — who is a service to the church — and that person needs to be paid a salary. We also pay for the travel to service the church, and those costs remain.Church bulletin [statement] disputes. We acknowledge that part of this is an oversight on our side. However, a significant part of it is caused by churches that are not sending through their breakdowns when they deposit funds into the bank account. When you deposit funds and do not send the breakdown, the funds remain unidentifiable to us in the office. After a financial year, we then decide to split them and apply the 96%/4% rule — 96% becomes tithe and 4% becomes offerings. And we can no longer continue doing that.We are requesting — as a conference that has been receiving disclaimed audit reports for a period of time, and the qualified audit report we received last time pertained partly to the remittance system and unidentified funds, as well as the collection of supporting documentation not being at a satisfactory level for the audit — please, on a monthly basis, do not just deposit funds and send only a deposit slip or proof of payment. Make the effort to also send the breakdown to say: of the money that you have deposited or transferred to the conference, how much is tithe and how much is offerings. That makes it easy for us.The trust fund statement is going out with some of those errors as well, and we are in the process of rectifying them on our side. We plead with you that you do not keep quiet when you know you have remitted and sent the proof of payment together with the supporting documentation to the conference. Communicate that, so we can rectify it, and observe also the next time we send the statement. We intend to send it as frequently as possible so that we can encourage churches to comply and assist elders and pastors to follow up.We are also going to include pastors' names against their churches so that we ensure you work with your pastors. The pastors are also empowered and have a right to check with treasurers as to whether trust funds are being sent to the conference. Please do not close them out. Do not feel that they are micromanaging you or babysitting you — it is their duty and their work. Just work with them. Find an amicable way of working together. If you feel there is pressure, communicate politely. The pastor is a team member. Sit down and say, this is how I prefer to work. Come up with your own approach — but this must never compromise your timely monthly remittance to the conference.Bank signatories. We also have the issue of bank signatories, where people struggle to change bank account signatories when officers change, which makes it difficult for treasurers to remit on time, transfer funds, or even manage and access the bank account as they are supposed to. We are still assisting. However, we have a challenge because the banking contact we work with — Bianca [surname inaudible], the executive accounts assistant for the conference, who volunteered to help us with Standard Bank internet banking only — is sometimes slow to reach because she is busy with her own work. But she has been very helpful. At some point she even takes the initiative to meet with some churches in the office to try and resolve their problems. Please do not sit with the problem. Contact the office to be able to assist. Please bear with us when we seem slow — it may be because we are not getting assisted as quickly as we expect. But you need to try and ensure that bank signatory changes are enforced every time there is a change of officer. As a treasurer, you must be on that bank account.Poor financial management at church level. We are also experiencing a situation where churches are not paying their municipality bills, and then later they come to the conference to say the conference must pay those bills for them — and even threaten to withhold trust funds if that is not done. I must say that treasurers are therefore putting us in a very difficult position. Like I say, we have a budget that is set aside and approved by the executive committee, which we need to spend according to. We have not made provision for assisting churches with municipality accounts. The municipality accounts and bills are the responsibility of the church entirely — 100%. And therefore, it is important that the management of funds does cater for the monthly obligations of the church.I mentioned that for some obligations — such as the janitor — if you cannot afford to pay the janitor, you can organise volunteers, or those who are not employed, to come and clean the church. Then the funds that would have been paid to the janitor can be channelled to the municipality and paid there. These challenges are not exhaustive — there are many more coming to our attention.I must also mention this: as churches, we are flagged as high risk by the banks, because there is a crime where people launder cash funds through churches. The banks now require us to obtain a letter from an independent accountant stating the source of the church's income — particularly when opening accounts or doing FICA verifications. That is another challenge that I have not yet added to this list, but I will add it later when I share the presentation at the church level. Please do assist us. Ensure that the bank account of the church is opened properly, thoroughly, and correctly, with the proper documentation, and that you do your FICA verification every month, so that your funds are not blocked or your accounts blocked at the bank. Because that is what is happening lately.ACMS. I must mention to you that for those of you who are on ACMS, there is full-time support from the ACMS coordinator based in the office by the name of Phumula Motha, who does implementation, training, and support.And — I forgot an important announcement to give to you. The union has voted that all conferences must be at 100% ACMS enrolment by the end of June this month. If we are not on ACMS, we will be deemed one of the conferences that are red-flagged and non-compliant, and we would not want to be amongst those. I plead with you that we proactively welcome and embrace ACMS so that we roll it out conference-wide and all of us are assisted with it.On the office side, we are also trying to meet you halfway. We are still trying to source more laptops to assist churches that do not have them. Currently, we only have 26 laptops, which is equivalent to one per district. We are still working on the criteria for distribution — if five churches in one district are requesting laptops, that means five of them would go to one district, whereas one is supposed to go per district. But do not lose hope — please make means to ensure we acquire the laptops needed to enrol on ACMS.And I should also mention that the laptops required for ACMS no longer need to be expensive or high-specification. ACMS is internet-based. It no longer requires the specification that was initially communicated when the system was first being introduced. You can even use it on a tablet, as long as you have Wi-Fi and data access. Please do contact the office. We will be sending out a letter communicating the union's resolution that all churches must be at 100% ACMS enrolment by end of June, and we need to report how far we are.My treasurers, I cannot thank you enough for your commitment and your continued support. It enables the conference to function and to carry out its duties and day-to-day operations. And again, for this, may the good Lord bless you. Please do not keep quiet when you are having challenges. Let us talk — talk to us in the office. Make use of the contact details you have: the trust funds WhatsApp number, the trust funds link, and the trust funds email. All are available for your ease of communication. Through the trust funds link, within two minutes you can populate the breakdown and attach your proof of payment. We have got many communication channels: the trust funds WhatsApp, the trust funds email, and the trust funds submission link — particularly for those on the traditional system. For those of you on ACMS, you can simply pull a summary report that provides the breakdown of what you have deposited.I must also inform you that we will be having a live Zoom meeting where you can address all your challenges — a Q&A session where you will be asking questions and getting clarity on anything that seems unclear right now. Please prepare yourselves for that. Make notes of the questions you would love to have addressed at the Q&A session.This presentation was just intended to promote the department, and to say to you: you also need to promote it at the church level. You can request just fifteen minutes before the service, or during announcements, to promote the department — give a brief report of faithfulness, and encourage people to be faithful. Do mention how minimal the offerings are, and how much of the majority of funds received are tithes, which are sent to the office, leaving the church with very little to operate with. Promote the department also during times when fundraising is needed. I know that other departments will also be promoting stewardship — please make sure you work closely with your stewardship leader in the church. Work together to ensure that you are serving the church and safeguarding the resources of the Lord efficiently.I am ending it here, and hoping that we will be in touch so that we are able to carry out the work in collaboration with the conference. From time to time, please be on the lookout for communications.This I must also mention and state: as a conference, we are currently in a difficult situation. We declared at the executive committee in December that we are at a state of technical insolvency — to put it simply, the current debts we are carrying are more than the assets we have. This is an unhealthy financial state. We will also be coming to the ground to try and raise funds to address the debt we are faced with. It is a debt that is historical in nature, going back more than ten years, and it has continued to accumulate. We are doing everything on our side to manage our funds such that we do not continue to accumulate further debt, but we have a responsibility to remit trust funds to the union.I will also be sharing this presentation with you, and on it I will have added how the funds are being distributed or disbursed to the higher bodies.Thank you very much. God bless you. Please prepare yourselves for the Q&A session. Make notes of the questions you would love to have asked and addressed. Thank you so much. God bless you. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Elders, Deacons and Deaconesses: A Leader's Summary 03.04.2026 1h 24min

  Pastor Phaswane Makuwa, President: Trans-Orange ConferenceCorrected TranscriptMay I take this time to greet the elders, and the deacons and the deaconesses, and share the material that is intended to equip us as we serve in the church. I am Pastor PS Makuwa, President of the Trans-Orange Conference. I have been asked accordingly to present this material — as it were, to train the elders, the deacons, and the deaconesses. So the elders, the deacons, and the deaconesses can consume this material together, because their functions are so closely related.At this time, I am going to open with a word of prayer as we begin sharing this material.Father in heaven, we thank you for this moment — that we can equip each other, we can share resources that are intended to enhance your work. I pray for the elders. I pray for the deacons. I pray for the deaconesses. I pray also for the pastorate, that this material will help us to be a formidable team as we lead the church. May it be that because of this material, and other things, and your presence and your leadership, that there will be progress in your church. In Jesus' name, I pray. Amen.Now we are going to share the material. As we get along with it, we are to talk here about the functions of elders, deacons, and deaconesses in the church. And these functions are related: you have pastors assisted by elders, you have deacons and deaconesses.The pastors are playing a leading role, and the elders are playing the assisting role to the pastors. The deacons are largely playing a caring role, even assisting in the system of the church and the worship of the church, and the function of the church as a whole.The pastors, in their leading role — their function is to preach the Word; their function has to do with worship service leadership, planning, evangelism, growth and development, fostering church unity, ensuring cooperation with the conference, ensuring cooperation with the global SDA Church, and promoting stewardship.The elders, in their assisting role — they welcome pastoral families, they support the pastor, they maximise the pastor's strength, they augment the pastor, they counsel with the pastor, resolve church conflicts, plan church services with the pastor, plan evangelism and nurture in detail, informing the pastor, and they facilitate departmental functions in conjunction with the pastor.The deacons, in their caring function — the practical caring ministry to the needy, poor, new converts, the backsliding, the bereaved, the tempted, the erring, the disciplined persons, and the unfortunate in the church. They deal with the nitty-gritty of all those. They care for church property. They care for the collection of offerings and counting. They care for orderliness in the church. They care for worshippers. They assist in rituals of the church. They support elders and pastors, and they also have their function in evangelism.Now I will start with the deacons and deaconesses. The nature of the function of the deaconry is such that it is derived from the Greek word diakonos or diakonon. The diakonos is a masculine form of the word, which describes the distribution service done by elected deacons from Acts chapter 6, verse 1. And the diakonon is a feminine form of this word that talks about the servants in the church, as it is in Romans chapter 16, verses 1 to 2, about Phoebe, who is presented as a servant but who is a woman. This service is multifaceted for the needs of the church, and it is honourable — service needing ordination for both the men and the women.Now, what is important is that Christ Himself was anointed to serve, not anointed to be served. And so the deacons, as they serve, that is a Christ-like virtue — giving service rather than being served.There is a board of deacons and a board of deaconesses. These are two boards that should exist, and the functions thereof: the chair for the deacons is the head deacon, and for the deaconesses, it is the head deaconess. One of the deacons and one of the deaconesses, respectively, will be designated as secretary.These boards study the functions of deacons and deaconesses, because they are all in the same category of functioning. They need to know what deacons do and what they do as deaconesses, and they need to know where they cooperate and collaborate as they execute their function. They distribute work to the team of deacons and the team of deaconesses. They develop schedules for the services of deacons and for the services of deaconesses. They collaborate with the board of deaconesses if they are a board of deacons, and they collaborate with the board of deacons if they are deaconesses. They attend joint boards of deacons and deaconesses arranged by the head deacon and the head deaconess. So this is a team that often has contact meetings as they execute their work, but there is a time when they join to work together.There is a joint board of deacons and deaconesses, and this one the pastor may call, or the first elder may call it, to make sure that they cover all their scope of work. This joint deaconry board is co-chaired by the head deacon and the head deaconess — not necessarily the head deacon alone, or the head deaconess alone. The head deacon and the head deaconess thoroughly prepare for this meeting. When they go into this joint meeting, they thoroughly prepare the agenda and how they are going to deliver the items and share them in the meeting, to avoid confusion.Both secretaries — of the deacons' board and the deaconesses' board — capture the minutes in the joint deaconry board. They all capture, and when they have captured, they will reconcile these minutes accordingly. Then the segregation of duties of deacons and deaconesses is discussed in this meeting and decided upon accordingly, so that there are no clashes and conflicts.This joint board of deacons and deaconesses deliberates upon the deaconry as a whole. Even as they implement, they may have items that they need to prepare or deliver, and share wisdom or counsel on. The separate boards of deacons and deaconesses may not be replaced with this joint deaconry meeting. This joint deaconry meeting is not to be as frequent as the separate boards should be. Once in a while they may meet, but they may not find it prudent to meet as a joint team all the time. The separate boards will discuss details of service independently to avoid unnecessary interference. A pastor or elder may be invited to counsel with the collective church deaconry as needed.Duties of deacons and deaconesses. We do have deacons and deaconesses functioning in this capacity. They welcome and seat attendees in their services and meetings. They visit members. They assist in baptisms. They care for the sick. They care for the poor. They care for the property of the church. They make arrangements for communion — especially as men — and they care for the property: inside for the women, and outside for the men. The way they arrange for communion is such that the deaconesses could prepare the bread and the juice, and then the deacons do the other preparations — the water and the other resources — while the deaconesses will prepare the towels and fulfil those functions in preparation that are designated to them.Now, as we proceed with the function of welcoming attendees in the church: the congregants shall be cordially welcomed from outside the church, not necessarily inside, as they come in. The seating preference of congregants shall be considered upon entry — preference, not prescription. In other words, someone may prefer to sit right in front when those seats are not occupied. People may not be told that they have to sit necessarily where they are directed, but the deacons and deaconesses will assist and even advise them so that they can settle without any stress. The deacons and deaconesses will also help members file out of the church in an orderly manner. The chairs or pews shall be cleaned before the congregants or members arrive, and the deacons and deaconesses shall be in strategic places to assist inquiring congregants or visitors.In baptisms, the deacons and deaconesses shall manage the facilities of the church for the service of male and female baptismal candidates. They will separate them accordingly in a convenient manner, doing all preparations before the baptism. The provision of gowns for candidates shall be done in advance, and the kind of clothing material for candidates shall be stipulated to them in advance. Disabled candidates shall be assisted extensively to go through the baptism by deacons and deaconesses, depending on their gender. The first elder and the head deaconry — that is, the head deaconess and head deacon — shall confer in preparing candidates. It is not only the elder who prepares the candidates. The deaconry must also be allowed the opportunity to engage them in preparation for baptisms. The deaconry shall visit newly baptised members to assist in the spiritual fortification of new members and to retain them. Retention begins immediately at baptism, because the deacons should understand that they have the responsibility to attend to, visit, and make sure that new members are not lost from the church.The deacons care for the sick. They visit the sick to give prayers for healing. They do not give medical advice — if needed, refer to relevant professionals. Do not take the position of a physician or a doctor when attending to the sick. Capture the other prayer requests that the sick person may have so that you pray for those as well. Advise on other spiritual prayer practices, like the laying on of hands or anointing. If the sick person may not know, advise them — they may call for the laying on of hands, to be done by elders and pastors, or the anointing service, so that they can also be prayed for in a thorough manner, and by God's grace they will be healed or set free from the sickness. Inform the elder and the pastor about the possible preferred healing prayer practice. Only when the sick person opts for it should you advise the elders and pastors that they prepare themselves to do it. The laying on of hands and anointing are to be done by elders or pastors if preferred — not the deacons themselves. When visiting the sick, do not overstay your welcome, since there may be other persons wanting to spend time with the sick person as well. Deacons should be equipped with the appropriate skills for visitations, so that they can bring relief and no amount of stress or embarrassment whatsoever.They care for the poor and the needy. It is a biblical mandate to care for the poor and the needy. So the deaconry shall promote the need for a fund to aid the poor — often collected after the holy communion service. It does not have to be collected after communion service all the time, as you can imagine. The deaconry shall promote this fund for the needy. The readiness of the church to help the poor shall be ensured by the deaconry. In other words, the deaconry may not rest until they know that the church is ready to assist should there be need anywhere. The deaconry shall give reports of the response of church members in contributing money for the poor. When they have done promotions, they must seek reports from the treasurer to actually encourage the members if they are responding or not, so that the church gets to know — they must not be silent about it. The money spent in helping the poor shall be properly reported and recorded in the church board. The deaconry may collaborate with Adventist Community Services in attending to the needs of poor members.When it comes to the care of the property of the church, the deacons and deaconesses shall share the duties pertaining to the care of the premises. Usually the deacons focus on the outward appearance and environments of the church — to be welcoming and appealing as an index of the worshippers. And usually the deaconesses are tasked with ensuring cleanliness and the internal setup of the worship space and its welcoming condition inside.The appearance of the entire premises of the church is not necessarily to be maintained by the deaconry directly with their own hands. The church board is responsible to act in enhancing the implementation of this duty of the deaconry. The deaconry will give recommendations to the church board as to how they may be assisted with whatever is needed — even sourcing quotations — so that when they speak, they speak with figures involved when it comes to repair and maintenance. The repairs of the church are to be spearheaded by the deaconry or a building committee where one is available. The church may find a building committee to lead out in the repair and maintenance of the church. But where one is not available, this becomes the function of the deaconry as a whole.They also facilitate the visitation ministry of the church. There should be a visitation ministry established, with a leader appointed — who could be a pastor, an elder, a deacon, or a deaconess — as chairperson of this particular ministry. The deaconry should make sure that this ministry is organised.Now, there are types of visitations that should be defined: visitation for the sick, senior citizens, shut-ins, hospital visits, prison visits, bereavement visits, requested counselling visits, new converts after baptism, Bible study visits, baptismal candidate visits before baptism, family crisis visits, and visitations to the weak in faith — those who normally show their absence by not coming to church even when they are available in the community.Requests for visitations shall be captured and delegated to relevant leaders or members. If it is a specialised request — for instance, if a member requests counselling — it will be checked and classified accordingly, and a relevant person should be found who can attend to whoever is requesting the visit. They should agree to whoever is assigned before that person is actually sent, and the person to be visited should know, and should be welcoming of the assigned visitor, before that visitor is sent. There are some sensitive visitations that may be preferred to be referred to pastors or elders. Deacons should not think they can handle everything. They should assess and determine whether they can handle the matter themselves, or whether they should refer it to someone more relevant, depending on the need felt by the person visited.All possible members are to be used in visiting, depending on their skills, and whoever is to be in the visitation ministry should be trained and made aware of the dos and don'ts. A visitation is not done anyhow — there are rules that guide the function of doing visitations, that all who are tasked to do visitations should be aware of so that they do not violate them.The resources for deacons: they need to have the Bible, the Church Manual, and the Deacons and Deaconesses Handbook — not just have them, but actually read them, because these are written documents. They should be able to read them so that in their function they know what should be done and how things should be done. If the church does not have these resources, the church may be requested to provide them.That much about deacons and deaconesses should be enough. Much more detail is available in the resources referred to, but these are the basics that the deaconry will work with as they serve.Now we come to the function of elders in the church. The nature of the eldership service is such that the elder is an assistant. From the Old Testament, the time of Moses — the elders were elected to assist Moses in dealing with the issues, the matters, and the cases of the members, as it is referred to in Exodus 18, verses 20 to 22. They were to lead groups of thousands, hundreds, fifties, and tens, and they assisted Moses. When matters were heavier than they could handle, they would refer to Moses. In Numbers 11, verses 16 to 17, the 70 elders that were called upon were also given the spirit of Moses to be able to assist Moses in his function as the leader. In other words, even the pastor needs the assistance of elders. He may not do this work alone.Now, this role requires ordination, and it is the second position in rank in a local church — the first being the pastor, then comes the eldership. Of course, there is the first elder and others.Eldership does not preclude women, in the light of the priesthood of all members. In other words, this function is not directly linked to a priesthood that women cannot perform. In this day and age, we believe as the Seventh-day Adventist Church that all members are priests of God, even as the Bible says. So elders can be women and can be men accordingly, because now Christ has come, and we are not foreshadowing anymore but are serving in the church as empowered and gifted by the Holy Spirit to function as leaders and elders.So eldership is a servant function — not the function of being a lord or a master who is served. It is actually a service. Elders are there to serve as assisting pastors, largely because pastors will not always be present. Even if they were to be present, it would not be practical for pastors not to have elders. So an elder is an overseer whose function is discharged in cooperation with the itinerant pastor — a pastor who will be serving a number of churches. In the absence of the pastor, the elder is as close to being the pastor as possible, and that is why the elder and the pastor should work closely together so that there will be no confusion and they will all know what is happening and what should happen.Naturally, eldership is a partnership function. Where there is an elder, it is understood that it is a partnership with the pastor and a partnership with other elders. But this does not mean that the pastor may be excused or displaced by an elder. It should never happen in the church that the pastor is not welcome because there is an elder. Neither should it happen that the elder is not welcome because there is a pastor. These two work together.The nature of the church should be understood by the elder. Sometimes people come from different churches, or we observe other churches, and we think the processes and procedures are the same. They are not.The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a body of people called out of the effects of the Dark Ages. This church never ignores the matters of the Dark Ages — where the Bible was changed, where doctrines were violated, the laws of God, and the set times. This church exists at a time when there is reform that should restore the church to its proper condition after the violations that gave impetus to Protestantism. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a global church in the context of the Reformation. It began at the end of the prophetic time frame of 2,300 years. This church is special in that it came into the picture of a world tainted by sin as the very last church. We are now in a period of extended grace. The church is the final remnant church. In other words, no one should be tempted to think there could be another better church. This is the final one.The Seventh-day Adventist Church welcomes all nations, tongues, kinds, and races. This church is not an ethnic church — ethnicity has no room in it. This church is for all people throughout the world, not for people of a particular ethnic group.The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant Church. It upholds sola scriptura — the virtue that we shall be guided in matters of faith by the scriptures and the scriptures alone. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is not run by a group of elders as episcopal churches may be. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is not congregational. We may not say, in this particular place, the Seventh-day Adventist Church shall do this — with absolute authority. We may adapt things, but we do not have the power to change the principles, the policies, and the rules of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. In the Seventh-day Adventist Church, we do not have a power system where one person can make a statement that the church has to embrace.The Seventh-day Adventist Church uses the global representative system of authority. In every entity at every level of the church, there are representatives. In a local church, there may not be representatives per se — a business meeting will take all members of the church. But higher than the local church, there is a system of representation where meetings are attended by delegates and representatives, and bodies are established taking into account the element of representation, such that whatever is agreed upon binds all of us. We may not stand up in opposition as if it was other people who did it, because by nature it is us who have done it, if we are represented.The General Conference in session is the highest authority of the church. The representatives or delegates from across the globe constitute this authority. In between, there will be the executive committee doing things, and the annual councils and other matters — but the ultimate authority that can change things and that will be recorded in the Church Manual will happen once in five years. It is the highest authority in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.The authoritative resources of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are, firstly, the Bible — the revealed Word of God, testifying of Jesus Christ, the second person in the Trinity. The Spirit of Prophecy — the testimony of Jesus Christ, the lesser light to the Bible. The Church Manual — voted by the GC in session, based on the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. The GC Working Policy — voted by the GC annual council or GC session. And in their order, we have also the 28 Fundamental Beliefs of the SDA Church, based on the Bible. Elders should have these and they should read these authoritative resources, because sometimes many disputes in the church can be resolved if we would just read them.The structure of the church: we have the local church. Globally, we have more than 100,000 local churches. That is the first entity. Then the next entity is the local conference or mission conference — roughly we have 433 local conferences and 321 local missions, all adding up to over 750 globally. We have also the third entity, which is the Union Conference — we have about 64 union conferences and 62 union missions, adding up to around 126 globally — roughly, though, there could be newer ones organised by now. We have one General Conference with divisions which are 13 across the globe. The divisions are extensions of the General Conference and are very much part of it. If you have spoken with them, you are as good as having spoken with the General Conference itself. All entities exist in 212 countries out of 232 countries globally.The local church is given its status by the local conference in session. The local conference may withdraw a local church's status for apostasy or loss of membership. The business meeting is the governing body of the local church. And the church board is the administration of the church, under the business meeting as the governing body. All officers of the local church serve through the church board, subject to the church business meeting. Departmental committees, councils, and other boards — except matters of elections — report to the church board. The church board reports to the business meeting when it has processed all the reports and gathered all the information.If any unique matter not explained in the Church Manual arises, the church may engage with the local conference to seek counsel as to what may be done in that particular situation or context.The mission statement of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is to call all people to become disciples of Jesus Christ — making disciples is the co-mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church — in line with the Three Angels' Messages of Revelation 14, verses 6 to 12, to prepare for the second coming of Jesus Christ. Our method is that we are guided by the Bible and the Holy Spirit as we do our mission through Christ-like living, communicating, discipling, teaching, healing, and serving. Our vision is to reconcile mankind to God — that when all is said and done, all of us will be reconciled with God.Functions of elders. They do the teaching and preaching; spiritual administration; they run church services; they ensure church planning; they pray for healing by laying on of hands and the anointing of the sick; evangelism planning and execution; they coordinate the work of departments; preside over holy communion, dedication of children, and funerals; promote stewardship; participate in the visitation programme of the church; nurture or feed the membership of the church; and liaise with the church pastor on church matters.Teaching and preaching. Their teaching and preaching happens during church services and in various classes in the church. The elder teaches the Bible class or the baptismal class. The elder should be ready to preach if the planned preacher is not available — not that the elder preaches every Sabbath. The elder should not insist that the pulpit be assigned to someone else when the pastor is there. The pulpit should be deferred to the pastor if the pastor is present, although the pastor may allow the roster to be upheld. But if the pastor is ready to preach, they should be afforded the opportunity to do so.The elder should know the teaching areas of need in the church, discuss with the pastor, and do something about them. The training of preachers is to be identified and attended to in the absence of the pastor. The pastor may not always see the need to train preachers because they preach when they are in the church. But if there is need, an arrangement should be made for the training of preachers, as opposed to depending solely on the pastor or on guest preachers without training the members of the church.Ensure that the 28 Fundamental Beliefs of the church are well understood by members. If not, the elder and the pastor should work on it. The church should be taught on prophecy, so that the remnant message is understood. It should not happen that members think the Seventh-day Adventist Church is just a church like any other, because as it were, we are Protestants of Protestants. The difference must be clear to all members. All other lines of teaching in the church should be attended to in collaboration with the pastor. The pastor should not be excluded.Spiritual administration. The administration of the church through the church board should be subject to the business meeting. Every thing in the church is under the business meeting, although there is the higher entity called the conference. But the authority in the local church is with the business meeting. The leadership of the church should be done in accordance with the Bible and the Church Manual. The two books should be consulted in doing the administration.The spiritual leadership of the church should have the privilege of pastoral counsel or contribution. When there are issues or disputes in the church, the church should not find it normal and comfortable to handle disputes to the exclusion of the pastor. In any matter, the counsel of the pastor should be considered and solicited as a matter of fact. The pastor can advise, or the pastor can also seek counsel with the conference.The elder may chair the church board and business meeting in collaboration with the pastor. In other words, the elder may not regard themselves as the chair when the pastor is there. When the pastor is there, the pastor is the chairperson of the church board and the business meeting. However, it would be wise that they work in collaboration, because some work or actions would have been taken in the absence of the other.The finances of the church should be managed according to the Church Manual. The elder should conduct a compliance check on the books of the treasurer monthly, to verify that trust funds have been sent to the conference monthly. There should be no month when the first elder just does not know whether tithes and offerings have been sent to the conference. It is the monthly duty of eldership to verify that such a transaction has happened.Members should be involved in the administration of the church in accordance with the Church Manual. The sub-committees of the church board, where permissible, could include other members who are not on the board. This ensures that even members who are not elected are being utilised for the skills they have, so that they can be genuinely part of the church.The teamwork of elders should be experienced by the church, in the case where there is more than one elder. The practice of having more elders should not cause conflict. They should have a spirit of teamwork that is obvious to every member. If they have any differences, they must not display those differences before the church, because that will be a terrible inconvenience to the church — it will dampen the mood of the church and reduce its spirituality.All matters that should be processed by committees or the church board should be processed accordingly. A subcommittee may not function as a church board and take final decisions that should be implemented — they should always understand there are areas where they can act and areas where they should recommend. And the church board should make sure that matters go to the business meeting thoroughly prepared with no loopholes, through the use of subcommittees and the church board itself.Ensuring church planning. The plans of the church should have the buy-in of members. Elders may not present a completed plan without involving members in contributing to what may be done. Not only should the members be involved when the product is completed, but they should be involved even in building the strategy, so that they can have ownership. The members will then treat the strategy or plan as the plan of the church, not the plan of the elders or the pastor or the church board.The finances of the church should be taken into account in the planning. When a church wants to build, it is not prudent to ignore the question of cost and just go for a huge structure of unknown cost — beginning to build all by faith, while presenting the church in a dim light to the community. In our planning, we should plan within our means as churches, lest we also be tempted to tap on the trust funds, which should be sent to the conference in their entirety.Delegation is key in collective planning. The pastor should be involved in the planning of the church — the pastor may allow, but the pastor may not be excluded purposely. The Church Manual should be consulted in the planning process. It should not be assumed that the current Church Manual is silent on any matter. Programs should be planned in line with the plans of the local conference — the conference calendar of events should be taken into account so that the local church plan marries with the conference plan, which also marries with the union plan and the General Conference plan. The plans should not be divorced from each other.All aspects should feature in the plans of the church — evangelism, nurture, visitations, budget, stewardship, schedule of meetings, schedule of programmes, et cetera. Certain items or aspects of the function of the church may not be overly featured, but they may not be excluded for the whole year. The strategies of higher entities of the church are to be consulted in the planning. The church is to plan as part of the global church, not as a congregational church.Prayer for healing by laying on of hands and anointing of the sick. The elders are to educate church members about the efficacy of various church prayer types and practices — like fasting and prayer, laying on of hands, anointing, and collective church prayer — using the Bible as the main source, so that people do not think the Adventist Church prays in only one way. The church should be involved in all kinds of prayer, and the church should learn to use these kinds of prayer without feeling like they are foreign to the Adventist Church.Elders, avail yourselves if a special prayer is requested by any member, without necessarily sending somebody else — there may be a reason why they are calling for that specifically. Work with the pastor in your prayer ministry. If there are matters that should be prayed for, this prayer ministry is in the Church Manual as a ministry that may have a leader. But because elders have a biblical duty to perform certain kinds of prayer, they should join hands with the prayer ministry leader so that the church is educated and all these kinds of prayer are actually exercised in the church.Elders should have a prayer list for intercessory prayers. Some things can be better done by God than yourself. Some things are sensitive and private — they may not be prayed for in public. You can have your intercessory prayer list that concerns members where you think the intervention of God is needed. Do not just work without prayer, but intercede for all those people in the church. Identify members with a gift of miraculous or answered prayer. You may not be gifted in that area, but let those members be identified and make use of them.Evangelism planning and execution. Encourage all methods of evangelism possible, for all members to participate. The methods you have seen used as elders may not be the only methods that could be used. All other methods should be allowed, encouraged, accommodated, and prayed for. Form Sabbath school action groups and small groups for evangelism — where members pray together, share mission together, and share prayer requests. That is fertile ground for evangelism to be established in that team.Plan on planting churches where there is need. Plan on promoting branches into companies and companies into fully fledged churches. A church that has a branch or a company should plan to enhance its growth — they should not leave it to its own means, nor should they centre all programmes in the mother church. That is negligence.Plan public campaigns in advance so that all members begin to participate and prepare. Plan also prophecy seminars as another method of evangelism and as a method of strengthening members to have conviction that they are in the church that is blessed of the Lord. We should not lose members to other churches for lack of knowledge on prophecy.Embrace all evangelism ideas and methods of the church, even if they do not look like they will work. Let them be done, as long as nothing is violated. Engage the church in praying for evangelism, because Jesus said, let us pray to the God of harvests that He will send forth reapers — for the harvest is plentiful. Prayer is critical as we execute whatever evangelism method we are using.Coordinating the work of departments. The elder facilitates the establishment of committees, councils, and boards to aid officers in doing their work. Challenge departmental leaders to have plans processed by the church board for adoption by the business meeting. Planning is fine when done by subcommittees and councils, but it should be processed for adoption by the church as a whole, as opposed to things being executed when they have not been planned. It is better to have a plan that is cumbersome and somewhat less feasible than to have nothing.Assist officers where they seem to be lacking in leadership. Some leaders need to convene a committee or share a meeting but have never done so before. If you observe this, take them through it until they can do it in your absence. Support the programmes of all leaders in the church — not with unequal support, where some programmes receive an abundance of support and others receive less. As elder, support all programmes, whether for children, for youth, for women, for Adventist men — even if they are not programmes for your demographic category. Just be there and support.Help align local church plans with the plans of the conference, the union, and the General Conference. Help the church feel that they are not an isolated, loose church that is not attached — let them have the feel of being a global church. Encourage all departments to have outreach elements in their programmes while nurture is also done. There is a temptation to have all programmes be inward-facing. Let each department plan at least one outreach activity and at least one enrichment activity.Let all demographic departments — from Children's Ministries, Youth, Women's Ministries, to Adventist Men — be experienced by the church. Let there be no bias from eldership where certain programmes are supported and others, even children's programmes, are sacrificed when certain things happen.Presiding over holy communion, children's dedication, and funerals. Plan holy communion quarterly in collaboration with the pastor and the church board. A church should not go a year without communion. Announce it as a reminder at least two weeks before communion and coordinate the preparations with the deaconry.Plan at least one children's dedication service in a year, and let it show in the schedule of the church's programmes. Be responsive to requests for children's dedications from parents, in liaison with the pastor. Even if the scheduled date has passed or is still far ahead, respond to that request.Notify the pastor of any bereavement affecting the church members, to support the family. Attend to bereaved families and have a schedule of preachers if prayer meetings will be held, and contribute to the funeral programme items that concern the church, so that the family is not delayed by the church in concluding the programme. Conduct a funeral if a pastor may not be found and the family does not mind. But if the family would like a pastor, they should be allowed that, and the pastor should be made aware so that the invitation can be processed accordingly.Fostering stewardship. Conscientiously promote stewardship over and above the activities of the stewardship department. Ensure that the plan or programme of the church features stewardship programmes. Ensure that the Conference Stewardship programme is implemented in the local church. Ensure that stewardship visitations to the members are done by the stewardship leader accordingly, bearing in mind the elements of confidentiality involved. Ensure that stewardship and finance reports are given to the church accordingly — we may not call for money and not report to the givers. Ensure that the church has an annual budget with realistic figures, and that things planned for are affordable. Ensure that trust funds are remitted to the conference every month without failure. Take time to look at the books or reports of the treasurer to have the assurance that trust funds are remitted and bank balances are up to date. Promote funding for church projects. An elder may not call for tithes and offerings without tithing and offering themselves. Ensure that financial reports are given to the church board and the business meeting.Participating in the visitation programme. Ensure the establishment of the visitation ministry in collaboration with the deaconry and the pastor. Break down the needs according to the kinds of visitations and see to it that you are capable of carrying them out. Ensure that members who need visitation are attended to by relevant people. Educate the church on the work of visitations before it is actually done — not that you wait to educate them, but it will help the church to know that they may be visited under certain situations, that they can call for it, and that a church appointment can be made through certain officers. Consider visitation recommendations from members to needy situations — that is, prayerfully and carefully assess whether it would be wise to attend, and how the approach should be conducted so that it is not embarrassing to anyone. Educate the visiting team on the principles of visitations. Take part in some visitations yourself, knowing that it takes a team to cover all the needs. Advise the pastor to visit members who may need intensive spiritual counselling.Nurturing or feeding the membership of the church. Encourage all participants in church programmes to be well prepared. Train preachers in the church. Encourage a culture of reading in the church — work with available literature evangelists to expose members to church literary resources. Some members do not know how to secure these resources, so let the nearest literature evangelist be invited to avail themselves should anyone need material. Identify gifted teachers in the church and partner with them in teaching. Let every member be involved in some structured prayer ministry or small group.Identify obvious spiritual gifts and optimally use them for the edification of the church. Do not silence or suppress a good preacher in order to be the preacher yourself — put the best in the best place for the good of the church. Retain all members by ensuring that they each have a role to play. Appreciate what members do to add value to the programmes and services of the church — if someone volunteers to do something, appreciate it. Do not treat it as interference. Aim for participation of members rather than perfect participation. Use the best but mix with the learners — it is not wise to eat only from the part of a learner cook until they perfect their skill. Mix all of this, and it is better for everyone.Liaising with the church pastor on church matters. The first elder works with the pastor to convene elected elders into a functional board of elders. The pastor is the chairperson of the board of elders, and the first elder is the secretary. The board of elders reports to the church board as needed. Duties of elders are distributed among elders with the pastor presiding over the meeting. The pastor should not be excluded in the functions of the elders. Plan all spiritual rituals — like holy communion, children's dedications, baptisms, and weddings — with the pastor as need arises. Plan visitations and special prayer services needed by members with the pastor. Review the programme and preachers' roster and the pastor's itinerary to avoid clashes. If they need to be adjusted, make sure all stakeholders are consulted.The resources for elders are: the Bible; the 28 Fundamental Beliefs of the Church; the Church Manual; the Seventh-day Adventist Elders Handbook; the Seventh-day Adventist Minister's Handbook, since the elder is an assistant pastor; the Seventh-day Adventist Elders Digest, to which you can subscribe; the General Conference Elders Guide, which is online; and the Elder Quickstart Guide, which is also online. All of the above can be found online.That is the end of the material for deacons, deaconesses, and elders, touching also on the functions of pastors, though not in greater detail.Shall we pray as we close this session?Father in heaven, we thank you for being with us through this material. We know that it is not everything, but we believe that with this little material, it will help us to go somewhere. It will also help us to have interest in finding out much more, so that we can be better equipped as we serve you. I pray once more for the elders, the deacons, and the deaconesses — that they may have interest in their work, that you may inspire them to work with interest, and that, Lord, there may be less friction among them. And that as they do the work, they may seek your glory, not their personal glory. Bless all of us as we serve you. In Jesus' name. Amen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Family Life Ministries: A Leader's Summary 03.04.2026 58min

  Pastor Jumara Netshifulani, Trans-Orange Conference Director: Family Life MinistriesCorrected TranscriptGood day, colleagues. Fellow Adventist Family Life Ministries leaders. You are now going to be receiving a delayed broadcast on Family Life Ministries. This is aimed at empowering the local Adventist Family Ministries leaders on how to go about doing your job, and to minister to the families in your respective congregations. You have been called to this sacred position. And I always think and figure out that there is no department that is as critical as Family Life Ministries, because you minister to the entire church in totality — from kindergarten to the oldest grandmother. So just as we commence, we will start with a word of prayer.Our kind and loving Father, we come before your presence at this day, and we ask that you may bless your church and the ministry leaders who are serving in this capacity in different parts of this Trans-Orange Conference. We ask that your Spirit may be with us. Be thou our leader. In your name we thank and pray. Amen.So I am going to share my screen here so that we are able to follow each other well. I actually hope that you will also receive the actual material related to this presentation. So I actually think that right where you are, you are able to see my screen.With Family Ministries, it is a little bit different from other departments in that each year of Family Ministries is actually themed. So you follow a certain theme from one year to the other. And our major theme for this year, within Family Ministries globally, is about Faith Family in a Digital World. So we will be trying to find a balance between the digital world, as well as the Family Ministries and the family life needs in their totality.As we commence here, I am going to start with just making a layout of what Adventist Family Ministries is all about, for the benefit of the leaders.The Family Ministries — Adventist Family Ministries — exists to achieve the following objectives. They may not necessarily be exactly five, but they are at least not fewer than five.The first objective for which this ministry has been designed and for which it exists is: to strengthen marriage and the family. By family, we mean and refer to a typical traditional family, where you do have a husband, a wife, and their children. But by family, we may also include a blended family in all its forms. It may also include a single-parent family. And it may include a child-headed family. The capacity for close relationships with God and with others is developed in the family. So a family is basically a learning ground — a school in which values are transmitted from one generation to the other.That is what the third objective is all about: to foster intergenerational reconciliation. And to extend hope and support to those who have been hurt by abuse, family dysfunction, and broken relationships. So a family is basically a place where family values — and even all other values, cultural as well as religious — are transmitted from one generation to the other. But it can also be a place where people can become, and are, vulnerable to abuse, family dysfunction, and broken relationships. So Family Ministries exists to provide healing to all these ills.Number four: these ministries exist to provide ministry to families in the local church, focusing on premarital guidance for couples, marriage-strengthening programmes, and also education on parenting for parents.And number five: this ministry also exists to empower families to serve as evangelists — reaching out to other families. One of our objectives is to ensure that each family reaches out to another family.You have been elected as a family leader. A family leader, according to the Church Manual, is an individual or a married couple. They may be elected to serve as Family Ministries leaders, either as a couple or even as an individual. There is no restriction and no qualification that those serving in this ministry have to be a married couple.Secondly, if you are a leader, you should be able to model strong and growing family relationships, and exhibit a sincere interest in fostering the wellbeing of all families. So you have to reach out to every family — regardless of their background, ethnic background, and socioeconomic status. You reach out to all of them. And you need to have a passion for what we call family.And thirdly, in order to be effective, the Family Ministries leader must have an understanding of God's redemptive plan for dealing with the brokenness in relationships that sin has brought. You will remember that on the previous point, we spoke about families being also an environment in which we become vulnerable to family dysfunction, abuse, and brokenness. So for one to serve well, you need to have a good understanding of what it means to deal with the brokenness of the people within the family.And lastly, you as a leader must also maintain appropriate confidentiality. And do remember that confidentiality is not secrecy. Secrecy is something else — you never say anything to anybody. But confidentiality means managing the affairs of people in a way that will be reciprocated with people having confidence in the manner in which you handle their affairs. Confidentiality can also allow one to make a referral of a case to somebody else in the interest of the family that needs to be assisted. When you transmit records and information regarding your people — whom you are either consulting or who are your subject members within Family Life Ministries — you do so in confidence and in the interest of your people. So confidentiality is not secrecy. Secrecy means not sharing a word about anything, even with people who could be helpful, even with the consent of your own people.Separately, as a family leader in the local church, you can also initiate and approach your local church board and request them to set up a Family Ministries committee. It is important to set one up, and it can be very helpful. And if you do set one up, we would suggest that you make it as inclusive as possible. In other words, within the committee, you may also include somebody who might be representing the children. Include a person who is not yet married, still single. You may also include some people who have had experiences of brokenness — like people who have been through divorces. You may also include somebody who has had an experience of grief, like a widow or a widower. And then you will also have your traditional, classical kind of family, which you as the leader might be representing. This is important so that you can be inclusive in your approach to your ministry, dealing with all these different people.And remember, I have said that from year to year, we do have different themes for Family Life Ministries. The theme for 2026 is Family Faith in a Digital World. So we will be looking at how to balance the family ethos and family values versus the disruptions that come through the digital world — and also how the digital world can be used to serve the family, rather than to captivate the family.By way of introduction, we are saying that to deal with what are called technoferences — that is the third point there — studies consistently show that couples dealing with technoference report less satisfaction in their marriages, more conflict, and higher rates of depression. By technoference, we mean the constant interferences that we get from the gadgets we carry. It could be a laptop, computer, or even a phone or tablet. These things can interfere — including voice calls that may come in. This can interfere into the marriage so much that the marriage may end up becoming secondary and lost in the jungle of technology.So to deal with and mitigate some of these things, we are saying that having had the privilege of being Adventist — with the Sabbath concept — we need to apply the principle of the Sabbath to our families. Just as God built rhythms of work and rest into creation, our marriages need intentional breaks from digital connectivity. We have to be deliberate about that so that our marriages can survive.Secondly, we also have what we call attachment theory, which teaches us that responsive interactions between partners build secure, healthy bonds — physical attachments and social attachments. But if we let technology cause a lot of interference, it waters down the opportunity to build secure and healthy bonds within family members, from the child up to their parents.Fourthly, there is also the phenomenon called absent presence — which means you are physically there but mentally somewhere else, lost somewhere. We see this quite a lot, where four or five people — the whole family — might be sitting together around a table, but each one is busy with a gadget, connecting to virtual people and reaching out to another virtual community far from the table where they are seated. When that phenomenon happens, we call that absent presence: you are present, but you are absent. Or you are absent here, but present elsewhere. It is very important that we must be present where we are physically present.We also have the impact of social media, which adds another layer of complexity. We get so absorbed in social media and we let what we see on social media drive our reality. People drive cars they see on social media, want to do the kind of work being done by people they watch on social media, while being absent from their own homes. Social media can be very obstructive, very disruptive, and it can leave the family desolate.And then the question is: how can we achieve greater balance in our marriage during this digital age? And we are going to share together some of the remedies.Number one: set clear digital boundaries. Create specific times and spaces in your home that are technology-free. Think about making mealtimes, bedtime, and a designated couple time completely device-free zones. When you go to the bedroom, leave your phone somewhere, or switch it off. When you eat and engage in those activities, the devices are far away. The key is that both partners need to agree on these boundaries and stick to them.Secondly: try digital Sabbaths. Consider setting aside regular periods — maybe once a week — during which you completely disconnect from all digital devices. Use this time to focus exclusively on each other and share experiences without any technological interruptions whatsoever.Thirdly: develop mindful tech habits. Start paying attention to how, when, and why you are using technology. This kind of awareness helps you identify patterns that might be hurting your marriage before they become bigger problems. This is also an acknowledgement that gadgets or technology can also be used to enhance the quality of marriage — for instance, if you are not present at home, you can do video conferencing to join the family worship back at home.Number four: make eye contact and physical presence a priority when you are sitting around the table with your loved ones. It sounds simple, but consciously putting your devices down, looking at each other, and engaging through touch and proximity during conversations can make a huge difference in how connected you feel.And number five: find ways to engage with technology together. Instead of seeing technology as the enemy, look for opportunities to use it together — maybe learning something new online, exploring shared interests, or planning experiences you can both enjoy. If that is the case, do it — and do it together.Number six: check in regularly about technology's impact. Schedule specific conversations about how technology is affecting your marriage. Be willing to adjust your boundaries and practices based on what you discover.And number seven: consider professional support. If digital distractions have significantly impacted your marriage, working with a counsellor who understands technology's effects on relationships can provide personalised guidance for your specific situation.There are also spiritual disciplines that can help reduce the temptation to choose digital connection over real-life connection. Number one: prayer and meditation together. Engaging in spiritual practices as a couple naturally creates a space free from digital interruptions, allowing you to centre your attention on each other and on God. And secondly: accountability partnerships. Building relationships with other couples who can support and encourage you in maintaining healthy digital boundaries provides both encouragement and gentle accountability. It is very good to reach out to some of your friends who are also married and discuss how they are also experiencing the intrusion of technology in their marriages and families. In that way you are able to form a support group and hold each other accountable.And then: Bible study focused on presence and commitment. Studying what scripture teaches about listening, being present, and keeping commitments can help you apply these principles specifically to your digital habits within marriage. It is God who says, "Come, let us reason together" — because He believes in engagement, in sitting together and reasoning together. So we need to make space for these physical connections.We now make a transition to another area, which is the sacred space of family time — resisting the tyranny of the ring, that is, of the buzzing phones that never stop. Research indicates that frequent phone interruptions during family interactions contribute to what sociologists call time fragmentation. The thing is, once a disruption happens and you attend to that disruptive call, when you come back to catch up with the conversation, you also have to recalibrate — to remember where you were in the conversation before the disruption came in. That is what is referred to as time fragmentation.Studies in cognitive psychology demonstrate that even brief interruptions can significantly disrupt attention and emotional connection. The continuous partial attention phenomenon emerges when people attempt to remain perpetually available to digital communications. You can see this: you are having a conversation with someone, but it is almost like you are standing at what Pathfinders would call standing at attention — waiting for the next command, waiting for the next ring. And it gives one a sense of restlessness and also a loss of consideration for the person you are physically engaging with.We are also told that the habit-driven cycle of responding to notifications creates a form of behavioural conditioning that makes it increasingly difficult to resist answering calls. And this is what is called techno-stress: a modern affliction where individuals feel compelled to respond immediately to digital communications, even at the cost of more meaningful in-person interaction.Here are some of the remedies for the situation described above.To deal with all those things mentioned: we call for sacred resistance — the intentional choice to let calls go unanswered during designated family times. If your phone is not off, or you are using the phone for something like reading scriptures and devotions, make an intentional decision not to answer any call whatsoever during that family time, because that is a sacred moment. We refer to this as sacred resistance — resistance in the interest of the protection and engagement of the family.Family can establish ritual spaces during meals, devotional times, or recreational activities where phones are deliberately set aside. It is very important to establish that during meals, during devotional times, and certain activities that involve the whole family, you take your gadgets and put them away — and you will see them again after you are done.Thirdly, the act of ignoring a ringing phone during family time is an affirmation of true priorities. The family will know that you truly value them when you ignore a ringing phone, because they are your priority. And after all, that calling person is a later arrival — arriving after those you are engaged with physically, who were already present.Number four: we go back to the Sabbath principle. The Sabbath commandment is not merely about rest. It is also about creating protected space for communion with God and with family. Make sure that you protect the family on the Sabbath — declare a Sabbath in the interest of the protection of the family, so that you can deepen your communion with God and also with one another.The second pillar here is good communication — the blood of relationships. Good communication is like the blood of relationships. If your blood circulation gets impeded or cut off to any part of your body, that part of your body begins to change colour, tingle, or even go numb. If we permit anything to obstruct communication in any area of our relationship — be it about finances, child upbringing, intimacy — that part of the relationship which is excluded from communication will invariably suffer and may even die. Things that we do not talk about, discuss, and communicate tend to die over time.Use a calm tone of voice. And this is the "I" principle in communication: if you are unhappy with what a family member is doing or has done to make you feel awful, always retreat to "I" messages rather than "you" messages. Because when you talk to someone and point your finger, saying "you" — accusing them of having done whatever it may be — whatever you say when you start with "you," you drive the other person into a defensive mode. They feel as though they are under attack. But if you say, "I don't like what you have done," it feels more like you are talking about yourself, and you basically invite the other person to express their sympathy and empathy towards you. So do not forget to always use the "I" approach when you are dealing with difficult conversations. It has a way of easing up the situation. Everyone should be quick to listen, slow to speak, and slow to become angry — James chapter 1, verse 19.The other pillar we want to converse with you on is a very interesting one: digital dementia — the alarming impact of overconnectedness.Firstly, let us define what digital dementia is. The term refers to cognitive decline that resembles early-onset dementia, caused by prolonged and excessive use of digital devices. We are told that most South Africans spend between four and six hours every day on a screen. When you spend that much time on a screen, at any given time you may begin to weaken your mind and develop what we call digital dementia. You only remember things through the gadgets, and outside the gadget, you remember nothing. It is almost like using the gadgets as your external hard drive and emptying the whole internal drive — which is yourself and your brain — into the gadget. Once that gadget disappears, you undergo a form of depression.Secondly, digital dementia has to do with reliance on technology that can lead to impaired memory, attention deficits, and reduced problem-solving skills. In most cases, our young generation thinks that if there is no app for solving a problem, it cannot be solved. Common symptoms of digital dementia include forgetfulness, lack of focus, shorter attention span, poor posture, and even emotional instability. And digital dementia also involves reduced stimulation of the brain's frontal cortex — responsible for higher-order thinking — which can lead to lasting cognitive impairment.The second thing, again, about the ills of digital devices is what is called digital isolation. Digital isolation refers to a state of loneliness or social disconnection resulting from certain digital habits. This problem spans a wide demographic, affecting children who may be immersed in gaming, teenagers who are deeply engaged in social media, and older adults who may use digital communication but miss physical companionship.Some of the symptoms of digital isolation include emotional withdrawal — depression, anxiety, and a sense of disconnection from family or community. I will make an example. If you find somebody who has been hit by a car, instead of running to help — even with your Master Guide training in CPR — you will actually stop, take out your phone, and take videos of how this person looks after being hit by a car. You keep holding the lens until the person dies, and then you say: "You see? Cars in this place kill people." No emotional connection whatsoever with what is happening. We will take out our phones and take a picture of somebody drowning instead of jumping in to pull that person out of the pool. That is what it means to have undergone digital isolation because of the overuse of these devices.What are the remedies? What are the antidotes for digital dementia and digital isolation?Number one: digital literacy and information campaigns are needed to raise awareness of the risks associated with overuse — and this presentation is doing digital literacy already.Secondly: meditation on the Word, the ways and works of God, and brain-training exercises — such as memory games, reading, or learning new skills — can help reverse the effects of digital dementia. Do real games, where people run and do things physically, rather than playing games on your gadgets. That has a real impact when done physically, of reversing those two phenomena.Thirdly: for children and teens, screen-time limits, regular outdoor activities, and engagement in creative or social hobbies are very crucial.Number four: practise digital hygiene — such as setting device-free hours, as we have already spoken about; using apps for time management; and prioritising in-person communication over sending each other messages when you are in the same house. One person is sitting in the kitchen, one is sitting in the sitting room, and the only means of communication between them is WhatsApp. Please — in-person communication is more important than digitally mediated communication.For seniors: providing community-based support, digital training, and opportunities for social engagement are key in preventing digital isolation and dementia. Balanced, temperate use of digital technologies can actually improve cognitive function and decrease decline in seniors.And then the other pillar, which I think is pillar number five: navigating the digital age with a biblical focus.The issue of digital connectivity and digital abuse — today we are seeing a generation of people who are abusing and becoming addicted to these gadgets, in the same way someone might be addicted to drugs.Challenge number one: information overload. Scientists found that the average person receives 74 gigabytes of information per day through media such as cell phones, computers, television, billboards, and so on. While the human brain can only handle about 0.5 gigabytes. When you talk about 0.5 gigabytes, you are still talking of a very large chunk of information — still far bigger than all the pages you find in the Bible. But we are told that the human brain can only process 0.5 gigabytes of information daily. So the 74 gigabytes we receive every day, through all those media platforms, creates processing overload in our brains, leads to problems with sleep and anxiety, reduces focus and memory, and generates mental health problems.How do we deal with digital information overload anxiety? Firstly, we should try to filter the information we receive through the lens of the gospel. Keep in mind that our main purpose here on earth is to show God's love and to preach the gospel. Remember, when we read from Deuteronomy 29:29, we are told that God — being mindful of the state of our brains after the onset of sin — decided not to overload us with information. The Bible says He only revealed that which is sufficient for our salvation. So in other words, discard all information and intentionally refuse to expose yourself to so much information that has nothing to do with the quality of your life.Secondly: rest is important. Not only rest from our work on the Sabbath, but also rest from technology — rest from too much information. A rest that allows us to regularly connect with God and His Word. That is the most important rest.Challenge number two: shallow connections. Much of today's media is built around prioritising quantity over quality, which leads to superficial engagement with people and ideas. Human beings long for meaningful connection, not just shallow connections. If you look at how we are addicted to TikTok — which is designed for short messaging — or at X, formerly called Twitter, which can only take about 280 words — you cannot engage with anything in a deeper, meaningful way. We get information teasing: we receive a snippet, then disconnect, and all information looks just like advertisement feeds.Paul writes: as you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him, rooted and built up in Him and established in the faith. Roots take time to grow, and truly meaningful relationships need the investment of time, patience, openness, and love — whether it is our relationship with God or with others. And the gadgets do not offer us that.Challenge number three: change never stops. ChatGPT was launched in November 2022. Less than three years later, artificial intelligence has permeated every website, smartphone, and business. We find ourselves in the middle of a historical technological revolution, similar to the invention of the printing press and the internet. Leaders are encouraged to take time to learn about these innovations.Challenge number four: too many tools. There are an infinite number of tools available to us nowadays — a kind of resource overload. Leaders should take time to study and learn about which resources are available and which ones could be most beneficial for their purpose. Be strategic and intentional about which digital tools to use, and invest time in learning how to use them. Tools are not meant to think for you, or to interpret the Bible for you, or to do ministry for you. You still need to do this yourself — a person who studies the Word, rightly dividing the word of truth, and who is not ashamed of the gospel. This is the person whom the Lord approves.Challenge number five: truth is always under attack. The term "post-truth" refers to a situation in which people are more likely to accept an argument based on their emotions and beliefs rather than on facts. People are relying more and more on artificial intelligence for information instead of doing their own research — which is a problem, because AI makes mistakes, provides false information, and can give biased answers. Leaders should set an example for others and be totally committed to the truth by checking sources, double-checking information, and waiting for a more complete picture to emerge before formulating an opinion about something or someone. We have seen how the digital world works: you get flooded with so much information only to be told that all of it was fake. For God has a people who will preserve their fidelity to His truth — who will make the Bible and the Bible alone their rule of faith. And in the midst of all these things we see through our social media platforms and gadgets, please do remember that there is only one unchanging truth, which is Christ Himself, who says: I am the way, the truth, and the life.Challenge number six: screens over people. Unlike traditional bullying, cyber bullying can occur twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week — it can follow teens into their homes and private spaces, spread to wide audiences instantly, and often allows perpetrators to remain anonymous. Cyber bullying is known to lead to problems such as low self-esteem, suicidal ideation, anger, antisocial behaviour, and substance use, and more. The distance created by our screens — and the ability to remain anonymous — leads people to do and say things they would never do or say in person. It is so easy to run over people using the protection of the screen. You can swear at people because it is almost like you are swearing at a screen, while hitting people on the other side. You need to always know that on the other side of the screen, there are people.Challenge number seven: living for likes. Precisely because of the rise of super-curated content, extremely edited photos, and the overuse of CGI — computer-generated images — or AI-generated images, more and more people are looking for authenticity and realness, even as so many things are being artificially created. And we real people, reading and looking at these things, stand up trying to remodel ourselves after things that are not even real. Secondly, just because something has been liked ten thousand times does not mean that it is good or true — and you know this very well.Technology used in the right way and in the right measure can be a blessing, both in our personal lives and also in our ministries. But before we can use the power to deploy technology constructively, we also need to balance that with resisting its abuse, its abnormal use, or its overuse. We need to be deliberate about using technology for good, as opposed to allowing it to be so intrusive into our personal spaces, our lives, our families, our work, and even our sense of wellbeing.The last point — and not least. One meal is not enough. What we are trying to say is this: imagine that from now on, you tell yourself, "I will fast every single weekday, and I'm going to stuff myself with food only on the Sabbath." What that means is that if you only eat during the week with junk food, and then do not eat on the Sabbath, you will have eaten all the junk and missed the meal that keeps you in perfect balance. And on the other side, if you decide not to eat at all during the week in order to avoid the junk — but plan to eat only a good Sabbath meal — you will probably die before the Sabbath arrives.So the bottom line here is this: in our families and with our little ones, let us provide daily conversation with God — daily worship — and this helps us to win our young ones away from technology. And you will read also from the Bible that God desires us to worship Him from one generation to the other, and to proclaim His name.And there is something that I like very, very much, that we also need to find an opportunity to teach our young ones. Deuteronomy chapter 6, verse 7. Please do not forget this one — we have even emboldened it: And thou shalt teach them — meaning the statutes and the laws — diligently unto thy children, and shalt talk of them when thou sittest in thine house, and when thou walkest by the way, and when thou liest down, and when thou risest up. So we need to share the knowledge of God, His commandments, and His requirements from one moment to the other, on a daily basis.And we need to reverse the whole situation. In other words, we must use digital gadgets as punctuation marks to our relationship with God and to the real life functionality that we live — rather than looking at work and even worship as punctuation marks to the digital world in which we are caught up.This basically brings us to the last slide, which is about a spiritual diet. The psalmist says: O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusts in Him. When worship is neglected, the effect can be no different than skipping a meal. Family worship is an important part of spiritual diet, whether we are single or part of an intergenerational family. For a daily meal plan, look for a devotional, or select a Bible book to continue your own daily worship plan.In other words, to bring your family together — if you do not have a devotional book, the Bible itself is sufficient. You can open the book of Genesis and decide to read a chapter a day for your devotion in the morning and in the evening. During that time, it is also a gadget-free time. You put your phones away, you put your computers away, and then you get to feast on the Word. In the meantime, that helps to rewire your brain, rewire your mind, and recalibrate your spirituality, your physical self, and your emotional being as well. And then you become a full human being again. You do not become emotionally and spiritually emaciated.And then we are also saying: after we have embraced what we have said here, go and say it with the family next door. Go and try to set the family next door free from the bondage of the gadgets.May the Lord bless and richly bless His church. Amen.We will close with a word of prayer.Kind and loving Father, we thank you for the gift of your Word, the gift of your guidance. And we now know that we have not been left alone. Every step that we take, you also take with us. Help us, Lord, to build strong families, to build strong children, and also to be freed from the enslavement of these gadgets. In your name we thank and pray. Amen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com
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  Children's Ministries: A Leader's Summary 02.04.2026 32min

  Pastor Valerie Mhundwa, Trans-Orange Conference Director: Children's MinistriesCorrected TranscriptI greet the TOC family — our parents who have been blessed with beautiful children in the TOC, the teachers of children, the leaders of children, our pastors and elders that are leading children, and all that just have a passion for children. I welcome you all to this presentation. We want to thank God for allowing us such a time.Let us pray. Our dear, kind, loving Father, as we are about to start this presentation, we invite the presence of the Holy Spirit to be with us. In the name of Jesus, we pray. Amen and amen.Before we get into the presentation, I just wanted to share a short word that comes from the book of Proverbs, chapter 22, verse 6. It is a verse that I love so much. The book of Proverbs was written by the wisest man ever to walk on this earth. None of the people you think are wise came or come close to the wisdom of Solomon. Solomon was the son of David. We know that God gave him wisdom — he asked for wisdom and God gave it to him. So I think right there, let us ask God to give us wisdom, especially as we train children, as we raise them, as we are with children. May God give us the wisdom of knowing what to do with them.So the wisest man, Solomon, wrote these words in Proverbs chapter 22, verse 6: Train up a child in the way they should go, and they will not depart from what they were taught. Yes, they can find themselves in other situations, but they would never forget what they were taught. And I am saying this is what we should do. Let us train our children in loving the Lord, in reading the Word of God, in knowing who Jesus is by reading the Word of God. And also train them for mission, because our children must be missionaries.We can think of the story of Naaman in 2 Kings chapter 5. We saw Naaman's young servant girl. She was a young girl of about 12 years of age, and she remembered what she was taught at home. Even though she was now a slave, she remembered that she was a missionary — she was taught at home. And she even told them about a prophet in Israel. So it is my prayer that as we are raising these children, as we are teaching these children, we teach them to love the Lord, and to also be able to share about Jesus and the love of Jesus to others. Amen and amen.Let us pray. Our dear and loving Father, thank you for reminding us that it is our duty — each one of us — to train up these children. We continue to pray for wisdom, for that wisdom that comes from you. In the name of Jesus, I pray. Amen and amen.So as we get into our presentation, the picture right there that we are starting with shows children that are laughing. That laughter — you can see it is coming from the heart, from within. It is not a forced laughter. It is a child who is happy. How I pray that as we interact with children, as we do what we are doing with children, they will be able to laugh like this. They will be able to be happy children. And these should be children in our churches, in our families, in our homes — children from our neighbours, children that just come to us or that are around us. I pray that we will be able to teach them and they will be able to have such laughter.Now, we know that when we reach a child, we are reaching the world. So it is also our duty that as we are reaching children, we want to go far and wide and reach as many children as we can, so that we are reaching the world. Because remember — these are the children that are going to be parents tomorrow. So if we reach them when they are young, we know that we have reached a family somewhere, we have reached a generation. And that is our work.Now, Children's Ministries — I have to introduce myself. I am Pastor Valerie Mhundwa, the Director for Children's Ministries of the Trans-Orange Conference, and we are here just to talk about Children's Ministries.So Children's Ministries has a mission. The mission of Adventist Children's Ministries is to nurture children into a loving and saving relationship with Jesus. A loving and a serving relationship with Jesus. That is all that it is all about. And the vision, which also speaks very closely to that: the vision of Adventist Children's Ministries is to empower leaders and impact children. So leaders are to be empowered and children are to be impacted. And we have said: if you reach a child, you have reached the world.Now, in Children's Ministries, we have three pillars. We have three pillars that we talk about, and they are: nurture, empower, and outreach. Nurture is talking about spiritual growth — when we give programmes that are nurturing our children spiritually, they will grow. We are just leading them to Christ, saying let Jesus be their foundation even in their young age. Empower is about leadership, which we are going to see as we go forward. And outreach, of course, is all to do with mission — as I even gave the example of Naaman's young servant girl.Now, when we zoom into nurture, we will see that when we talk of nurture, we are to disciple our children, teens, and their families into Spirit-filled lives. So us as leaders, us as teachers, as pastors, as elders of children — that is what Children's Ministries is about. We are to disciple our children, teens, and their families into Spirit-filled lives. They have to know Jesus. So we teach our children. And even if they may not be coming from Adventist homes, they can be so impacted that they go and impact their families as they go. The aim is to increase assimilation, retention, reclamation, and participation of children, youth, and young adults. It is to help youth and young adults place God first and exemplify a biblical worldview. So that is under nurture.Under nurture, the resources that we have — we are a very organised church. We are a church that is rich in resources and material. Whenever you have time, as a leader, as a teacher, whatever role you have with children, you should always be visiting the Children's Ministries page of the Seventh-day Adventist General Conference. You will pick up so many resources. We are also working as TOC on putting our own website together, where we will also be putting many of these resources. But for now, while we are still building our website, you may use the General Conference one for Children's Ministries, because that is where we will also be getting the resources from.So we have Day by Day with Jesus — a Bible reading guide where we are saying our children should be reading the Bible. They should be knowing the Bible. So let us make sure we ground them in the Word.Then there is God Loves Me 28 Ways — many stories that lead our children to love Jesus. There is also God Loves Me 28 Ways: Radio Stories. And then there is Making Jesus My Best Friend, from Review and Herald. When a child says "Jesus is my best friend" — there is a song they sing — that is a powerful foundation.Michael Asks Why — this is like the Great Controversy done for children. So it is a very good book. And there is also the prayer calendar and the 777 Prayer Fellowship cards. In other words, we are saying we should be praying seven times a day, seven days a week, at seven o'clock every day. So children must be taught to love prayer.And Step by Step — this is Steps to Christ done for children. So if you want the Great Controversy version for children, you will find it in a book called Michael Asks Why. If you want the Steps to Christ version for children, you get it from a book called Step by Step. And also What We Believe — this one will be teaching our children what we believe as Seventh-day Adventists, our doctrines and all of that.Nurture is "reach up to God." So we are teaching our children to pray for the Holy Spirit, to ask of Him, and to give them the verses in the Bible that say if you ask of Him — that is God the Holy Spirit — God promises that He will give Him to us. We teach them to pray for their friends. Children have so many friends — they can mention a different friend every day for a whole month without repeating a name. So we must teach them to pray for their friends and to pray for children in specific countries who need to know Jesus. We must always be telling our children that they are blessed to know about Jesus — there are children in other places who do not know about Jesus.They must also pray with a friend at school. We must teach them that at school they must be able to pull a friend aside and say: let's pray. We must teach our children to pray for their teachers who do not know Jesus. They must even be able to go to a teacher and say: "Ma'am, I am praying for you." So we must teach them that as we are with our children — to pray for themselves, to pray for their families, but to pray for others as well. Pray that the Spirit will change us and help us to be more like Jesus.Now, God Loves Me 28 Ways — I am just showing you some of the resources you will see when you go to the General Conference website. That is God Loves Me 28 Ways: Discover 28 Fun Bible Lessons. Our children will really love that.And for outreach — it is "reach out with God." We are teaching our children to be missionaries, to foster a lifestyle of mission, service, witnessing, and disciple-making. Our children should be able to tell other children about Jesus and the love of Jesus — just like what Naaman's young servant girl did.Under outreach, we also have Global Children's Day in March. It is a day where we say: let us teach our children community work. Let us teach them to reach out to others — to be able to share their food with those who do not have, by going to orphanage homes and sharing food and clothes; to be able to visit old age homes and be with the elderly; to be able to go into the community and clean up places. When our children learn to clean up places, they are also learning to live well with others. To visit hospitals and pray for the sick. That can be done on Global Children's Day — which is the outreach.But this should not be a one-day event. If you are a leader of children, this is something you must always do. When we say Global Children's Day, we are saying that on that day globally, all the children are doing the same things. Remember, it is also connected with Global Youth Day. All our children and youth are doing acts of kindness in the community on that day. But it does not mean it is only for that day. You as a leader — always teach your children to do acts of kindness.We also have reached out with God through the VBX programme. That whole week of VBX is for our children — but mainly, why do we do VBX? It is also so that we reach children that are not yet Adventist. So if you are a leader and you are running a VBX programme and you do not have any not-yet-Adventist children, then you are not doing it well. The proper VBX programme — the one that will make God smile in heaven — is where we have our children, and we also have a good percentage, 10% or even 20%, of not-yet-Adventist children. So it is our prayer that you start preparing our children now to talk to their friends — and these are the friends they will then invite to VBX. And we know that when we reach children, we are reaching the world, because when we reach children, we are reaching their parents, we are reaching the whole family. We are reaching a generation.Now we also have another pillar which is empower — "rich in with God." These are programmes to nature [nurture] within our children. As they are in church, we must give them programmes that keep them engaged in the church, to increase the percentage of young people involved in the work of the church, and increase the percentage of young people retained within the church. We are losing our young people. Some of them are losing interest in church while they are still children. They are just coming because they cannot say no to the parents. But at the time when they are able to say no, then they will say no. So it means something has gone wrong somewhere. So we really need to ground our children in the Bible so that they know the Bible.The resources for empower — you will also see, if you go to other divisions like the North American Division, it is also one that has quality material. The Children's Sabbath Package — you will find it there, and it is very good. There is so much we can do with our children. Footprints for Parents, Kids in Discipleship — it is there as well. You will see it on the GC website. Footprints for Kids is there also. God Loves Me 28 Ways — I have spoken about it. It is also a very good one. And the Creation Case DVD will also help.Now, empower also talks about stewardship — trusting God with everything. So empower is talking about stewardship. We are saying to our children: we should be able to trust God with all we have. Even the voice I am using belongs to God. Even the eyes that I am seeing with belong to God. How I spend my money — we should teach our children these worship lessons. Returning my tithes and offerings to God. We should teach our children that they should be able to return an offering to God, to thank God through their tithe. We even have tithe envelopes now. We are saying, as you come to collect them from the office to give them to the children, before you just give them out, help the children to understand them and value that envelope. They must be taught to return tithes and offerings because how I spend my money matters to God. And they must be taught to protect their world, to love what their world looks like, to serve God by serving others. They must be taught that it does not matter where they find themselves — whether they regard themselves as a family that has much or a family that does not have as much — they must learn to be able to help. And also be taught what it means to be dead to self. They must be taught about family and friends and being a cheerful giver.That is empowering kids in the Sabbath School setting. You can see the smiles that the children have as we talk of reaching in God.So Kids in Discipleship — it is the programme that begins with a 12-week study equipping parents to grow as disciples and as disciple-makers of their children. So this is a programme for parents themselves — to learn to be disciples, and to also be disciple-makers of their children. So imagine what can come out of it — what a powerful thing can happen when our children are being taught well at church, and then at home our parents are also equipped. It is such a powerful combination. A lot can come out of our children.So the parents and other mentors then lead their children through a 30-week Bible study with other families. That is Kids in Discipleship. We call it KID. It takes a systematic approach of creating relationships between the home, the church, and the school to help implement discipleship principles that will build a child's faith into a lifestyle.Now, empower also talks of leadership. So it strengthens children's leaders — which is us: the children's leaders, the teachers, the parents, the pastors, the elders — with regular growth opportunities. This leadership course starts from level one to level ten. It is something we are going to roll out. We will let you know when we are starting the levels, especially level one and level two. We want to do it in a uniform way as a conference, so that when we finish level ten, we finish together and can all graduate at the same time. So we will be letting you know when we are starting, and we are encouraging everybody — teachers of children, parents, our elders, our pastors, and those that love children. Even those who do not yet have children of their own, but are praying that one day they will be parents — it is time to learn. Let us learn this leadership course, not just to get a certificate — although you do also get certified for it. But that is not the reason why we are learning. It is so that we are equipped and know what to do with our children.The certification programme starts from level one up to level ten. There is a lot to learn. I have just given examples of levels seven and eight and the topics you may find under each one. If I may use the example of level seven — you will see ten ministry lessons taught there, and ten tips for working with special needs teenagers, children and mental health, disabilities and faith, the ins and outs of adolescent brain development — which is very important — wired for connectedness, and how to reach digital natives with the gospel. That is just what is under level seven. And level eight has something as well. So imagine if you do all ten. You will have learned, from level one all the way to level ten, and you will be so equipped to be with the children. So let us pray and look forward to this training. When you hear us saying we are rolling out level one training, may we all be part of it, register, and be part of it.Yes, we also teach our children the importance of nutrition. We are a church that knows the importance of nutrition, and we cannot run away from it. Even when we talk of NEWSTART — the N is for nutrition. Even our children must eat right so that their bodies are growing strong. They must be taught about good nutrition that is good for their brains, for their immune system, that supports brain development and their health. And when our children know how to eat well, they will also be able to tell others — their friends.Now we get to the page I love so much, which talks about global special days. Let us talk about those in 2026, because we are in the year 2026.We start with the 10 Days of Prayer, which is from the 7th to the 17th of January. It is something we have already done, but it happens every year as we begin January. We always get the material for our children — we did share some of the material during the 10 Days of Prayer. So please, if you are a leader of children or a teacher of children, always look out for that material. We will share it as soon as we receive it, so that you are prepared for the 10 Days of Prayer for 2027.Then there is Global Children's Day — 21 March, which I have spoken about. I know we have just come out of it. We are going to see a lot of pictures. We saw the whole conference — in red, in blue, in yellow — going to old age homes. We saw them going to orphanage homes, going to feed the poor, cleaning up places. It was just a wonderful sight. So we should always prepare for this day. But as I said, this should not be a one-day event.We also have another day coming up in May — the Day of Prayer for Children at Risk. We have so many children at risk — some of them are even in our own families, in our churches, outside our churches, in the world. So it is a day where, as a church globally, we stop and pray. We will share more material and ideas of what can be done on that day.Then we have the Children's Sabbath — 25 July. Some people combine it with the VBX Sabbath, but we are praying that we can have the Children's Sabbath on its own, not combined with the VBX programme. So we are appealing to our elders and pastors to be able to give us this day as well.Then the 22nd of August is End It Now. We know that our children are also abused. There is a lot of abuse that goes on for children, and End It Now is saying: no abuse — whether to a man, to a woman, and especially to our children. We will share more information on that. And our children must be taught what abuse is. Sometimes they do not even realise they are being abused because they are young. So they must be taught.Then on the 24th of October — and we are asking the elders and pastors to give us this day — it is Creation Sabbath. We want to be in nature on that Sabbath. Plan to take children to nature, where they see God in nature, where they see that nature is another revelation of who God is to us.Then the 15th of November is World Orphans and Vulnerable Children's Day. We will also be stopping to remember the orphaned and vulnerable children. We pray that we will plan for all these days.Now, I also added slides to talk about our Sabbath school lessons for children. We know that the General Conference is rolling out Alive in Jesus — they have done up to the primary classroom. They have introduced the babies curriculum, from birth to twelve months, then beginner, kindergarten, and primary. They will continue rolling out the remaining classes until 2029. So Alive in Jesus — I am excited about it. We are also going to be having training. If you are watching this now, we are planning training in April. If you watch this after the training, it would already have been done, but there are ways we can continue with the trainings — to train us how to teach our children this powerful programme that we know was led by God, which is called Alive in Jesus.So from us, we are saying these are the programmes we have for children. But at the bottom of it all, it is to say: let us teach our children to be grounded in the Bible and focused on mission. Let us teach our children to be grounded in the Bible and focused on mission. And Alive in Jesus is such a programme for that, among many other resources.There is also much we are looking forward to: music festivals for our children. We are going to introduce Kids in Discipleship. We want to see our children being disciples. We also want our children as preachers — a Kids Preachers' Council is something we are going to roll out, so that children who have a gift of preaching can be identified while they are young. We also want our children to learn to play musical instruments. It would be wonderful if our children are able to play the keyboard. So those are some of the things you are going to see through a committee that has been put in place to deal with music for children.So as we learn, there is so much we are going to do with children. But what we have shown you in this short presentation is just to say: this is what can be done with our children. But there is more — it is bigger. And as we meet in our trainings and many other platforms, we will be able to bring out more and more.To reach us, our contact details: you can always write to CM — which stands for Children's Ministries — at [email protected]. Any question you may have, if you are a leader for children or a teacher for children, please do not be there alone and not know what to do with our children. What we are asking: do not just sit with our children and all you do is sing songs for them. There is a lot of material and a lot of activities. If you go to the General Conference website that I shared, you will be able to pick up a lot of material you can use with them. You can also reach the secretary for Children's Ministries at TOC, Sister Habo Mhali, on 011-640-3084. Or you can reach me directly on 073-039-9145, either on WhatsApp or by direct call. We are here to help one another.We are going to learn a lot from each other, but we are praying that our children in the TOC are not going to be the same. They are not going to be the same, because together, we are going to teach our children a lot. Let us teach our children to love prayer. Let us teach our children to love the Word. Let us teach our children to read the Word.And it can only be done by also making sure, as leaders, that our children have a Bible. To tell our parents — if there are parents watching this presentation — please make sure that your child has the Sabbath school lesson from Alive in Jesus, that your child has a Bible, and that your child has a hymn book. We are also busy trying to put together the Children's Ministries committee for music. The Children's Ministries committee for music is going to put together a hymn book that is also child-friendly, and we are praying that our children should know these songs from when they are young.We are happy. We are excited to have an army that loves our children — an army of leaders that have accepted to be the leaders of children in different churches; an army of all the parents that know and understand that these children are a blessing. All the people that love children — we love you all, and may God bless you. We pray for you every day before we start work. We pray for you because we know it is a lot of work that we are doing. Thank you all for listening to this presentation.If there is anything you need clarity on, as I have said, here are the details you can reach us on, and we can share more. And I know that with many leaders, we are going to be meeting on different platforms — sometimes virtually, sometimes at camp meetings where we are also going to come with material for our children, so that our children learn a lot. We are going to be meeting in many platforms, either virtually or physically, as we come together for the good of the children.We want to thank God, who co-partners with us. We know that alone we cannot do this work, and hence we are praying for wisdom — the wisdom that was given to Solomon. May God give us that wisdom and the strength, and we pray for the resources too as we are with our children. Resources are needed in our churches, and it is my prayer to the elders and to the pastors: when Children's Ministries programmes are there, may they not be treated as a by the way. May they be given proper time.And may I also talk about the child dedication that happens in our churches. I know that sometimes it is done as an afterthought, but may it be prepared for properly. May time be taken for the day that the children are going to be dedicated. And may it also be used as a day to invite children from the community — to say to parents: bring your children for dedication. Even not-yet-Adventist children can be dedicated. So it could be a day to invite the community, to send flyers into the community: "We are going to be dedicating children to the Lord. If you have any children that you want dedicated, come to our church. Here is the address." And that day, those children can be dedicated to the Lord, and we can take the contact details of the parents, and we are now starting to mingle with those parents. And the Voice of Prophecy can also be shared. I am sure if you have seen Pastor Noble's presentation — VOP for children — he is emphasising on that, and we are also collaborating with him to say: yes, children must learn VOP, because that is how they will be grounded in the Bible.Thank you all for listening to this presentation. May God bless you. May God be with you as you do all you do.Let us pray. Our dear, kind, loving Father. We want to thank you, Lord, for this time you have given unto us. We know we are doing this presentation virtually, but you are also a God who reaches across all distances. My prayer, Lord, is that you grant your children the resources required for them to access this presentation — that they will have good network, that they will have data, that they will be able to understand what we are saying clearly, Lord.And I pray, Lord, that together you can unite us with cords that cannot be broken, as the TOC family, the Children's Ministries department — that we can come together for the good of the children. That we are able to reach our children even in Kuruman, our children in Venda, our children in the Highveld, our children wherever they are, Lord. We are praying that we are able to reach our children in Mafikeng, in all our 26 districts, Lord. It is my prayer that all our children will be blessed.Thank you, Lord, for blessing us with these children. Thank you, Lord, for this church that has so many resources. May you bless all the leaders of the children, all the teachers of the children, all the parents of these children, all the pastors and the elders. In the name of Jesus, may you bless Children's Ministries TOC. Amen and amen. This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit mbombelacentralsda.substack.com