NSD Advisory Council on Evangelism and Witness
On November 4 during the Annual Council

On November 4, 2004, the NSD (Northern Asia-Pacific Division) Advisory Council on Evangelism and Witness was held in connection with the NSD Annual Council in Ilsan , Korea . Dr. Michael Ryan, vice president of the worldwide Adventist Church , was invited as a main speaker at the advisory council prepared by the NSD Global Mission Department (Director Kwon JohngHaeng ). The Advisory Council on Evangelism and Witness is held twice a year, during the Mid-year Committee and Annual Council of the NSD.

At the opening message, Dr. Jairyong Lee said, “The NSD is known as the most challenging Division in the world with 1.5 billion population. The number one concern is how we can evangelize in this big territory. Today, we have a whole day for this advisory council because it is very important. We have to finish this work. We need the wisdom from the Lord. We need more creative strategies to reach people effectively and efficiently in this difficult territory for evangelism.”

Dr. Michael Ryan delivered a speech with a title, “Methodology and Contextualization.” “Contextualization is taking our message to people and let them to understand what you are talking about. The NSD territory belongs to the 10/40 window which has 66 % population of the world and Christianity is only 9 % among all the religions. Challenge is huge.”

“When we invite people to listen to our message, very few of them respond because they don’t understand language and culture. If we are going to reach those people, there is going to have to be a culture, then our church. We need to take responsibility for a mission beyond our territory,” saying Dr. Ryan emphasize on the contextualization for evangelism.

At the Advisory council focused on the Evangelism, Dr. Michael Ryan also presented about the “Elijah Project.” The Elijah project is the recently adopted mission, a collaborative effort of church and lay ministries to involve Adventist youth. 

“If young people are involved in evangelism in Church, they will less likely leave our Church. We need programs for young people. Young people want to be the center of the evangelism according to a survey. Especially, in these Asian countries, young people can impact older people who want to watch younger people’s activities. Then, their relatives, parents, friends can be involved through the young people” said Dr. Ryan.

During the advisory council which had been held for the whole day, all of the NSD Executive members of the Annual Council from the different regions including Hong Kong , Japan , Korea , Taiwan , Mongolia , were presented with several reports, Global Mission Reports from the each region, and 1000 Missionary Movement report. Additionally, “A successful model of Church growth” was featured by Pastor Kang Sun Koo who is in charge of Busan SooYoung Church .