Targeted Ads and Reels Are Drawing Thousands to Faith in Quebec, Canada

A new initiative of Seventh-day Adventist media in Quebec, Canada, is making a difference in thousands of lives across the mostly French-speaking province. After the revamping of the media operations of Espoir Média (Hope Media) Québec and the Il Est Écrit (It Is Written) ministry, a more targeted approach to advertising and reaching out has resulted in hundreds of contacts and requests for Bible studies during the past few months, Adventist regional media leaders said.

A Long History of Reaching Out

“Until the 1970s the most popular method of evangelism was ‘hall evangelism,’ ” explained Pedro Torres, Espoir Média Quebec director, in describing the history of Adventist mission across the region. “You could rent large halls, open up churches, and hold public conferences. It was not difficult to fill a large venue.” Since then, things have changed drastically, he added, as the church has adapted to keep reaching out an increasingly secular society.

Il Est Écrit was launched in 1974 under the leadership of Georges Herman, introducing a social and communication ecosystem that was unfamiliar to evangelism in Quebec: the use of television. After the first broadcasts, the Quebec Conference had to improvise a call center in the basement because of the enormous number of requests for Bible studies.

Then in the early 2000s came the use of the internet for mission. Soon after came social media, Torres added. “Just as ‘classic’ evangelism could not be replaced by television, television cannot be replaced by the internet and social media. We must learn to live with all of these simultaneously, even though the most recent often has greater impact than what came before,” he said.

How the New Initiative Works

Espoir Média Québec recently hired a young professional with ample experience in social media advertising. While he had helped many companies to thrive, this young Adventist church member had never worked on religious ads. With a budget of just Canadian $2,000 (about US$1,500), it was a challenge to make a tangible impact, Adventist media leaders said.

The young professional worked on targeted ads on Meta. He took into account demographic data, including age, location, and other variables. The new ads include AI-generated images of places and scenery well known to Quebeckers, with a sticky note reading, “Besoin de prière?” (Do you need prayer?) Other images show Jesus listening to a troubled person on a bench in a well-known park, according to Torres. Still other ads offer free Bible courses for specific people groups.

“We began to see results very soon,” Torres shared. Since introducing the initiative in late 2024, Il Est Écrit received 176 requests for Bible studies. Up to November 18, 2025, they had developed a list of 260 contacts, and that number keeps growing every week. “Following this social media method, from November 19 to January 26, the ads were seen 100,000 times, and we developed a list of 1,032 new contacts,” Torres added. The reels posted since January 2026 have surpassed 200,000 views.

A new project is now studying the possibility of developing videos to advertise on YouTube, Torres shared.

“The impact is evident,” he said. “It reminds me of what Ellen G. White wrote in her book Evangelism: ‘Means will be devised to reach hearts. Some of the methods used in this work will be different from the methods used in the work in the past; but let no one, because of this, block the way by criticism.’[*] Potential for growth is great when we adapt. New methods for a new time, for a God who makes old things new.”

[*] Ellen G. White, Evangelism (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1946), p. 105.