The Seventh-day Adventist Church held its first hybrid General Conference (GC) Session in St. Louis, Missouri, United States, June 6-11, 2022. In coordination with the GC Communication Department, the Digital Evangelism Initiative (DEI) Manila Team was enlisted to support social media outreach during the GC Session. The Manila taskforce included individuals from different parts of the world and other places in the Philippines.

The group’s main objective was to ensure every update, comment, and result of the proceedings was duly shared with those connecting to the church’s social media accounts. “A historic performance was held during the General Conference Session this quinquennium because for the first time, it was a hybrid session,” DEI Manila Team organizers said. “Every church member was able to attend no matter where they were.”

Leaders explained that the team was organized a few years ago for digital evangelism and especially revamped in time for GC Session.

“Because of the pandemic, the 61st GC Session was carried out on a hybrid platform, and the various members around the world, particularly digital evangelism initiatives, played a significant part in the event of each deliberation at the session,” they explained. “The latest updates and results were reported and published via different social media platforms. This is to make information available for everyone, especially within the Adventist community,” they added.

The DEI Manila Team taskforce is composed of 21 digital missionaries housed at the North Philippine Union Conference headquarters. It includes the Community Management Unit and the Pastoral Care Unit, which responds to the live comments from all social media accounts of the entire Seventh-day Adventist Church. 

The Digital Production Unit was responsible for creating the content based on what was happening in St. Louis. The Design and the Scheduler team ensured the latest updates and results of the proceedings. The team includes the group's art director, Jef Nascimento, and with him the head designer from Brazil, Bruno Hitoshi, project manager Roenna Sintos, and other members of the DEI team in the Philippines.

Leaders commended the initiative, saying that the team fulfilled their goals. “The DEI team continued to carry out this mission to deliver each new event in the first hybrid GC Session to the whole world,” they said. 

The original version of this story was posted on the Southern Asia-Pacific Division news site.