Creative visual displays, worship music items, and laser-focused preaching sought to move 400 Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders from across the Southern Asia-Pacific Division (SSD) to action, as they pledged to “do something that has never been done before.” Their commitment took place at the closing of a presentation on the OneVoice27 project during the SSD Leadership Summit in Bangkok, Thailand, March 7.
“We are the generation that God has for a mission to this world,” said Alexander Ott, General Conference (GC) associate secretary and OneVoice27 liaison with the SSD. “We are His team, and we are doing something important together.”
What Is OneVoice27?
OneVoice27 is an initiative of the Adventist Church that seeks to commemorate 2,000 years since Jesus’ baptism and the beginning of His ministry. The project envisions using all church media, leaders, and members to make an impact around the world in September 2027 by sharing God’s message as has never been done before, leaders explained.
“The idea is to mobilize the Adventist family, moving forward initiatives that are contextualized to each region and culture,” they shared. “OneVoice27 aims to unite members, local churches, and media to simultaneously share a message of hope.”
During an introductory presentation Ott quoted the apostle Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 5:13, calling Adventist leaders to “lose their minds to Christ,” that is to say, to dedicate all they have to proclaim God’s message in one loud voice in this generation. “This is the call for us—to open our minds and do something that has never done before. It may take some sacrifice, but that is great leadership,” he emphasized. “Because OneVoice27 is a global evangelistic initiative that has not been done before.”
Quoting the words of Adventist Church cofounder Ellen G. White, Ott called Adventists to “do something out of the common course of things.”[*] “Ellen White didn’t use the word ‘innovation,’ but this is what she is talking about,” Ott explained. “This generation that God has today is called to innovate.”
What the Initiative Entails
Ott explained that the OneVoice27 initiative includes tapping the current power of media, which includes 5.66 billion people on social media, 7.2 billion smartphones, and 5 billion TV viewers. “If this is a reality, the innovation today is that we must do something with that. This is where people are—let us step into that space so we can speak with a loud voice.”
The goal of the project, Ott emphasized, is to “uplift Jesus as God and Savior, as the Messiah.”
A preparation phase will include a global prayer initiative throughout 2026, reflecting on Christ’s life by reading The Desire of Ages, by Ellen G. White, and studying the prophetic books of Daniel and Revelation. Every region of the world will seek to “build spiritual unity and dependence on the Holy Spirit before public proclamation,” Ott explained.
Regional Contextualization
During the presentation, GC president Erton Köhler congratulated SSD leaders for embracing OneVoice27 wholeheartedly. “OneVoice is just an idea, a concept promoted from the General Conference, but you are the owners, the ones that [at regional and local levels] can decide how to implement the project,” he told them.
Arnel Gabin, SSD vice president for Nurture, Discipleship, Retention‒Integrated Evangelism Lifestyle (NDR‒IEL), agreed, pledging the region’s “full support” to the world church initiative. At the same time, he reminded regional church leaders of the importance of moving forward together in unity as every regional and local church leader seeks ways to engage with the OneVoice27 project. “Get involved in united preparation and show a unified purpose,” he told Adventist leaders.
Referencing the billions of people who haven’t even heard the name of Jesus, Gabin said that such reality calls Adventists “to deeper sacrifice, strategic mission, and urgent action.” He explained, “We cannot simply repeat what has already been done; we must use all possible means . . . to reach those who still haven’t heard the everlasting gospel.”
Gabin called every church region to contextualize the initiative to their territories, even while keeping with the overall goal of the initiative. At the same, he added, “OneVoice27 calls us to move together in intentional disciple-making,” In that regard, he explained, directives from the division office seek that each region moves forward, not working independently but harmoniously. “This is the spirit of OneVoice27,” he said.
A Loud Voice
According to Köhler, the mandate of the Adventist Church is based on the book of Revelation, in which “we have a message that can reach, impact, and transform the world—the three angels’ messages—that the Lord has entrusted this church.” In that sense, he emphasized, there’s a golden thread across the book of Revelation that time after time calls God’s people to proclaim the last message “with a loud voice.”
Such mandate is also based on Adventist history, Köhler added, as Adventist pioneers “sold all they had to proclaim the message with a loud voice. They gave the best of their time and talents, and even gave their lives, to announce it with a loud voice.” Now, he said, it is our turn to proclaim the message with a loud voice. “Are we doing it?” Köhler asked regional leaders.
Köhler shared that when he thinks of OneVoice, in his mind he can sum it up with one word—boldness. “OneVoice is boldness—doing something that has not been done before . . . doing more than we have done before.”
That boldness includes being bold in faith, bold in courage, bold in investments, and bold in initiatives, he said. “The Lord is able to do things beyond our imagination, so let us move forward by faith,” Köhler said. “We can’t see the path? Let’s start to move forward, and the Lord will open the way. We don’t have money? Let’s move forward, and the Lord will provide. Our leadership is not well prepared? Let’s move forward by faith doing what we can, and the Lord will open doors, because what is impossible for us is possible for God.”
[*] Ellen G. White, Evangelism (Washington, D.C.: Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1946), p. 123.
