Supporting Ministries Convention Models How to Be “Occupied Till Jesus Comes”

More than 350 Seventh-day Adventist supporting ministries leaders met for the 2025 international convention of Outpost Centers International (OCI) in Herghelia, Transylvania, Romania, May 7-10. The leaders, representing lay-led ministries who support the message and mission of the Adventist Church, traveled from almost every continent to learn, discuss, network, and praise God for what they said are His ongoing blessings on their outreach and mission initiatives.

In his opening prayer on May 7, OCI president Steve Dickman asked for “an outpouring of the Holy Spirit” as he delineated the encompassing goal of the ministries the umbrella organization hosts. “We believe that You are coming soon, and we want to be ready,” he prayed. “But we don’t want to be ready alone. We want those around us to hear the good news of salvation and be in the eternal kingdom.”

According to the event organizers, 64 ministries out of more than 400 OCI members were present and featured during the four-day gathering. Among the various ministry leaders, there are lay church members dedicated to promoting Adventist principles of health through their initiatives (vegetarian restaurants and cafés, healthy life centers, and retreat houses)—those who opened and fund schools, farms, and orphanages, and others who lead mission-focused publishing programs, video channels, or internet apps. There are even those who lead mission pilot training initiatives.

But no matter their line of work and business—they can be nonprofit or for profit, self-supported or donor-based funded—their goal is one and the same, ministry leaders emphasized time after time: to share the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Adventist message with more people groups around the world, and to do it faster than ever.

A Top-notch Venue

The 2025 OCI international convention took place on the campus of the Herghelia Institute, a lay-led health and lifestyle center among the rolling hills, meadows, and lush forests in northern Romania. Surrounded by natural beauty and serenity, Herghelia Lifestyle Center ministers to more than 1,200 guests a year, in 11-day sessions of 50 people per session, back-to-back, year-round.

According to the institution leaders, Herghelia is well known in Romania for advocating a healthy lifestyle, for an evidence-based integrated approach to chronic diseases of civilization, and as a pioneer in plant-based diet advocacy. “Since 1996 we successfully helped people to reverse diabetes [type 2], cardiovascular diseases, obesity, inflammatory gut diseases, depression, and other lifestyle related diseases,” the ministry leaders said. “The center promotes whole-person care, translational medicine, and an integrated team approach to medical care.”

At the same time, Herghelia’s leaders said that their team of more than 50 people seek to convey God’s love for each patient through personalized care, physical therapy, hydrotherapy treatments, massages, medical examinations, and a therapeutic diet suited to individual needs. “Guests have many opportunities to rediscover or to learn more about the God who cares for them personally,” they emphasized.

Herghelia also includes a nursing school, where students are trained to work not only as regular nurses but also as lifestyle medicine nurses. The institution also runs an organic farm, growing organic vegetables in its many gardens and greenhouses, and includes a K-12 school with more than 150 students. “Our work at Herghelia is defined and guided by one principle,” the institution leaders said. “Love for our fellow human beings in need and love for God, the Creator.”

Spiritual and Technical Emphasis

The event program included devotionals by Adam Ramdin, executive producer of Lineage Journey; Narlon Edwards, director of Red River Outpost in the U.S.; and Mario Brito, Inter-European Division president. Early-morning prayer sessions also contributed to the unapologetic spiritual emphasis of the convention.

On the technical side, attendees were able to choose among a variety of breakout sessions on such topics as ministry startup and sustainability, team management, church relations assistance, and fundraising and donor relations.

At the same time, the event included ample time for intentional networking. Every afternoon, attendees participated in a “OCI Exchange,” in which they divided into smaller groups according to their line of ministry. They also had timed slots—four minutes each—to connect in twos with another ministry leader and exchange experiences, testimonies, and dreams. This allowed every ministry leader to connect with more than a dozen participants personally, as they learned what others are doing and what is working (or not), and got new ideas on how to move their ministries forward.

Adventist Church Leaders’ Support

Besides Brito, several top Adventist leaders attended the OCI convention, including Vlad Bogdan Cristian, president of the South Transylvania Conference; Aurel Neatu, president of the Romanian Union Conference; Daniel Duda, president of the Trans-European Division; and Paul H. Douglas, treasurer of the General Conference, one of the keynote speakers during the event.

Several OCI members saw, in this endorsement by church leaders, a decided move from the Adventist corporate church to partner with lay-led supporting ministries as they work together to increase the Adventist footprint in many unreached or hard-to-reach places. “The fact that important church leaders and also Adventist Review have come to support this convention means a lot,” one of the attendees commented. “It shows that our church understands and is ready to work together with lay members to move the mission forward. I find it very encouraging.”

The partnerships between the corporate Adventist Church and its supporting ministries have been growing lately, several leaders pointed out. On one hand, to be an OCI member, a particular ministry must adhere to stringent membership rules, including its support of the Adventist message and mission. Member ministries must also commit not to accept “tithe funds,” which are sent directly to the corporate church.

Recently members of the General Conference Executive Committee voted new guidelines to help church members and leaders distinguish between supporting ministries and other independent organizations, some of which may choose to work antagonistically. “It’s all about working together with a common message and toward a common mission,” an OCI convention attendee explained. “That line between supporting ministries and the ‘official’ church organization should be more about methods than goals.”

A Momentous Development

On the evening of May 8, news outlets around the world shared the breaking news that the cardinals’ conclave at the Vatican had chosen a new pope to replace the late Pope Francis. At that time, however, the OCI convention was following its regular evening worship program, with most attendees quite oblivious to the developments happening more than 1,100 miles southwest.

Only a day later, after Adventist Review posted a commentary by newly appointed associate editor Shawn Boonstra on the significance of the event, many OCI members found out about it. In his piece Boonstra argued that while Adventists should pay attention to what is happening, they must “get back to work, because [their] neighbors are still hopeless without Jesus.”

“Spot-on!” one convention attendee commented after reading the commentary and sharing it with others. “There’s no time to waste on prophetic speculations. We still have so much to do to take the three angels’ messages [found in Revelation 14:6-12] to every corner in the world. Our job is to keep watching and working every day for as long as we can; to be ‘occupied till Jesus comes.’¹ As [Adventist movement pioneer] William Miller wrote, the day ‘is today, today, and today, until He comes.’ This convention at Herghelia has been precisely about that.”²

¹See Luke 19:13, KJV.

²William Miller, in The Midnight Cry, Dec. 5, 1844, p. 180.