A new podcast produced by the Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research (ASTR) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church seeks to review and reflect on the story of 150 years of Adventist mission to the world. Hosted by ASTR director David Trim and General Conference communication associate director Sam Neves, the Mission 150 podcast will explore past and present of the Adventist missionary enterprise, leaders behind the initiative said.
The Mission 150 podcast series will be released in weekly episodes starting on Friday, March 31. The goal is for Adventist church members and others “to learn, be challenged, and be inspired,” Trim said. Ultimately, it’s all about every member becoming part of the Adventist mission, he explained.
As God’s end-time movement, the Adventist Church was not always keen in taking the Bible truth message to the whole world. It took years of discussions and inspired counsel to gradually produce understanding of its missionary responsibilities. The first episode of the Mission 150 series will precisely explore and explain the denomination’s “mission reluctance,” Trim shared.
“Even before the Seventh-day Adventist denomination was founded in 1863, Seventh-day Sabbath-keeping Adventists had begun to ask whether they should be conducting mission outside North America,” he explained. “The first episode of Mission 150 explores the early discussions about overseas mission and reveals surprising facts about how most early leader of Seventh-day Adventists had very limited ideas about mission,” Trim said.
Episode 2 will explore the process by which the Adventist Church decided to take the mission to Europe. Other episodes will cover forgotten missionary Hannah Moore, John Nevins Andrews, mission in Australia, and first missionary to China Abram La Rue, among many other topics.
