Leaders Unveil Churchwide Digital Evangelism Emphasis for 2027

Seventh-day Adventist leaders launched the OneVoice27: Mission for All initiative to delegates of the 2025 Annual Council on October 11, before the delegates voted to accept the strategy during business meetings on October 12. The presenters outlined a coordinated emphasis for September 2027 in which the Seventh-day Adventist Church will proclaim the gospel “to every nation, tribe, tongue, and people” through a unified message and an integrated use of media. 

OneVoice27 is designed to connect large-scale media outreach with on-the-ground engagement by local congregations so that interest generated online and on-air leads to Bible study and membership pathways. 

Erton Köhler, General Conference president, shares about OneVoice27: Mission for All during the 2025 Annual Council. [Photo: Peterson Fagundes]

“Envision with me if, when you wake up, the first message you see is one of hope,” said Alyssa Truman, General Conference (GC) Communication director. “Billions of phones . . . would experience hope in [their] context, in [their] reality.”

The initiative’s content focus is Christ-centered, leaders say, highlighting Jesus as the Messiah and soon-coming King, as revealed in the biblical prophecies of Daniel and Revelation. The plan also aligns with the pillars in the GC 2025-2030 I Will Go Strategic Plan: Communion With God, Identity in Christ, Unity Through the Holy Spirit, and Mission for All.

Vyacheslav Demyan, Hope Channel International president; Jim Howard, Adventist World Radio president; and Ramon Canals, GC Ministerial secretary, described the initiative’s intent to unite the church’s global media presence with its network of more than 180,000 local churches and companies, inspiring each member to participate. 

“How do we respond to these times?” Demyan asked. “We believe the best way is to stop and to speak with one voice. We want to be united in timing, theme, and global marketing. However, we must still be diverse—decentralized in approaches and contextualized in the way the message is communicated.” 

Alyssa Truman, General Conference Communication director, introduces OneVoice27: Mission for All during the 2025 Annual Council. [Photo: Thaise Snider / Adventist News Network]

Canals outlined the three-step process to help prepare members to share their faith: prayer, studying the prophecies of Daniel and Revelation, and spending significant time every day reading Adventist pioneer Ellen White’s The Desire of Ages to focus on the life of Jesus. 

Justin Kim, editor of Adventist Review, followed with a youth segment featuring influencers who modeled practical digital discipleship and shared testimonies from several regions. These included one young man who works among the Hutterites, an ethnoreligious group of Anabaptists in the United States; and a 12-year-old girl with tens of thousands of followers in Brazil. 

Attendees received a brochure that outlined the project, preparation, and purpose of the initiative before being invited to respond. “We need all to join together,” urged Erton Köhler, GC president. “If you want to be one voice, we need to move forward all together integrated for mission.”

Justin Kim, Adventist Review editor, interviews young Adventist influencers during Annual Council 2025. [Photo: Thaise Snider / Adventist News Network]

Why 2027—and Why Now

According to Demyan, one of the reasons 2027 has been chosen is that it marks the 2,000-year anniversary of Jesus’ baptism and anointing as found in Luke 3:21, 22. This event was described as a providential moment to refocus proclamation on Christ’s life, death, resurrection, intercession, and promised return. 

Demyan further pointed to the present communications landscape. Digital platforms reach more than half the world’s population, smartphone adoption continues to rise, and billions are connected through television, radio, publishing, and social media. GC leadership believes these conditions create a unique opportunity to coordinate messaging globally while inviting local churches to engage seekers where they live.

Erton Köhler, General Conference president, holds a OneVoice27: Mission for All brochure during 2025 Annual Council. [Photo: Peterson Fagundes]

Motion Voted

A number of delegates spoke in favor of the digital initiative. 

Merlin Burt, director of the Ellen G. White Estate, expressed his support of the initiative, especially the emphasis on The Desire of Ages, with the appeal that delegates “reread the book this year and read it with the Gospels. That will help us say things [to those we’re working with], lead experientially, and do things we couldn’t do, if we didn’t read it in a fresh, new way.”

Lay delegate from the Inter-European Division, Urs Helfenstein, appealed to church leaders to include independent ministries in the initiative if they want to truly speak with one voice.

During her comments, Lisa Beardsley-Hardy, GC Education director, requested resources and direction from the GC. Köhler suggested that materials would be developed, and some would be shared at the 2026 Spring Meeting. However, he said that divisions and church members would add their own contextualized content and resources to reach their regions.

In efforts to support the initiative, Paul Douglas, GC treasurer, said that US$27 million would be committed to the OneVoice27 initiative. This was further explained during the Treasury report on October 13, detailing how the GC and the divisions would collaborate to provide these funds. 

Gary Krause, Adventist Mission director, reminded those attending that while the emphasis is on digital ministry, human connection can never be replaced. “Even if there are members who are not on social media, they are in a social environment,” Krause shared. “They can take a cup of soup to a neighbor. They can help someone who is lonely. They can have that human connection, which nothing can ever replace.”

The vote was called after Köhler asked for a time of prayer—not to change minds, but to invite God to be part of the project. “We are calling the global church to be prepared, to invest, to train, to create, to be creative for September,” he concluded. “Are you in?”

The original version of this story was posted by ANN.