Wilson meets via video conferencing for prayer with world church leaders
Technology reducing travel, increasing communication among church institutions
14 Sep 2010, Silver Spring, Maryland, United States
Ansel Oliver/ANN
Church leaders met via video conferencing last month to learn about Adventist Church President Ted Wilson's plans for a newly formed spiritual revival committee. From right, Dan Jackson, president of the church in North America; Ted Wilson; Orville Parchment, assistant to the president; and Williams Costa Jr., Adventist Church Communication director. At left is Blasious Ruguri, president of the church in East-Central Africa. [photo courtesy Hope Channel]
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Top Seventh-day Adventist officers in various countries met last month for prayer while still in their home office.
Church President Ted N. C. Wilson at world church headquarters led the group in 15 minutes of prayer before outlining plans for a newly formed spiritual revival committee. Each of the nine participating world division presidents then updated other leaders on the denomination's progress in their territory.
Wilson said he plans to hold more such meetings, held through video conferencing, later this year and early next.
Though holding meetings via video isn't new -- church officials have held yearly meetings with denominational intuitions through video for more than five years -- capabilities of technology are increasing, which can reduce the necessity of face-to-face meetings and the accompanying costs.
Leaders can now meet through high-definition video that is securely encrypted, further protecting sensitive issues or financial matters. And since a travel budget reduction at the world headquarters two years ago, the number of such meetings last year increased to 34, up from six the year before. Now there are about two per week from the world headquarters, saving the church some costs on airfare, hotel and car rental.
"We're saving hundreds of thousands a year," said Joseph Davis, the church headquarters audio-visual engineer.
Still, he thinks the denomination has the potential to save even more. At issue is the initial cost to outfit employee computers with the software.
While Davis said he doesn't discourage anyone from using Skype or other online Web chat systems, many don't allow for multiple users from several regions simultaneously. An advanced system is in place for most of the church in South America, information technology employees in North America, and the video capability exists between headquarters and the Miami-based Inter-America Division, as well as the East-Central Africa Division, based in Nairobi, Kenya.
"We have to expand," said Mark Lindemann, a 30-year marketing veteran and audio-visual assistant at the church's headquarters. "There's no reason every department director and vice president shouldn't have this capability on their computer."
Lindemann said he recently bumped into a church officer in the hallway, telling him: "You know, you didn't have to go to that meeting at Andrews [University] yesterday. It would have been easier for you if you had stayed here and we had done a video conference of your meeting."
In recent years, the church in South America has equipped most of its regional church offices and institutions with video meeting technology. The region's president, Erton Köhler, is known to frequently request use of the video conferencing room while visiting world headquarters so he can hold staff meetings with leaders back home.
Other church executives use Web conferencing to increase familiarity among employees who work on different continents.
Since taking the helm of Adventist Risk Management earlier this year, Robert Kyte has launched monthly staff meetings, which introduce new employees, outline new initiatives and feature a department and its workers. The meetings, which typically last half an hour, include all 140 employees in Maryland, Southern California, Atlanta, England and Brazil. An English- and Portuguese-speaking employee interprets the meetings for the 14 employees in Brazil.
"Before this, a person in our Brazil office may have never known what the head of accounting here looked like or what their interests were," Kyte said.
