The Seventh-day Adventist Church's first Spring Meeting session opened April 12 with an emphasis on the church's mission activities, focusing on the Tell the World vision.

During the world church session in 2005, delegates voted seven specific areas of emphasis for the current quinquennium: spiritual growth, community involvement, personal witness, city outreach, church planting, evangelistic programming and media ministry. "The challenge for us is to keep this vision before our people," said Michael Ryan, general vice president of the world church, to some 100 Spring Meeting attendees. "Our communication ministries are all involved in a planned effort to keep the vision before our church members."

"We cannot do business as usual in the way we approach mission. Extraordinary times call for extraordinary measures and approaches," said Mark Finley, general vice president of the world church, who together with Ryan presented the objectives of the Tell the World vision to Spring Meeting delegates.

The delegates also received the first edition of a quarterly Adventist Mission DVD, featuring mission stories primarily from South America. The DVD will be distributed worldwide for use in church services and events, keeping the mission emphasis in the congregational setting. The so-called "13th Sabbath Offering" projects will receive special attention on each DVD.

World church treasurer Bob Lemon reported good news from the financial side of the church. Tithe increased by 9.5 percent in North America, which is the highest in the last 100 years, he said. The world fields outside of North America saw an increase of 12 percent in tithe, resulting in a net increase of more than 10 percent for the world church. Part of this is due to a growth in membership, said Lemon.

In addition, mission offerings across the world church went up by 3 percent. "That is a major, major shift," Lemon told the 100 representatives of the church's top leadership and its world regions. After a 40-year decrease in mission offerings, they are beginning to increase. "We see a trend," he said, thanking a host of departments, regions and people, including the Office of Mission Awareness, Sabbath School Department, Stewardship Department, church regional offices, and local church pastors "who are giving more emphasis in this. We thank the Lord and each of you for your part in that."

He added, "We [came] to the end of five years with a very different picture than we anticipated five years ago. As we move forward in the next quinquennium, one of our challenges is to adjust appropriations ... in parts of the world where we have few members.

"We must find ways as we move forward to strengthen those areas. We must remember that finishing the work in one area is not enough," Lemon concluded.

Spring Meeting is one of two major meetings of the world church; the other, Annual Council, is held in the autumn and brings together the full executive committee of the world church.

The meetings are held this year at Loma Linda University in California at the conclusion of the school's centennial celebrations. Spring Meeting 2007 will be held at the church's world headquarters in Maryland; in 2008 it will be at Andrews University in Michigan; and in 2009 it will be at Oakwood College in Alabama. Annual Council 2006 will be held at the church's world headquarters; in 2007 it will be in Kiev, Ukraine. [Editors: Rajmund Dabrowski and Wendi Rogers for ANN/APD]