Trans-European Division

London, England

The challenge of reaching the big cities in the Trans-European Division is a formidable one. In fact, when we selected London, we had a hard choice to make. We have other mega-cities in our division such as Cairo, Karachi, Amsterdam and Budapest. The challenge of the big cities is not only one of numbers and statistics—these are big places, with many people, and our church tends to be small here. The real challenge is for our church to change its methods and perceptions in order to make Adventist faith and life attractive to modern people in highly secular and fast-changing cities. If we continue with a "rural" or "19th century" style of worship, old outreach methods, or a theological emphasis in our message which people feel is irrelevant to them, we will not be seen or heard in the big cities. The Hope for Big Cities campaign is therefore also a challenge to us, as God's church, to be relevant while maintaining our integrity.

We believe strongly that London is the right place to go forward at present. We have here a strong network of churches already, excellent leaders, diligent pastors and loyal church members, who are very committed to the Lord. We call the campaign "Lights across London" and the goal is to plant 20 new congregations there. The population in London is 7 million and some think we ought to have about 280 Adventist churches there (if we consider the need of one Adventist church for every 25,000 unit of population). At this time we have just over 50 organized churches in London and we plan to take a decisive step forward. The plan will require a mobilization of all Adventists in the London area, in witnessing and outreach. The plan will therefore be implemented by the South England Conference, their pastors, elders and members. But we will seek to build a good team in backing up the local efforts by linking the local leaders with the Conference, the British Union and the Trans-European Division. We already have some experience of this through the Life Development project, and it has given us some valuable experiences together.

Bertil Wiklander
president, Trans-European Division