The auditorium housing South America’s largest Seventh-day Adventist Church on the campus of Brazil’s Centro Universitário Adventista de São Paulo (UNASP) was packed to standing room only on Friday evening. Students, faculty and community members joined more than 800 GAiN attendees for a vespers service featuring dynamic music and a message by Erton Köhler, president of the South American Division, a region of the Church encompassing eight countries.
“You are here to change the future,” Köhler said emphatically, before encouraging communication professionals to help the Gospel message “go viral.”
For Köhler, hosting the Global Adventist Internet Network (GAiN) technology conference was a significant opportunity since his Division has a defined emphasis for the quinquennium leading to 2020 to strengthen communication actions in an effort to spread the gospel message more effectively. Digital communication is seen as strategic by the Division and as an ally in ministry. “We work with a vision of integrated evangelism where all areas of the church and all possible means are used to their maximum potential, but the focus is on the preaching of the gospel,” explained Köhler.
