Last Sunday, the board of Adventist Frontier Missions issued an open letter regarding their mission work in the world and the efforts of their president (Conrad Vine) to address religious liberty issues and threats to Christianity in the secular culture.
Sunday 17th September 2023.
OPEN LETTER FROM THE AFM INC. BOARD TO THE AFM GLOBAL FAMILY: MISSIONARIES; DONORS; PRAYER PARTNERS; ADMINISTRATIVE AND SUPPORT TEAMS
Greetings to you all on behalf of our Lord Jesus Christ!
For the past eighteen months we have been concerned that our AFM President’s attention to current and relevant issues within the worldwide SDA Church and the culture may inadvertently be shifting away the focus of our collective mission to reach the unreached people groups of this earth.
But as we gathered this weekend to prayerfully seek resolution to what has become a distraction for us as a Board and as a ministry, the grace of God and the movings of the Holy Spirit have led us—both President and Board alike—to reunite our energies to be obedient to our Lord Jesus’ mission and call to “‘Pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest’” (Matthew 9:38).
Over the thirty-eight years of its existence, Adventist Frontier Mission’s role in our faith community has been to serve and lead the SDA Church in obedience to Christ’s mission to reach the unreached.
Through the devoted energies and faithful ministry of hundreds of missionaries throughout the world, AFM has championed the effort to plant new churches in unreached territories and countries. We rejoice and praise God for the successes He has given, for the countless lives He has saved through the unselfish, untiring labors of our missionary teams across the earth. Missionaries – you are the sent of God, and we praise Him for your night and day partnership with the Holy Spirit in Jesus’ teaching, preaching and healing mission where you are stationed.
For our faithful and generous donors, we lift up our hearts in gratitude to God. Your support in prayer and commitment to sacrificial giving to support AFM’s global mission is critical to the success of this young mission organization. Thank you!
To the administrative support teams in Berrien Springs and scattered around the world, we praise God for you. This organization is able to carry out its truly global mission because of your skilled and gifted administrative attention to detail. We thank God for you.
And to our president, Conrad Vine, who with Luda and the children have faithfully served our organization these past twelve years, we express our heartfelt gratitude. We recognize the calling God has placed upon your heart to be faithful, not only to the needs of our ministry, and of the worldwide SDA community of faith, but also to the need to address the issues of religious liberty and our secular culture.
Your recommitment to be true to both your divine calling and your AFM leadership—and our desire and pledge to join with you to seek to do all in our power to reach the unreached masses of earth for our Lord Jesus—gives us great hope for the next chapter of this bold mission organization. It is our privilege to humbly serve all alongside you.
And it is our conviction that by God’s grace, the best is yet to come! True, troublous days are rapidly approaching as our world is running out of time. Yet, our Lord Jesus’ call to mission and unshakable promise to return assures us all that indeed the best is yet to come—with Him.
And so, as we partner with each other, let us boldly move forward together in the courage and grace and love of our soon-coming Savior—
Dr. Steve Fisher, Chair
On behalf of the AFM Board:Members of the AFM Inc. Board.
Dr. Bruce Bauer.
Ms. Ellen Corbett.
Arnold Hooker
Dr. Joseph Kidder.
Dr. Tom Mullen.
Dr. Dwight K. Nelson.
Pr. Alex Niculaescu.
Mrs. Susan Payne.
Dr. Boubakar Sanou.
Dr. Doug Tacket.
Dr. Conrad Vine.
Observations
This is a good letter, affirming the excellent mission work of AFM and Conrad Vine’s burden to speak about matters of high significance in both the church and the culture.
As we understand it, Vine’s speaking invitations are over a year in advance. His messages are resonating with both Adventists and non-Adventists alike.
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“How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?” (Romans 10:14).
