There is no denying the impact technology has played in the way we communicate. In a world where communication methods are constantly evolving, how can we effectively share the gospel message with our local communities?
On July 17, the Southern California Conference (SCC) Senior Youth & Young Adult (SYYA) Ministries Department, also known as ONE House, collaborated with the SCC Communication & Media Production Department for a leadership summit to equip local churches for this current age of digital ministry.
“Our hope was to give resources to churches and leaders to learn more about digital evangelism and be prepared for future evangelism,” said Kevin Camato, Upper Room Fellowship church senior pastor and ONE House core team member.
Attendees registered by choosing four out of eight available breakout sessions. Presenters, who are lay leaders, pastors, and staff from SCC, spoke on a variety of topics, such as church websites, video production, social media, software resources, graphic design, storytelling, church apps for ministry, and in-church tech.
“The Leadership Summit helped me to see how we can best utilize the resources we already have to ensure that we are blessing as many people as possible,” shared Christian Botello, associate pastor at Eagle Rock church.
In between morning and afternoon breakout sessions, Tim Cress, North Hills church senior pastor, presented on communication strategy. He emphasized the importance of creating and following a strategy to inform all church communication efforts and offered counsel on how to put a team together at the local church.
Throughout the day, attendees had opportunities to win small and large giveaway prizes, such as gift cards, a SanDisk portable external SSD, and a TourBox NEO controller. The event concluded with a question-and-answer panel, where attendees asked presenters additional in-depth questions about the topics they presented and more.
“It’s really encouraging to see so many people eager to learn,” said SCC Associate Director for Media Production Michelle Noland, who presented on video production and storytelling. “A few people came up to me and told me this will help them tell more relevant stories and sermons that people will understand and be emotionally engaged in. I just hope they can take the tools that I presented to them and start their journey into filmmaking and storytelling in a way that touches people’s lives in their communities.”
The ONE House team has hosted quarterly leadership summits for the past five years, but this is the first collaborative event.
“This collaboration with the Communication & Media Production Department is indicative of what we want to do moving forward,” added Camato. “We want to work with other departments and churches, and we need to have more of a collaborative presence. I pray that this event will encourage people to build network and community.”
Presentations from the leadership summit are available at https://scc.adventist.org/LS722.
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By Araya Moss
