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Record Live is a conversation about life, spirituality and following Jesus in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
RECORD Live Podcast Intro_long
Intro: [00:00:00] Hi there everyone. I'm Jared. And I'm Sunita. We are your hosts of Record Live, a podcast where we talk about church faith and living well. We believe as followers of Jesus faith is more than just a set of beliefs. It's a way of life, something we'd put into practice. Let's go live.
Welcome back to Record Live. We are very, , blessed today to be joined by Alyssa Truman, who is the communication Director of the World Church, the World Seventh Day Adventist Church, otherwise known as the general conference, she's joining us from the US and it's out of hours.
And so Alyssa, we just wanna say we appreciate you, , taking the time to chat with us today. Thanks so much. I'm very excited to be here. It's the closest I've gotten to [00:01:00] South Pacific Division so far 'cause I have not yet been able to visit. Not yet. We'll get you here soon enough. We are hoping soon. And Zita also, of course.
Welcome to you and thanks for joining us again. Hello everyone. Today. We are talking about an exciting initiative that the whole world gets the chance to be part of you. Me, everyone who is in the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and we're hoping lots of people will be impacted who aren't part of the Seventh Day Venice Church.
So. If you haven't heard about it yet, you will start hearing about it around the traps. Hopefully it's called One Voice 27, but Alyssa, before we get to the main meat of , the topic today, just tell us a little bit about yourself as communications director. What does that entail? What kind of role are you fulfilling for the church?
Alyssa: You do not prep me for that one. , So I was elected to be the communication director at the GC session last year. So I've been in this role for a little under a year. And our role [00:02:00] is, I always like to say there's three things that we focus on. One is the corporate, the internal communication. So that's what are we doing within this building?
So how we deal with our tours, how we deal with, . We do the studio recordings, you know, writing of websites, all that kind of stuff. So that's the internal corporate portion of it. And then we have our internal to members. So this would be like Adventist News Network or a n. So we help curate and write news for the global church, , gc.adventist.org.
Just different things like that where we talk to our members and let them understand. We are also the stewards of the brand, as I like to say it, so the visual identity of the church, the logo and all of that. We try to help ensure that it is used correctly and by the right entities and then. Probably my favorite part is the missional work.
So this is adventist.org. It's social media. It's how are we helping the world understand who Adventists are, what our worldview is, [00:03:00] how we are grounded in the Bible as we like to say, and focused on the mission. So we really try to kind of focus on all three of those, which can be at times challenging because all of them can be a full-time job, but we're trying to do all of 'em at the same time.
Zanita: Hmm. A few quite different things, but all sounds very exciting. They're fun. Yeah. Well I wanna get onto one voice 27 because I feel like this is something that I've heard here and there, but haven't got like a strong grasp on myself. , And I'm assuming our listeners probably maybe have heard of it, but probably not.
, So can you tell us what is one Voice 27 all about?
Alyssa: One voice 27 is like, I'd like to say it's like a, A movement, so it's like this initiative, but unlike a lot of initiatives where it's kinda like, you know, this person doing this, this is truly from all levels of the church. So it's just as important for church members as it is for like media entities, and our goal is to speak as one voice.
Hence one [00:04:00] voice in 20:27 AM about a very specific theme. And so our A WR, our radio stations Hope Channels, all of them will be speaking a certain theme, but we're also encouraging every church member to use every medium method necessary. So we all have phones. You use your phone, you can share content that's been made.
You can become your own content creator and create content within this theme. And then we all speak through the whole of 2027. And then in September, 2027, we all then come together and this is when , we call them Harvest Events. I, we need to find a different word in my opinion, but that's okay. That's where we're at.
So we have these events where people come into our churches, so we're trying to move people now from the digital world. Into the physical world. , So we all work together and then we have,, a month of celebration of how the Lord is moved and is working in people's lives. [00:05:00] So that's kinda like the nutshell version of it.
Jarrod: And as you reflected, not everyone is a creator necessarily, but they can be a curator so they can find things and share those things. And we all have. Influence in some ways. In our own spheres. In our own spheres of influence. So you are encouraging, or you as the church, , the one voice 27 movement will be to encourage each of us to get active and to share the theme.
Can you tell us a little bit more about. You know, there's endless things we could talk about as Seven Day Adventist. , What is sort of the subject matter? What are we being encouraged to, to understand and to share at this time?
Alyssa: So I'm gonna give you a little backstory before I tell you the theme. , One of the reasons why we chose 2027 was because this is the 2000 year anniversary since Christ's baptism and the start of his ministry.
So we wanted to find kind of a way to. Honor this and to [00:06:00] kinda like bring recognition to it. , So kind of thinking about how that is, like what is baptism? What does that mean to us? So we created this committee 'cause we love committees, right? Mm-hmm. And we were tasked with how do you pick a global theme.
What is it that we're all going to speak about? And so we want to like encompass , that starting of a new life that baptism is. But then they also wanted us to connect it to Daniel in Revelation. So like, , Christ was foretold, that he was coming and were being foretold that he's coming in.
But it also needed to make sense in a Christian and a secular environment. As well as areas like the 10 40 region. So it's like how do you come up with this theme that works in highly Christian nations, but also can work? Where we aren't supposed to talk about Christ and how do you have this one theme encompass all of it.
So we actually looked to the Bible to give us that inspiration. And after much [00:07:00] prayer, we actually landed on Revelation 21 and it's God talking about him coming again and there'll be no more mourning. There will be no more weeping because all the stuff will be in the past. And it says, behold, I make all things new.
So we actually chose as our external theme, , all things new, and some of us are using the tagline, hope starts here. So with all things new. Everybody's looking for something new in their life. So it's not that we're just trying to communicate one message, but we can all communicate that in whatever manner that we want.
So maybe for me, I wanna curate a bunch of testimonies of how God has moved in people's lives. Other people want to focus in on Daniel in Revelation. Maybe other people are going to be talking about mental health and like the renewal of your mind in that way. So there's so many different ways that we can go from this and we want everyone to think what is my sphere of influence?
Zanita: So my mom is different than me, is different than my [00:08:00] sister, is different than my daughter's. But we all can share in some way what makes sense to our audience. I love that you've found a way to reach both the secular and the Christian, because I feel like sometimes with these initiatives, it's . Hard to find that balance with both because you're either talking about,, something super theologically deep, or you're talking about how to reach people.
So I think that's really cool. And I actually imagine a lot of people probably have heard the name Jesus know who Jesus is, but a lot of people don't experientially know him or maybe, , don't follow him because they have skewed ideas around his character and who he is and what he is like. , So I think it's awesome as well that you are.
Encouraging people to share their testimonies. 'cause that might show , a different picture and then other people to share like historical stuff or theological stuff, because that might also help other people kind of like gain a different picture. , So yeah, I think that's really cool.
But do you have any other like, I guess small scale [00:09:00] ways that people can practically? , Because I know before you talked about like sharing other people's stuff online, but like. Have you heard any of any like creative ideas of people doing things in small ways to kind of get that message out there?
Alyssa: So I. Because it's starting to launch now. , We're still at that first stages of being able to hear the stories because a lot of people aren't really launching until January. But I have heard of like content creators that are wanting to create specific content for this. One project I'm very excited about is that.
There's, , a bunch of publishing people, so this isn't like church member ish, but they're creating this book and it's gonna be a photo essay as well as like testimonies of how God has restored people through different things in their life. So it's the kind of book that you could share with a neighbor because it's non-confrontational.
It's really just about like, renewal and how we have found hope, but in a way that doesn't feel like a, , let me bang you on the head with it. It's more of [00:10:00] like a. We hope that this inspires you two. So I'm very excited about that project that's happening. , I know a lot of local churches, one of them is actually going to do a mental health series, which I'm very excited about and I know that there's also, .
Some that are doing like a financial seminars, because in their area finances is a really hard thing and people feel burdened by it. And so helping them see that God can make all things new even through their financial situations. So that's down in, , I think it's either in South America or Central America that's doing that.
So I'm loving these different ways that we're seeing it. Even hospitals are getting on board with it and trying to find creative ways that they can. Put things , in the rooms of the patients or something like that to do it. But I think right now, in the next couple months, we're gonna probably start hearing it more because we're trying to get this now down to the ground level.
So it's like the people at the ground level need to know what the theme is. They need to know that they can contextualize it, that the GC is not being prescriptive. And I think that's something that's [00:11:00] really important about this. The GC is not here to tell you how to share all things new. We're just here to invite you to share that God makes all things new.
Jarrod: , Just going back to you, you mentioned it's the 2000th anniversary of Jesus Both. And I am a bit of a history Bible interested person and I'm like, oh, how do we know? Can you just give us a brief like. Snapshot? No, that face. Alyssa, are you wanting me to go into like the theology behind?
No, no, no. As I understand. All right. Let me give you a bit more. As I understand Jesus, , we, we don't know the exact date of his birth and we dunno the exact date of his death. A hundred percent we know roughly, roughly, but it could be a year or two, either side. But his baptism, we actually have, is it in Luke Daniel?
, Actually though Daniel in the prophecy. , I believe it is Daniel nine. Sorry. This is where like, I wish I was at theologian. I could tell you, but [00:12:00] I'm pretty sure Daniel nine is where we. We have a definitive kind of a thing and then, right, because we can kind of backtrack it and because there's different things, we are able to utilize that as the date.
Alyssa: Something I'm really excited about, which will help me personally clearly as we have seen from this conversation is we're going to have, some stuff that's created by the BRI that's member friendly. , Because you know how sometimes like we have theologians or pastors talking at this very deep level, I think Zanita mentioned that we sometimes get a little.
Theological and then we miss it. So they're going to put out something that breaks it down for us. Helps us to understand how 2027 is this 2000 year anniversary and explains it through Daniel and through, , history. So I'm very excited, personally about that resource because I think sometimes we, sorry, I'm gonna pick on the investigative judgment.
We talk about it as a church, but it's really hard for us sometimes as members. To be able to explain. So I'm excited that they're gonna make something really member friendly so that [00:13:00] we can truly understand and not just say something. .
Jarrod: with the encouragement that I've heard, the preparation and the planning, what's some of the things that they're encouraging people to do? Because obviously it hasn't started yet, it's a next year initiative Somewhat.
Alyssa: But for all the plans that you're sort of suggesting, there needs to be some preparation, some pre-work done by all of us as church members. So what's the pre, what's the, the preparation look like? , What are they encouraging people to do? So I love this question because I think sometimes we just do evangelism, you know, and it's like, okay, let's just, , let's hold an evangelism series.
'cause we're supposed to do it. I know we don't maybe wanna say it that way, but it's the truth. So I think though, , we also talk about a lot about member attrition, people who are leaving through the back door. So one of the things that we're focusing in on that starts right now is our own hearts.
I don't think that it's really wise for us to be trying to like [00:14:00] proclaim something to the world that we ourselves aren't passionate about. You can't put new wine in old wine skins. So one of the things we wanted to do is. We're encouraging everyone to read through like the gospels, to read through the book, the Desire of Ages.
Mm-hmm. So this is probably one of my favorite books. I actually have it right here. Desire of Ages. This book was given to me when I was 12 years old for Christmas by my grandmother. Wow. So this book is really special to me, and I've read it multiple times. But this is the book that I would say probably helps me to fall in love with Jesus the most after the Bible because it really helps us.
She writes about him, but she makes it personal. So we want to encourage every member to read the desire of ages and I. Maybe like you've heard things about Ellen White, maybe, , as my daughter just said, we hear about the fact that she doesn't want us to eat vinegar or something like that, so I want to encourage you to give her a [00:15:00] shot if you haven't lately with the desire of ages, because it is just.
Beautiful book that will help you fall in love with the savior. So one, we're encouraging members to read, desire of ages. Um, we're trying to encourage a lot of prayer time. So while the GC is doing a 40 days of prayer event, we're encouraging local churches to host their own events. We're encouraging members to get together and have small group prayer because the Holy Spirit is a transformational power in our lives and we need To really, truly be transformed by him. And then the third area, as far as the personal transformation goes, is the sharing book of the year. So what we'll be handing out in 2027 is the books of Daniel and Revelation with a bunch of. Extra put to it. but imagine handing that book out. So like, imagine Jared, I give you this book.
Mm-hmm. And then you start asking me questions kind of like you just did. And they have no idea what that answer is. Like, we need to be reading the books of Daniel in Revelation. So we at least have basic understanding. So when people come to us and ask us questions, we can better be able to share it. [00:16:00] So we're encouraging.
Reading through this, desire be just to have that relationship with Christ first and foremost. 'cause it's all about Jesus. Our whole faith is centered and based on Jesus. We wanna encourage a more personal prayer life because without the power of the Holy Spirit, everything is just. Gonna kind of be, but when we bring the Holy Spirit into it, it can transform lives.
Zanita: And then we wanna encourage the reading of Daniel in Revelation so that we understand that what he said he's done, and he will do it again. . . , , My understanding is that back when the Bible was written, that people used to gather and they used to read the Bible together because, people wouldn't understand things and other people would, bring different information or different insights.
So are there resources that we can, like, if we wanna be reading these books, if we wanna be reading desire majors? , The gospels, are there resources where we can kind of help gain a deeper understanding or like less of a surface level understanding? , Or are there initiatives that will be like created that will bring people together if there's not [00:17:00] already like small groups or maybe for the secular people who also wanna read these books and dive into these things.
Alyssa: So there are resources that are being created, , on the new general conference, social media pages, for instance, we're gonna have like, just like three questions for self-reflection. , That one white estate is creating a desire of ages. Read through it, kind of a plan. Once you get , the sharing book of the year, which is, , featuring Daniel Revelation, it will have tons of like QR codes, bible site , stuff that you can look at to kind of explore it more and.
The prayer initiatives, of course, , the GC is gonna put out some stuff, but what we're really encouraging partially too, is for members. Just to get together, , to read through it together. My team here at the gc, we actually read through the desire of ages one chapter every week together, and , we do the reading outside of the group.
So when we get together, we can just discuss like the impact on our lives, like how it makes a difference. So I want to encourage members to do that kind of stuff. , It's easy to. It's easy to [00:18:00] wait sometimes for the GC to create stuff, but some of the best stuff I've ever seen created didn't come out of this building.
It came out of a local church initiative or maybe a conference or a member. So, , I think that even could be something that members could create. If you're a content creator kind of a person, maybe you decide, Hey, I'm gonna do this like weekly read through desire of ages saying and just share what I'm doing.
And that's a way to kind of start connecting people. And that is. Living out one voice 27 and sharing that message that God can make all things new. So I think there's different ways that we can kind of approach it, but yes, there will be official resources, but we also encourage the contextualization at that local level.
Zanita: Hmm. Hmm. I think it's good 'cause , people might be like, oh, I don't know. I don't have any resources. But as you're saying, , there's like the desire of ages, as you said. There's the Gospels and Daniel and Revelation. So there's stuff there already, that people can easily access , and read through.
, I like this initiative, Alyssa, because it's very [00:19:00] focused on Jesus. So I think maybe as a church we have a tendency sometimes to run a revelation seminar and it's, we get. Stuck into the nitty gritty of the specifics of what does Revelation mean and trying to interpret and understand that. But this, as I understand it, is like, let's focus on Jesus at the center and use him as the interpretive tool.
Alyssa: Use him as the core message that we want people to really know. And so it really. Everything else sort of ties in around that Jesus. , At the center. Would you agree? I would, um, because again, it starts with the fact that it's the 2000 year anniversary of his baptism and the start of ministry, and I think so.
I was going to college in 1998, and that's when Net 98 came out, and I remember so clearly Dwight Nelson talking about having a forever friendship with Jesus, and that was a transformational moment for me. [00:20:00] Because it was one of the first times that I remember, 'cause again, I mean, I was young before that, right?
But I remembered really seeing Jesus at the center of all of our doctrine , at the heart of everything we believe. And I'm not saying that, , our typical ways that we do it, they reach a lot of people, but there's some people. Who this is maybe a method that we've kind of forgotten about, and that bringing back Jesus at the heart, at the center, he should always be at the heart and at the center of everything because none of it matters without him.
So I am, I'm very excited about this. I love the focus being on Jesus. . And how he can change us like it's him at work within me, that makes me new. , I feel the same way., It's a very inspiring time to be in this area to be focusing on media evangelism. 'cause this is very media centric.
Zanita: So yes, it's a good time to be alive. Yeah. I agree. I think it's a really beautiful initiative and I think even if. We don't lead people to that [00:21:00] full commitment, at least if we just try and change like a tiny picture or a piece of a puzzle of the image they have of Jesus, I think that that's a win.
I, I'd be curious to know, and I don't know if this has come up in conversations, but I feel like for some people this 2000 year thing might be really exciting. , But I know some people maybe are a bit more like pessimistic or skeptic and they might also think, oh man, it's been 2000 years. , Is he actually coming back?
Like, at what point? Because you know, for so many years people have been saying he's coming back, he's coming back, he's coming soon. Like, I remember my nana as a kid being like, he's coming any day. And it's like, you're constantly hearing this. So is it for anyone bringing up like a bit of fear versus.
Alyssa: Like hope and excitement. I mean, I think that it could, I mean, I remember when the Gulf War broke out and I was certain that the end was coming because something was happening in like the Israel area. So, , it's kinda like, I remember that, that just like those kind of things. [00:22:00] I think the way that I look at it is, and this is where that tagline comes in, so it's all things new hope starts here.
, I don't know when he's coming again. I don't, and he says, no man knows the day nor the hour, but I do know he's coming again. And what I want is that when you are here on Earth, that you can find the most peace you can in spite of the circumstances you find yourself in. That no matter how painful or hard that situation, that one, you found peace in Jesus, but you have found fellowship with others who will pray for you and encourage you and inspire you.
I think sometimes as a church we, Daniel in Revelation matter because they show that Christ came and that he's coming again and , they're imperative for us to understand by seeing. I think sometimes we have removed Christ somewhat from a, even though we're talking about him, that even today though, that we are trying to find that hope.
I think of family members that I know who've gone through [00:23:00] horrific situations. They need hope now, not for when he's gonna come. And I think that that's the message of this is that he came, but he's not done doing a new work in you. That he is constantly doing this work. That's the work of the Holy Spirit, but it is also the work of the church.
, It is our, we are the hands and the feet of Jesus. Now we are his voice and sometimes we don't always reflect him well. , And so this is, this is our chance to kind of. Help them see Jesus again for the first time. , No matter what you have felt in the past and maybe that we haven't done a brilliant job of it, we want you to know we're also just humans on this journey, trying to find peace in our savior.
Jarrod: On record live. We like to get practical. So practical. What can I do? I'm watching this. I'm kind of inspired. I'm thinking, oh yeah, I could be part of this. Or I'm thinking, oh, I'm not very media savvy. I'm not tech savvy at all. , I don't know if I could. Contribute in [00:24:00] any way. But what should we start doing?
What can we start doing this week and then right through until September next year? What are some practical things that you think will really, , get, get this ball rolling, get this movement started? So the first thing, I'm gonna give you three things. You should always start with prayer.
Alyssa: 'cause you don't know what the Holy Spirit wants you to do. You may think you're not a media person and you know you might be or call older. The older I get that I'm like, older becomes a very vague story. But, so like maybe God is calling you to be like this grandparent on TikTok, breaking down the gospel for young people like you don't know.
What God is calling you to do. So it starts with prayer and full surrender If you have not fully surrendered, . It'll just be another initiative that will probably likely go by. But if you even feel this little inkling in your heart that you want to do something for others, I encourage you just to surrender to God and [00:25:00] spend time in prayer.
So that'd be the first thing. And then pray through the rest of this, because maybe you're praying for others. Maybe your area is to be a prayer warrior. That is what God is calling you for. Maybe you won't be the one who's creating content. But you can pray and you can battle in the spiritual realms for those who are creating content and for those who are trying to see it, who the devil is going to want to do everything he can to stop them.
the second is to be a curator. So you're still sharing, you don't have to create it yourself, but there's going to be loads of content. Um, eventually one Voice, 20 seven.org will have stuff that the GC is creating, but divisions are creating stuff. Unions are creating stuff. You'll find out that there's content creators creating stuff.
We are going to try to get as much of this and put in a central repository so you can come, you can find something that you're passionate about and you can share it with others. Be intentional with how you share though. So a, I think a lot of people are just like, okay, lemme share this to my feed.
Lemme share this to my feed. Lemme share this to them. If you, and it's like you're spamming people, [00:26:00] they're going to stop paying attention. Find something that's meaningful to you. Think about the person in your mind who this could have connected with. And when you, when you share it, write something personal with it.
So like I was watching this and I realized I struggled to understand Dan and Revelation, and I thought maybe others do too. You know, tell me what you got out of this. One of my favorite things was this. Be intentional with how you share so that you're creating a relationship. you're not just trying to be a billboard that everyone's driving by.
You're actually trying to be like this conversation, relationship building. Mm-hmm. and then the third thing is maybe God is calling you to be a creator. Maybe there is something that, you are gonna create graphics. Maybe you create word art beautifully. You're like typist. And so you're gonna create interesting things with different Bible verses.
Maybe again, you're gonna create a podcast about Daniel and Revelation, whatever it may be. allow the Holy [00:27:00] Spirit to work on your heart and open those doors and don't. Wait for perfection. I remember I wanted to do a podcast for years and years, but I, I needed it to be perfect.
Like I was gonna have to, everything had to be like perfectly fair. And the, someone was like, just do it. Just start it. Because if you wait till you're perfect, you'll never start. And they were right and we started, and we got better as we went. But sometimes you have to allow yourself to move past that. I don't know everything.
I need it to be perfect and just focus on. I have something I've been convicted, I'm just going to do it. So, pray, curate, and share. And then if God is calling you also create, and I'm gonna do a little bonus if that's okay. , Let, let your church know. , One of the biggest challenges we have is trying to get, , people excited kinda on the ground getting the message down.
, Because While this has been announced from the general conference level, and I've used this word many times, we really want this to be contextualized. This is not a prescriptive program where we're saying like, you need to preach [00:28:00] this sermon. You need to give these posts out. It really is about how do we reach those who are in our sphere of influence.
So help your church know about, we're doing a global launch on September 5th. So we wanna encourage every church in the South Pacific division and around the world to do something on that Sabbath. Preach a sermon about how God can make all things new, encourage, inspire their members, , to how can they be activated.
Jarrod: So on September 5th, we wanna call all churches together to like find a way to share it with their members to officially launch this. Across the entire world. That's great. So pray, cure it. And I love what you said, share with intention. I think we missed that so often. Start conversations with your church and create and hopefully from all that, I think everyone does love a, um.
An old soul or a grandma speaking words of wisdom on their TikTok. So hopefully we'll see some of that as well. I'm hoping. I'm hoping for it. Please. Alright, well it's been awesome talking to Youa. Thank you so much for coming on [00:29:00] and sharing a bit more about One Voice 27. I think. people can already go to one Voice 20 seven.org and find a few resources on.
Alyssa: More will come, but. Yeah, it's already there for people to check out. Yep. We're getting ready to do a big reboot of it that will have case studies of evangelism and churches. It will have news that is coming out, so when we find that grandma, grandpa talker, we can write a news story out of that. We'll let Jared write that and then, , that way the whole entire world can see how different people or different churches are utilizing and promoting, , the all things new initiative.
Jarrod: Awesome. Love it. Amazing. Thank you, Alyssa, for your time Again, we know, , it's a weird time for you to be working and,, you're a very busy woman, so we appreciate your time today and for those of you out there, get on board with one voice 27 and God bless. Have a good week.