Seventh-day Adventists believe that evangelism—the proclamation of the gospel—is the very heart of Christianity. From the early days of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, public evangelism has played a major role in the growth and development of the denomination. It began with a handful of devoted preachers holding meetings among little groups of those who had taken part in the Millerite movement. As concepts widened, it was not long until the church realized its mission to carry the three angels’ messages ( Rev. 14:6–12 ) to “every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people” ( v. 6 ).
There were at first no settled pastors of churches. Congregations led by lay elders were expected to carry on lay evangelism with the occasional aid of the ministers. Today local pastors are still expected to hold evangelistic meetings from time to time.
Among the first generation of SDA evangelists may be listed Joseph Bates, James White, George W. Holt, and Samuel W. Rhodes.
As the membership of the church grew, public evangelism continued to be an important part of the soul-winning program of the church. Ellen White encouraged these efforts by her periodical articles, special testimonies, personal counsels, and addresses over the years, many of which have been collected and published as a book entitled Evangelism.
At the present time public evangelism is conducted by full-time itinerant evangelists, who move from place to place within a conference or union; by district pastors, who hold meetings within their districts; and by lay evangelists.
As times changed, methods also changed, and evangelism has come to include radio and television programs, correspondence lessons, and other methods, such as health evangelism programs, Revelation and Prophecy seminars, and Sequence Evangelism seminars.
International programs such as those produced by the Voice of Prophecy, Faith for Today, Breath of Life, and It Is Written are a focal point for evangelism. The Adventist Media Center sponsors the Adventist Evangelistic Association, directed by C. Lloyd Wyman, which coordinates the public evangelism emphasis of the various media programs, with evangelists conducting meetings throughout North America. It Is Written builds its program around the purchase of time on television stations, with local follow-up through personal visiting and public meetings.
Since 1972 a yearly coordinated evangelistic thrust has been adopted in many of the world divisions. These have been designated as MISSION ’72, ’73, ’74, ’75, Thousand Days of Reaping, Harvest 90, and Global Mission. MISSION ’75 inaugurated an integrated health evangelism approach known as the Century 21 Better Living Institute. Later another health evangelism program known as Your Health and Your Future was developed by Life and Health magazine and the General Conference Ministerial Association. Every-member involvement in evangelism especially characterizes these approaches. See also Evangelistic Centers ; Lay Evangelism ; Minister ; Communication, Department of ; Remnant Church .