Technology is expensive to create and maintain, making the need for collaboration with other parts of the world church a necessity if costs are to be kept to a minimum for the world church. Since 2022, the team at AdTec has refined their vision to support the world church, actively building a network of relationships across several Divisions with a view to collaboration, shared innovation and efficiencies.
Part of this effort requires that AdTec be present at key events and opportunities, and is able to share clear and simple marketing information that allows prospective users the opportunity to explore product features. Marketing websites for each product are below:
MD md.adtech.org.au
THRIVE thrive.adtech.org.au
Hope VA hopeva.org.au
MDLITE [email protected]
Additionally AdTec is working closely with leaders in the global tech space with an interest in being a technology leader and provider to the world church as the global mission needs continue to shift dynamically. In 2024 at the request of the World Church, AdTec gifted the domain adventist.cloud to the world church to use it to host global platforms to be used around the world.
In August the MD team at Adtech completed the training of the MD Helpdesk, a chatbot that answers questions related to using the portal, along with basic theological questions as well. The Helpdesk is available with a single click from within the portal, and will serve to provide clear and simple 'How to' and 'Why' responses for any user of the MD Portal, including lay leaders. The MD Helpdesk took time to train largely due to the fact that the MD Portal had to first be extensively documented, and a large number of articles sourced, compiled and checked for accuracy before the bot could be trained.
From time to time there will be questions stump the MD Helpdesk, which is all par for the course. If you come across any curly questions that stump the bot, please do let us know at [email protected].
The MD team is exploring the use of AI to summarise the large amounts of data now present in the MD Portal to improve insights for pastors and chaplains, as well as for administrators at every level of the church. Imagine being as you create your Ministry Map, being prompted with poignant considerations as you shape ministry plans with your team. Or when you create a Competency Review, having AI suggest possible resources to develop your strengths, questions to consider, or trends in your development over time.
For administrators, we believe that the use of AI could significantly enhance the potential for great conversations, providing insights both across the team and across time - guiding team training events, helping with coaching comments, and honing in on specific resources to develop the individual.
MDLite is a mobile app version of the MD Portal, which is similar in almost every way, with the exception that it has simplified Ministry reports in place of Ministry Maps, In 2024 MDLite was successfully launched in Laos, where pastors are exploring the benefits of simpler online Ministry Reports, and access to resources and documents - a first for the pastors in Laos. It is hoped that the Laos pilot will assist with valuable information to continue to shape MDLite for the Asian context, with a view to the church in SSD benefiting from the time, effort and cost savings the app brings both to the field and to Administration.
In 2024 under the leadership of Pr Victor Kulakov, Ministerial Secretary at the New Zealand and Pacific Union (NZPUC), the MD Portal was expanded to the Cook Islands, French Polynesia, bringing a new emphasis on ministry leadership and development, and granting unprecedented access to resources for the pastors in these territories.
The Portal is also being translated into French to allow pastors in French-speaking territories to use MD in their own language from mid 2025. The translation project is a joint partnership between AdTec and the NZPUC, and will open doors for other French-speaking nations to also engage with MD.
Following the success of the pilot in North New South Wales, the South Queensland Conference will roll out Thrive in 2025. As one of largest Conferences, South Queensland hosts large Summer Camps, Big Camp, and over Easter 2025 will host a large Pathfinder Camporee at Samford, North West of Brisbane. The move to Thrive will put an end to relying on email alone to send contacts through to the churches for followup. Instead, now the Youth Department will simply upload their decisions list to Thrive and assign each name to the relevant church for followup. Thrive will handle all consent processed, screen Bible Mentors, and ensure that church members are reminded to followup their contacts in a timely manner.
As Thrive is integrated with other tools (event software, membership Database etc) these process will be further automated, cutting effort and costs required to see that our young people are nurtured on their Journey with Jesus. In time and as more Conferences engage with Thrive, Union and Division wide contact-generators (like Faith FM, Websites, Hope VA etc) will also feed their contacts directly into Thrive for local church followup.
In a desire to manage spiritual journeys with greater care, North New South Wales Conference in February became the first Conference to soft launch the new Thrive app.. Working with its pastors, chaplains and Bible workers, President Cristian Copaceanu and his team have been working with Adventist Technology to embed Thrive, establishing a new level of diligence when it comes to contact follow up.
The Thrive app is designed to scaffold the discipleship journey, solving a number of historical challenges that the church has faced in seeking to nurture every person who desires to grow in their relationship with Jesus, toward baptism and beyond.
Starting with contacts coming through from Summer camps over the year end, the NNSW Conference Youth Department was able to import all decisions for Bible study directly into Thrive, instantly assigning them to the correct Pastors and their churches for followup. A similar process is in place with the Arise Bible school, and in time, it is envisaged that this opportunity will be available to all entities, churches, schools, camps and Big Camps where decisions are made for Christ - around the Conferences, Union and Division.
In cases where contacts were also attending Adventist schools, Thrive facilitates the sharing of contacts, enabling Pastors and Chaplains to combine their efforts to work together seamlessly.
Further supporting the discipleship journey, Thrive also reminds leaders and church members responsible for follow up to continue with regular contact with each person at regular intervals, escalating a contact if no activity is logged within a reasonable timeframe.
In the words of Pr Matt Atcheson of Adventist Technology, who is also the technical lead on Thrive, “We hope that in time, Pastors, Conferences, Unions and the Division will be able to see the discipleship movement at each level of the church in real time, leading to better planning, resourcing and decisions.”
At the GAiN Conference in Thailand in 2024, AdTec staff met with the team from the South East Asian Division to explore how Hope VA could help them take the gospel deeper into unreached people groups and territories. Following further discussions in subsequent months, Hope VA will be rolled out in SSD from 2025, beginning with an English version on WhatsApp and Messenger in the Philippines, Malaysia and Singapore.
Translation into Tagalog and Bahasa will also commence, in order that people living in the Philippines and Indonesia (two of the largest WhatsApp users in the world) will have access to Hope VA in their own language.
To keep costs to a minimum and mission at its best, all learnings, content and IP for Hope VA is shared freely with new countries, including social media advertising samples, landing pages, technology and lessons. We are excited to see what difference Hope VA will make when as she is released onto social media platforms in these countries in 2025.
The Northern Conference, part of the Southern-Indian African Division (SID) is based in Johannesburg South Africa recently explored the potential of the Ministry Development Portal to help their pastors better lead, develop and resource their leadership from internship to Retirement. Training sessions took place at the Northern Conference Minister's meetings in Sedaven in October, with continuing training and support being provided as the team transitions from activity-based reporting to leadership-style Ministry Mapping tools designed to help pastors more fully engage their local church leaders. "This is just what we have been looking for!" said Pr Reece Anderson when he discovered the MD Portal. It is hoped that other Conferences in SID will benefit from the pilot in Northern Conference.
In 2024 AdTec and Adventist Media teamed up to take Hope VA to the next level within the South Pacific Division. When early testing showed the potential for Hope VA to reach thousands online in ways that post or web-based Bible studies were unable to do, it made sense for Hope VA to become Adventist Media's new digital Bible school. This new collaboration leverages the media skills of AM with the technical skills of AdTec. At the Mission and Union levels, Pr Wayne Boehm has been working with Bible school staff across Papua New Guinea to realign processes, structures and ministry positions to maximise online reach through Hope VA. Together AdTec and AM have also been streamlining the flow of data from advertising to landing page to Hope VA so that realtime data can be used to improve social media advertising and drive missional decision-making. Similar efforts are planned for the Missions of the TPUM.
