AdvANCE Evangelism Training at the North England Conference

Peter Jeynes

Adventist Apologetics Networking Conference on Evangelism (AdvANCE), is a special youth training and evangelistic project sponsored by the North England Conference youth ministries department. What on earth do they do at AdvANCE? The Easter weekend youth event, held in Solihull, a suburb of Birmingham, promotes itself as an attempt at helping young people understand the world they live in and to equip them to respond positively to the philosophies and morals of the contemporary world. The intent of the programme presented could be seen in the response to the appeal given by chief presenter Pastor Dwight Nelson at the close of the programme. The appeal was not to accept Christ as Saviour from their sins but to go out from the meeting to do active service for God in some way or other. The response called for all to study, learn and practice the art and science of soul-winning at PEACE (Pan European Advanced Centre of Evangelism), the North England Conference’s evangelistic training programme, or to commit themselves to home or overseas mission as a volunteer worker.

An appeal was also made for young men and women who felt called, to commit themselves to serve in Pastoral roles for the church. The impact of the presence of the Holy Spirit was seen in the numbers of young people making decisions for full time service in ministry for God. The attendees had not chosen to attend a high class venue to be entertained but to share in a series of spiritual presentations that were all of a deep, thoughtful and Biblical nature. Eugene Prewitt, Bible teacher and Colporteur trainer, came with his wife Heidi to enrich the spiritual lives of the young people. Pastor Steve Conway, a college campus Pastor added to the depth of knowledge – and appeared to be preparing the audience for the thoughts and call to deeper spiritual commitment and service by Pastor Dwight Nelson. There were also home grown presentations by Adam Ramdin and Alex Douglas. Their insightful and encouraging presentations showed real depth and thought provoking analysis.

Pastor Dwight Nelson accompanied by his wife Karen, was the main presenter for the weekend. He is well known to the British audience from NET ’98 and his contributions to the Life Development outreach programmes promoted by the BUC. Speaking on familiar themes, Pastor Nelson addressed the values driving forward our secular culture and gave a strong Pastoral emphasis as he encouraged his audience to transform their prayer life in 7 easy steps.

The team that Pastor Hush, the North England Conference Youth Director, had assembled created a memorable experience for many of this countries young people. Some will be going off to service and others for further training in responce to a call to Ministry. All who attended have been equipped to better understand the world that they live in – and to search for a better world to make a home in.

Peter Jeynes- Reporting

Download an interview with Dwight Nelson at Advance (.wmv file)