'Seed of Life' Church Plant in Birmingham

Sidney Almeida

Another church has been planted in Birmingham, West Midlands, and North England Conference. Joining the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the group is identified as the “Seed of Life” Seventh-Day Adventist Church. The title came with the concept of sowing the seed of the Gospel to others, in a way to influence others to find Jesus and to motivate them to sow more seeds of His Gospel.

The group is mainly composed of Brazilian and Angolan Portuguese speaking people. The reason being is because it came to our attention that some Adventist people and also some people interested in the Adventist message were going to other denominations because of a language barrier. So, in order for them not to give up on the faith their leaders started seeking for help by trying to make contact with Portuguese speaking pastors in London, but because of the distance it didn’t work out right. By mid 2009, they wrote an email to many pastors in the West Midlands asking for help. At that time, Pastor Moses Misimanga replied to their emails and opened the doors of Pendeford SDA Church for them so they were able to worship in their own language. Soon after that, Pastor Almeida was introduced to them, because he could support them in their language.

At the end of 2009 to the beginning of 2010 the group was organised under the wings of the Personal Ministry Department and the NEC Administration, and on the 13th February 2010 the group was inaugurated as a Seventh-day Adventist Church plant, called Seed of Life. They will be worshiping in the hall of the Harper Bell School every Sabbath. They have two small groups during the week - one on Friday evenings, meeting at the Pendeford Church and another small group which meet in Birmingham in a member’s home.

Although most of them speak Portuguese, the vision of the group is dual: One is to identify Portuguese-speaking people in the West Midlands and bring them to Jesus. Two, is to use those able to speak English to identify the English-speaking people in the community and share the gospel with them. Seed of Life group is an open community to reach a wider group and to motivate others to share the message.