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There has been a growing awareness among our members that we need to revive the original function that the Sabbath School had during the early years of our movement. It is become increasingly clear that in many churches the Sabbath School class has lost its God given potential for spiritual growth and discipleship, community building and outreach.
Our plan in the Sabbath School department is to make Sabbath School across the churches ‘user-friendly’. We want to make it a more comfortable place to bring non SDA friends and neighbours. At the moment, the department has plans to develop Sabbath School into more of a personal study experience rather than solely intellectual. We can do this by extending small group study and discussions and advancing them so these programmes are more accessible to people who aren’t in the church, as well as becoming more encouraging to those who are.
Read more about Terry
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Sabbath School Contacts
Terry Messenger
Sabbath School Director
tmessenger@secadventist.org.uk
Mavis Bramble
Sabbath School Secretary
mbramble@secadventist.org.uk
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Terry
Why did you decide to start working for the church?
After being baptised in 1980, I was working in a position that I felt God didn’t want me to remain. I had been attending East Ham Church and people had suggested working in ministry, but I couldn’t seem to get my head round that idea! However, I then attended Newbold College, and after getting married in my 2nd year, I really felt God’s call to work for Him and so started my work as a Minister in 1988. This then led me to working here at the SEC, after Conference Session 2007, I found myself working for both the Personal Ministries and Sabbath School Departments.
What is the most challenging element of your work in this department?
I enjoyed working as a Minister because I liked getting involved with people. The same goes for being in these positions in the SEC. However, it is always a challenge of this job if members don’t support your ideas, I find myself dealing with problems more than evangelism sometimes. I think the real challenge is making sure you’re disciplined enough to know when to draw the line between helping members and being drawn away from my purpose here as a leader in my departments.
What are the highlights of your time as director of this Department?
I feel that the highlight of my job has been seeing people progress and grow, through training, working in leadership positions and in finding their own styles of witnessing. I enjoy being able to get around different churches and meet new, inspiring people all the time.
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