The Irish Mission

Mission Overview & Context

The Irish Mission is a unique member unit of the BUC. Covering two legal jurisdictions (Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland) across the island of Ireland, one inside and one outside the European Union, our Adventist population brings together persons from more than forty countries while at the same time endeavouring to maintain Adventist unity through respect, relationships and a missional focus.

Across cities, towns and rural communities, Adventist congregations in the Irish Mission are often small, diverse and deeply relational, serving in contexts where Adventism is little known.

This quinquennium has been marked by significant growth in terms of church attendance, church membership, the number of congregations, tithe returned, the number of employees and missional impact. The focus of the officers has been consolidation for sustainability, not just growth management, as the Mission continues to transition towards Conference status. This work is ultimately about ensuring that the Mission has the structures and leadership capacity needed to sustainably support churches, pastors and our mission across the island.

Intentional Administrative Focus Areas

As mandated by the delegates to the Irish Mission Session in October 2021, we have continued to collaborate with the BUC & TED officers to move the Mission towards Conference status, recognising the continued growth in both numerical and geographical spread across the island of Ireland.

Due to the significant membership growth and the growth of new congregations in previously un-entered areas, one of the major considerations during the quinquennium has been how to provide effective pastoral cover to these new communities while maintaining enough agility to be able to absorb continued congregational growth in the future . . . and so the District Realignment Plan was birthed. This working document, which is subject to continual development based on emerging needs, has been part of the Mission’s wider strategy since 2022. It outlines how pastoral cover will be serviced and what changes need to be implemented and planned for over the coming years. One of the practical outcomes of this plan is that we have been able to work towards placing two senior pastors with significant pastoral experience in churches where we can bring in a cycle of new interns from Newbold College, which will commence later this year.

The District Realignment Plan, along with consistent growth in the amount of tithe returned, has also empowered us to work through the process of increasing the number of our pastors from nine to twelve, transitioning our youth sponsor from part-time to full-time, and financing the appointment of the Irish Mission’s first full-time executive secretary. These staffing increases have had a positive impact upon the mission and ministry of the congregations themselves.

As part of the Irish Mission’s commitment to intentionally recognise and facilitate unity within the membership across the two legal jurisdictions, the officers and Executive Committee committed to the establishment of a regional office in Northern Ireland. Located in the Banbridge church, it serves as the Mission’s official registered address in Northern Ireland, while the officers live and work in the Republic of Ireland, where the (soon-to-be-completed) head office is also located.

Finally, but certainly not least, the development of documents outlining the Irish Mission’s administrative purpose, mission and values, along with its circle of influence, regional focus map and the aforementioned District Realignment Plan, have helped give administrative focus to the work of the executive officers and mission sponsors.

Missional Activity and Impact

Local Outreach

A number of congregations across the Mission joined the BUC-wide Reflecting Hope initiative with Dr Jeff Brown, Associate Editor of Ministry magazine, joining us from the General Conference for Family Life seminars in the greater Dublin & Ballinacrow area. The focus of the majority of these local church-led seminars and outreach events was to connect with the communities in which those churches existed. This happened to a greater or lesser extent depending on the area.

In 2023 the Voice of Prophecy began a partnership with the Belfast congregation in 2023 which lasted until 2025. Shawn Boonstra, Alex Rodriguez, Mike Tucker and others worked together with the church on various seminars, such as ‘Mad about Marriage’ and ‘Mind Fit’. Outcomes included the setting up of a local Bible school and the re-establishment of an outreach stand at the Balmoral Show. The Voice of Prophecy also financed the broadcast of their kids’ show, Discovery Mountain Spirit Radio, in the Republic of Ireland and online in Northern Ireland.

Literature

The Discover Truth ministry continues to grow and expand, with its purpose being to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ through Adventist literature. This volunteer-led initiative has distributed thousands of copies of The Great Controversy, Steps to Christ and other books across the island, and continues to facilitate the Free Bible initiative, which saw 631 bibles requested and given to individuals in 2024 and 405 in 2025. The ministry expanded into the facilitation of health expos in 2024, with a significant number of new volunteers joining the ministry to enable these activities.

Youth Engagement

The Mission continues to support and encourage young people to engage with the TED/Newbold College initiative, ‘One Year in Mission’. Currently, one young lady from the Irish Mission has been through it, and she is now completing the final year of her MA degree in Theology, also at Newbold.

A partnership with the ShareHim ministry was also established, with the Mission committing to help young adults from at least one church per year to take part in these foreign-based evangelism programmes. So far, two congregations have been involved, with about 6-10 young people & adults taking part.

The Creative Evangelism Fund was set up to encourage and support intentionally creative missional thinking within young people across the Mission. Aimed at children, teens and young adults, this fund gives an opportunity for any young person to get their hands on varying amounts of money to fund the startup of a creative mission initiative on a one-off or ongoing basis.

Finally, we would like to acknowledge the missional impact that the Emerald Health & Education Foundation has had on the growth of the Irish Mission over the last few decades. This California-based ministry, set up to raise funds to support missionary work in Ireland, finally closed during 2024. Only eternity will reveal the impact the Emerald Foundation has had across the island of Ireland, and we would like to extent our thanks to its chair, board members and countless donors.

Indicators of Organisational and Missional Health

The increase of both legislative and regulatory responsibilities has grown significantly over the past 10 years, especially in the Republic of Ireland. This has led to an intentional focus on governance, stability and compliance, ensuring that governance is predictable, trusted and functional. Regulatory documents completed by the Executive Secretary, Risk Manager, Audit & Risk Committee, and Executive Committee help to ensure good organisational health.

Leadership sustainability is also a key indicator of organisational health. Two of the current three executive officers have both worked for significant periods of time as pastors in both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland before assuming administrative responsibilities. With the Mission moving towards Conference status, a continual emphasis on leadership sustainability is key to the long-term health of the Mission.

A significant increase in the number of baptisms of persons from the majority-population background, the establishment of Hope Media Ireland as a majority-population-focused ministry, and a growing missional awareness and focus are all indicators of growing missional health.

Finally, the widespread and long-term adoption and integration of administrative systems such as ACMS, the 7me app, OnBoard Management software and other systems over the course of the past number of years lends itself to growing system maturity.

Together, these developments have helped ensure that pastors, local leaders and congregational volunteers are better supported, less burdened by administrative complexity, and more able to focus their time and energy on pastoral care, discipleship and mission.

Looking Forward: Challenges and Lessons Learnt

Up to this point in time, congregational growth has mainly taken place on an ad hoc basis when Adventists move to a city/town with no current church congregation. A growing focus on intentional church planting will help the Mission to move from reactivity to proactivity.

Along these same lines, it has been agreed by the Executive Committee to consider an intentional church plant in the south-west of Northern Ireland, an area that had an Adventist presence previously up to the late 1990s.

One of our greatest administrative challenges experienced over the last few years has been the ability to source new pastors for the Mission as our growth has necessitated. Immigration laws and processes in the Republic of Ireland mean a lead time of anything between nine to eighteen months to hire a new pastor from outside the EU. We hope that the coming years will bring some resolution to this as we seek to bring in new interns from Newbold College.

Acknowledgements

To our current pastoral and administrative teams, we thank you. To those pastors who have left during this past quinquennium – to Pastor Dan Serb (Mission President until the end of August 2024), Pastor Lorance Johnson, Pastor Gideon Petersen and Pastor Tony O’Rourke (who retired on 31 December 2024) – we thank you for your ministry and service in season. To the lay-sponsors who give of their time and skills willingly and liberally, thank you for blessing the Mission with your God-given talents. To the pastoral spouses and families who give their support to the mission of God’s church, we acknowledge all that you do behind the scenes and sometimes in front of everyone. And to all ministry volunteers, whether local or national, we thank you for your contribution to the growth of the Kingdom of God in the territory of the Irish Mission. Finally, we give thanks and acknowledge those who have served Christ faithfully and fallen asleep in Jesus, especially Pastor Mart de Groot – one day they will meet their Saviour face to face and hear those words, ‘Well done, My good and faithful servant.’