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Want This City offers an unflinching look at the correlation between mission offerings and what happens on the front lines of mission. In 1930, Adventists gave $6.45 to the mission offering for every $10 they returned in tithe. By 2008, that number had dropped to 36 cents for every $10 given in tithe.*
Data on worldwide Adventist giving from the GC treasurer’s report at the 2015 General Conference Session.
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In response to this steady decline, the Adventist Church produced I Want This City, a 13-part television series unlike any you’ve ever seen. The reality-style show follows Adventist missionary Pastor Doug Venn for nine months in Thailand’s capital, Bangkok, one of the most unreached cities in the world. “This TV show will make people upset,” says Pastor Doug, who
now oversees mission outreach to the world’s cities as the director of Global Mission’s Urban Center for the Adventist world church. “Some people have expressed concerns about the TV show, asking, ‘Is this really the face of foreign mission that we want to show church members?’ “I tell them, ‘Yes, it is.’ The World Mission Fund offering, the mission offering collected during Sabbath School, has plummeted.” Recently, Pastor Doug was interviewed by Adventist Review in his office at the Adventist world church’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, to discuss the television series and his passion for mission. He wept as he spoke about his longing to share Jesus in the world’s cities and his desire for members to contribute more for mission offerings. Below are several excerpts from that interview.
