The Southeastern Caraga Mission (SCM) Communication Department mobilized 474 official delegates as Adventist Digital Missionaries (ADMs) through a series of five training waves conducted from March 7 to May 2, 2026, across strategic venues in the SCM territory, equipping church and district communication and media coordinators with page administration skills in media management, Adventist journalism, church news writing, documentation, and digital evangelism to establish a more unified, credible, professional, and mission-focused online presence across the Mission. Led by Pr. Jesreel D. Mercader, SCM Communication/Education Department Director, together with Sir Ian Alfer T. Ba-al and Ma’am Geraldine R. Ba-al, the initiative brought together representatives from the Mission’s eight clusters. Guest speakers included Sir Rhoen Shane Catolico, PARL/Communication Director of the Southeastern Philippine Union Mission, and Ma’am Marchie L. Mercader, SCM Women/Family/Adventist Possibility Ministries Departments Director. The five-wave training began on March 7 for Clusters 1 and 2 at Bayugan Adventist Learning Center (BALC); continued on March 14 for Clusters 3 and 4 at Lapinigan Friend Foundation; gathered Cluster 5 on April 4 at Trento Gymnasium; brought together Clusters 6 and 7 on April 11 at Anibongan Church in Surigao del Sur; and concluded with Cluster 8 on May 2 at Buenavista Seventh-day Adventist Church in Tandag.
The initiative was prompted by the growing need for a standardized and authentic Adventist digital presence across SCM’s churches and districts. It sought to align church pages under a standard management system, establish clear and officially recognized page names, strengthen Adventist branding, safeguard the credibility of official pages, and equip delegates with proper knowledge of content posting, tone, and digital conduct. The practical sessions challenged delegates to look at social media differently not simply as a bulletin board for church announcements, but as a mission field without walls.
Every screen becomes a possible point of contact, every story an opportunity to witness, and every digital conversation a chance to reach someone who may never walk through the doors of a church. To turn that vision into practice, participants were trained in Adventist Branding and Church Documentation, SCM Media Structure, and Basic Church News Writing and Reporting, followed by hands-on activities where they applied what they learned to their respective church pages.
Each cluster also held elections to formally organize its media team. The training culminated in a commitment from the delegates to serve as Adventist Digital Missionaries. Yet the five-wave training was never intended to be an end in itself. Rather, it forms part of a larger and continuing effort by SCM to strengthen its media ministry and prepare its churches for a broader digital evangelism movement. The 474 ADMs are being equipped not only to manage church pages, but to become part of a growing network of communicators who can help carry the Mission’s evangelistic initiatives into the digital space. Among the major endeavors that this growing digital workforce is being prepared to support is Discover Your Way with God (DYWG) a larger evangelistic initiative that calls for stronger coordination, wider digital reach, compelling storytelling, timely documentation, and intentional online engagement. In this sense, the ADM training serves as a foundation for what comes next. The skills learned in news writing, documentation, branding, page management, and digital evangelism are expected to become practical tools as SCM continues to mobilize its churches and communication teams for major mission initiatives.
Four hundred seventy-four people now carry the responsibility of telling better stories of what God is doing in their churches across screens, feeds, timelines, and digital communities preparing the way for a more coordinated media ministry in SCM and creating digital pathways for the Gospel to reach people beyond the traditional boundaries of the church.
As SCM moves toward DYWG and other upcoming mission initiatives, these Adventist Digital Missionaries stand ready to serve not merely as page administrators, but as digital missionaries entrusted with a greater purpose: to use every digital space to tell the story of God’s work, connect people with His message, and ultimately point them to Christ. The training may have concluded, but the digital mission continues.
