The proverbial gap of disconnection between some Seventh-day Adventist media ministries and local churches has become substantially smaller across Germany, thanks to a revamped system developed by Hope Media Europe. A new system of local church members as mentors is reviving their congregations and helping them connect with neighbors who regularly watch HopeTV and have requested Bible studies.
On November 15 during the 2025 Global Adventist Internet Network (GAiN) Europe convention in Pravets, Bulgaria, Ivana Kostadinović-Gigić, director of Hope courses for Hope Media Europe, shared what they are accomplishing as her team tries to follow Christ’s method of connecting with people.
Where People Are
At the beginning of her presentation, Kostadinović-Gigić posed what she called “a simple question,” namely, where are the people who long to know God? “Did you ever wonder ‘Where do I find the people that actually need my content?’ ” she asked. “ ‘[The people] who need my podcasts, my YouTube videos, my thoughts on [a specific topic]? Who are these people? Where are they?’ ”
Kostadinović-Gigić said it is a common question those communicators working in media ask themselves: “What happens with the people who are watching my show?” presenters regularly ask. They want to know who these people are, she explained.
Further enquiries have shown that there are people visiting Adventist platforms—including TV shows, podcasts, and Bible courses—every day, she explained. Kostadinović-Gigić shared that since she had arrived in Bulgaria 72 hours before, there were 18 new people who had registered to receive Hope Media Europe Bible courses, even without any kind of special advertising. “Eighteen people who are actually willing to know God [better], or to go deeper,” she said. These are “people who were touched by what we did on HopeTV.” It is such a positive feeling to know that what you are doing is moving people, she said.
How to Start Closing the Gap
Kostadinović-Gigić explained, however, that while this level of activity seems ordinary now, “it wasn’t always like this.” She explained how three years ago communicators serving at Hope Media Europe realized they had some challenges, “and the biggest of them all was the gap between media and local ministries.” She added, “It’s a real problem in our churches, and it’s a real question, a real challenge, that we try to somehow understand to find a way [around it].”
According to Kostadinović-Gigić, when the people behind the initiative began to talk about it, they found out that there were many possibilities: AI, chat boxes, new platforms, and new ways of connecting with people. “The number of options is overwhelming,” she said. “But what is the right option . . . the way we need to go?”
In Search of Christ’s Method
Instead of answering the technological questions right away, Kostadinović-Gigić shared, they decided to seek how to better follow Christ’s method of connecting with people and earning their trust. The group of leaders was especially touched by Adventist Church cofounder Ellen G. White’s assertion that Jesus “desired [people’s] good.”[i]
It was the reason, Kostadinović-Gigić said, that the group understood they were not only there to increase the amount of information and to make it more available to potential interests. “We don’t want them to study the Bible on their own and then just stay somewhere where we wonder where they are,” she explained. “We wanted, and decided, to use technology to get nearer to people, to go into their neighborhoods.”
During the next few minutes Kostadinović-Gigić showed a short video that explained how Hope Media Europe is accomplishing exactly that.
From Contact to a Local Connection
In the video, a narrator explained that for some interests who follow Bible courses online, the way into a local church “can seem distant, or intimidating.” For a long time, the narrator acknowledged, Bible courses follow-up was done from a distance. “Something was missing: a local person who could communicate with people from the start.”
The video explained how today the system of support has been decentralized. Across Germany local Bible mentors are being trained and supported by Hope Media, the narrator reported. Participants are automatically connected with a nearby Bible study mentor through an online blackboard. “These mentors walk alongside participants until joining a small group or a local church becomes a natural next step.”
The video narrator also explained that wherever mentors are located, Hope Media launches targeted social media campaigns, “with proven results.” He added, “Together we are building bridges between media ministries and local churches for people who love to know God.”
Focus on the Local
Kostadinović-Gigić explained that in order to reach this point, Hope Media changed its platform, adapting it to help people to connect with local mentors. She explained that if there is someone who wants to study the Bible because they watched HopeTV, for example, the person can go online and provide their zip code. “Then we provide everything that the local mentor or local church members need so they can be ready to mentor these people,” she shared.
The new model, Kostadinović-Gigić explained, contemplates the use of local lay church members that Hope Media trains and supports on an ongoing basis. “We want them to have local connections in the zip code where they live, so they move from their own study to the local community,” she said.
A Tested Method
Kostadinović-Gigić explained that the Hope Media team has already tested it, “and it works.” She explained that as they introduced the initiative across local churches, many members got enthusiastic about it, and as a side effect, Adventist congregations were revived. “They see it differently, because now it’s not a project of the media center or HopeTV—it’s their own.” She added, “They now know that there are people in their neighborhood who want to connect with them immediately.”
According to Kostadinović-Gigić, the offer of local mentors allows people studying the Bible “not to open up to me, 600 or 700 kilometers [300 or 400 miles] away, but to someone who may be around the corner. And when it comes to the point that they want to go to a small group or a local church, it’s so much easier when that [mentor] is there.”
In closing, Kostadinović-Gigić said she was happy to report that in Germany, Hope Media has found many ways to “close the gap” between media ministry and the local ministry. “Now we are willing to show you what we are doing, because we are not handing over all the work to local members—it’s a collaboration. And I think it’s the way to true success.” Remember, she added, that “technology is a tool, but love, presence, and compassion—this is Christ’s method, and it cannot be replaced.”
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[i] Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1905), p. 143.
