Immigrants and refuess in our communities are people whom God has brought so that we may share the gospel and invite them to partner in God's mission to the world.
In the book of Acts, Luke writes about the growth of the mission of the Jesus movement, later called Christian in Antioch (Acts 11:26). Tucked into the passionate narratives of God’s miraculous growth of the early church are a handful of missionary texts that are often missed when telling the story of the church’s expansion. Acts 11:19–30 describes persecution in Jerusalem following the stoning of Stephen. The followers of Jesus were scattered from Jerusalem to many places, with some going as far as Phoenicia (Tyre, Sidon and the coastline of modern Lebanon and southern Syria), the island of Cyprus, and Antioch of Syria, the third largest city in the Roman Empire after Rome and Alexandria.
What Luke records is that the followers of Jesus, during their flight, preached the word to Jews only at first. But there was a group of men who preached to the Hellenists of Antioch and began to win a following among the idol-worshiping society of the city. God’s hand was upon these efforts. It was the refugees fleeing persecution who took the gospel to the Hellenists, doing intercultural mission in a major urban center. In the providence of God, forced displacement became the means by which the gospel moved from Jerusalem to new places, new peoples and new cultures. This was in addition to the many diasporic migrants living in Jerusalem on the day of Pentecost who took seeds of faith back to their communities when they heard Peter preach.
Acts 11:19–30 demonstrates that God’s providence is at work in the scattering and migration of peoples. Providentially, He brings or sends people through events that cause migration and displacement and places them in proximity to the gospel. In the world today, as of June 2025, there were 123.2 million forcibly displaced persons.¹ This is only one subsection of the broader umbrella of immigration which includes international study, missionary work, diplomatic travel, economic and environmental movement, and human trafficking. Those counted as forcibly displaced include refugees, asylum seekers, internally displaced persons, and stateless people. In the United States, those fleeing persecution, war or violence may receive asylum, Temporary Protected Status or humanitarian parole if not entering as refugees through the well-vetted U.S. Refugee Admissions Program (USRAP).
Jesus predicted that conflicts and natural disasters would increase (Matthew 24:6–7), and so the growth of migration — forced or voluntary — will continue until His second coming. Humanity, created as image-bearers of the Creator God, is caught between national conflicts, greed and the great controversy. People are often dehumanized by societies and nations even though the causes of their migration are not of their own doing. Commonly it is the foreign policy of major nation-states, climate-related disasters or tensions within developing nations that precipitate mass migrations.
It is in this space that Seventh-day Adventists are called to care for the vulnerable — the poor, orphan, foreigner/immigrant and widow/er (Leviticus 19:33–34; Matthew 25:33–40; James 1:27). Built into the Sabbath commandment is a reminder to God’s people to have empathy and care for the stranger/immigrant who abides within their gates (Exodus 20:8–11). In the agrarian society in which this was written, this included the home, property and communities where foreigners resided among worshippers of Yahweh. Israel was to treat foreigners well because they themselves were once foreigners in Egypt. God declares that His covenant love binds the foreigner close to His heart (Deuteronomy 10:17–20) and provides the ethical basis for just treatment of others. The prophets add that one of the reasons for judgment upon Israel and Judah was their mistreatment of the foreigner, widow and orphan. They broke their covenant responsibility to care for the vulnerable (Jeremiah 7:6; 22:3; Zechariah 7:9–11; Malachi 3:5).
Seventh-day Adventists have a rich history with immigrants in our 181 years as a movement. Immigrants in America helped the fledgling Advent movement become aware of its missional responsibility. French, German and Norwegian immigrants were the first to be reached in the 1850s.³ Uriah Smith declared as late as 1872 that the movement had no responsibility to the globe and should focus only on immigrants coming to America. This changed through Ellen White’s urging because her visions repeatedly saw the Advent message going to all the world.
Immigrant converts — many displaced because of famine, war and persecution — received the Advent message and sent Adventist papers to friends and family in their home countries. These overseas converts in Europe pressed the call to send J.N. Andrews as the first official Adventist missionary. This pattern continued for decades: publications sent from America to kin overseas opened mission fields. Adventist Mission is rooted in the immigrant experiences of our church in North America.⁴
Today, this is still the case. Just about a decade ago, the Adventist Church was named one of the fastest-growing denominations in North America because of growth among immigrant populations.⁵ As conflicts intensify around the globe and missionary access becomes limited, God is bringing the nations into North America and into the Lake Union so they may hear the gospel and become missionaries to their own kin and countries. Ellen White wrote about this for 40 years.i To emphasize this call, the General Conference 2025–2030 Strategic Plan encourages mission engagement through outreach to displaced persons.⁷ This is only the second time a strategic plan has placed displaced persons (immigrants) as a global missional focus.
Given this inclusion in missional priority, a 2022 World Relief poll showed that only 20% of Evangelical Christians in America say the Bible informs their views on immigration.⁸ This indicates that for most Christians, the Bible is not the primary source informing their views. Any rhetoric that dehumanizes immigrant and refugee communities and seeks their removal undermines God’s providential purposes, summarized in Ellen White’s vision of God bringing them to our communities so they may be reached, equipped and mobilized to preach the Three Angels’ Messages.ii
This lack of biblical grounding becomes more troubling when 80% of undocumented immigrants and those on humanitarian parole or Temporary Protected Status are Christian. Deportation orders will impact 1 in 12 Christians in the United States, including 1 in 18 evangelicals and 1 in 5 Catholics.⁹ Many who are at risk of deportation have been or are likely to be forcibly repatriated into conflict zones or places where they will be persecuted for their faith. If money motivates concern for church sustainability, then the loss of tithe income from these members should also be a warning, since immigrant Adventists generally return tithe and offering at higher rates than the average American Adventist.
Immigrants and refugees in our communities are people whom God has brought so that we may share the gospel and invite them to partner in God’s mission to the world. As the body of Christ, we have an ethical responsibility because the love of God compels us to care for, serve and protect our immigrant communities for the accomplishment of God’s desire to reach the world with the gospel.
Acts 11 is unfolding all around the globe today. Migration occurs for many reasons, and we are challenged to have eyes anointed with eye salve (Revelation 3:18) to see as God sees or risk hardening our hearts like Israel of old and incur God’s judgment in the final separation scene (Matthew 25:31–46).
There are practical ways to respond with compassion. One is raising awareness of needs in our churches and communities. This can be done by holding a World Refugee Sabbath event on the third Sabbath of June, preceding or following World Refugee Day. In 2001, the United Nations voted this observance in recognition of the 50th anniversary of the 1951 Refugee Convention and its 1967 Protocol, affirming the protection of those fleeing persecution.¹⁰ ¹¹ World Refugee Sabbath allows congregations to listen to stories, build awareness and celebrate the miracles of God’s care for immigrant neighbors.
Another response is to locate immigrant and diasporic communities near you and include them in prayer, community service and evangelism ministry so they may be reached with the Three Angels’ Messages. More ways to engage can be explored with your conference’s multilingual ministries director.
May we each take time to reflect, listen, study and take steps toward serving and reaching our refugee and immigrant communities. This is God’s providence and work — done by His own hand even now in the 21st century.
Footnotes
United Nations. 2025. Global Trends Report 2025.
Biblical Research Institute Ethics Committee. 2021. The Love of God Compels Us.
Wells, William. 2020. “Foreigners in America.”
Wells, William. 2023. “Adventist Refugee Ministry in North America.”
Macdonald 2011; Bacon 2013; Rowe 2007.
General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists. I Will Go: 2025–2030.
Davis, Hunter. 2023. A Biblical Perspective on Immigration.
Kim Walter et al. 2025. One Part of the Body.
Blackmer, Hulbert and Cozzi. 2020. World Refugee Sabbath.
United Nations. 2025. World Refugee Day.
United Nations. 2025. Treaty Series, vol. 606.
i White, Ellen G. 1914. The Foreigners in America. “The Review and Herald,” 29 October.
ii Ibid.
William Wells is a doctor of Intercultural Studies candidate at Andrews University. He volunteers with the Refugee Highway Partnership of North America where he facilitates networking among refugee serving organizations. He is married to Rahel Wells, Ph.D, and loves to adventure together with her.
