Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic…[IAD Staff]
Responding to the growing church membership in the Dominican Republic, union officials at a recent session decided to return nearly all department directors to the union office, and add two associate ministerial secretaries to the fields throughout the union territory.
“This is a new way of responding to the needs of ministers,” says Pastor Israel Leito, president for the church in Inter-America present at the meetings. “More and more it is perceived that ministers need the attention that they deserve in order to do their ministry.”
According to Leito, the church in the Dominican Republic has made great strides in growth in the last quinquennium, or five-year period. At the close of the previous quinquennium in 2000, the Dominican territory had five local fields, 417 organized churches, 311 companies or congregations, four union institutions and a total membership of 111,455. During the current quinquennium, the country now has six local fields, 552 churches, 521 companies, eight union institutions and 200,253 church members – an 80 percent increase.
There are already 88,341 new members in the present quinquennium, compared to 45,061 in the previous one. The Dominican Union has also increased its pastoral staff by 20 percent. Leito says that the union loses an average of three percent of its members each year; however, plans are in place to reduce this number.
In addition, delegates to the January session voted several important plans to be implemented before the end of the 2005, one of which is to request the study for the Dominican Union Mission to be converted into a union conference.
The Dominican Republic, an island located between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, has one Seventh-day Adventist for every 42 inhabitants. The country has a population of 8 million.
