Macoya, Trinidad…[Libna Stevens/IAD Staff]
Thousands gathered for a five-day Festival of the Laity event to honor and strengthen the Adventist work carried out by lay preachers in the Caribbean Union. The Festival took place among thousands of delegates, church leaders and church members throughout the territory, which packed the 5,000-seater Center of Excellence in Macoya, Trinidad, from March 22-26.
With the theme “Hand in Hand, Heart to Heart, Heralding the Coming of the Lord,” church leaders from the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America, as well as local church leaders, welcomed hundreds of lay preachers, lay Bible instructors, and lay witnesses representing the eight regions comprising the Caribbean territory. The event began Tuesday evening, March 22. Trinidad Prime Minister Patrick Manning was present at the opening ceremony.
Pastor Israel Leito, president for the church in Inter-America, spoke to the delegation and encouraged them to continue in laboring for the Gospel in unity and under the direction of the Holy Spirit as they spread the gospel.
“This is a spiritual matter, and you must graduate from the school of spirituality,” stressed Pastor Leito to the assembly. “It is not possible to serve the Lord as we should, unless we understand the principles of His Kingdom. It is not possible to get the desired results unless we allow the Lord to create the proper environment for His leading.”
“Spiritual environment is paramount in the work of soul-winning,” Pastor Leito continued. “Soul winning is not a cricket meet, it is not a mathematical equation, it is not a scientific experimentation, nor an entertainment endeavor. It is a highly spiritual endeavor where the Holy Spirit is paramount. You must meet the challenge to receive the Spirit of unity, be convinced of the work and not separate from the Master…Hand to Hand, Heart to Heart, Heralding our eternal faith.”
According to Pastor Carlyle Bayne, Personal Ministries and Sabbath School director for the church in Inter-America, the festival was an outstanding success with very high level of enthusiasm and commitment.
This was the first Festival of the Laity held in the Caribbean Union. Pastor Bayne says the event brought much excitement from the 800 lay delegates representing thousands of volunteer lay members.
“The festival gives the opportunity for laity to report on the soul-winning during a four-year period in their territory through a range of missionary activities for the community, acknowledge outstanding lay preachers and allow for further training in preaching and witnessing techniques,” he adds.
Lay delegates were able to report on the progress of the church in their communities. They also attended seminars on advanced lay preaching, how to improve their vast experience, how to bring thousands of baptisms, how to preach better, how to improve personal finances, and more.
Pastor Leito says that the lay people and pastors in the Caribbean have accepted the challenge to bring this dynamic union to over 200,000 members before the end of 2006. With the fast growing membership in the Caribbean islands there, he says that “the union is exploring the possibility to further facilitate the ministry of the church by creating a new field in addition to the eight church field offices comprising the region.”
“This is an urgent need in order to give better attention to the growing and complex membership of the region,” he adds.
A highlight of the event included a special award ceremony for Pastor Sergio Moctezuma, who for more than 26 years trained and strengthened the laity in Inter-America for outstanding growth.
Even though Inter-America has over 2.5 million church members which is due in part by work of the lay preachers and Bible instructors, Pastor Bayne says it isn’t about numbers or figures.
“Although we love our goals, and goals are good for constructing criticism, it’s not numbers, but reaching everybody,” says Pastor Bayne. “God’s spirit is at work all around the Division. There’s so much talk about finishing the work…our work is to have people hear the truth and this momentum is changing…to another level and that was the emphasis of the Festival of the Laity.”
For years the Inter-American Division held these festivals for several union territories at once. However, church leaders moved away from this kind of grouping in order to give local unions the opportunity to get together and facilitate their own program and allow more participation from the laity at a local level, explains Pastor Bayne.
There are more than 12,000 Seventh-day Adventist lay preachers and lay Bible instructors among the Caribbean Union territory’s 188,000 church members who worship in 541 churches and congregations.
