Inter-America: On Course To Reach 3 Million Members

Miami, Florida…[Libna Stevens/IAD]

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America added 160,280 new members as of June 30, 2006, as reported by top church leaders during its Year-End Executive Committee meetings, which ended Oct. 24, in Acapulco, Mexico.

The total church membership in Inter-America’s territory now stands at 2.84 million, according to Pastor Juan Perla, executive secretary for the church in Inter-America. Pastor Perla says this phenomenal growth was made possible through the tireless efforts of pastors, laity and church members working together to fulfill the mission of the church.

One of the fastest areas of growth has been the Mid-Central American Union, which covers the countries of Honduras and El Salvador. In that region alone nearly 42,000 new church members were added during the second quarter of 2006, bringing its membership to nearly 324,000, surpassing Haiti, which for years has had the largest membership in Inter-America.

“It is the largest territory we have now,” said Pastor Israel Leito, president for the church in Inter-America, of the Mid-Central American Union.

“The Lord is blessing the work of His church throughout Inter-America,” said Pastor Leito. He congratulated each top leader as they reported the growth of the church in their region.

Pastor Leito added that he is confident that by next spring, Inter-America will reach the three-million mark.

“It’s doable,” he said. “We need some 160,000 new members to reach three million and there are six more months to be accounted for before the spring. I’m fully confident that we will, and if we don’t it’s ok.”

A special commemorative celebration is already being planned for March 2007 in the Dominican Republic, as current projections indicate the three-million mark should be reached by then. The event will include a baptismal celebration in the Dominican Republic and other designated sites throughout the territory, which will be broadcast via satellite.

Pastor Leito says coordinating several baptismal celebrations in different locations in Inter-America on one single Sabbath will take some planning, which got underway during the year-end meetings. Delegates to the year-end meetings voted on the theme for the event called “Pentecost and More” as well as some logistics for the celebration.

Church leaders also voted plans and programs to consolidate and serve the vast church territory of the division. Among other items voted by church leaders during the year-end meetings included:

The IAD Youth Ministries department will begin implementing a youth evangelist exchange program during 2007. Each union territory will select its best youth evangelist to conduct an evangelistic campaign in another union territory of the division. All 15 church regions of the IAD will participate in this evangelism program. For more information visit the youth ministries section at www.interamerica.org.

The executive committee voted to accept the official guidelines presented on the construction and content of church-related internet web sites. The guidelines state that the Adventist Church logo may appear only on web sites administered by official Adventist churches and organizations, and that the church’s “beliefs and teachings must be upheld in the content published on the Web sites.”

Pastor Leon Wellington, communication director for the church in Inter-America, said that these guidelines are important to govern our Adventist presence on the internet. “It is of extreme importance that anyone who intends to prepare and present anything to the public on the internet in the name of the Church, obligate oneself to stand by these guidelines,” he explained. “This will help to keep our message to the public consistent, clear, and of the highest ethical, moral and spiritual standard as well as doctrinally true.”

The complete set of guidelines can be found at www.interamerica.org/communication/

The Inter-American Division will be conducting a massive study on the status of its 47 mission fields, seven union missions, and six experimental fields which are scheduled to seek change of status to a higher organizational status. “Survey commissions are appointed to evaluate the readiness of organizations not having conference or mission status to be upgraded to conferences and missions.” Request for change of status from organizations seeking to upgrade will need to be submitted to the IAD Headquarter office by the end of February 2007.

As part of the core concepts of the Trust Services department in the receiving donations towards the fulfillment of the mission of the church and in order to make a significant dent in educating non-Adventist clergy and church leadership to the doctrinal positions of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a vote was taken to acquire 3 million copies of “Fundamental Doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church” for distribution. The Ministerial Association will make these books available for distribution to non-Adventist clergy and church leadership within the IAD territory.

“His Hands”, a project by the Adventist Volunteer Center, is a lay initiative that outlines one way to ‘Tell the World’, particularly where there is little or no Adventist presence. The project was presented by Vernon Parmenter, director of Adventist Volunteer Center. Parmenter explained to IAD committee members that it calls for lay people in local congregations to sponsor and send missionaries around the world, in addition to hosting them at home (ANN).

Pastor Juan Perla said that some institutions in the Inter-America have already enrolled in this project. However, it has not been running at the local church level yet. The IAD Secretariat office will be handling this program. For more information contact Faye Reid at 305.403.4700.

Next year’s first IAD Executive Committee meetings are scheduled to take place May 8-11, 2007, on the campus of Montemorelos University, in Montemorelos, Mexico.