April 22, 2008, Miami, Florida, United states…[Libna Stevens/IAD]
Maintaining good Adventist leadership throughout the church in Inter-America is a priority in which top church leaders have invested time and resources for the last two years. Much of the effort goes into training sessions designed to reinforce and strengthen leadership responsibilities in newly elected church administrators.
One such session was held Apr 15-16, at Inter-American Division (IAD) headquarters in Miami, Florida, where 35 new administrators gathered to review leadership practices and their effect on the church.
“The church has grown so much over the years that the General Conference felt that in order to keep up with the vast influx of members, we need competent leaders,” said Pastor Jansen Trotman, field secretary and leadership coordinator for the church in Inter-America. “Because church leaders are elected throughout our territory and often they are not necessarily trained to do the job, the Inter-American Division has been really focusing on intense leadership training.”
For Pastor Roberto Gutierrez, who began serving as president of the church in the Northwest Mission region in Honduras seven months ago, receiving training brought more of a sense of responsibility.
“I've learned that as leaders, we must be responsible for supervising the work assigned to us,” said Gutierrez. “We can't assume that a pastor will do a job without reviewing his performance, it is necessary to supervise, not to counteract the work of the pastor, but to be responsible and supervise.”
The two-day session included seminars on the leader's role and functions, team building and leading, church governance, strategic planning, financial assessment, and more.
Although this leadership training was mainly for newly elected church administrators, training at local regional offices is expected to take place for department directors and other leaders, said Pastor Trotman, who often travels to the church regions for local leadership training sessions.
“What we know is that the leaders that come for training share with us that the seminars helped them to make a difference in their leading,” Pastor Trotman said. “If the leaders get it right, then chances are the rest of the organization will get it right as well.”
The next IAD leadership training is scheduled to take place in December of this year.
