Inter-America: Top church leadership addresses members through Facing the Issues dialogue program

November 4, 2008 – Mayaguez, Puerto Rico…[Libna Stevens/IAD]

Nearly three dozen young Adventists and laypeople expressed their concerns and questions to Inter-America’s Seventh-day Adventist Church President Israel Leito during a special webcast on Nov. 1, 2008 from Antillean Adventist University in Puerto Rico. The program, called Facing the Issues, was the first in a series of unedited, unscripted conversations between Inter-America’s top leaders and church members.

“It is a privilege for us communicate with the church,” said Pastor Leito as the program began. “It is of great importance that we hear from you, know what you’re thinking, what’s happening, to learn how the things that we think and decide upon are affecting the church, we hope that we can obtain your concerns to continue ministering for the good of the church in Inter-America.”

The 34 church members which made up the focus group, ranged in ages between 10 and 31, asked questions on issues about the structure of the church organization, gender, social and financial topics, and the mission and vision of the church.

Many of the questions dealt with youth and their place in the church.

“What strategies and methods are in place to impact and retain the young people in the church?” asked a young lady from the southern region in Puerto Rico. One young man also asked what the church could do to invest more resources just as world enterprises do in seeking and attracting young people in the church.

“The youth are the future and we have to invest there,” replied Pastor Leito. “In matters of financing, promoting, including the schools, universities and all the activities, youth ministries is the segment that receives the most resources from the church. But the church is very interested not only to finance but retain our youth because that is the church, if we lose the youth, we lose the church.”

Another question was raised about the possibilities of organized churches just for the youth.

“If I was a pastor of a church,”said Pastor Leito, “I would not separate the youth from the church, I would condition the church so that young and old can feel joy and satisfaction in the church worship.” Pastor Leito added that it would be left to the pastor of the church and its board to study the circumstance and possibility if need be.

Other questions addressed the role of women leadership in the church, music in the church, evaluation of ministers, concern for the health of the elderly of the church, and reaching out to parents with better tools to communicate with their children and teenagers.

Concerns on the church in the midst of the economic crisis of today were also raised as well as what is being done as far as the church maintaining a good image.

“The IAD has as one of its five strategies to improve the image of the church,” said Pastor Leito. “But it starts at the local level with each member and church being well represented.”

Pastor Juan O. Perla, executive secretary for the church in Inter-America, who is in charge of church image, added that the church has been working on giving special training to members on the importance of church image.

“The church is very concerned about teaching its members and leaders on church image so that we can better our image in all aspects to the local fields through seminars and training,” he said.

Another question dealt with what the church was doing to retain its members.

“The Adventist Church has the largest retention of its members than any other church,” said Pastor Leito. So much so said the Adventist leaders that the IAD has assigned the task of membership retention to one of its vice presidents. “More than 97 percent of our members [in Inter-America] stay in the church. I’m not talking about baptisms, I’m talking about members in its totality. We make up some three million members and apostasy does not even reach percent.”

One of the questions had to do with how the local church can be in tune with the division-wide church vision in order to work together to fulfill the church's mission.

Through a special study “we have determined that there are five areas where the division as an entity can contribute to help the church,” replied Pastor Leito. “But we did not only seek to learn the results of the study to refocus our strategy as a division, but we also encouraged every union, conference, and church to look at its surroundings and ask: Why are you there as a church? What are the needs of the people in the community? How can the church supply the needs of that community? So we continue to encourage congregations to study how they can benefit the people in their communities without depending solely on the top [church] leadership.”

Taping of this first Facing the Issues program is scheduled to be transmitted on Adventist Channel Esperanza TV at a later date.

The next Facing the Issues webcast will take place Jan. 24, 2009, from Costa Rica.

The dialogue session will be in Spanish and will include church members from Central American countries.

For more information on Inter-America s Facing the Issues, visit us at www.interamerica.org