April 11, 2009 – Merida, Yucatan, Mexico…[Raul Lozano/IAD Staff]
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in South Mexico recently divided another one of its local church regions in two. The Tabasco Conference split into the Central Tabasco Conference and the East Tabasco Mission. This new addition to the church region has come as a result of a fast growth in membership. Local church leaders attribute the growth to planning and nurturing the region for nearly ten years.
Even though the South Mexican Union split into two unions in November 2001 with a remaining membership of 232,901, membership grew to 279,940 by 2008. This growth has had an impact in the number of churches and groups across the region. In 2001, there were 2,638 churches. By the end of 2008 there were 3,299.
This growth has forced union church leaders to hire more ministers. According to church leaders, an average of 20 new districts are organized every year. About 16 ministers are hired fresh out of seminary each year and are required to shepherd an average of 1,186 members. Tithe has also increased by 290 percent from 2007 to 2008, and offering by 305 percent over the same period.
“It took ten years to get to this point,” says Pastor David Javier, president of the church in South Mexico. “It all can be attributed to a strategy of five points.”
After months of SWOT (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) analysis
engaging leaders of all local churches and their pastors, a plan was developed and applied in the entire territory, according to Pastor Javier.
“First, union and conference leaders stimulate pastors to exercise a complete ministry as a means toward unified growth, ensuring the church has a development plan in all areas and within all age groups,” he explains. “Secondly, union leaders emphasize specific evangelistic methods such as small groups, entering new areas, lay people recruitment, house-to-house visitations, evangelistic campaigns in homes and churches and community services and the like.”
Thirdly, Pastor Javier explains that church leaders also train pastors, laypersons, youth leaders, teachers, and financial administrators. Fourthly, leaders from all church regions aim to keep their financial indexes at their best. In fifth place, conference leaders organize the region into zones where one officer of the conference will leads five pastors. In this way, the goals and work of pastors is closely supported.
“The most important step for us in reaching this present state of things has been evaluating,” says Pastor Javier. “We program evaluation sessions each year.”
Pastor Javier adds that in the near future the plan is to gather all the information and make the South Mexican Union a case study to be published in a book.
“Perhaps other leaders might profit from what the Lord has taught us,” he says.
