Inter-America: Church leadership looks to new opportunities for membership growth in 2014

Pastor Israel Leito, president of the church in Inter-America, welcomes the leadership and staff at the IAD Headquarters as the office officially begins the year on Jan. 6, 2014, in Miami, Florida. Images by Libna Stevens/IAD

January 9, 2014 – Miami, Florida, United States….Libna Stevens/IAD

Days after the New Year began, Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders and staff members at the Inter-American Division (IAD) met during a special worship service to pray and praise God for the progress of the church in 2013 throughout the vast territory.

More than 80 ministers and staff members reviewed church and financial growth at the IAD Headquarters Office in Miami, Florida, Jan. 6, 2014, to bask in the success of the Year of the Laity —a year designated as the year to celebrate the work of the laity— and set plans, initiatives and activities in motion for the coming months.

IAD President Pastor Israel Leito encourage the leadership and staff to focus on drawing from God’s Word to seek out the new opportunities to improve service to the church.

Reflecting on Isaiah 54, Pastor Israel Leito, president of the church in Inter-America, encouraged the church leadership to reflect on the successes and failures of the past and look to the new opportunities to improve and enrich the mission of the church in Inter-America.

“Don’t think of the failures, you are blessed because there is hope, think of the future how things can be better,” said Pastor Leito.

That future this year means overseeing the training of thousands of church lay leaders or active members during what Inter-America has coined as the Year of Non-Formal Education.

The Year of Non-Formal Education will allow lay leaders to enhance leadership skills so in turn they can equip others, as a springboard to continue a structured certification training with each department and ministry of the church, said Pastor Leito.

In his report to the IAD leaders and staff this week, Dr. Elie Henry, executive secretary of the church in Inter-America, reported that as of June 2013, some 150,810 new member were added to the church bringing the membership to 3,685,644 with 11,968 churches and 8,104 companies.

Although final membership count for 2013 is not yet available, numbers have shown a slight decline in baptisms per year since 2010. According to Dr. Henry, during the last two years several church territories have done extensive auditing of its membership books and adjustments have reflected only a slight increase in total membership.

Efforts continue in training pastors and church clerks in the revision of church books to reflect accurate active membership in each church, said Dr. Henry.

“The IAD is growing and we praise the Lord for that,” said Dr. Henry. Last year saw a record number of 26 missions upgraded to conferences status and this year, 21 missions are scheduled for upgrades, he added.

As of the September 2013, statistics showed 3,685,644 church members across the IAD territory.

As it stands, the IAD has 22 unions, one attached field, 73 conferences and 49 missions.

With Haiti holding the largest church territory with more than 406,000 members, leaders are studying the possibilities of splitting it into two unions. In addition, the South Central American Union comprised of Costa Rica, Panama and Nicaragua is being studied to divide into three unions to serve each respective country.

Filiberto Verduzco, treasurer of the church in Inter-America, reported the financial strategies followed during the past three years in using powerful tools to strengthen the financial system of the church. The plans have included expansion of the SunPlus team to oversee the accounting system of the vast territory with two new additions with Neftali Cruz of Merida, Mexico and Edy Diaz of Guatemala.

Verduzco outlined the visible financial commitment of members across churches in Inter-America and the enormous responsibility church administrators uphold in managing funds collected.

Baby Jael Amara Smith is held by her dad Daniel Smith next to her mom Janelle Scantlebury before being dedicated to God during a special baby dedication ceremony lead by IAD leaders.

“We have to continue being strong as we operate in a weak [currency] environment,” said Verduzco.

Verduzco also reported on the expansion plans to build six additional offices and a large storage room to the IAD Headquarter Office. The expansion project is scheduled to begin in March.

IAD welcomed its newest addition to the staff family with the first baby dedication held at the headquarter office for the daughter of employee Janelle Scantlebury and husband Daniel Smith. Pastor Leito and church leaders prayed for Jael Amara Sofia Smith during the program.

Church leaders will continue to fine tune initiatives, activities and projects during the next few days.

The IAD oversees the work of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Mexico, Central America, The Caribbean, The French Antilles, as well as Colombia and Venezuela, with more than 3.6 million members, hundreds of schools, universities and hospitals.

To learn more about Inter-American Division and its initiatives for 2014, visit us at interamerica.org

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