Inter-America: Church gears up for massive urban evangelism impact
Pastor Jorge Garcia (left) coordinator of big city impact evangelism in Mexico City, speaks to dozens of Inter-American ministers and evangelists live from the Inter-American Division Headquarters in Miami, Florida, during an online meeting held March 25, 2014. Some 75 leaders traveled to Mexico early this week to lead in two-weeks of evangelistic efforts throughout the five major church regions in Mexico. Dr. Jaime Castrejon (right), Inter-American Theological Seminary president translates during the live meeting. Image by Libna Stevens/IAD
April 2, 2014 – Miami, Florida, United States…Libna Stevens/IAD
For months now, the Seventh-day Adventist Church throughout Mexico has been gearing up for a massive evangelism impact throughout its big cities. So have the nearly 100 ministers and evangelists across the church in Inter-America who have traveled and begun holding public evangelism campaigns this week in all five major church regions in Mexico.
Coined as Big City Impact 2014, the efforts have been orchestrated by top Inter-American Division (IAD) leaders and local church leaders who have mobilized district pastors and laypeople –or active church members – to double their efforts in sharing the gospel in their cities and communities, organizers said.
Pastor Balvin Braham, associate ministerial secretary for the church in inter-America and coordinator of Big City Impact 2014 throughout Mexico, reports that more than 6,700 evangelistic campaigns will be running during the first two weeks of April 2014. IAD File Photo.
According to Pastor Balvin Braham, associate ministerial secretary for the church in Inter-America and coordinator of Big City Impact 2014, there are more than 6,700 evangelistic campaigns being held this week across Mexico.
“With a populous country like Mexico with more than 115 million people, we wanted to foster a big city drive not only among local leaders but connect preachers from outside of the country to participate in major city impact so they could get additional experience to go back to their own local territories within the context of this evangelism in big cities,” said Pastor Braham.
Some 75 ministers and lay preachers from Central America, the Caribbean, French Antilles, Colombia and Venezuela are partnering with local church pastors in holding evangelism efforts in churches, auditoriums, and community centers, and small groups this week, explained Braham.
With the ground work set in motion by our pastors and lay leaders in Mexico during the first quarter of the year, international preachers are expected to round up final decisions from new believers to join the church this week and during the days ahead, said Braham.
Leaders are expecting some 10,000 new members to join the church as a result of the big city impact efforts.
Next week, international preachers will travel to Mexico City to continue evangelistic efforts in some 200 churches and congregations across this huge city of more than 20 million people.
Pastors from across the church in Mexico look over notes during the school of evangelism training Feb. 19, 2014, in Mexico City. The more than 30 pastors trained on urban evangelism for six weeks and partnered with local district pastors to assist in outreach activities. Image courtesy of Central Mexican Union.
“We have one Seventh-day Adventist for every 540 people in Mexico City and approximately 2,300 new members join the church every year here,” said Pastor Jorge Garcia, stewardship ministries director and coordinator of the big city impact efforts in Mexico City.
“We are delighted to have so many preachers come to impact our city and grateful that the church in Inter-America and the world church is supporting the work of the Gospel in Mexico City,” added Garcia.
Already, nearly three dozen pastors from the North, South, Inter-Oceanic, Central and Chiapas region have been attending a six-week evangelism school training in Mexico City, explained Garcia.
“After morning urban evangelism training, our pastors have been partnering with our local pastors and group leaders to make visitations and strengthen efforts in unentered communities,” said Garcia.
Pastors have been able to see how the church moves in Mexico City, said Garcia. “Things don’t move as fast in church growth here in this city like it would in, say, South Mexico where the church runs by itself with active laypeople, and pastors go to baptize” said Garcia.
“It is different here in Mexico City, where the church membership depends more on the pastor to guide their every step,” he added.
Group of pastors who took part in the school of evangelism held in Mexico City late in February through March. Image courtesy of Central Mexican Union
All in all the school of evangelism, which concluded last week and was overseen by the church in Central Mexico, represents a turning point for the church in providing a different vision as to how to reach more people in the city, according to Garcia.
In an effort to further prepare the more than 75 pastors and evangelists who will travel to Mexico City for one last week of big city impact, a three-day Pastoral Evangelism Summit will take place from the Narvarte Adventist Church. The seminars will run in English, Spanish and French on April 7-9, from 8:00 a.m. to 12:30 p.m Mexico Time (or 9:00 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Miami Time) and will be streamed live on the internet at webcast.interamerica.org
The training sessions will focus on evangelistic strategies for urban areas, church planting in urban areas, use of technology in evangelism, social media evangelism, evangelizing those of non-Christian religions, contextualization in evangelism and more, according to Pastor Braham.
Pastors and evangelists will focus on survey instruments which will aid in assessing red zones and green zones in the cities across the territory, said Braham.
“Our red zones are areas that are unentered territories totaling a population of 250,000 with no Adventist presence. Our green areas have Adventist presence that need growth,” said explained Braham.
Image by Abel Marquez/IAD
The combined efforts of leaders in Mexico and our partnering unions, or church regions, helps propel the church across the Inter-American Division to make big city evangelism a priority in the territory, said Braham.
“All across the territory, our church leaders have been working hard to reach people in large cities with the message of salvation during this first part of the year and we will again celebrate together through a Vision One Million special program” added Braham.
Vision One Million is an initiative led by the church in the IAD which seeks to promote bringing one million visitors into churches and congregations. It is usually held during the beginning of the second quarter of the year.
This year, the IAD will host its live Vision One Million via satellite from Mexico City on April 12, 2014, from 11:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. Mexico City Time (or 12:00 to 2:00 pm Miami Time). The broadcast will be carried in English, Spanish and French by Hope Church Channel, Esperanza TV, 3ABN, 3ABN Latino and webcast.interamerica.org. French Vision One Million will be rebroadcast at 6:00 p.m. Miami Time on the Hope Church Channel.
The live program will feature Adventist World Church President Pastor Ted N.C. Wilson and IAD top church leaders at the Mexico City Arena (Arena Ciudad Mexico) as well as strides in urban impact across the territory, big city projects, baptisms as a result city impact, and more.
For updates on the upcoming Vision One Million program, visit us at interamerica.org