In Inter-America, Church continues momentum for growth and retention of members
Top church leaders met for four days during Inter-America’s Year-End Executive Committee meetings in Willemstad, Curacao, Oct. 26-29, 2014. Image by Abel Marquez/IAD
November 11, 2014 | Willemstad, Curacao | Libna Stevens/IAD
The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America recently closed its second annual business meetings, setting its sights on more church growth and expansion, member retention, and continued efforts to train its members for discipleship and planning to celebrate the work of ministers across the region for 2015.
The four-days of meetings run by the church’s top executive body for the Inter-American Division (IAD) territory brought more than 120 top church leaders to Willemstad, Curacao, Oct. 26-29, 2014, to report on initiatives, activities and growth that has taken place in the respective church regions.
During his report, Dr. Elie Henry, executive secretary for the church in Inter-America, reported that the church registered 3,615,843 million members and 20,494 churches and congregations as of June of this year. The membership shows a drop of more than 70,000 members since last year but the figures are not alarming, top administrators said.
Dr. Elie Henry, executive secretary for the church in InterIAD File Photo
Membership audits
“The leadership across the IAD has doubled its efforts to audit its membership books across churches during the past two years using the Adventist Church Management System of tracking membership,” said Dr. Henry.
Dr. Henry explained that the management system is not about clearing up and deleting names off the church books. “This system is really about seeking members who are no longer coming to church, have transferred to another church and in some cases passed away and the names were not taken off,” said Dr. Henry.
This is all about a statistical correction and not a major concern, said IAD President Pastor Israel Leito. “When you look at all the factors about keeping the church books accurate like deceased members never being dropped from the books, others who left the church and were never dropped then returned to be re-baptized resulting in duplicate membership, it makes sense that there are some inconsistencies in the numbers,” said Pastor Leito. Not to mention the many who have left the IAD territory who do not want to transfer their membership elsewhere is another factor that has affected the drop in figures.
But the goal is still about reclaiming people who are members who stopped coming to church, added Pastor Leito. “This has always been about finding the members who have stopped coming to church as laid out in our church manual but unfortunately, the process has not been followed through and we continue to work towards keeping the books reflecting accurate membership,” explained Pastor Leito.
IAD President Pastor Israel Leito auditing the church books is about “reclaiming people who are members who stopped coming to church.”
As a result of the efforts, many initiatives and activities have sprung forth to contact the missing members, according to Pastor Leito.
Church leaders voted to approve a resolution called “Conservation and Recovery of Church Members,” where careful attention should be taken when updating membership books and follow a due process detailed in the Church Manual.
“We must not neglect any of the missing and former members. They may be the best prospects for the future leadership in our churches who grow numerically gaining new members,” the document states.
The document highlights basic factors to consider when working with members who do not attend church and former members, including proper visitations, ideas for reconnecting with former members through phone calls, correspondence and more.
Evangelism efforts
Baptismal numbers as of June included 109,868, reported Dr. Henry, bringing a total of more than 800,000 new members added during the five-year period since 2010. Still close to the evangelism goal of adding one million new members to the church by mid 2015, said Pastor Leito. The numbers are there thanks to the territory-wide evangelism initiative Vision One Million taking place throughout local churches. Vision One Million seeks to train or disciple one million active church members to share the gospel with at least one person in their community.
Leaders voted to seal the end of the quinquennium with a series of evangelistic campaigns to conclude Inter-America’s Vision One Million program event on Saturday, April 4, 2015 with a live program from the Trinidad and Tobago. Every church member is expected to take at least one visitor to church that day across churches and congregations in the territory. Plans are for every union and field to have a central site where the live program will be broadcasted.
Expansion of territory
With the recently approved split of the South Central American Unioninto two major church regions, one new as the Panama Union Mission and the newly reorganized South Central American Union Mission which oversees Costa Rica and Nicaragua, church executives voted in new leadership to lead the growing membership of nearly 300,000 in the combined territory.
The South Central American Union has split into two unions: Panama Union which will oversee the work of the church in Panama and the South Central American Union which will oversee Costa Rica and Nicaragua. Image by ANN.
Newly appointed leaders for Panama Union include: Jose De Gracia, president; Carlos Saldaña, secretary; Jose Smith, treasurer. Appointed leaders for South Central American Union: Wilfredo Ruiz, re-appointed president; Ricardo Marin, secretary; Silas Martinez, re-appointed treasurer.
A number of local fields in Venezuela and Honduras were approved for reorganization as well.
Establishment of Hope Channel Inter-America
The IAD Executive Committee voted to purchase three channels to serve the English, Spanish, and French territories as Hope Channel Inter-America. The channels will provide programs which appeal to the various cultures and tastes in music and worship of Inter-America.
The goal is to have Hope Channel Inter-America reach a level of penetration in every corner of the Division, said Pastor Leito. “It’s not a matter of churches having an antenna at this point, but we want to take Hope Channel Inter-America to every member and the general public so that can enjoy local programming on the church’s official channel,” said Pastor Leito.
A special meeting on the establishment of Hope Channel Inter-America will be held March 4-5, 2015, in Miami, Florida.
Inter-America will celebrate the work of more than 2,300 pastoral families throughout the territory during the Year of the Pastor. Image by Gregorio Vazquez/IAD
Year of the Pastor
Leaders approved a number of activities that will celebrate the work of the minister and his family across the territory in 2015, coined as Inter-America’s Year of the Pastor. A special online large pastoral ordination is scheduled to begin the year with a live program from the Dominican Republic on January 17, 2015. An online pastoral family week of prayer, ministerial council with graduating seminary students, training meetings and more will be featured during the year.
Leaders voted to accept the Statement of Consensus on the Theology of Ordination as voted by the Adventist World Church’s Annual Council held last month.
Also, a music and worship committee was established which will serve as a resource to provide guidance for music and worship in churches throughout the IAD as recommended by the General Conference’s Music Commission.
The IAD delegation at the church’s General Conference Session in San Antonio in 2015 was set at 483 delegates. The delegation becomes the largest among the 13 divisions of the Adventist world church to attend a session. Out of the 483 delegates, 393 will be voting delegates.
Policy amendments and other initiatives and plans were also voted during Inter-America’s Year-End Committee meetings.
For more information on Inter-America’s upcoming initiatives and programs, visit us at interamerica.org