Adventist Church in Mexico Gears Up For First National Evangelistic Campaign

March 10, 2021 | Miami, Florida, United States | Libna Stevens, Inter-American Division

Top Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders in Mexico’s five unions, or major church regions, gathered hundreds of its local field administrators, department heads and local church pastors to unveil its comprehensive evangelism campaign strategy set to begin this month and end in June.

This is the first evangelistic campaign in Mexico for which administrators, department heads and pastors from all five unions are joining forces. They will seek to engage the nearly 800,000 church members in the work of spreading the gospel message throughout the country.

The plan includes a massive online push, as well as national television and radio station ad campaigns.

Unprecedented Joint efforts

Pastor Elie Henry, president of the church in Inter-America, praised the leadership of the North, Central, Inter-Oceanic, Chiapas and Southeast Mexican Unions for their unprecedented efforts to get every member involved in sharing the message of hope through Jesus Christ and His Soon Coming during the next three months.

“I know that extraordinary things will happen with the help the Holy Spirit for God’s honor and glory,” said Pastor Henry to the nearly 1,000 leaders connected during the virtual meeting on Mar. 8, 2021. “Together I know that God will help fill Mexico with the Word of God because there is great need and we must fill all the spaces with the message of His Soon Return.”

Themed “Hope Beyond Uncertainty,” the evangelism campaign will feature Adventist Evangelist Alejandro Bullón as keynote speaker every evening from 7:00 to 8:00 p.m. (Mexico City Time), through Hope Channel Inter-America, and various social media platforms.

Pastor Bullón, who spoke to the leadership gathered online, was overjoyed to see how the church in Mexico is coming together as one to share the good news of salvation. “I dream of great moments for Mexico,” he said. Bullón challenged leaders to be clear on the purpose God has given His people: to preach the gospel and be the salt of the earth, as he reflected on Revelation 14:6 and Matthew 5:13. “This is the hour that the church has to get up and preach the gospel, and if the church does not preach the gospel it is useless.” The church must be prepared to get involved in this massive evangelistic campaign, he added.

Evangelistic campaign in full gear 

Pastor Melchor Ferreyra, personal ministries director for the church in Inter-America, said this campaign will be historic. Ferreyra was called in by church administrators from Mexico to help with coordination and logistics. Evangelism and communication experts are also involved in the planning.

“What is really impressive is how the church may be divided into five major regions in Mexico, which is how the church is organized and reorganized administratively to keep growing, but with so many cultural differences and various leadership styles, I see such unity in efforts to make the gospel known throughout Mexico as one church,” said Ferreyra. Evangelism plans began to take concrete shape earlier this year after several meetings and projects began to be coordinated among the union leaderships in the second half of 2020.

Borne in the hearts of church administrators

“This effort was borne in the heart of the five union presidents,” said Pastor Isaías Espinoza, president of the church in Southeast Mexico. “Our main interest is for the gospel to be preached and every person get to know that Jesus is coming soon.”

Mexico has a population of more than 127 million people, so the task seems huge, said Espinoza. But, he added, it is possible if at least 70 percent of the membership gets involved in doubling its efforts to connect with friends, family members, neighbors, and co-workers through social media platforms and other forms of communication.

Scrambling to adjust to online services and events proved to be successful in growing the church in Southeast Mexico in 2020, said Espinoza. “We were really shocked to see how more than 50,000 people connected to the online evangelism campaigns held in our union territory last year, which resulted in more than 3,500 baptisms,” he said. Pre-pandemic annual baptisms usually reach approximately 4,000.

Total member involvement

For Pastor Ignacio Navarro, president of the church in Chiapas, the largest union in Mexico as far as number of church members, joining efforts with the rest of the church regions in his country will only strengthen the church. “We want the Seventh-day Adventist Church to strengthen its brand in an intentional way with greater outreach across the country,” said Navarro.

Chiapas held a regional evangelism campaign last year which resulted in more than 17,000 new members. Navarro said he hopes the church in Chiapas will gain over 9,000 members by this year’s national campaign.

Upcoming evangelistic efforts will be coordinated mainly by women’s and personal ministries but all departments will join in the effort, he said. Leaders meet every two weeks to stay on task and push for accomplishing goals, added Navarro.

Plans are in place to make sure many who do not have access to the internet in several rural areas in Chiapas can have access to the message during the June campaign, said Navarro.  Pastor Bullón is scheduled to speak during the launch of the intense evangelism efforts early in April to help jumpstart the membership in Chiapas, he added.

Beyond a national campaign

The joint venture among Mexico’s church administrators goes beyond a national campaign, said Pastor Arturo King, president of the church in North Mexico, who leads a membership of nearly 137,000.  “Coming together and putting aside our different ways of doing things, doing so with a spirit of unity for greater impact for the country is amazing and never seen before,” said King.

Although the evangelistic cycle that the union follows is usually from October to the next September, church leaders and members are actively transitioning to double their efforts from March, leading up to the close of the national campaign, and beyond with a strong discipleship program as well. The goal is to reach at least 1,500 new believers by June, said King. Last year online evangelism campaigns in North Mexico reached nearly 3,000, and leaders are motivated with what’s to come as the five unions join together toward that national campaign.

To learn more about the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Mexico and its national evangelism campaign scheduled June 12-19, 2021, visit us at interamerica.org