Church Leaders Vote Comprehensive Evangelistic Efforts That Will Dominate in 2022

November 3, 2021 | Miami, Florida, United States | Libna Stevens, Inter-American Division

Top Seventh-day Adventist administrators and leaders in Inter-America voted on ambitious evangelism initiatives and activities that will be implemented across the territory as the centennial celebrations kick off early in 2022.  The first day of the Year-End Executive Committee Meetings also saw a review of the church’s strategic plan on course for 2025 and the success of the church and its ministries across the 24 major church regions.

“I am so excited to see how our church throughout the Inter-American Division is preparing to take part in centennial celebrations that will showcase more territory to be conquered, more souls to be won for the Lord,” said Pastor Elie Henry, president of the church in Inter-America. “It’s going to be a very special year of victories for God throughout the Inter-American Division.”

Centennial Evangelism Plan

Committee members voted on the Centennial Evangelism Plan that will see all 24 unions grouped in different regions for coordinated comprehensive evangelism efforts to impact the community with the gospel during the first half of the year, explained Pastor Balvin Braham, vice president for the church in Inter-America overseeing evangelism.

The five regions  include the English-speaking region: Atlantic Caribbean, Belize, Caribbean, Dutch, and Jamaica unions; Central American region: Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras, Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Panama and the Dominican Republic unions; South America region: Colombia, Venezuela, Cuba and Puerto Rican unions; the French-speaking region: Haiti and French Antilles Guiana unions; and the Mexico region: Central, Chiapas, Inter-Oceanic, North and Southeast unions. All have already been coordinating and collaborating to action beginning in 2022.

“The projection set out is to have 2 million members actively involved in the evangelism efforts, including one million Bible studies and reaching a baptismal of 255,000 new members into the church,” said Braham.

Ceremonies across each union will take place on Jan. 8, 2021, to start the centennial evangelism initiative and to motivate members to be actively involved in the comprehensive outreach efforts.

What has been coined as the Centennial Gospel Caravan will see efforts to reach 100 new areas in the territories that have no Adventist presence. Initiatives and activities will include community impact to address the social needs of residents,  a special parade with church and civic leaders that will integrate departments and ministries of the church like health expos, youth activities, technology and more to benefit residents of the community and make the church and its mission known in the area.

Festival of the Laity

From July to the start of August, evangelism efforts will intensify, in preparation for a division-wide Festival of the Laity that is scheduled to take place Aug. 4-6, 2021.

The Festival of the Laity, which has been brought back from when it was first organized across the church in Inter-America in the 1970s, will take on a special significance during the centennial celebrations, said Pastor Melchor Ferreyra, personal ministries director for the church in Inter-America.  “The program will consist of a hybrid program, with one part of the delegation present in Panama and the other part gathered in various locations across each union,” he said.

The 288 delegates to be part of the festival in Panama, will include the longest serving lay preachers, responsible for baptizing between 500 and 1,000 persons over the past ten years in each union, bible workers who discipled 1,000 baptisms over the past 10 years, small group leaders who baptized more than 500 persons over the last five years, as well as lay members who planted the newest churches in the union, among others, he explained.

Grand Centennial Celebration

A grand centennial celebration will close off the year of evangelism efforts from Oct. 29, 2022, with massive baptisms across the IAD territory with a special program in the Dominican Republic where more than 3,000 people are expected to be baptized across the island. As part of the efforts there will also be massive impact in distributing literature throughout Inter-America, said Braham.

“It will be like we are repeating history as to how the message entered in Inter-America with each union impacting a community, planting new churches with the message of Jesus just like it all began 100 years ago,” said Pastor Henry. “We are happy to have the opportunity to be part of a full year of activities where we can thank God for caring for His church in the preaching of such extraordinary message and prepare the world to receive Jesus Christ.”

Strategic plan’s effectiveness

In his report to the committee on Inter-America’s I Will Go strategic plan of 2020-2025, Pastor Gamaliel Flórez, who is in charge of strategic planning, said the plan set in motion since last year, has shown through preliminary survey findings that 44 percent of the unions adopted 115 initiatives from the comprehensive plan.

“We began measuring the acceptance of our strategic plan and it showed at a good level,” said Flórez. There was great enthusiasm across the territory to share the faith with other persons during the pandemic, he said. “We could see 80 percent of the active members are involved in the mission of the church throughout the territory and recognize the I Will Go mission initiatives in place in the church, not only in the division but in the world church.”

The strategic plan which includes the three major areas: evangelism, education and community service and each features 24 initiatives, 43 initiatives, and 17 initiatives respectively, explained Flórez.

To assess the achievement of the objectives in each union, committee members voted to approve a digital tool that will diagnose and measure each objective therein. The tool will detail the effectiveness of the strategies in each of the unions across the territory, he said.

Unions reported on their initiatives and activities to strengthen the church in their territories through the children and adolescent ministries, youth ministries, family ministries, public campus ministries, stewardship, and pastoral ministry.

Committee members also took part in a prayer session for the leadership and membership of Inter-America, God’s protection over His church around the world, and the upcoming General Conference Session, as well as praying for the Latter Rain of the Holy Spirit.

Inter-America’s Year-End Meetings continues until Nov. 4, 2021.

For more updates, visit us at interamerica.org