November 11, 2011 – Miami, Florida, United States…Libna Stevens/IAD
Aggressive attention to ministering to major urban areas will be the main focus of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America in the coming months and years. It was a decision taken by top church leaders of the Inter-American Division (IAD) during the church’s second annual business meetings held in The Bahamas last week.
As of July 2011, the IAD territory membership stands at 3.5 million. There are also more than 80,000 active small groups and a new, comprehensive education strategy designed to improve Adventist schools and institutions. What’s more, church leaders recently committed to evangelize the millions in isolated populations who still have not heard the gospel message. But church leaders say efforts must be stepped up in the large cities, as well.
“We have put this on the fast track, where we can be more involved in the cities,” said Pastor Israel Leito, president of the church in Inter-America, as he reflected on the decisions and initiatives taken during the recent executive committee.
Major Urban Areas
There are three cities in the IAD territory with a population of five million or more: Mexico City, Mexico, Caracas, Venezuela, and Bogota, Colombia. In recent years, the church has established a union office in all three cities: the Central Mexican Union, East Venezuela Union, and the South Colombian Union.
“We sought to establish a presence in these cities in order to create the infrastructure, provide adequate financing, and move towards evangelism initiatives,” explained Pastor Leito.
The new urban initiative, which was approved by a unanimous vote during the business meetings, is in reply to the Adventist World Church, which recently challenged each of the 13 world divisions to minister to its urban areas. The world church identified some 650 major cities around the globe to be targeted.
In addition to the three most populous cities in the IAD mentioned above, each of the 21 IAD unions is working to identify its respective target cities, beginning with cities of one million or more, but also to include suburban areas of as little as 5,000.
Church leaders said they want to reach every neighborhood and devise a plan to establish at least five new congregations in each target city per year.
Strategies already voted to begin in 2012 include church planting initiatives, one-day church building sites, evangelist support from other union territories, and using existing churches to become active centers in the community.
“Our church buildings are under utilized,” said Pastor Leito. “We want our churches to become centers of influence throughout the week, not just on Sabbath and Wednesday nights.”
A number of evangelistic initiatives were voted to involve children, young people, and laypeople in urban outreach.
Pastor Leito said that in addition to traditional evangelism methods, radio, television, and social media will be utilized.
A lot of funds have been shifted to finance this urban evangelism focus, according to Pastor Leito. Leaders voted to discontinue the production of the magazine Adventist Life, a quarterly magazine distributed in local churches. Net earnings from tithe funds at Inter-America’s two publishing houses will also be used.
Administrators will be looking to reassign additional funds toward the urban evangelism by the end of the year.
As part of the overall plan put in place by the world church, a massive outreach effort to various ethnic and language groups called “Mission to the Cities” will take place in New York City in June 2013. The world church has invited all divisions to participate, and the IAD will send 21 of its best evangelists. During the outreach, a field school for urban evangelism will also be held.
Pastor Leito said “our best evangelists will not go empty handed to New York City. Each union will pay their evangelist’s travel and lodging expenses, as well as additional funds to cover their evangelistic efforts.”
Also included in the outline of the global plan set forth by the world church are major reaping campaigns to take place in the nearly 130 unions around the world by early 2014.
Church Planting Movement
Leaders voted to give greater emphasis to the church planting movement through the IAD Office of Adventist Mission. The movement will foster the emergence of new Seventh-day Adventist churches in un-entered communities and among unreached people groups, using at least two percent of the membership in each local church as well as students in Adventist institutions trained for the task. Some 100 people groups have been targeted in 1,000 identified areas still unreached by the gospel, leaders said.
“It will take all the departments and ministries of the church to work together to enter new territories, reach people groups, and make it happen,” said Pastor Leito
Study Commission for restructuring canvassing system – stage two
Leaders reported on the ongoing study and modernization of the current canvassing structure and confirmed the commitment to providing a better system for literature evangelists.
“We want to come to the point where we can create a service for the Literature Evangelists to make them permanent workers,” said Pastor Leito. “We want to recruit, train and keep them.”
The challenge continues to be how to establish a better territory-wide system that can cater to the needs of literature evangelists, a growing church and the urgency of reaching the Gospel through the printed page, Pastor Leito continued.
“Our church has grown by leaps and bounds since the 1960s when we had some 500,000 members and 5,000 literature evangelists. We have over 3 million members now and still have 5,000 literature evangelists,” he explained. “The world has changed but the message is still the same.”
IAD administrators will travel to each of the 21 union territories beginning next year to discuss the challenges and adjustments facing the system with regional administrators, publishing ministry directors and literature evangelists.
EVENTS APPROVED
Revival initiative 3rd phase and Vision One Million
Inter-America’s third phase of its spiritual revival and reformation “That the World May Know” will be launched through a live broadcast on February 3-4, 2012, from Mandeville, Jamaica. The program will feature Adventist World Church President Pastor Ted N.C. Wilson, IAD leaders and union presidents and will be carried by Hope Channel, Esperanza TV and 3ABN. (For more information visit www.praying4revival.com)
The revival launch event will be coupled with a special meeting on the Vision One Million initiative which is underway to recruit one million church members actively seeking their neighbors and friends with the gospel. A grand celebration in all churches within the IAD is planned to take place on March 31, 2012.
International Bible Conference
A third International Bible Conference was voted to authorize IAD officers and Inter-American Theological Seminary leaders, as well theology professors throughout the IAD, to tour the Holy Land in Israel on June 11-21, 2012.
Children’s Ministries Teacher Convention
The IAD will hold its first convention for Children’s Ministries directors and teachers, July 10-15, 2012. More than 300 from throughout the territory are expected to attend the event in Florida, United States.
Communication Summit
Inter-America will hold a Communication Summit to establish learning opportunities, collaboration, and networking among Adventist communicators in the IAD territory. The event was voted to take place in Miami, Florida, Nov. 26-28, 2012.
In addition, a Literature Evangelist Congress was voted to take place in 2013, as well as a Youth Convention in 2014, among other items.
Also voted was a plan to provide soft loans to Adventist universities in Inter-America through its overseeing union offices.
In his treasurer’s report, Filiberto Verduzco went over the auditing report of the Division and presented projections of the finances for the next five years.
Inter-America’s next scheduled business meetings will take place May 8-10, 2012, in Miami, Florida.
For more information on the church in Inter-America, visit us at www.interamerica.org
