Inter-America: Church leaders study the structure of its publishing ministries
Top church leaders from 22 church regions across Inter-America met in Miami, Florida, Aug. 20-21, 2013, for a Publishing Ministry Summit to develop a new policy that will benefit literature evangelists and strengthen its publishing houses and branches across the territory. Image by Libna Stevens/IAD.
August 25, 2013 – Miami, Florida, United States…Libna Stevens/IAD
Top Seventh-day Adventist leaders from throughout the Inter-American Division (IAD) met during a two-day summit to develop a new policy that will improve its publishing ministries, benefit literature evangelists and strengthen its publishing houses and branches across the territory. The summit brought top from the IAD’s 22 major church regions to Miami, Florida, Aug. 20-21, 2013.
“We have come to realize throughout the years that the publishing ministry cannot continue in the way in which it has been running,” said Pastor Israel Leito, president of the church in Inter-America as he led the meetings. “It is time for us to dialogue and look for a solution that can place the publishing ministries on a stronger path.”
Pastor Israel Leito, president of the church in Inter-America, said the two-day summit was about looking for a solution that can place the publishing ministries on a stronger path. Image by Libna Stevens.
Pastor Leito said finding that path has been a challenge but the emphasis of the summit was on the basics and going back to study the history of the Adventist Church and its mission to spread the gospel through literature distribution evangelists.
“We are here to revive the publishing ministry and establish basic principles to where we will move towards managing this important ministry,” added Pastor Leito.
For starters, leaders agreed on employing a publishing ministries director at each union level, and conference/mission level across the territory.
Having a publishing ministries director at every level of the organization remunerated as a regular worker will ensure better management and care of literature evangelists, or colporteurs—authorized self-employed individuals who sells products furnished by official Seventh-day Adventist publishing houses, Pastor Leito explained.
In addition, under the study of a new policy, leaders agreed to provide certain benefits to its full-time literature evangelists, maintain low prices on the books they sell and provide retirement benefits as well.
With a more involved management staff and benefit incentives, leaders are sure that the number of literature evangelists will increase significantly to match the growing membership of the church—a visible challenge that has had leaders restless for years.
“How can it be that forty years ago, we had a membership of 60,000 with 5,000 colporteurs, the same number as we do today?” stated Pastor Leito.
A membership of 3.6 million across the church Inter-America and only some 5,000 literature evangelists today has Pastor Erwin Gonzalez, publishing ministries director for the church in Inter-America, anxious to be part of a historic strategic move to change the course of literature evangelism.
Pastor Erwin Gonzalez, publishing ministry director for the church in Inter-America, Image by Abel Marquez/IAD.
“Spreading the gospel through publications has been an inspiration by our God, and we have to double our efforts in strengthening the publishing ministry, because colporting is just as important as preaching” said Pastor Gonzalez, as he reflected on the important teamwork pastors and literature evangelists must maintain.
The plan is to have one colporteur for each church and/or congregation throughout the Division, stated Pastor Gonzalez. That means envisioning 15,000 literature evangelists, even if that person works part-time to coordinate and obtain publications for distribution by church members.
“We need to educate our members as to the role of the publications in the finishing of the work on earth,” said Pastor Gonzalez. “Our publications exist as an effective tool in evangelizing others and enriching the spiritual life of our church members.”
Preparing publications and putting them in the hands of literature evangelists in Inter-America is the job of the territory’s two publishing houses: GEMA Editorial House, which caters to Mexico, and the IAD Publishing Association, which oversees the rest of the English, Spanish and French territories in the IAD.
The two publishing houses will play a key role in providing publications at cost and distributing them directly to literature evangelists and local churches in coordination with the publishing ministry department, leaders agreed.
Filiberto Verduzco, treasurer of the church in Inter-America, presented the financial model on the operational principles of funding the new publishing ministry. Image by Abel Marquez/IAD
Filiberto Verduzco, treasurer for the church in Inter-America, presented the financial model on the operational principles of funding the new publishing ministry.
“The division, unions, local fields and publishing houses will be the ones who will provide the funding so that literature evangelists in certain categories can receive benefits as church employee or worker,” said Verduzco as he outlined the financial responsibilities at the Division level to the regional level.
The ultimate goal is to give all the possible benefits to our literature evangelists, said Pastor Leito. “We want to recruit, train and retain colporteurs while giving them to tools for them to be competitive in today’s market.”
Benefiting faithful literature evangelists is something Pastor Arturo King, president of the North Mexican Union was happy to see.
“I’m glad we are doing this,” he said. “We have a lot of hardworking literature evangelists who are in need for a better plan.” King is among five top leaders overseeing the church in Mexico’s five unions or regional offices with some 3,000 literature evangelists.
Pastor Everette Brown, president of the church in Jamaica, was delighted to see that church leaders are thinking of the future of literature evangelists closely.
“In a competitive environment, we need to find a way for better efficiency in our operations, understanding that our literature evangelists are critical to the mission we are all committed to.”
For Pastor Aldo Perez, president of the church in Cuba, the lightning moment to better operate the publishing ministry department came months ago after a 50-year period in Cuba without a single colporteur.
Top administrators looked at the new financial model to provide benefits to literature evangelists. Image by Abel Marquez/IAD.
“We now are able to sell publications in most of our churches and we have noticed that people are hungry for them,” said Perez. Training has begun already to equip hundreds of church members to become literature evangelists throughout the island, he added.
“I’m excited to know that more focus is being placed on spreading the Gospel through printed materials and glad to be part of this new policy to propel this [publishing] ministry,” Perez said.
With more than 20 years experience in selling books, Derreck Thompson, recently appointed as publishing ministry director at the Belize Union of churches, said he is going back home with a whole lot of drive to train and recruit more than the 25 literature evangelists.
“Lots of time needs to be spent educating our members on the importance of literature evangelism,” said Thompson. “We have the best formula to share the good news and must maximize our resources.”
For now, top church leaders will make final adjustments to the new publishing ministry policy and present it during the IAD’s Year-End Executive Committee Meetings to be held late in October, before it takes full effect.
For more information on the Inter-America’s Publishing Ministry Department, visit us at interamerica.org