Miami, Florida, United States…[Libna Stevens/IAD]
Inter-America’s top church leaders from every union territory as well as ministerial leaders, met for the first summit to officially launch the Tell the World Evangelization and Mission Summit for the Inter-American Division. The summit, held in Miami, Florida, on Jan. 15-16, was specifically organized to launch IAD’s version of “Tell the World initiative” voted at the Conference’s 2005 Annual Council.
“The world church has set three main points for growth, unity and quality of life,” said Pastor Israel Leito, president for the church in Inter-America, as he addressed IAD leaders “This is what has our attention for these meetings. We need you in order to fulfill the mission in Inter-America, because there are many people groups from your division living in our area that we don’t have the experience of reaching. Your help is greatly valued.”
One of its main goals was to present programs set up by the different church departments in their evangelistic support for reaching more people, provide inspirational and motivational presentations and incentive programs. Church leaders will in turn take the information to their respective territories and implement them throughout the 2006-2010 quinquennium.
Pastor Balvin Braham, associate director for the Ministerial Association for the church in Inter-America and coordinator for IAD’s evangelism and mission program, says that what Inter-America is special. “What we are doing, taking the program in total, is unique,” he says.
Evangelistic approaches as established by each department of the church, as well as documents and materials on best practices in evangelism, were among the programs presented to reach more people in the church in Inter-America and around the world. Also discussed was public campaigns and the conservation of new believers and an evangelist exchange program.
One main highlight of the event was a presentation on the upcoming evangelism training field school that will take place November of this year. Led by Pastor-Evangelist Mark Finley, vice president for the Adventist World Church and director for the Center of Evangelism and Global Evangelism, this evangelism field school will be available for chosen evangelists, pastors and lay persons from every union or region of IAD to receive intensive training on how to evangelize people through public crusades. They can in turn take the new evangelism approach back to their local territories and train others to join forces to reach more people for Christ. To view more information on this evangelism Field School, go to https://recursing-golick.147-182-135-0.plesk.page/users/index.php?language=en&type=mainsection&id=4.
Among the presentations were: Rekindling the Spirit of Global Evangelism, by Pastor Mark Finley; The Need for Mission, by Mike Ryan, world church vice president; Adventist Mission by Gary Krause, director for the church’s Global Mission; Theory and Practice in Evangelism by Peter Prime, world church associate secretary of the Ministerial Association; Evangelistic Approach to Catholics by Pastor Israel Leito; Satistics, Plans and Incentives, by Balvin Braham, among others.
In a territory where nearly 900,000 new members were added to the church, an average of 462 daily baptisms during 2000-2005, Inter-America’s church leaders are confident that God will continue to bless the evangelism programs.
“This one thing we do in all the departments [of the church], this one thing we do–evangelism, soul-winning, we shall close the gap, that we have in Inter-America as we focus on the ratio of seventh-day Adventists and non-Seventh-day Adventists,” says Pastor Braham.
He adds that within a few weeks, a DVD featuring IAD’s “Tell the World” programs and presentations will be available for all union territories.
More detailed information on IAD’s “Tell the World” evangelism programs can be found at https://recursing-golick.147-182-135-0.plesk.page/users/index.php?language=en&type=mainsection&id=4.
