Adventist Leaders in Inter-America Examine Financial System for Greater Mission Impact

February 28, 2023 | Miami, Florida, United States | Libna Stevens, Inter-American Division News

Seventh-day Adventist top administrators and leaders across the Inter-American Division examined the church’s financial system during the territory-wide leadership summit held in Riviera Maya, Quintana Roo, Mexico, Feb. 12-16, 2023. The more than 300 church leaders were briefed on the growth of tithe and offering funds that make it to the organizational “storehouse,” reflected on the advances made in the strategies set forth in 2019, and looked to ensure that the financial system continues to better serve the mission of the church.

“We are halfway through the quinquennium now in 2023 and we want to look at the behavior and growth of our financial system, not only as a Division, but each union and its local fields using special criteria previously established,” said Ivelisse Herrera, treasurer of the IAD.

The year 2022 in relation to 2021 was a banner year for the IAD, said Herrera. “We saw the hand of God blessing Inter-America once again, and just looking at the numbers, we can see that God is with us.” The positive results have everything to do with the commitment of faithful church members who support the mission by expressing God’s love in their hearts with their giving, she said.

The average tithes received throughout the territory during 2020-2022 in comparison with 2015-2019, has seen an increase of 12 percent, reported Herrera.

“The year 2022 has seen the biggest tithe funds received in the Inter-American Division’s history, even amid many challenges and a pandemic,” she added. “We have seen our financial system grow and we praise God for that.”

According to Herrera, tithe annual average growth for 2020-2022 showed 5.78 percent, which shows a steady increase to reach 7.8 percent this year. Offering growth showed a 4.97 percent increase for the same period, a little short of the goal of 6.38 percent, she said. Financial leaders expect that goal to be reached in 2024.

Each union leadership team was briefed on the average growth of tithe and offerings in comparison with the previous quinquennium, before they assembled in groups to discuss how they can strengthen their financial systems.

Ecclesia 7 remittance system

Inter-America’s Ecclesia 7 remittance system software, which facilitates the transfer of tithes and offerings from the local church to the field, union, and division, is providing financial information in real time to better interconnect treasury, stewardship ministries, and auditing services, said Lorenzo Verduzco, software development director of the IAD.

The software allows detailed access to the financial growth of each union territory, has seamless integration with the church’s official accounting and financial system with the world church, yields business intelligence with charts and reporting for data exploitation, and provides efficiency and standardized treasury processes, said Verduzco.

According Verduzco, 20 out of the 24 unions, 135 of the 156 local fields, and 21,208 of the 23,930 churches are using the system whether financial information is submitted by the church treasurer, or field treasurer, or pastor.  “We have been able to see a closer picture of reality in figures.”

With more than 18,000 users submitting financial data, the program has seen an increase in implementation across the territory since 2014 and more so after 2019, said Verduzco.

Unions that have 100 percent of their church using Ecclesia 7 include Belize, Dominican, Dutch Caribbean and Honduras Unions, updating the donation envelopes collected every week. Many unions are increasing their number of churches using the software to 75, 80, and even at 92 percent, reported Verduzco.

Stewardship in the church

For over 10 years, the church in the Dominican Republic has been providing a series of stewardship and finance resources across its churches which has contributed to financial growth to better support mission initiatives, said Winston Hiciano, treasurer of the Dominican Union. “We believe that the church member is key to engaging in a stewardship lifestyle and making it practical in their lives,” said Hiciano.

Every quarter there are resources provided for children, young people, families, and pastors on how to better manage their finances while trusting in God and supporting the mission, he explained. “We make sure that the church is informed about tis finances periodically because we believe that when there’s transparency in the financial management, trust growth for the church and its mission.”

That environment across the churches propelled church leaders at its six local fields to enroll 1,465 churches into the Ecclesia 7 software program by early 2021. “We involved our church treasurers, pastors and conference leaders in regular trainings every quarter,” said Hiciano. “The benefits of seeing the funds in real time in the software have been very beneficial because there is more internal control in our financial system.”

Upgrading from manual mode

Everything was on manual mode in Belize, said Maxine Bodden, treasurer of the Belize Union. “We wanted to upgrade to Ecclesia 7 and worked with training our conference and church treasurers to get onboard even with many churches experienced difficulty with internet connections, but praise the Lord we began in 2021,” she said. Last year all 140 churches in the three local fields have been using Ecclesia 7 fully and has made a big difference, she added.

Training has been ongoing with each church treasurer and leader at the district level to ensure that the remittance software is maximized to its fullest potential across the country, said Bodden. The transition took some time, but one 70-year-old church treasurer began using the program and is so happy about how user-friendly the program is. “I share with everyone in our union territory that if a 70-year-old can do it, we all can.”

Extending to more churches

Getting all of its 3,320 enrolled in Ecclesia 7 in the Chiapas, Mexico, is in the works for this year, said Pastor Ignacio Navarro, president of the church in the Chiapas Mexican Union. All of its eight local fields are using the software and tithes and offerings are flowing thanks to the commitment of the church membership every week in support of the mission, he said. The software has helped measure the stewardship practice across the union territory.

“Many of the Adventist Churches spread out across the state are located in regions with difficult internet access, so we will be working on working helping to provide the technology necessary to those churches and work to get all churches connected with Ecclesia 7,” said Navarro. “Our membership committed to seeing this project through and continues funneling funds to spread the gospel further in every community in the territory.”

Union delegations took time to dialogue on different case studies as well as participate in a panel discussion on advances in stewardship and financial initiatives that have made a difference in their church territories.

Church leaders were reminded by Filiberto Verduzco, former treasurer of the IAD, to practice transparency and accountability in their leadership, keeping in mind that the church member is the investor. “The act of giving directs our attention to the church member and to the priority of financing the mission,” said Verduzco.

The relation between stewardship and financing the mission goes hand in hand, said Herrera. “We must work hard as a church to keep the administrative structure working in all of the areas of the church organization advancing together.”

“The church finances are going strong across the Division territory, but we still have good potential to strengthen the financial system so that there will be enough resources to keep fulfilling the mission,” Herrera said.