World Church Leaders Learn About Evangelism and Growth in Inter-America

News June 30, 2017

Miami, Florida, United States | Libna Stevens/IAD

IAD President Pastor Israel Leito welcomes the secretariat team from around the world church to the Division’s headquarter office in Miami, Florida, June 8, 2017, before the group set off to visit five unions in Inter-America. Image by Keila Trejo/IAD

Top Seventh-day Adventist leaders from around the world church recently toured five major regions across the Inter-American Division (IAD), to witness evangelism initiatives in action, learn about church growth, and look in on the community impact taking place across the territory. The 10-day tour brought executive secretaries from the Adventist world church headquarters and from the 12 division headquarters around the globe to visit Miami, Jamaica, Panama, Haiti, and Mexico.

IAD President Pastor Israel Leito welcomes the secretariat team from around the world church to the Division’s headquarter office in Miami, Florida, June 8, 2017, before the group set off to visit five unions in Inter-America. Image by Keila Trejo/IAD

The tour was part of an initiative proposed by top world church leaders in an effort to foster more integration among division leaders and learn methods, initiatives and activities that make the difference in each regional territory, explained Pastor Israel Leito, president of the church in Inter-America. Earlier in May, top administrators from IAD unions visited the Northern Asia Pacific Division to learn of their evangelism methods.

Dr. G. T. Ng, secretary of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists delivers the Vesper message after the Symposium at the Hagley Park Seventh-day Adventist Church in Kingston. Image by Nigel Coke/IAD

“Most [church] divisions today are in national hands, and leaders don’t know much of each other, except when we meet for committee meetings at the General Conference,” said Pastor Leito. “So it is important to understand how the church moves and works elsewhere.”

IAD Executive Secretary Pastor Elie Henry said the secretariat tour was a great opportunity for church administrators to witness the rich cultural diversity that makes Inter-America so special.

“We wanted them to experience Inter-America how we live it, and witness the commitment of hundreds of thousands of church members working together to share the gospel in their communities,” said Henry.

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