Inter-America: Church Business Meeting Gathers in Cuba

Havana, Cuba…[Libna Stevens/IAD]

For the first time in more than 62 years, top church leaders from throughout the Seventh-day Adventist Church in Inter-America (IAD) gathered in Cuba for the year-end church business meetings. It was a meeting of historic significance as more than 80 executive committee members traveled to Havana to discuss growth reports, plan and vote initiatives to better care for the growing membership throughout the territory, Nov. 3-5.

“This is a very significant visit for the church in Cuba,” said Pastor Israel Leito, president of the church in Inter-America. “Cuba is one of our church regions and we have a plan to rotate the year-end meetings among all of our regions every year.”

Although Cuba is part of the 15 church regions of Inter-America, it had not hosted the executive committee since 1945 when the IAD headquarters was stationed there.

Committee members were able to visit several churches in the capital city during Sabbath worship services.

“It was very important for the committee to experience the church in Cuba,” said Pastor Leito. “It was an opportunity for them to rub shoulders with the members and understand Cuba more.”

“The Lord is blessing the church in Cuba,” added Pastor Leito. One of the churches there has tripled its membership in the last 10 years from 10,000 to nearly 30,000.

Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the Adventist World Church, also visited the island and took part in the committee meetings. He spoke to church leaders to continue building stronger communities as they lead the church in their territories.

Adventist leaders also took part in a ground-breaking ceremony for a new auditorium to be built on the campus of the Adventist Seminary in Havana by U.S.-based Maranatha Volunteers International.

Church leaders were met by Cuba’s office of Religious Affairs Caridad Diego Bello, as well as other government functionaries during a session on Nov. 4.

During the two-day business session, church leaders reported on the evangelistic initiatives and membership growth in the territory which now surpasses three million.

Church leaders also voted plans and programs to consolidate and serve the vast church territory of the division. These included the following:

The church throughout has been active in what has been coined as “Pentecost and More,” an initiative that will gather thousands of church members throughout Inter-America for a special live satellite program from Kingston, Jamaica on Mar. 15, 2008. The broadcast will feature baptisms from Inter-America’s major church regions during a live three-hour program through Adventist Television Network.

Leaders voted to continue the Pentecost and More evangelism for the remainder of the quinquennium (until 2010) within each union territory. Each union will conduct a special church service with all its local churches participating simultaneously using technology available to reach high levels of society, showcase community impact projects and hold evangelistic campaigns. For more information on Pentecost and More 2008, go to https://recursing-golick.147-182-135-0.plesk.page/users/index.php?type=resource&id=377&language=en

A new magazine called “Adventist Life in the Inter-American Division” will come out early next year. Adventist Life will provide information, inspiration, news and instructions for members and leaders throughout the church in Inter-America. The 24-page magazine will be printed by Inter-America’s Publishing Association every quarter in the three major languages used in the church territory–English, Spanish, and French. A monthly edition will also be available online in the coming months. For more information, visit www.interamerica.org.

A definite plan was voted to provide every local church, administration office, school and entity the opportunity to easily build an informative, professional and interactive website through the software platform called netAdventist. Through netAdventist the church throughout the Division and the world will be able to connect as well as create an online network through which the church can work together, ministering to the needs of the community with relevance to promote a better quality of life in Christ. The plan is designed to provide every church that has an internet connection with its own website so that visitors and members can be connected to the worldwide Adventist community. For detailed information on the plan, go to https://recursing-golick.147-182-135-0.plesk.page/users/index.php?type=document&id=352&language=en

A number of workers were voted in to serve specific positions.

Myrna Costa was appointed as president of the Inter-American Education Center (IEC), an online education center providing undergraduate degrees. Costa has been serving as president of Antillean Adventist University in Mayaguez, Puerto Rico.

Abel Marquez was appointed as an associate Communication director for the Inter-American Division. He has been serving as director for the School of Communication and School of Arts and Design in Montemorelos University, in Montemorelos, Mexico.

Pastor Balvin Braham was appointed as assistant to the president of the IAD. He also heads the Trust Services department and is associate in the Ministerial Association and Youth Ministries at the IAD Headquarters Office in Miami, Florida.

Daniel Sanchez was tasked to develop a division-wide express evangelism to establish contacts with taxi occupants and businesses. He has been serving as youth ministries director in the Venezuela Antilles Union.

Fernando Zabala was appointed as editor of the new magazine Adventist Life in the Inter-American Division. He continues to serve as an associate editor in the Inter-American Division Publishing Association.

Felix Archbold, who has been serving as General Conference Auditing Services (GCAS) associate director for Inter-America since June 2007, was officially introduced to the executive committee members. Formerly he served as the assistant director for GCAS Inter-America since Dec. 2001.

Committee members voted to submit to the General Conference for study the status of five of its 15 major regions in Inter-America to be upgraded to union conference status. This status change will allow a better nurturing of the growing church region strengthening the membership. These unions are Colombian, North Mexican, South Mexican, Venezuela-Antilles, North Central American. The General Conference will look into the requests and make the evaluation.

The IAD Executive Committee will meet for its first church business meeting of the year on May 19-22, 2008 in the Division’s headquarter in Miami, Florida.

To view Photo Gallery related to this article, visit http://photos.interamerica.org