In Central America, church leaders gear up to fully implement the Lord Transform Me initiative

More than 250 administrators, department directors and ministers from Central America gathered for the first of many “Lord Transform Me” summits on implementing the evangelism initiative across six countries. The summit was held in San Rafael, Managua, Nicaragua, May 29-31, 2016. Images by Libna Stevens/IAD

June 2, 2016 | San Rafael, Managua, Nicaragua | Libna Stevens/IAD

Church leaders in Central America have a big task before them: To inspire nearly one million Seventh-day Adventists in six countries to seek a spiritual transformation through a life of prayer and bible study.

IAD Executive Secretary Dr. Elie Henry challenged church leaders in Central America to allow God to cut out what needs to be out in their lives.

Leaders met for a special summit in Nicaragua led by the Inter-American Division (IAD) this week to review strategies and activities to accomplish this work, which is called the “Lord Transform Me” evangelism initiative.

“We know that there is more than one way to be used by the Holy Spirit, more than one way of doing things and there is so much more to be done so that the church can fulfill its mission of sharing the gospel,” said Pastor Israel Leito, president of the church in Inter-America.

To get to that task of motivating members to be active in the church and community must first begin with a total commitment and example by the leadership, top church leaders said.

“This has to be about a new beginning in our personal life and one that strengthens the church as we strive to get church members completely involved in the mission of the Lord,” added Pastor Leito.

“We must first seek God above all else,” said Dr. Elie Henry, executive secretary of the church in Inter-America as he addressed the leadership, comprised of more than 250 church administrators, ministers, and district pastors. “There are things that we must cut out in our lives, and allow God to give us the strength to clean what needs to be eliminated from our lives as leaders of the flock,” added Henry.

Once that daily transformation in Christ is reflected in each of God’s ministers and leaders and strategic plans are followed, it will spread and be effective across those who shepherd local congregations, explained Henry.

Leaders pray together during one of the many prayer sessions held in Nicaragua.

The “Lord Transform Me” initiative will also seek to involve every member in the life and mission of the church, which goes hand in hand with the Adventist World Church’s strategic plan called Reach the World.

The leadership will guide, train, and carry out activities that will foster and promote unity for institutional development and church growth and consolidation across the territory.

“We are basically an administrative unit,” explained Filiberto Verduzco, treasurer of the church in Inter-America. “Local fields and congregations are implementing units that will carry out this transformation initiative involving all to finish the work of preparing a people for eternal life.”

Leaders took time to pray together and were motivated to promote activities that can increase the spirituality of their ministers and their families, focusing on more study of the Scriptures, strengthening elders and laypeople, and members in small groups, in every department/ministries of the church.

Church members will be assisted in identifying their talents and spiritual gifts and will be trained to use those talents and abilities for the church, deepen their knowledge of the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy, help identify the social needs in the community and disciple others.

In addition, church leaders will seek to develop a healthy local church by emphasizing quality of worship, fellowship, and service. They want church members to live a healthy lifestyle and make their church a community health center. Laypersons should also intensify their evangelistic efforts in cities and communities, make effective use of technology, empower youth with a mentoring program, prepare children for evangelism, and produce more publications and resources for the unbelievers.

Inter-America’s David Poloche, ADRA director, Dinorah Rivera, women’s ministries director and Abel Marquez, communication director talk about activities and plans on how to connect and share during the implementation of Lord Transform Me initiative.

Pastor Balvin Braham, assistant to the IAD president for evangelism, reminded those attending that successful implementation of the “Lord Transform Me” initiative in each union in Central America “will depend on ensuring that each church and congregation has a team that will implement it.”

“If we want to have success with this ‘Lord Transform Me’ initiative we must ensure there is spiritual growth, healthy relationships among members are maintained, on-going training for members, total involvement in sharing the gospel in discipling must take place,” said Braham. Braham reminded leaders what they heard during the nearly three days the summit took place about the five components of the “Lord Transform Me” which deals with: Be transformed and Live, explore and learn, connect and share, proclaim and reap, and conserve and disciple.

Dozens of district pastors were honored for their exceptional leadership in baptizing 100 or more souls across Central America last year.

Among the 25 pastors from Nicaragua and Costa Rica was Cesar Tapia. Tapia led with 266 baptisms last year while he was overseeing 13 churches in Managua, the capital city of Nicaragua. He said the success of bringing so many into the church has to do with strategizing and planning with his group of church elders and small group leaders regularly every week.

“Each one of my leaders has a notebook binder with the goals, calendar of events and activities in the district, human resources like elders, laypersons, and bible workers, all working together to spread the gospel,” said Tapia. He worked in Managua for 15 years and just this year was moved to Matagalpa in the northwestern part of the country to lead eight churches. Tapia has put together his same method of leading and meets with his leaders every Sabbath afternoon to go over the work plan, training and evangelism reports.

Pastor Cesar Tapia from Nicaragua was honored for baptizing 266 new members into the church in 2015.

“You have to show up, you have to be in it all together,” said Tapia.

Implementing the “Lord Transform Me” initiative across the eight churches he now leads will be easy, said Tapia.

“My team has already been carrying out a structured evangelism plan and it’s a matter of just putting in place these wonderful elements presented here to strengthen the membership through the various departments and ministries within this evangelism initiative,” explained Tapia. “I’m eager and ready take the plan back.”

Eveth Gonzalez, who pastors three churches and two congregations in Panama City, Panama, was also among a group of pastors honored for baptizing dozens of baptism. His count is 215 new members into the church in 2015. Winning souls has not been difficult in the growing melting pot of nationalities found in the capital city of Panama, said Gonzalez. “The challenge is planting churches in new areas,” said Gonzalez. “To do that you have to strategize and raise enough funds to find property and build a church.”

The comprehensive “Lord Transform Me” initiative will give the extra push to getting more members involved in the mission of the church, said Gonzalez. “Our efforts will intensify to motivate more of our members also join together in spreading the gospel.”

For the church in Guatemala, the last details of the “Lord Transform Me” initiative during the summit represents the icing on the cake, said Pastor Guenther Garcia, president of the Guatemala Union. Since October, local church leaders have been travelling throughout the country promoting the “Lord Transform Me” initiative throughout auditoriums, large churches and outdoor gatherings.

Young people from Managua, Nicaragua perform during closing ceremony on May 31, 2016.

“This initiative has been sticking well in the minds of our leaders and church members and we take with us the last details of how to implement the initiative in our territory,” said Garcia. He will meet with administrators and leaders from the eight conference and missions in the country later this month before final implementation starts in the more than 3,750 small groups, and 1,178 churches and congregations.

“We want all of our nearly 245,000 church members to seek a transformation in Christ Jesus and be totally involved sharing the good news of salvation around them,” Garcia said.

With the first “Lord Transform Me” summit series concluded, IAD top leadership prepares for the second summit next week in Cancun, Mexico, where more than 1,200 administrators and pastors from Mexico and Jamaica will meet.

For more information and resources on Inter-America’s “Lord Transform Me” initiative, visit interamerica.org