February 7, 2020 | Miami, Florida, United States | Libna Stevens/IAD
Thousands of church elders across Seventh-day Adventist local congregations throughout the Inter-American Division (IAD) will get a chance to complete their third year of a special certification program to equip them to better assist pastors in leading more than 23,000 churches and congregations. The nearly four-hour event will be held on Saturday, February 15, 2020, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m.
“Our reality in Inter-America is that church elders are key in working hand-in-hand with pastors in leading so many congregations,” said Pastor Josney Rodríguez, ministerial association secretary for the church in Inter-America. “It is important that elders have new skills and are prepared, trained, and adapted to the times in which we live and the challenges that the church is living today,” he added.
The church needs elders with pastoral skills in teaching, ministering, preaching and administrating, and it’s important to continue the certification program for them, said Rodríguez. So far, there are more than 37,000 church elders registered under the certification program which began in 2017, and will move to the next level of certification next year with training under the IAD leadership and also hours trained under the union leadership, explained Rodríguez.
Conference and mission fields will gather its local church elders in auditoriums, offices and large churches to ensure they have the opportunity to be part of the live certification program.
Pastor Jonas Arrais, associate ministerial association for the Adventist world church, will be one of the keynote speakers along with IAD leaders during the online program.
The online event, which will be in Spanish, English, and French will also honor outstanding churches which have certified all of its elders, include a Q&A session and feature reports from throughout Inter-America.
To view the online program on Sabbath, February 15, 2020, from 2:00 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Miami Time, visit webcast.interamerica.org