Dozens of administrators, pastors and lay preachers from the Seventh-day Adventist Church throughout the Inter-American Division (IAD) met during a two-day summit to review evangelism practices and set new strategies to reach more people with the gospel. Called the Best Practices Summit on Evangelism and Retention, the event brought more than 130 leaders to Miami, Florida, Mar. 28-29, 2018.
“We are known in the Adventist world as a very strong division in evangelism, a growing church and a church that does not stop preaching the gospel,” said Pastor Balvin Braham, assistant to the president in evangelism for the church in Inter-America. “Now that we are in that phase in our journey, it is a good moment to stop a little and think about new ways to go forward in evangelism.”
Going forward means determining the soul-winning and conservation methodologies that are being used in various districts, local fields and unions across the IAD territory, explained Braham. It also means evaluating the effectiveness of these methodologies and identifying new ones that may be used in an ongoing discipleship program.
“God has called us as leaders to coach, to figure out what is not working and fix or change it,” said Braham.
What leaders want to see is at least 200,000 or more new members across the territory every year, like it was more than 15 years ago. Last year, the baptismal reach was a little over 168,400.
For that to happen means not only empowering and energizing church members into becoming disciple-makers and getting children and young people more involved, but also finding better methods to preach the gospel in public and small-group settings, said Pastor Braham.
