The year 2021 started with a strong hope that the pandemic was in its final moments. However, even with vaccination advancements from the second half of the year, health restrictions still required creativity and innovation, as well as a lot of faith, to continue the work of preaching the gospel.
However, despite the difficulties, 214,079 people became Seventh-day Adventists last year. Of this group, 31,834 people had already been baptized at some time before, but for some reason, ceased to be part of the denomination. Now, they're back.
Bible Studies
When put in numbers, it can be more difficult to perceive the individuality of each story, but this is the result of the joint work of several missionary activities that propose to teach the Bible. Alice Boechat got to know the Adventist Church while watching her mother watch one of the TV shows on Novo Tempo (NT). Within minutes, she felt there was something there about which she needed to know more.
Some time later, Boechat received in one of her WhatsApp groups the link to study the Bible with Esperança, the virtual assistant of the NT Bible School. "I studied all the courses continuously and successively, such as Vida da Cristo, Apocalipse, and I kept all the certificates given to me," she remembers.
For Boechat, the method was very effective. "The course is very easy to assimilate for Christians who are not used to in-depth, genuine Bible study. The questions are thought-provoking and make direct reference to the biblical text provided in writing, very clearly," she points out.
Like Boechat, 52,007 students took one or more courses through this platform. If the numbers of personal Bible studies are added, those in which the local church is directly involved, those sent by TV and Rádio Novo Tempo through the website biblia.com.br, or those sent by correspondence at the request of interested people, there are 878,856 students in the period between January and December 2021.
"We learned from recent events that the church always finds ways to fulfill the mission. The meetings can be quarantined, but the mission, never. Therefore, we exploit the resources we have and turn them into mission opportunities. People are reached by different methods and different contexts. Therefore, we need to add strategies that are connected with time and situation," emphasizes Rafael Rossi, Adventist Church evangelist for eight South American countries.
New Congregations
In all, there are about 2.5 million Adventists spread across Argentina, Brazil, Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru, and Uruguay, and they occupy almost 30 thousand congregations. Of these, 675 were born last year.
These numbers surpass the achievements of 2020, which means the Seventh-day Adventist Church remains active and seeks to provide biblical knowledge and new spiritual life to anyone who is interested.
"To reach different people, there are different ways of using the method of Christ. We continue to invest and discover new strategies. The church has shown that it is possible to continue fulfilling the mission and grow, even in difficult times like the one we are experiencing in South America. We saw the Holy Spirit working in lives and allowing the church to keep moving," emphasizes Stanley Arco, president of the Adventist Church in South America.
This article was originally published on the South American Division’s news site