Outreach through small groups is an asset to the movement, declared Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, during a meeting with local church leaders in Lima, Peru, on Sept. 4.
Outreach through small groups is an asset to the movement, declared Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, during a meeting with local church leaders in Lima, Peru, on Sept. 4. “This is where the people form friendships and gain understanding [of] how the church functions. This is where they receive nurture.”
In Peru, with a membership exceeding 675,000, and in other countries visited by the world church president, local Adventist leaders expressed the conviction that bringing people to the church through small groups means “providing the essential nurture,” and is an “effective way of preservation of the believers.”
Seventh-day Adventists in South America represent a vibrant and fast-growing community that today exceeds 2.1 million members. The small group ministry is considered to be a major part of the church’s “phenomenal growth,” Paulsen noted.
“What I experienced in the countries I visited in South America is a church that shows growth numerically, but one that has developed an ability to respond to the various needs of the people. Here I found the church strong,” Paulsen told Adventist News Network. Paulsen also noted that “in the past the church in South America was heavily supported by missionaries from outside. Today, this church is able to support the mission in other parts of the world.”
Paulsen’s 10-day pastoral visit to South America, Aug. 28 to Sept. 7, took him to the north of Brazil, including the Amazon region [see ANN report, September 2], and Bolivia, Peru and Ecuador.
This visit was “like a benediction to our church,” said Ruy Nagel, president of the Adventist Church in South America, with headquarters in Brasilia, Brazil. He commented that the world church president experienced the church here “directly and personally. And that’s different than what you see on TV.”
Nagel sees the future of the church in South America in the context of “involvement of all laity with their pastors. That’s where we need to be. We must involve ourselves helping people to stay in the church and not just bringing them to the church. This is a task for both the church members and the ministers.
“When we provide quality of life for our believers in the church, they share it with others. This helps other people to grow and that’s where they receive a sense of being important,” Nagel commented on the church’s outreach to the communities that it serves.
On Sept. 3, Pastor Paulsen spoke at an evening convocation, “Trophies of Victory,” a joyful celebration of the baptism of 1,076 persons, the majority of whom were the “fruit of our small group approach,” said one of the local leaders. Thousands of people came from many parts of the country to meet the world church leader. This was the first visit of the church president to Bolivia.
Paulsen also participated in an inauguration of a library and laying a symbolic brick in the construction of a multi-function complex at the Bolivia Adventist University, perhaps the largest higher-education center of the world Adventist Church with 6,500 students.
“We thank you for accepting our invitation to participate in opening this ‘temple of knowledge,’” said Eric Monnier, president of the church in Bolivia. In recent years, the Adventist Church in Bolivia has experienced an accelerated growth and, today, with more than 130,000 members, is the second largest denomination, after the Roman Catholic Church, in a nation of 8.5 million. The witnessing work of the church in Bolivia is supported on a large scale by media ministry, including radio and television. In Cochabamba, the church operates a highly advanced media center.
Paulsen spent the final two days of his visit in Ecuador, another “first” for him in South America. Following a standing-room-only spiritual convocation with 7,000 church members in Quito, he flew to Guayaquil to officiate at a baptism of the 52,000th church member in Ecuador.
Church growth in Ecuador faces a challenge of affluence, similar to other parts of the world, including south Brazil and western nations. The world church leader brought words of encouragement to the church and commended it on ways of influencing change in the communities it serves.
Throughout the pastoral visit, Paulsen was introduced to numerous members of the church who are involved in varied witnessing initiatives, working with people representing different social groups and interests.
There was Nadia, a 12-year old girl who witnesses to her friends in school in Lima, Peru. A businessman from Santa Cruz, Bolivia, producer of potato chips by day, cannot imagine himself not being involved with the small groups ministry. A similar testimony comes from Manaus, Brazil, where Onilza Abreu Gerth, a judge, runs a weekly group meeting at her mother’s home. The group of 80 individuals is ready to become a new congregation. Or, take Jonathan James de Souza, 16, whose ministry brought more than 600 people to Christ. These were but a few witnesses for Christian commitment and creative involvement with church mission alive in the communities where they live, work or study.
“This is evangelism,” said Pastor Ricardo Palcio, church youth leader in Ecuador. Behind him were two soccer teams participating in “church olympics.”
“We play here every Sunday and the only prerequisite to joining our competition is that each team must bring at least four players who are not Adventist.” Within two weeks of the competition, the teams begin Bible studies and several players have already joined the church family.
Paulsen’s visit to South America underscored the foundational principles of Adventist witness and involvement in mission. The church bears a testimony to the fact of “meeting people where they are,” and particularly those experiencing privation and living in very basic circumstances, “where they are given a sense of values, where Christ is being communicated to them.” Paulsen added that “not only [should we] look at numbers, but at the effectiveness of touching the lives of people, bringing them joy, completeness and hope.”
