Inter-American Division

In Mexico, Adventist Church Elders Prepare for Major Evangelism Efforts and Record Baptisms

Church leaders estimate that more than 38,000 new believers will join the church in the first four months of the year.

February 23, 2025

Mexico

Yosainy Oyaga, Uriel Castellanos, and Inter-American Division News

Church elders from the Soconusco Conference in Chiapas, Mexico, are prayed for during a dedication session during a special evangelism training session on January 11, 2025. Some 8,000 church elders and leaders across the Chiapas Mexican Union territory gathered Jan. 10-18, at auditoriums, churches and centers to be inspired, trained and commit doubling efforts to spread the gospel with a goal of baptizing more than 38,000 new believers during the first four months of the year.

Photo: Chiapas Mexican Union Media

The Seventh-day Adventist Church in Chiapas, Mexico, has begun training and empowering its local church elders across its more than 3,000 churches in preparation for intense evangelistic efforts aimed at reaching a historic number of baptisms by the end of April.

Around 8,000 ordained elders gathered at various locations across the nine regional fields from January 10–18, 2025, to be inspired, trained, and further committed to the mission during an unprecedented evangelistic impact, reported Ignacio Navarro, president of the Chiapas Mexican Union.

Ignacio Navarro (second from right), president of the Chiapas Mexican Union, speaks to hundreds of local church elders and leaders at the church’s Las Sauces Camp during his visit and administrators of the Upper Chiapas Conference.

“Our leaders, our elders, are ready to move forward powerfully under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to bring the gospel message to every home, family, and person in the state of Chiapas,” said Navarro. “We will come together for evangelistic impact days throughout February and March, and prepare for great evangelistic reaping efforts from April 19–26 across all the churches in Chiapas.”

Evangelistic Training Sessions Through Chiapas

The caravan of training sessions offered ordained church elders spiritual messages, motivating them to draw closer to God and pursue a deeper commitment to the mission wherever they serve. Elders and active church members gathered in Tapachula, Pueblo Nuevo Solistahuacán, Pichucalco, Palenque, Cintalapa, Tuxtla Gutiérrez, and Comitán.

Each session saw 700–1,200 local church leaders learning about the current challenges the church faces, how to better mobilize and involve church members in evangelism through programs and initiatives, and more.

More than 1,100 church leaders from the Soconusco Conferences meet on Jan. 11, 2025, at the Sinai Camp Auditorium during the caravan training session led by Inter-American Division leaders and Chiapas Mexican Union leaders.

These special evangelistic training sessions were part of a territory-wide missionary agenda led by the Chiapas Mexican Union in coordination with the Inter-American Division (IAD) to intensify the spreading of the gospel for a grand baptismal celebration in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, on April 26, 2025.

Church leaders estimate that more than 38,000 new believers will join the church in the first four months of the year.

During his visit to Chiapas, Balvin Braham, vice president of the IAD overseeing evangelism, encouraged church elders to reinforce their commitment together.

“God is calling you to be part of this wonderful work of preparing others for the Kingdom of Heaven,” said Braham. “We are promoting ‘All the Family in Mission’ and praying for the outpouring of the Holy Spirit through this beautiful endeavor. The goal was set to baptize more than 20,000 people in these four months, but your Chiapas Union has set a goal of reaching 38,612.”

Braham shared that, on April 26, leaders estimated that more than 70,000 people would be baptized across the IAD territory.

Balvin Braham, vice president of the Inter-American Division overseeing evangelism, addresses local church leaders to intensify their commitment in mobilizing church members in their congregations to fully engage in the spreading the gospel in their communities.

Mobilizing Leaders and Members

Union leaders said this is the first time the church in the Chiapas Mexican Union has attempted to mobilize so many of its members for so many baptisms in just four months. In 2024 alone, nearly 23,000 baptisms were held across churches in Chiapas.

“Every year, our union holds a special caravan focused on empowering local church leaders, but this year, it was specifically about empowering elders and church leaders in the evangelistic plan we’ve coined ‘Hope Inter-America: Heaven Awaits You,’” explained Navarro.

Ordained church elders hold their new specially designed bibles at a Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Bosques Mission, on Jan. 14, 2025. Ordained church elders each received a backpack with the bible, bible study lessons, and a new baptismal bathrobe to use when they baptize new believers into the church in the next few weeks.

The evangelistic caravan sessions featured 160 baptisms, the result of intensive efforts early in January. The program included musical concerts and presentations from IAD department directors and Chiapas Mexican Union administrators and department leaders.

Participants expressed their joy at the opportunity to be part of this historic event.

Reactions from Ordained Church Elders

Orbin Gutiérrez, an elder at Copainalá II Adventist Church for 30 years, shared his enthusiasm.

“For me, this has been a beautiful experience, and I thank God that the church gives us the opportunity to participate in such a special event where we can baptize at the district level. It is a great joy and privilege.”

To of the 14 new believers get ready to be baptized by empowered church elders during the training session held at Grijalva Conference during a special ceremony in Tuxtla Gutiérrez, Chiapas, Mexico, on Jan. 16, 2025.

Levi Morales of Las Nubes Adventist Church in the Soconusco Conference, who has been ordained as an elder for one year, said he cannot explain exactly the joy he feels at being part of such a large-scale evangelistic effort.

“This first event profoundly impacted me because of the empowerment that the conference and union are giving us to baptize and welcome those to whom we have been sharing Bible studies into the church,” said Morales.

“This is a privilege that the church is giving us, and I’m so thankful to God for this opportunity to baptize and bring my daughter before the feet of the Lord,” said Luis Alonso Jiménez, a church elder from the Central Adventist Church in the Honduras District of the Upper Chiapas Conference.

Singers from the Chiapas Mexican Union’s Choir perform during a concert as part of the evangelism training sessions held at the church’s Las Sauces Camp in Upper Chiapas Conference, Chiapas, Mexico. The choir traveled across the nine local fields across Chiapas from Jan. 10-18, 2025.

Uziel Roblero, an ordained church elder from the Central Chiapas Conference, said he experienced the joy of baptizing his older sister, Emma Roblero.

“It is my first time baptizing, and it was such a special experience,” he said. “I thank God for her and the opportunity to take part in this special baptismal ceremony.” Emma shared that she felt blessed and happy to have been baptized by her younger brother and for “giving her life to God.”

Each trained church elder in Chiapas received a special backpack with a Bible, Bible study lessons sets, and ordained elders received a baptismal robe.

Hundreds of pastors, evangelists, and theology students from Montemorelos University and Linda Vista will lead evangelistic campaigns throughout the 3,000 Adventist churches in Chiapas from April 19–26, ahead of the thousands of baptisms to be held on Apr. 26, 2025.

The original article was published on the Inter-American Division news site.