Inter-American Division

Mexico City, Mexico
(Also several other cities with more than five million inhabitants such as Bogota, Caracas, and Guatemala City.)

On the matter of the big cities, our challenge is enormous, since we have many cities with more than five million inhabitants such as Bogotá, Caracas and Guatemala City. It is our plan to tackle these cities at the same time as Mexico City, for we cannot afford to wait. The population in our division is migrating to the cities, and that’s where the financial future of these nations is.

Specifically on Mexico City, we are convinced that just regular evangelism is not enough. We have a permanent evangelist stationed in Mexico City on the division payroll, but we need to do far more than that. We are taking a page from cities such as Sao Paulo in the South American Division and have created another mission near Mexico City. This is to free the Metropolitan Conference in Mexico City from all responsibilities of caring for areas outside of the city. This has proven to be a blessing, because now the conference leaders do not have to worry about the work outside of the city.

The approaches that work in the city are not necessarily workable outside the city, and because church growth outside the city is easier, attention and resources were diverted to those areas more than in the city itself. By not having other areas, the conference must concentrate on reaching the city dwellers now. We are planning to make the units in the city smaller, in order to be more concentrated on specific areas of the city.

Israel Leito
president, Inter-American Division