700 Baptized as a Church Experiences Revival in Chile

This is remarkable for a city where it isn’t easy to baptize, says evangelist Robert Costa.

By Andrew McChesney, Adventist Mission

A local Seventh-day Adventist church in Chile that was badly damaged in an earthquake is experiencing a miraculous revival as members pray and reach out to neighbors, church leaders said.

The church in one of Chile’s largest cities, Concepción, has witnessed the baptism of more than 700 people this year, including 327 after a recent evangelistic series.

This is a remarkable result in a highly educated and secular city where it is not easy to baptize anyone, said Robert Costa, associate secretary for the Adventist world church’s Ministerial Association, who led the “Living Hope” (Esperanza Viva) evangelistic series in the Concepción Central Church on Nov. 19-26.

“The church experienced a revival that had not happened in a long time because the formula for true revival was followed,” Costa said.

He said the three-part formula included much intercessory prayer, much effort to expose people to the Bible, and much study of the Bible.

“The church even prepared a well-decorated room exclusively for prayer, with carpets and cushions on the floor, and people and groups were constantly praying in that place,” he said in an e-mailed statement.

Evangelistic meetings have long been a driving force of Adventist mission, but the world church has placed a renewed emphasis on them in recent years. Last May, three weeks of meetings at more than 2,200 cites across Rwanda culminated in the baptism of an unprecedented 100,777 people. A similarly large campaign is planned for Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova, Armenia, Georgia, and Ukraine in February 2017.

“Our evangelism and missionary work for others is to increase as we come closer to Christ’s soon Second Coming,” said Ted N.C. Wilson, president of the Adventist world church.

“The Holy Spirit can work in marvelous ways when the Word of God is presented in a clear, concise, and winsome manner,” Wilson told Adventist Mission. “The timeliness and power of God’s salvation story is profound. It is heaven-blessed.”

Months of Preparation

It takes months of prayer and preparation for a church to organize an evangelistic series like the one in Concepción, said Jerry Page, secretary of the Adventist world church’s Ministerial Association.

“It takes a good year for a church to generally get ready, with laypeople doing much of the work,” Page said. “Total Member Involvement and a lot of prayer are key to the places that see such good results.”

Groundwork for the Concepción meetings began with prayer and Bible studies about a year in advance, said Costa, who led 13 evangelistic series worldwide in 2016. With oversight from union and conference leaders, church members actively embraced Total Member Involvement, a world church initiative that calls on each member to find a way to share Jesus with others.

“The whole church was involved from the beginning in a comprehensive way, each one using their gifts,” Costa said.

Church members at the Concepción Central Church, which was rebuilt after a devastating 2010 earthquake, were assisted by 24 third-year theology students from the Clilean Adventist University. The students assisted with Bible studies at 18 churches in the city and surrounding region.

“They supported the churches since October,” said Tomas Parra Contreras, a church spokesman in Chile. “Many people who made a decision to be baptized were guided by those students.”

When the main evangelistic meetings opened on Nov. 19, the church was packed to capacity with 1,200 people. More than 400 people were denied entrance for lack of space. It was a milestone in the city of 293,000 residents and 8,500 Adventists.

“In Concepción, this was a true miracle,” Costa said.

On the second night, church leaders decided to hold two services, and both were filled to capacity.

Stories of Changed Lives

Among those who attended the meetings was the pastor of six Sunday-keeping churches who has decided to observe the biblical, seventh-day Sabbath, Costa said. One of his churches is meeting on Sabbath in recognition that it is the day of the Lord.

A hospital volunteer accepted Jesus after witnessing the power of prayer, Costa said. The volunteer was caring for a prominent engineer whose body had rejected a new liver after an emergency transplant and had been given hours to live. The church learned of his case and prayed fervently for him on Sabbath morning.

“Miraculously, his body accepted the new liver at the same time,” Costa said.

The hospital volunteer was baptized the last day in the meetings. Ten of her volunteer friends attended her baptism in uniform and enrolled in Bible studies.

A teenager, who himself was earlier baptized through the efforts of chaplains at his Adventist school, brought his mother to Christ.

“When I asked him, standing next to the baptistery during his mother’s baptism, what would be next, his response was: ‘Now we will go for our grandfather. He is next,’” Costa said.

Costa said Concepción’s story could be repeated in any Adventist church that becomes a center of evangelism through “Pulpit of Hope,” a strategy by Costa and evangelist Mark Finley.

Read “Pulpit of Hope” by Robert Costa and Mark Finley (PDF)

“In a nutshell, it envisages pastors and elders doing evangelism from our pulpits on Sabbath mornings most of the year,” Costa told Adventist Mission. “I practiced that for 22 years as pastor in the North American Division, never spent a dollar in evangelism, had baptisms almost all year around, and planted many churches.

Meanwhile, the Concepción church, which had 909 members when its outreach work began a year ago, is already drawing up big plans for 2017.

“They are already talking about Concepción 2.0,” Costa said.

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Related resources:

Read "Projects of Kindness" by Robert Costa (PDF)

Read "Witnessing for Jesus in a Practical Way" by Robert Costa (PDF)