From July 19 to 23, Walter Castro visited several churches in our Federation. Starting with the Spanish-speaking church on Friday evening, he continued the next day with the international church. While Belgium celebrated its national day on July 21, he took the opportunity to meet the churches in Luxembourg before concluding with a pastoral meeting open to all on Tuesday, July 23.
During his four interventions, Walter Castro sparked several points of reflection. His favorite topics: church planting and leadership. Walter Castro is the director of ‘lay pastors’ in Florida and was invited in this capacity by David Carballo, head of the Training & Mission Pole.
Using the biblical example where Jesus removes his garment to serve his disciples by washing their feet, he demonstrated how important and even necessary it is to break with certain traditions in order to create something new. He also highlighted the importance of education, cultural context, and sensitivity to music, clothing, and cuisine, which can be both obstacles and springboards in an evangelistic approach or even in church cohesion.
Another aspect of his presentations addressed the shortage of religious leaders, noting that several religions face the same issue. One potential solution is to entrust more responsibilities to lay members. This is how Florida became the birthplace of the pilot project “VLP” in our Adventist world. VLP stands for “Volunteer Lay Pastors”, summarizing in three words this innovative concept of officially entrusting the management of certain churches to motivated and competent volunteer lay members. The collaboration, both with the reference pastor and with the Federation, is well-defined and demanding, following clear and precise guidelines that, for example, require participation in mandatory continuous training modules. The VLPs are appointed for one year and manage their church autonomously without being completely independent or abandoned by their Federation.
Although these presentations by Walter Castro have given much food for thought to our members and pastors, it is clear that they must mature and find their way within the complexity of our small Federation. But we thank Walter Castro for challenging us, prompting us, and reminding us of our primary mission: to make disciples of all nations.