October 8, 2006 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States …. [Mark A. Kellner]
The Seventh-day Adventist Church, worldwide, added 1,093,089 new members in the year ending June 30, 2006, Pastor Matthew A. Bediako, executive secretary of the world church, reported to the group's Annual Council on Oct. 8.
On average, 2,993 people joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church every day during that period, roughly the same number as joined in the July 2004 to June 2005 period.
Today, statistics indicate, there is one Seventh-day Adventist Christian for every 444 people on the planet; ten years ago, that ratio was 621 to one. Slightly more than 70 percent of all Seventh-day Adventists live in Africa, the Caribbean and Central and South America, the church's statistical report showed.
This is the fourth year that more than one million people have become Adventists, Bediako said. “With a net membership increase of 497,770, the world membership comes to 14,754,022,” he reported. If current growth trends continue, the world membership should hit 15 million people by early 2007.
“I am confident that we are rapidly approaching the greatest period of soul-winning in our history as a denomination. I am also confident that we shall see what we have hoped for so long-the outpouring of the Spirit of God in all His fullness, with the result that multitudes will soon take their stand for the truth and will join the remnant Church of God in its march to the kingdom,” Bediako said.
As with many Protestant churches, the Seventh-day Adventist Church does not baptize infants, so the number of people attending weekly worship and Bible study, or Sabbath School, classes is believed to be much larger, somewhere between 25 million and 30 million people each week.
“I personally believe that in some areas, we have more people attending church services on Sabbaths than the numbers on our books,” Bediako told those attending the meeting.
At the same time, the church recorded the loss of more than 595,000 members during the same period. Some of these adjustments came from audits of local church membership rolls conducted in six of the world church's 13 trans-national areas, known as divisions, as well as from reports of members who have passed away. Over the past five years, deaths have accounted for approximately 10 percent to 12 percent of annual membership losses, according to a review of statistics provided by the church. Bert Haloviak, world church archives and statistics director, said further adjustments are to be expected as more areas computerize and update membership rolls.
However, officials concede that a portion is due to people who have joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church at one point and then left its ranks. A key element of the church's “Tell the World” program, announced at the 2005 annual council, is to help sustain and grow the faith of existing members, said Gary Krause, a field secretary of the world church and director of the Office of Adventist Mission.
“Although it's important to start new congregations and we have a strong program for church planting,” Krause told ANN, “we must never forget the vital importance of nurturing and caring for new believers. It's one thing to baptize somebody, but we need to help them to grow in their new beliefs and to firmly establish them as disciples of Jesus Christ.”
One part of helping new believers to grow, said Don Noble, a member of the Executive Committee and president of Maranatha Volunteers International, was to help new believers have a church of their own, something which is a hallmark of Maranatha's ministry.
“If they have a church,” Noble said of new congregations, “they're less likely to disperse. A physical building makes a lot of difference to a congregation, and enables them to worship the creator God. It's also a witness to the community.”
Noble spoke of a group of new believers in an evangelized area whose numbers dwindled from 150 following a series of public Bible study meetings to a handful in part because they didn't have a church. When Maranatha followed up, the group helped build a structure. One year later, it was packed with believers and had spawned four satellite Bible study groups.
“A church really is a sheep-fold,” he said. “You need a place to keep the sheep.”
Copyright (c) 2006 by Adventist News Network.