In Inter-America, ongoing territory-wide audit adjusts total membership; 690,000 names removed from books

A church clerk from the Central Mexican Union displays her church’s records book during a training held recently in Mexico City, Image courtesy of Elie Henry/IAD

October 31, 2015 | Miami, Florida, United States | Libna Stevens/IAD

In his report to the Inter-American Division (IAD) Executive Committee, Executive Secretary Elie Henry reported on the growth of the Seventh-day Adventist Church among its 24 unions or church regions. 1,046,766 new members were added from Jan. 2010 to Jun. 2015, but there was a drop of more than 690,000 members due to auditing of church books, which began across the territory in 2012.

IAD Executive Secretary Dr. Elie Henry presents his report during Year-End Executive Committee meetings on Oct. 29, 2015. Image by Libna Stevens/IAD

The report was presented to more than 140 year-end committee members on Oct. 29, during week-long business meetings held in Miami, Florida.

The two different figures represent the steady evangelism growth in the IAD and the aggressive plan among leaders to keep books more accurate regarding local church membership.

IAD’s membership now stands at 3,606,078 (as of Jun. 2015), with 125 conferences and missions, and 21,179 churches and companies, said Dr. Henry.

Although the intent of the report was not to mainly present an analysis of the previous quinquennium, said Henry, “I was more interested to see where we are at the beginning of the new [five-year] period.”

That beginning indicates a fall in the books because of deaths, missing, dropped, transferred members, and other adjustments, according to Henry. “We are dealing with more real figures of what membership looks like, thanks to the hard work of most of church unions in keeping accurate numbers in the global Adventists Church Management System (ACMS),” explained Henry.

“This is about being honest with ourselves and realizing that we are responsible for those who have left the church,” said Henry. “We are learning who they are so we can proceed in reaching them.”

Reaching them means connecting with them in the best possible way, said Pastor Edgar Redondo, president of the church in North Colombia. North Colombia Union was the first region to begin in the ACMS and the first to complete its implementation across its churches. The union went from 167,000 members to 92,000, that represents 75,000 names dropped from the books of 1,410 churches and congregations.

More than 2,700 church secretarial leaders and members in El Salvador gathered during a special festival to celebrate the work of the…. at the Centro Internacional de Ferias y Convenciones in San Salvador, El Salvador, April 19, 2015. Image by Fabricio Rivera/IAD

“This was the first time in more than 40 years that the books in our churches were checked thoroughly,” said Redondo. Redondo said that they identified some 30,000 of those were members who left the church. The numbers caused some concern but is key information because it helps generate evangelism efforts and resources needed to mobilize leaders and laypersons to intentionally reach those who left, explained Redondo.

“We are determined to rescue our members who left,” Redondo said.

Pastor Abraham Sandoval, executive secretary for the church in the Inter-Oceanic Mexican Union, also agrees with Redondo. His union was also among the five which enrolled all of its conferences, missions and churches into the ACMS computerized network.

“Our local church leaders were trained properly and were clear that auditing church records was not about grabbing a large broom and cleaning out the books without investigating thoroughly,” said Sandoval. The union lost about 12 percent of its membership, which represents some 21,300 members. The total membership as of Sep. is more than 198,000 in its 2,671 churches and companies.

“Now we can have on-target rescue plans to reach members who have left the church, because we are dealing with real numbers,” said Sandoval.

Pastor Gerson Santos, associate secretary of the Adventist World Church, encouraged leaders to get more members involved in sharing the gospel to aid in the fast growing membership. Image by Libna Stevens/IAD

There are ten more unions that have been working on automating its fields and churches into the ACMS, according to Dr. Henry. The Dominican Union, which has reached 60 percent completion among its fields, plans to complete its auditing next year. Guatemala Union also began the process of auditing its books. In one conference alone, membership went from a membership of 18,000 to 6,000 after the audit, church administrators said. The Central Mexican Union has been working on revising its books and the Caribbean Union has began optimizing in some fields, yet the process has been slow, union leaders said.

For the Haitian Union, which boasts the largest membership of any IAD union with more than 433,000, the plan is to complete the auditing of the books by the year 2020. The lack of computer resources in churches across its two large conferences and two missions have slowed the process, said Pastor Pierre Caporal, executive secretary for the church in Haiti. Another factor, like the church records that were lost in the 2010 earthquake, has hindered the process. But leaders have already begun training by bringing awareness to the importance of keeping accurate church records.

Caporal believes the final church figures in Haiti could be larger than the current numbers once the auditing is completed. “Most of our 1,046 churches and congregations have two services every Sabbath and some even three and they are packed to the max,” said Caporal. “So looking at the crowded churches tells us that there could be more members than what we have had in our figures.”

Dr. Elie Henry pointed out during his report that ratio between Adventists per population must be lowered across the IAD territory.

And that is the key to seeing how the church is growing, said Pastor Gerson Santos, associate executive secretary of the Adventist World Church, who is attending the IAD business meetings.

“If more people are registered in the books than show up in church, then the church is dying,” said Santos. “But if you have more people in your pews, your church is growing.”

Santos encouraged the leadership not to be discouraged by the relative lack of pastors and stressed the need for more church members to be actively involved in sharing the gospel in their communities.

Reaching the large population within the territories of the IAD is a major challenge with some 3,400 pastors leading the churches, said Dr. Henry.

The average growth rate the IAD has had throughout the decades has been 6.78 percent, yet during the last 10 years the average growth rate has decreased to 4.16 percent, stated Dr. Henry.

“There is a lot more to conquer in our territories,” challenged Dr. Henry. Dr. Henry cited Colombia, where there is one Adventist per 184 people, Mexico with one in 170, and Venezuela with one out of every 103.

“We need to not only have all our members fully involved in sharing the gospel but our universities, publishing houses, health food companies and hospitals as well,” Dr. Henry said.