BERT HALOVIAK Director
About 150 years ago, James White wondered
if many would ever receive the truths committed to the Sabbatarian Adventists.
A few weeks later he wrote back that his wife, Ellen, had “seen in vision” that
a great “refreshing” would occur in the future and that the truths committed
to this movement would yet “ring through the land” powerfully.
It is my honor to report to you that the hoped-for time
is now, and indeed the truths of the victory of Christ as embraced by Seventh-day
Adventists are ringing throughout the world powerfully.
This past year, in seeking to fulfill its mission, the Seventh-day
Adventist Church employed almost 166,000 ministers, administrators, educators,
printers, literature evangelists, media specialists, computer operators/programmers,
health-care personnel, health-food specialists, secretaries, business professionals,
and various others. One denominational worker is actively employed for every
66 church members. Millions of lay members in all lands join this group in actively
proclaiming the everlasting gospel to their neighbors.
Seventh-day Adventists conduct gospel work in 204 of the
229 countries and areas of the world recognized by the United Nations. The latest
reports indicate that Seventh-day Adventists publish literature in 310 languages
and dialects and, including the spoken word, proclaim the gospel in 803 languages
and dialects.
Membership Growth
The Seventh-day Adventist Church of today reaps the harvest
begun by our earliest evangelists. Our current numerical growth encompasses
numbers undreamed of by those pioneers of 150 years ago, but is possible because
of the growth base they established. Table 1 dramatically illustrates that exponential
growth by charting the approximate length of time required to increase membership
at half-million increments. To reach the initial membership of 500,000 took
92 years, from 1848—when the seventh-day Sabbath began to become a major focal
point—until 1940. The table traces such growth historically up to the present.
We are currently counting a 500,000-member increase in days instead of years.
The past two half-million gains took seven tenths of a year, or an average of
265 days.
If we were to chart membership increases by 1 million, we
would note that while our first million members took 107.1 years (from 1848
to 1955), our most recent increase of 1 million members occurred in just 530
days (from August 1998 until February 2000).
Tables 2 and 3 exhibit growth rates as percentages for each
world division during this past quinquennium. Rates of growth are the changes
in membership between the beginning of the year and the end of the year, shown
as percentages. The 1999 net membership increase of 775,768 (see Table 9) represents
the highest one-year growth percentage (7.63 percent) since 1986.
On the Horizon: 3,000 Accessions in a Day
This past year was one of the most statistically remarkable
in Seventh-day Adventist history. The baptisms and professions of faith for
1999 (1,090,848) are the most ever recorded. That means that every day on the
average in 1999, 2,989 youth and adults throughout the world publicly acknowledged
their Creator and Redeemer through baptism or profession of faith into the Seventh-day
Adventist Church. That accession rate of 10.73 percent (see Table 5) is the
highest percentage since 1933. (Accession rates give the number of baptisms
and professions of faith for each 100 members at the beginning of the year.)
If an accession rate of at least 10.01 percent is maintained this year, an average
of 3,000 new members will enter the Seventh-day Adventist Church every day during
2000.
Just as the Christian church was formed at the Resurrection
and empowered for its worldwide mission on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2), so
a new community of the Spirit seems to be increasing by 3,000 a day in the midst
of the nations. People today are also hearing the story of Jesus in their own
language. The same Pentecost Spirit that convicted the disciples to share the
good news with people in Jerusalem, Judea, and Samaria, now fills believers
who give the news in Mombasa, Calcutta, Baghdad, Managua, and “the uttermost
parts of the earth” (Mark 13:27).
Table 4 shows the increase of members to the church since
the 1960-1964 period when accessions averaged 295 a day. During this past quinquennium
an average of 2,210 daily decided to join the Seventh-day Adventist Church either
through baptism or profession of faith.
The growth and accession rates for Southern Asia in 1999 (20.65
percent and 21.26 percent) and the double-digit accession figures for five of
the divisions (see Table 5) testify that Adventism is indeed ringing through
the world powerfully. When James White died in 1881, he knew of only 16,500
Seventh-day Adventists in all the world. How would he react today if he knew
that the ratio of Seventh-day Adventists had changed from one Seventh-day Adventist
for every 90,500 in the world in 1881 to one for every 552 in today’s 6,041,000,000
population?
Where New Believers Live
At the San Francisco session in 1962, acting statistical
secretary Elmer Leroy Becker calculated the distribution of Seventh-day Adventist
world membership. The ratio of North American members to world membership was
shifting, he observed. Figures at the end of 1961 revealed that only 26.3 percent
made up the North American Division. “Truly,” he said, “this has become a world
movement.” the figures for the end of 1999 make us even more aware that the
everlasting gospel is to be preached to “all” the nations. Today 91.6 percent
of Seventh-day Adventist believers live outside North America.
Analysis of the divisional location of each of the new believers
helps us consider the future makeup of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Table
6 graphically evidences that we belong to a worldwide church that is increasing
by 3,000 daily. By far the largest number of our new believers come from the
Eastern Africa Division countries of Kenya, Zambia, Zimbabwe, and Tanzania.
East Africa accounts for 706 (almost 24 percent) of the daily baptisms. Each
day 521 accessions (more than 17 percent) take place in South America, while
the Inter-America and Africa-Indian Ocean areas each welcome 494 new Seventh-day
Adventists daily. Some 74 percent of new members, or 2,215 a day, come from
these four divisions.
Additional Perspectives From Our Heritage
Besides the historical reflections already mentioned, we
can gain additional insights from the experience of our predecessors. At the
1950 General Conference session in San Francisco, statistical secretary Claude
Conard rejoiced that the baptisms since the previous session in 1946 totaled
233,166. In 1999, the Lord’s Spirit guided the Eastern Africa Division to welcome
256,766 new believers. That surpassed the total world church baptisms between
1946 and 1950 reported by Conard.
At the 1954 General Conference session, statistical secretary
Henry Klaser reported to the delegates that Seventh-day Adventist membership
throughout the world totaled 924,822. Since the 1995 session, Eastern Africa
has added 928,800 new members. That number exceeds the entire world membership
reported by Klaser in 1954.
At our last session in Utrecht in 1995, Archives and Statistics
director Don Yost reported a membership of 8,382,558 and projected: “If our
church family’s growth continues as in the past, we may rejoice in a membership
of 11 million at the next General Conference session.” I am honored to report
to you that Elder Yost’s analysis was accurate. We surpassed the 11,000,000-member
milestone in the first week of February of this year. Membership currently stands
at about 11,239,000.
Also at that session Elder Yost observed, “If this rate
of increase continues, we may expect 4 million persons to be added to the church
during 1995-1999, or an average of 2,192 a day.” Table 4 reveals that indeed
4,033,978 joined in the quinquennium, and that averaged 2,210 new members every
day for five years. What will the next five years bring? Three thousand new
members a day for five years would mean 5,475,000 new believers by our next
session. If the current growth rate of 7.63 percent continues or even reduces
to an average of six percent for five years, our membership would surpass 15,000,000
by our next session.
Divisions With 2 Million Members?
Table 3 compares the recent membership record of each division
with that of the last General Conference session. The net growth as a percentage
of 1994 membership was greatest within Southern Asia. Its increase of 63.19
percent is more than double that of the church as a whole.
Projections from Table 2 allow us to anticipate that the
year 2000 will inaugurate in two divisions having more than 2 million members
each. Based upon 1999 growth rate percentages, the Inter-American Division should
have reached the 2-million mark in the last week of March, and the Eastern Africa
Division could reach 2 million members near the end of July.
It was not until the 1970 session that statistical secretary
Jesse Gibson projected a 2 million membership to occur shortly after that session.
Not until 1983 did total world membership reach the 4 million mark. Thus, two
of our 12 world divisions today have more members than our total membership
of only 17 years ago.
Those That Leave
At the 1966 session in Detroit statistical secretary Robert
Radcliffe reported that although three new members might join the church, one
within the membership would either choose to leave or be dropped from membership.
The ratio for the past quinquennium is more positive. Between 1995 and 1999,
4,033,978 joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church by baptism or profession of
faith, and 983,064 chose to leave or were dropped from membership. That means
that for every 100 that joined during the quinquennium, 24 left.
The membership gains and losses figures for 1999 presented
in Table 9 are yet more encouraging. If we take the dropped and missing for
1999 (182,003) and compare it with the new members (1,090,848) we come to a
figure of approximately 17 subtracted for every 100 added. That is a more positive
figure than we have had in past years. We are challenged to create communities
where none will choose to leave.
The Challenge of Growth
Here is another reflection from our history. Statistical
secretary Henry Klaser rejoiced at the 1958 Cleveland session that Seventh-day
Adventists had finally entered the billion-dollar category. By adding together
all the tithes, foreign mission offerings, Sabbath school offerings, Ingathering,
home missions offerings, offerings for Faith for Today and the Voice of Prophecy,
and all local church funds and expense offerings from 1863 to the close of 1957
(94 years), he could report an amount of $1,075,095,762.14.
Contributions for 1999 as reflected in Table 7 totaled $1,605,715,044.
That is the largest amount contributed any year and constitutes a per capita
giving of $168.32. Table 8 reveals that the highest level of per capita giving
($202.32) was recorded in 1981.
Total contributions since the last session amounted to $7,347,272,729,
and 1999 was the first year in which total tithe receipts surpassed the billion-dollar
mark at $1,030,159,364. Staggering as these figures are, however, they illustrate
what Don Yost at our last session called the “challenge” of growth. He noted
that the “variation in resources is mind-boggling.” It is still so. Today the
average income of a believer living in the United States is 43 times that of
a fellow believer in Tanzania. Obviously that impacts the per capita giving
between the various divisions. In 1999 one division reported a per capita tithe
and offering result of $1,115.39, while another reported per capita giving of
$5.64. A total of six divisions reported per capita results of less than $75
for 1999. These divisions comprise 63 percent of total church membership.
The financial disparity surely gives relevance to the counsel
of the author of Hebrews: “Do not neglect to do good and to share what you have,
for such sacrifices are pleasing to God” (Heb. 13:16, RSV). Our heritage reveals
that such counsel is taken very seriously by the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Financial Statements and Fiscal Well-being
Even as growth rates, accessions, and church membership
figures reflect the numerical expansion of the church, so do assets, liabilities,
and net worth image the financial stability from which the work of the church
is conducted. Tables 10-15 (10, 11 12, 13, 14, 15) are drawn from information found in 1,699 financial
statements for the fiscal year ending in 1998. In 129 cases unaudited statements
were used for these summaries, and in 350 cases current financial statements
were unavailable, so the latest available data was used.
Table 10 reveals that at the close of fiscal year 1998,
denominational assets exceeded $13.2 billion and represent a 33 percent increase
over 1993. Although liabilities increased 9.34 percent, or $436 million, the
net worth of all denominational entities excluding churches and primary schools
rose to $8.1 billion.
Tables 11 and 12 compare the relationship of assets, liabilities,
net worth, and operating results from selected periods beginning in 1915 until
1998. Latest figures provide evidence of financial improvement. The statements
for 1988 represented a record liability of $52.85 for every $100 in assets.
That figure has now been reduced to $38.55, a strengthening of $14.30 over 1988
and $8.37 from that of 1993. The current ratio of assets to liabilities thus
shows a very positive upturn.
Tables 13 and 14 give a comparative listing of assets and
liabilities for each division for 1993 and 1998, and Table 15 recapitulates
all organizations except primary schools and local churches by division and
by lines of work. The positive results testify to the dedication of the financial
managers in their stewardship over the financial and property assets of the
Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Conclusion
I believe that James White would find the general and financial
statistics outlined in this report to be overwhelming evidence of God’s guidance
over the Seventh-day Adventist Church. He would rejoice to know that world church
membership today approximates 50 percent of the entire population of the United
States in 1849. I also believe that he would regard the acceptance of the gospel
by one individual to be truly a miracle from heaven, and he would challenge
us to continue to recognize that God “desires everyone to be saved and to come
to the knowledge of the truth” (1 Tim. 2:4, NRSV).
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