oelene Johnsson, one of the reporters at our last General Conference session, reflected on the Southern Africa Union video clips of an Adventist orphanage for children with HIV. These children in South Africa, she observed, are surrounded with love. They are not expected to live past their fifth birthday and will never enter any Seventh-day Adventist statistical report. It is that spirit reflected by Adventists throughout the world, indicted by the blessings of heaven, that accounts for our amazing statistical growth within the past half-century. Exhibiting that spirit, Dr. Leslie Scofield, American captain and medical doctor of the Amazon medical launch Luminar II, observed in 1961, "During the past five years we have organized one church, four church groups, four schools, and baptized about 156 souls. We have treated 100,000 people, and pulled 30,000 teeth. We now have three very simple medical posts along the river, and are building more."
That heritage continues. At the 1995 session, South American Division President Joao Wolff told us, "We operate orphanages for street children in Brazil and educational programs for more than 40,000 needy children in Bolivia and Peru. We also provide the services of 21 launches on the rivers in the Amazon region. These actions constitute an indisputable statement for the Adventist Church's Christian commitment in South America." General Conference
Secretary G Ralph Thompson told members at that same session, "Mission-driven people should feel compassion for the hungry, the poor, the oppressed, refugees, lepers, and those suffering from AIDS."
The Lord has indeed blessed our community of mission-driven people as we have ministered throughout the world. This report must, however, limit itself to emphasizing the solely statistical component of those blessings. Yet it does so by re?ecting upon the rich mission heritage our predecessors have left us.
Where Our Members Live
At the 1962 session General Conference Secretary, Walter R Beach rejoiced that six of the 13 world divisions had grown to a membership of more than 100,000 each. And at that session he marveled at the total denominational membership of 1,307,892. At the 1990 session Inter-American Division President George W Brown informed the delegates that on June 30, 1987, Inter-America became the ?rst division of the world church to reach a membership of 1 million. Chart 1 re?ects the 2004 yearend membership of each of our current world divisions only 42 years after the observation by Beach.
We can see that four of our current 13 divisions each have a membership higher than the entire denomination at the time of Beach's observation. At the end of 2004 six of the current world divisions surpassed the 1 million membership mark and of those, three fellowship more than 2 million members.
During this past quinquennium, the North American Division attained 1-million-member status. It became the sixth world division to shepherd more than 1 million members within its territory. The Southern Asia Division is poised to reach that status in the coming quinquennium.
The East-Central Africa, Inter-American, and South American Divisions all surpassed the two-million-member total this past quinquennium, and the Southern Africa-Indian Ocean Division is on the horizon to do so by the time we next meet in General Conference session.
Today it is not just divisions that are reaching the 1-million-member mark. Countries are doing so as well. Brazil did so this past quinquennium, and India, the Philippines, and the United States are poised to do so within the next ?ve years.
Where Our Newest Members Live
In his report to the delegates at the 1958 General Conference session, President Reuben R Figuhr called the 1954 to 1957 period "a quadrennium of progress." That period set a new record for accessions with 332,444 and a new average daily baptism record of 227 for the past four years. The average number of daily baptisms between 1954 and 2004 is noted in Chart 2. Because of the commitment of those who preceded us, today we are able to rejoice in more than 5 million accessions during the past quinquennium for a daily average of 2,765 new members. The daily average of accessions for 2004 was 2,933, perhaps indicating a strong trend for the future.
Walter Beach again made exciting statistical observations in his report to the 1966 General Conference session. He noted that the then Trans-Africa Division established a new record for accessions of more than 100,000 during the four years since the 1962 session. Again, we reap the momentum generated by our predecessors. During this past quinquennium eight of the 13 world divisions recorded more than 100,000 accessions. Another new record occurred when the South American Division celebrated more than 1 million new members entering its membership rolls. Chart 3 lists the accessions by divisions for the quinquennium and for 2004.
Chart 4 notes the base divisions where those newest Seventh-day Adventists live. Expressed on a scale of 100, we can see that 38 of our newest members live in Latin America, and 34 live within the African divisions.
Twelve live in Southern Asia, six in Southern Asia-Pacific, about six in North America, and the remainder live in the Euro-Africa, Euro-Asia, Northern Asia-Pacific, South Pacific, and Trans-European divisions. The location of our newest members surely emphasizes the worldwide nature of the gospel we proclaim.
World Population to Member Ratios
At the 1962 General Conference session, Secretary Beach informed the delegates about ratios. Whereas 30 years before, 5,732 persons existed for every Seventh-day Adventist, by 1962 that ratio had fallen to 2,154 to 1. The Australasian Division had the best ratio, of 257 to 1, and North America maintained a 572 to 1 ratio.
Today we can report that at the end of 2004, for every 459 persons dwelling on our planet, there was one Seventh-day Adventist. If we view the ratios at the end of 2003, where more complete data is currently available, we see further cause for rejoicing. Chart 5 gives ratios for each of the world divisions at the end of 2003, and Chart 6 notes various country ratios.
During this quinquennium the Southern Africa- Indian Ocean Division replaced the South Pacific Division as the division with the highest density of Seventh-day Adventists to general population. Chart 5 shows Southern Africa-Indian Ocean having a 79 to 1 ratio, while South Pacific shows 87 to 1.
The Quinquennium of 5 Million Gains and Almost 1.5 Million Losses
For the ?rst time in our history Seventh-day Adventists received into membership more than 5 million new believers within a ?ve-year period. During that same period, however, more than 1.4 million left our community. During this quinquennium we grew from a membership of 10,939,182 at the beginning of 2000 to 13,936,932 at the end of 2004. Yet, not since the period 1960 to 1964 has our growth rate of 4.9 percent been as low. Chart 7 ("Membership Retention Analysis 2000-2004") depicts our losses division by division. The bottom line for this quinquennium is that for every 100 accessions, more than 35 others decided to leave. That is considerably more than the 24 subtracted for every 100 added as reported at our last session. There were extenuating circumstances, however.
A subtitle to this quinquennium might be "The Quinquennium of Church Membership Audits." During the past ?ve years a majority of the world divisions have undertaken the painful responsibility of church membership audits. The resulting careful look at local church membership records has shown a decrease in the veri?able baptized church membership of more than 800,000 during this quinquennium. However, an average annual growth rate of 4.97 percent during this quinquennium, despite the audits, suggests that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is poised for a period of major growth in the near future now that our membership rolls are more accurately re?ected.
New Categories in Tithes and Offerings
At the 1958 Cleveland General Conference session, statistical secretary Henry Klaser rejoiced 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 mission 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.
Compare that to the most recent reporting year of this quinquennium. The North American Division alone surpassed Klaser's 94-year total by more than $117 million. While our office does not break down the total to the penny, as did Klaser, we can affirm that during the past quinquennium we received tithe and offering reports from the divisions for $9,023,988,491. This means that on the average, every day during this quinquennium, Seventhday Adventist members contributed
$4,941,267 to spread the gospel message. In any one day of this past quinquennium on the average, our members thus contributed more than that received by the church in its initial 34 years (from 1863 to 1896).
Audited 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 reflect the financial stability from which the work of the church is conducted. The figures exhibited in Chart 8 are drawn from information found in 1,882 financial statements for the fiscal year ending 2003. In 85 cases unaudited statements were used for these summaries, and in 413 cases current financial statements were unavailable, so the latest available data was used.
Information from Chart 8 reveals that at the close of fiscal year 2003, denominational assets approached $17.3 billion and represented a 30.6 percent increase over the audited statements available at our last General Conference session. The net worth of all denominational entities, excluding churches and primary schools, rose from slightly more than $8 billion last session to slightly more than $10 billion as currently reported.
Conclusion
As we look back on our last halfcentury of mission, we see our predecessors developing new evangelistic tools: television ministry through Faith for Today, airplane evangelism, Five-Day Plan evangelism, open-heart team evangelism, medical mission launches, orphanages, and other innovative means of alleviating the suffering of the world while pointing toward a perfect kingdom of the future. As we develop the innovative tools of the future, we recognize that we are the inheritors of the blessings that God has poured upon our predecessors and continues to give in the advancement of the Kingdom.
General statistics compiled by Kathleen Jones; assisted by Carole Proctor
Financial statistics compiled by Meredith Parish
Charts 1, 4, and 7 developed by Jonathan Brauer
