North American Adventist Church Growth: The Untold Story
by Danny Bell
Church dignitaries anxious to capitalise on apparent gains in our worldwide movement have again given false impressions of the health of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The virus was first picked up in Australia when Church leaders there began trumpeting results from the most recent Australian Census indicating the Adventist Church in Australia was the fastest growing denomination. Like a fever, these fantastic reports have circled the globe, despite the statistical evidence from the Church archives telling an entirely different and grim picture. [1]
Despite the warnings I gave in my earlier article, the virus is still alive. At a regional meeting recently I again listened in disbelief as a church representative brought to the attention of the congregation the news that North America was doing exceptionally well and that we should be proud of our movement. This was based on an article in USA Today, indicating that the Adventist Church was growing at the fastest pace of any Christian denomination in the country. [2] This led me to squirm in my seat, as I was witnessing yet another message of misinformation, giving average church members a false sense of security.
First consider a few facts from the general population in the US. A recent Gallup Poll indicated that 77 percent of Americans identify with Christianity and 18 percent have no religious affiliation. [3] This survey finding is consistent with other studies near this figure and the observations of many analysts that those who no longer believe have increased substantially. [4]
There is dispute about church attendance among American Christians. Researchers challenge the polls that give a rosy picture of 40 percent when, in fact, it is closer to 20 percent. [5] There is a disconnect between Americans and the Church. They are happy to buy the product, but don’t make them go to the store to get it.
So is the Adventist Church in the United States really doing that well? One way to measure this is to look at data available from the General Conference Office of Archives, Statistics and Research. [6] The latest information is for 2011 because 2012 data is still being compiled. I have applied the same parameters to the North American Division (NAD) which I did in the Australian Union Conference study, even though the NAD is much larger in scale and geography. The results are no less disappointing.
For the Adventist Church in North America the data show that the increase in membership was 15,224 souls for 2011. This net figure is after adding all of the increases such as baptisms, profession of faith, and transfers in and then subtracting the losses from deaths, dropped, missing and transfers out. [7] However, we still need to apply a couple more parameters to get a more realistic growth picture for the NAD in 2011.
Another way of looking at these data is called Kingdom growth, as I pointed out in the my article on the Australian Church. [8] The idea behind Kingdom growth is that the Church community increases by a non-believer becoming a Christian, leaving a deficit in the non-Christian community from which they came. For the purposes of illustration, if we were dealing in real growth terms it would look like this on a scoreboard:
| Christian community +1 | Non-Christian community – 1 |
So the Church’s gain is a decrease in the number of non–Christians. Knowing this, we need to also understand that it is estimated that about half of those who join the church annually come from Biological growth. [9] These increases come when we baptise our own children, those who have been brought up in the church. While it is a time for rejoicing when young people commit to Christ, it’s not true Kingdom growth. The non-Christian population has had no loss.
On way to explain this is by imagining that a church has 100 people attending regularly, 90 of whom are baptized and 10 who are youth who have not yet been baptized. If those 10 youth are then baptised, how has the church grown? The church is still 100 people and the community has not been impacted by the Gospel. Nothing has changed except inside the church.
The NAD’s net growth figure of 15,224 souls for 2011, therefore, can’t be classified as true Kingdom growth. If we concede half as being biological growth, that gives us a Kingdom growth net increase of 7,612 in 2011. To get a true picture in human terms we need to divide that figure among the 6,125 congregations of the NAD. This leaves us with an average increase of one-and-a-quarter persons per congregation. Sound cold and calculating? That’s reality, unfortunately.
If we were true to the idea of Kingdom growth, we could also say that the 5,556 souls that came in on profession of faith are not true Kingdom growth either. These members are deemed to have had a previous experience with Christ, before becoming Church members and, therefore, are not converts from the non-believing community. This adjustment tips the scales into negative territory where most Christian denominations in the U.S. clearly rate. The NAD’s ability to connect with the non-believing public ,therefore, is a losing battle, as its gains are among those who are already Christians, by an overwhelming majority.
I find most staggering the number of those who went missing during the year. The title “missing” means their local church does not know where they are. The 8,212 souls that just slipped out the back door into oblivion is a statistic that should shock us to our core. Building a more personal tracking system needs to be a major consideration.
I see retention as being part of the solution, but even with good retention rates, poor Kingdom growth is still a factor. As with Australians, most Americans identify with Christianity but are not attracted to church, as indicated by low attendance figures. They like what we are selling but our market stall is not user friendly. They like the potato salad but they didn’t trust the person who sold it to them.
The reality is that the Church in western society has become insular, self-centred, and unconcerned about a suffering, dying world. We prefer to stand at church doors and call out to the public rather than go out and get involved in the dirty business of befriending the scum of the earth. The fortress mentality is alive and well in our churches and until we realise that it’s not all about "going home to heaven" and "wishing Jesus would come," the sooner we can properly engage in the Master's business.
This is a mighty challenge for the NAD to seriously consider the current ways of doing things and ask if we are holding onto old forms of religion that are outdated and have lost currency with the masses. Are smaller, more personal efforts needed rather than large, ineffective and costly forms of evangelism? The public interest has clearly shifted away from what once attracted significant numbers.
Rather than pining for heaven and going home, we need to re-focus on what God still wants to do. Amos delivers a poignant final word and puts it better than I, for my conclusion: "What sorrow awaits you who say, 'If only the day of the Lord were here!' You have no idea what you are wishing for. That day will bring darkness, not light. In that day you will be like a man who runs from a lion—only to meet a bear. Escaping from the bear, he leans his hand against a wall in his house—and he’s bitten by a snake. Yes, the day of the Lord will be dark and hopeless, without a ray of joy or hope. I hate all your show and pretence – the hypocrisy of your religious festivals and solemn assemblies. I will not accept your burnt offerings and grain offerings. I won’t even notice all your choice peace offerings. Away with your noisy hymns of praise! I will not listen to the music of your harps. Instead, I want to see a mighty flood of justice, an endless river of righteous living." (Amos 5:18-24)
———-
1. Danny Bell, "What Did the Australian Census Really Tell Us About Church Growth?" Adventist Today [www.atoday.org], May 19, 2013.
2. Jeffrey MacDonald, "Adventists Back to Basics Faith is Fastest Growing US Church." USA Today, March 2011.
3. Don Gilleland, "50 years of change." Florida Today, January 2013.
4. Barnes & Lowry, "An Up Close Look at Church Attendance in America." Church LeadersWeb.
5. Ibid.
6. 2013 Annual Statistical Report, 149th Report of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists for Year Ending December 31, 2011.
7. Ibid.
8. Bell, Ibid.
9. There is no real way of measuring this except by anecdotal evidence. I understand that many may query this but if we look through our publications and baptisms we attend we can safely say that 50 percent is a conservative estimate. In reality it is much higher for many churches. It would be interesting for there to be some compiled data on this but I have yet to find any.
Danny Bell lives in Western Australia. He has been a pastor, chaplain, family court mediator, counsellor and editor of Trench Mail, a men’s ministry publication. He is currently leading a church plant called Lion Hearts which focuses on attracting men. His passion lies in making the Church relevant to the Church’s largest unreached people group—men.
Thanks Danny,
This is sobering information and reflection upon these findings must be taken seriously. I believe that if this were broken down by cultural and/or ethnic groups one would find even more "enlightening" information.
Another thing to note is that most times when the Church "grows" in NAD it's mainly immigrant Adventists (transfers in) I see this in my own Church here.
Danny,
The sound of that hammer strike should loud enough to awaken the spiritually dead in the pews.
The majority of "growth" in the church in North America has from immigrant groups for a number of years so the situation is actually quite a bit worse than you described. My rough estimate after subtracting the immigrants is that the actual kingdom growth in each non-immigrant church in 2011 was a loss of around three. That is an acceleration over 2007 when the loss rate was about two per church.
Only a Divine revival can turn things around. That revival must change the essential character and culture of the church itself because people will either not join or quickly leave any church that is not loving, nurturing or helping them find victory in Christ. I am seeing a revival spreading but for it to become dominant I fear the majority of the senior citizens in the church for whom the gospel is measured by allegiance to the 28 fundamental beliefs and preaching just the Third Angel's message must first slip into the grave.
Agreed. My understanding is much of the growth in the West is by immigration. The problem is that this 'growth' hides the real 'loss' going on.
By the time the members and leaders, all over 50, have slipped into their graves, there may be few left to even care whether the church and its FBs survive. And why should they? What is there to "revive" to?
I think we will start seeing major change as the majority who today are retired are gone or no longer running the church.
The quiet revival is a collection of many positive things including a renewed focus on praising God in music and testimony, a local mission focus on doing what actually touches the community by improving lives, less formality, abandoning traditionalism that prevents relationship with God, fellowship through the week in a variety of activites and settings, etc. No, the numbers may not be as large as today, but the movement is vibrant and growing. Probably the biggest aspects of it are taking a wholistic approach to the Gospel instead of focusing on whatever is your personal favorites from the 28 FBs and making sure the church is a friendly and safe place for sinners to come and find renewal in God's love. It gives the people who are "called-out" a welcoming place to "come-in".
Sounds like "evangelistic count" still lives. When I was a pastor in the seventies, it was common knowledge among ministers that evangelists method of counting attendees usually esaggerated the number showing up. More is better!
How is the seventh day adventist church doing comparatively to other denominations
Not a whole lot different.
Thanks for the comments – forgive my online persona – works for me.
This might sound racist, but it is pretty obvious in Australia that church growth is to a very large extent through immigration, because it is blatantly obvious as the Churches get less and less white. Whilst the increased growth amongst all tongues, nations and groups is to be applauded, I do worry if Australia and NAD are headed the same way as in Europe.
When there is a majority of females, past 50, and fewer men and even fewer young people, you can know that the church is dying, not growing simply on biological facts: older women don't reproduce, and there must be sufficient young of both sexes to ensure procreation of more SDAs.
You are right. The people in the pews need to hear the hammer strike. But the dead, whether spiritually or physically, can't hear.
I would agree with you about the transfer-in count including the immigrant members except for two items. The first becomes apparent only when you chart the membership of congregations over their history and accumulate that into the conference picture. That is where you see the older churches fading, younger ones growing and the rapid growth of Spanish-speaking churches contrasting sharply with the English-speaking congregations. (Unfortunately, most conferences in North America either do not perform such analysis or are reluctant to share it so I feel fortunate to have obtained data on three conferences.) The second factor took me a bit by surprise when I discovered it last October. I was on a Maranatha Volunteers project building a new church for the Spanish congregation in Hartselle, AL. At lunch one day I was visiting with the head elder and talking about the membership of the church. He described how the majority of the people were already members in their country of origin but, for a variety of reasons, typically a majority do not request that their membership be transferred. So their official membership of record may be less than half the functional membership. The information he gave and other information I obtained from my local conference office were the basis for my estimate. I'll be the first to admit that the data is not precise enough to make a statistical analysis but it is good enough to project a reasonable estimate.
Danny,
has there been any admission by Church officials that much of the growth is actually be immigration?
Sorry I see you already deal with that in a comment above.
for me, this is not surprising; sad perhaps, but no news. our boxed-in fundamentalism has been chasing its tail for a long time. as mr. bell points out, inbreeding is not church growth. when we stop with our obsession on ourselves, and cease with our 'arranging the facts' on the deck of our sinking ship, maybe we will end our reign of irrelevancy. until we realize ours is not the message the world is panting for, then perchance we can learn to 'get involved in the dirty business of befriending the scum of the earth,' and living the kingdom of heaven now.
but we persist to minister (evangelize) to our own and call it 'church growth.' does anyone ask themselves: 'if this was God's true church then why the anemic growth? if our message was indeed the timely message ordained of heaven, wouldn't you think we would be set apart from other denominations with the dynamics of our church growth? maybe those are not the right questions, but they make sense to me. if God is behind our efforts because we are His remnant, as our church leadership believes, then the work in north america doesn't reflect much on the power of the Holy Spirit. something doesn't add up or make sense. i believe it is because we have a church leadership consumed with what's happening in its own navel, while the church languishes with lack-luster growth and a message to which few outside the church are listening. thank you, danny bell, for this wake-up call. how many such calls will it take? i wonder.
The church is all a self-serving business. Pastors service members; administrators administer pastors; treasurers handle and spend the money; etc. It's a self-enclosed system; and no new blood. With each entity "feeding" off another, eventually with no new "businesses" a town operating that way dies.
What happens to the administrators and pastors when there are fewer members to "service" each year? Has there been any comensurate decrease in those positions while membership decreases? How can pastors be employed when there are too few members in the majority of the churches?
It's your money; are you unconcerned how its spent?
This article just reminds us that God's Spirit is being withdrawn from the earth and that sadly may also include the Church. The final days will be about individuals and our individual relationship with God and if we are doing His will. It's sad but this will only get worst and eventually the Church will shrink, all that will be left is a remnant of the remnant.
God bless
Why do we call our church the Kingdom? I always thought all of Christiandom was the Kingdom. I would also think those worthy of the name outside would also be part of God's Kingdom, even if unaware of it.
As for our church, why does it make a difference whether these are immigrants or not–is that racist? The "White" race all over the world generally is less religious and more secular. Our church is certainly not approaching or appealing to them and I doubt most evangelicals are either. There is a big barrier of misunderstanding in the way in how the character of God is presented and what God feels is important to be fit for a new earth. Such concepts as honesty, integrity, equality, responsibility to helping the poor help themselves, humility, a balanced view of human life (how can we oppose abortion and be for capital punishment?) are put aside for what we call truth instead of Truth as it is in Jesus and what he stood for.
The insularity of the SDA hierarchy in traditional conservatism of the 19th century has compartmentalized their thinking to such a degree that it is impossible for them to see how their inactions are assuring the very death of the chuch. By continuation of FB's that are not sola scriptura, but imaginative solutions of being between a rock and a hard place, saving face, is so transparent that they are losing the future potential of the church, the seed, the YOUTH. It appears the Holy Spirit is unable to break through the collective mindset of SDA leadership. They are sacrificing their inborn YOUTH, which is God's remnant. i do not believe that one race, one church, one ethnic grouping is favored by our Creator. It is His desire that all come to Him for deliverance. It is His desire that we all love one another, as He loves us. Wanton murder of children in the womb, or of children in the neighborhood, or of murder of any one of God's children is condemned, and anathema to our ALMIGHTY GOD.
Unrepented murderers shall not receive God's mercy. God knows each individual heart. He will not be mocked.
Looking at the NAD statistics, two decades ago there were 4.6 plus baptisms per 100 members annually. 2012 has recorded the lowest level, at 3.3 baptisms per 100 members. Reformation and revival is not leading to increased effectiveness of members.
In 2009 there were 45,417 baptisms. 2012 saw 38,824. The numbers have gone down each year since TW ascended to the top position. What will 2013 bring. It will be interesting to observe.
Thank your Danny for your sobering report. The statistics that were published in Ministry magazine February 2012 in an interview with Lee Venden, about Adventists in North America should have shocked us out of our complacency. I suspect they could be extrapolated to the church world-wide.
These are disturbing statistics! It should be obvious that something is missing in our preaching and teaching.
Venden says: “We have discovered that Adventists everywhere are hungering for Jesus and the know-how to have a personal friendship with Him that is tangible and life changing…. It is the lack of this understanding that leads members to backsliding.”
My Favourite Author says: “Of all professing Christians, Seventh-day Adventists should be foremost in uplifting Christ before the world.” … “The sacrifice of Christ as an atonement for sin is the great truth around which all other truths centre” … “The thought that the righteousness of Christ is imputed to us, not because of any merit on our part, but as a free gift from God, is a precious thought. The enemy of God and man is not willing that this truth should be clearly presented; for he knows that if the people receive it fully, his power will be broken” (Gospel Workers, 156, 315,161).
Has Satan stolen a march on us here?
Blaming the members for:
Not reading the Bible daily.
Infrequently attending church, or stopped altogether.
Not "coming to Jesus" whatever that is supposed to mean.
Lacking assurance of salvation (that is not a problem with Baptists and other churches).
Not taking a daily walk with Jesus (that needs better explanation).
There is no doubt that the Adventist church is not growing, but decreasing in the NAD. But, most other established demominations are experiencing the same problems. What is their explanations or efforts to turn things around?
All the polls taken show that people decreasingly do not attend church nor or religious, but they describe themselves as spiritual. Shouldn't that be investigated? People distrust large institutions: the government, all churches and have no reason to attend church.
Since attending church, or being a member of a church is still voluntary, unless they can be convinced there are very good reasons to do so, they will vote with their feet and this is being demonstrated weekly. Doing the same old things and expecting different results is what the church has been doing. No wonder it's called insanity.
In answer to the immigrant idea from William.
We've tried needs-based ministry before in North America and it flopped miserably because the church only knew how to hold public evangelistic campaigns. We simply had no idea how to do anything else. In a few cases where someone was actually successful at another approach the evangelists complained that it reduced the funds to their work so the funds to the new ministry got reduced or cut-off.
In contrast with that concept, I'll point you to my church, Grace Fellowship SDA Church in Madison, AL. We're the second-fastest growing church in the Gulf States Conference and #2 only because the #1 church has a high transfer-in rate. We have never grown so quickly as we have since we quit holding public evangelistic campaigns and got serious about developing gift-based ministries that are empowered and guided by the Holy Spirit. We do not look to church leadership to tell us what to do. Instead, we look to God to show each of us individually what He wants us to do and we have taken personal ownership of the church. The results have been amazing. We work together in greater harmony than any other church I have seen. Our conference leaders are amazed by how we can finish an entire business meeting agenda in an hour or less and do it without serious disagreement in an almost festive atmosphere. That's because we love each other and respect each other as fellow children of God and for the ministries God is empowering us to perform. Our budget has never been in the red and we're in a building program where the first phase (a multi-purpose facility) is going to cost an amount that surprises a lot of people. Yet because of the way God is blessing us we're well on our way to having the funds needed to begin construction.
at the risk of redundancy and simplicity…as long as we obsess on our identity and press for conformity to protect that identity, and the 'party line' of prescribed doctrines to insure conformity, which inevitably leads to intolerance of those who 'don't look/act like us,' we will continue to see falling numbers. the sda church is incapable of an open-arm policy. it's authoritarian strcuture breeds inflexibility and unadaptibility, and therefore keeps doing the same failed things with the same pitiful results, while watching their message flirt with irrelevancy. we are a 19th century church begging the 21st century to become like us. will not happen. i know truth is eternal, but so is wisdom. this is not rocket science. as long as we ignore our own reformation (one of our favorite words), and persist with our fundamentalist tradition, don't be surprised this downward trend in NAD continues or worsens. we like the word 'will power' too, so where's the will power to change and adapt and learn a new mindset of sharing God? regrettably, our whole system is built to resist such reformation; in fact, it appears to consider such reformation as blasphemy or some such thing. we are trapped by our own theolgy and tradition and are in danger of becoming 'seventh-day shakers.'
A lot here on what's wrong but very little on solutions. It can't be blamed on Ellen White and an emphasis on the second coming. Edgar Casey is held in high esteem by many in the secular world as a prophet. Many people, including Hollywood, are playing the end-of-the world game. I doubt it is even doctrines, unless they are used as the drawing card. Doctrines should come later. From a human standpoint a good PR company would say we use the wrong approach. Group religion has a bad name these days, while spirituality is in vogue. But to many in our leadership the name spiritual anything reminds them of spiritualism and brings on witch hunts.
Yet spirituality is important in the Bible and life of Christ and people hunger for it. By not using the term in secular evangelism we miss out. By labeling post-modernism as always bad, we miss out. this churh has a lot it can share with the secular world, but by ignoring its terms we speak a foreign language and associate ourselves totally with fundamentlists.
I am no visionary but presenting the character of God in Christ in a spiritual manner and the salvation story in a different setting that would not dilute it, would be a beginning. But first we need leaders who care more for people than institutions, traditions, and even self-centered unity. That takes a lot of spiritual living, prayer, willingness to listen and change. It means doing the right thing because it is right and Godlike and not for a reward.
It would mean a total surrender to God's spirit–a giving up of self. I am not there, but that's where we start– self awareness of our own selfishness and sorrow for it; then God can bless our service.
If you are looking for God to raise-up leaders to resurrect us from spiritual decline then you will never live to see it happen. But you can make choices that will draw you closer to God and lead you into ministry that is empowered by the Holy Spirit. It is that transformation replicated many times over that will cause the church to begin growing again.
Maye we should stop reporting on membership and start reporting on actual attendance. That would point us to the realities pretty quickly.
That would be both illuminating and traumatic because it would confront us with both harsh reality and force us to deal with the question of why people don't attend church.
William, I am interested in what you are doing as I am trying the same. My email is lionheartschurch@hotmail.com if you would care to send me a link to anything you have written or a website. The needs based ministry needs to have followup reaping style programs for it to work effectively. No point in serving the community without the other part of the Great Commission being put into practice as well.
Greg, I see you have a problem with the church's fundamental beliefs. I dont and I dont feel that's a turnoff for newbs. I think the application of those beliefs is what is hurting us. Adding to what is written in scripture is one example. The church teaches that Tithing is a biblical obligation. We extend that by passing the offering bag under the noses of visitors and members alike each Sabbath in a gesture of "you should be giving" but dont realise this may embarrass or pressure visitors and members who dont have coin or plain forgot. There's already a perception out there that churches take your money – the style we have adopted only confirms that. We have a chest at the rear of the building because we believe giving is a private matter while still teaching tithing. The offering box will never be empty if we are connecting with men in particular who are the largest givers. The church appeals to women mostly – thats why I believe many churches have a money problem.
An attendance study would be a bleaker picture I agree. We already know that the retention rate after baptism significantly declines. For those registered on the books it would not be stretching things if we said only half attended church. We are in the time of Laodicea in the west but the sermons we have had on Laodicea is not what Laodicea is actually about – you would be surprised what EGW says – I will leave that for another article soon to come.
Dingdong,
I'll answer you here so others can see the concept. The Apostle Paul compares the church to the human body with many parts, some greater and some lesser, but all joined-together as one to function. We have embraced that concept and the promise of individual guidance and empowerment from the Holy Spirit. Scripture says believers will be empowered, so we encourage people to build their relationships with God so they can become empowered for individual ministries. It has been utterly amazing to see how God has empowered and developed a diversity of ministries that are completely complimentary with each other. There are no significant conflicts because God resolves the minor ones that happen.
When we were forming the church we went through an intense planning process where we examined every aspect of the familiar model for "doing church" to decide if it was a positive or a negative. We looked for ways to enhance the positives and to replace the negatives. As a result we've made a number of changes. For example, we don't have a Church Board. We have a Spiritual Focus Team chaired by the head elder that coordinates (but does not direct) ministries and an Administrative Team chaired by the head decon that manages the business affairs of the church. We also have no Nominating Committee because the concept of placing people in specific roles for defined periods of time contrasts with the basic concept of Holy Spirit-empowered ministry where you do what God tells you to do for as long as you are effective.
One very visible difference is that collecting tithes and offerings is not part of the worship service. There were several reasons for this. First, we could find no scriptural basis for the claim that giving is an act of worship. Second, we felt the activity was a "dead" time in the service that could be put to better use. Third was the model for collecting offerings in the Temple in Jerusalem. But the clincher was the treasurer in our old church telling us that up to half the tithe envelopes each week being empty because people would rather drop in an empty one than be seen not giving. So we use offering collection boxes near each entrance.
Connecting is a big item for us. We want you to become connected with the social body of the church from your first visit. We're not the least bit bashful to introduce you to people of similar occupation and get you involved in church activities. People who come out of curiosity find themselves being engulfed by hospitality and inclusion. Such welcoming breaks-down barriers and resistance and opens them to spiritual growth far more quickly. This is where the ministry of those who are gifted as spiritual guides becomes important. We remind people of the various classes and study times at various places and times and invite them to participate. A few weeks ago we baptized a young woman who said she had never attended church while growing up but was curious about churches. We were the last in a series of churches she had attended. She wasn't a believer in God when she first came in the door and it was the fellowship that compelled her to become a believer. When someone moves away we often hear how terribly they miss us because of the difficulty they have finding similar fellowship in their new location.
No, we don't have any reaping activities. We don't need to because of how well the Apostolic model is working.
We're also driven by a dream. We want to build a preschool to Grade 12 mission school. We're working with one of the top architectural firms in the area and feel like God has led us to a great plan. One of the foundational concepts we have adopted is that there will be nothing in the architecture that reminds people of a church because we don't want to be raising any barriers to them coming. We want the entire facility to be seen as a benefit to the community instead of an exclusive enclave where only members are admitted. It will be a multi-use facility and there will be no church sanctuary. Right now we're meeting in an old farmhouse that we remodeled ourselves on the land where we will soon be building.
I'd like to challenge your thinking on a couple items you mentioned. One was "The offering box will never be empty if we are connecting with men in particular who are the largest givers." Giving is the result of motivation. Give people something worthwhile to support and they will give. I used to work at a major Adventist TV ministry where we pursued major donors to support particular initiatives but the majority of our budget came from a large number of faithful supporters who gave their "widow's mites" as they were able. You also expressed a thought about the church appealing mostly to women and that resulting in the church having money problems. I disagree. If you want more men you've got to work on ministering to men so they will feel worthwhile. You've probably also got a problem with presenting the Gospel in ways that are unappealing.
There are two more points where I want to challenge your thinking. First is our method of fulfilling the Great Commission. We have a predominant view in the denomination that it will be accomplished by preaching the Third Angel's call to come out of Babylon. Why would they want to come out of Babylon if where you're inviting them to come is unappealing or even repulsive? You can have all the correct theology in the world but if you're not appealing, they won't come and the people you have will leave. The Gospel must be learned in ways that apply in daily life if it is to be effective and appealing. Effectiveness requires the power of the Holy Spirit be infused through the entire ministering church body. Second is the role of your pastor in the church. In North America the average single-pastor church is losing members, but where a pastor is spread across three or more churches they are growing (albeit slowly, which raises other questions). If you are in a single-church district, consider asking the conference to do several things. One is merging your district with one or two others. Another is getting you a new pastor whose focus is planting new churches. Yet another is asking for your pastor to be removed and no replacement assigned for at least two years so the members must step-up and take ownership of the church. The results will amaze you.
William, I agree with most you have said there. I still wish for you to email me and we can talk in detail more. I am particularly interested in gift based ministries and a good program to furnish that among members.
Regards.
RE: [Article] "Rather than pining for heaven and going home, we need to re-focus on what God still wants to do."
———–
To me, I think that we can and need to do both the above: pining for heaven and going home – and, focusing on the work at hand. It is when we separate these two that we end up merely dishing out a Social Gospel which may have its rightful place, but on its own is usually heavily swayed by both cultural and political moods which eventually go nowhere and fizzle out.
The Social Gospel on its own eventually runs out of steam. Calling sinners to repentance in Christ and the gift of eternal life has to accompany all forms of evangelistic and missionary endeavors including the church’s social responsibilities through church programs or by individuals in their personal capacity, just like all other forms of discipleship. The biggest enemy of a one legged Social Gospel is a compromise with sin. Please note that witnessing to sinners isn’t the same as compromise with sin. That is the crux of the matter. Yeah sure, the sinner slowly being led to Christ has to be given some leeway to a certain extent but to compromise Christian standards and baptize sin isn’t in the best interests of re-focusing on what God has called us to do.
The Gospel is about receiving Christ, longing for heaven, eternal life and witnessing for him by delivering this good news of salvation to those on the highways and byways of life. The whole Gospel brings in the keepers. The back door swings open when the focus is only on the social without gaining spiritual direction.
All organised Adventist churches that I have come across have a Personal Ministries Department which focuses on each individual member being actively engaged in witnessing for Christ in whatever way they can and are capable of, thereby exercising their spiritual gifts in service to God.
Those who usually complain about the church are those who don’t fully cooperate with the church’s evangelistic programs and often disassociate themselves from any and every thing ‘they’ deem isn’t their cup of tea. They then go on a tangent of their own and in many instances will intentionally run down the church in what they do and say. The other group aren't believers in what our church teaches. They don't accept the writings of Ellen White as reliable counsel let alone the authority of the Bible which they eventually also question.
Roger Metzger
There is nothing "wrong" with looking at numerical growth. The more important aspect of church growth is spiritual growth. Members of our denomination are not in agreement about what constitutes spiritual growth or how to measure it.
One school of thought is that spiritual growth is measured by 1 + 2a or 2b where
1 is behavior (or more specifically behavioral criteria for denominational membership)
2a is acquiescence to the doctrine that the Bible should be interpreted by Ellen White's writings
3b is acquiescence to the doctrine that the Bible should be understood as interpreted by the General Conference.
Another school of thought is that spiritual growth is measured by
1 + 2 + 3 where
1 is that spiritual growth includes learning to trust the Lord
2 is that special revelation must be evaluated and interpreted by older revelation–never the other way around
3 is that spiritual and doctrinal authority is bestowed on each believer directly by the Lord himself–it is not vested in or distributed by an organization.
Those who are of the first school promote institutionalism and an institutional religion.
Those who are of the second school decry institutionalism and offer personal religion as an alternative.
But we all know that the "success" of institutional religion is easier to measure.