Who Picked These Delegates?
There was A REPORT FROM THE 2007 NAD YEAR-END MEETINGS in the January 2008 Adventist World. There were devotional sermons and reports from various evangelistic efforts. There was also a Secretary’s Report concerning membership data. When deaths were tallied (33,947) and missing members accounted for (77,985), North American membership totaled 1,050,210. There were 38,275 baptisms and professions of faith in 2006, and Secretary Roscoe Howard reported “steady growth”, or a 1.72 % increase in membership from 2005 to 2006.
What are readers to make of the report by George Johnson Jr., Associate Director, Office of Communication, North American Division that “on Sunday the nearly 340 delegates to the session said they were, in effect, tired of business as usual and wished to depend on the power of the Lord to accomplish great things—far larger than many may have believed possible”? I’m also “tired of business as usual”.
What happened last year? Was there any attempt to justify money spent on evangelistic efforts? How many children under the age of 14 were baptized? How much was spent on Adventist education? Is a 1.72% an acceptable growth rate? These are just a few of the questions that beg to be answered.
NOTE: Comic modified from Dilbert, by Scott Adams
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Once again I ask whether the type of percentages/figures quoted are anywhere near approximating what may generally be considered similar for the majority of Christian churches in the USA. Is Adventism unique it it's struggle to gain/retain members or is it symptomatic of all churches?
ReplyDeleteHere in the UK we hear of so-called mega-churches in the USA, which really seem to be little more than denominations on their own - members seem to flock to certain mega churches due to the personality of the leader rather than any of the overarching beliefs. . .
My guess is that with Seventh-day Adventism one feels comfortable whether you are worshiping in Hanoi, Geneva, Harare or Iceland - you all read the same Sabbath School lesson each week, which seems to have a unique place in the SDA church.