Explaining the growth of the SDA?

[Sojourner]

Its interesting to take a look at which of the different Christian churches are experiencing growth. My understanding is that several different Pentecostal churches are experiencing strong growth as are the Seventh Day Adventist denomination.

Focusing on the SDA, my query is why this denomination is seeing this growth? If someone asked you why it is that the SDA is growing at the rate that it is, how would you answer?

The evangelical message that the SDA preaches is not really all that different to what is preached over the pulpits of many other churches with perhaps the exclusion of hellfire sermons. Yet I cant see any real difference other than that.

Is the health message really that appealing that millions of people would be brought in via that? Whilst they are great ideals, I dont neccessaraly see those things as being evangelical to the churches ministry, although I am happy to be shown otherwise if that is the case.

One thing that I have observed is that its pretty open what the SDA stand for in terms of doctrine and belief. I suspect that people are perhaps searching for something that is like that where things are seen in black and white terms.

Still these are only my observations and I confess openly that I do not know what the answer is, yet would like to put it up for discussion anyway! As per above, how would you answer this question is if asked by a friend or a work colleague?

[Bravus]

Is it growing in the developed world, in net terms, or only in the developing world?

[Bravus]

http://clubadventist.com/forum/ubbthreads.php/topics/705086.html#Post705086

I'm not 100% agreeing with this article, btw, just presenting it as grist for the discussion.

[Stan]

We have growth in Canada, some years the conferences have hit about 5%.

[rudywoofs (Pam)]

not all church "growth" is from new converts ... many are youth who were brought up in the Adventist church and are baptized..

there are other issues, as well, in determining true "growth"....

good article HERE

[JoeMo]

Quote:

not all church "growth" is from new converts

So true. If the denomination were to remove those from the books that are completely inactive who have never bothered to remove their names from the books, how much growth would we have? Looking at my experience with big-time evangelistic series like Mark Findlay, Ken Cox, etc., maybe 1/3 of those who are baptized are still active members a year later; yet their names stay on the books for years.

I'm talking about my local perspective from the SW US. Things may be better in other countries.

That being said, most of the people I know who came into the SDA church through a big series remain active Christians (although not SDA's); so our contribution to the growth of Christianity is significant.

[CoAspen]

Most of the time when we talk about 'church growth', we are in fact talking about numbers in an .org. My perspective is that 'growth' is much more than that. The 'growth' of Christ church is the most important.

I always think about the chastisement of Israel by God, when they were numbering themselves, as if that was important.

[Sojourner]

I cant say for other countries, exluding Israel, but in my state in Australia no SDA churches have been closed and a number have been opened as new plants and seem to be doing pretty well. The congregation I am in has just planted one new church in a neighbouring suburb and is begining plans for another next year.

Conversely my former denomination the Salvation Army have closed three churches in the past two years, two of them being in areas of young families where churches in theory should do pretty well. They are not alone in this regard as other denominations have also closed churches in a growing population. Anglican, Methodist, Baptist Union and others all seem to have this trend. The "Christian City Church" a small Pentecostal denomination are planting several churches and the one near my place is now quite large and well attended, it was not there and they were not in my state 10 years ago.

In Israel they are now well in excess of 30 SDA churches from only a few in the 1970's with more being planted this year.

These are the facts on the ground as I see them, as for how they run membership rolls and so forth, I am sure the same thing happens in each of other denominations also. Legally some churches have to have AGM's and keep these records for this purpose here by common law so I guess that is the case in a number of places also.

[fccool]

I think that growth has to do with function. A church that sits in the pew one a week, sings the same old songs, listens to the same old sermons... waiting for the end to come... is done. If the function extends to doing these things, then it's really somewhat useless waste of money on a building. People can do it sitting home, and accomplish the same amount.

If Christianity is justifiable, it has to put the money where the moth is, and be existential, instead of hypothetical in prophetic timeline that's right around the corner... every single year. Until you skip through several generations people who do the same thing week in and week out, promising Jesus coming back to end this terrible existence on Earth, while venting through prayers to God to fix out problems here and now... without actually doing much at all.

If 10-person church can raise a million to help a cause, or organize an event that ends up helping people because it's a right thing to do, not because it's "an outreach" - it's a giant church... bigger than most churches I've seen.

[psalms37]

Some "SDA" churches are growing very fast and like my local church,it is in decline. On a good Sabbath about 35 people show up.

On an average Sabbath about 15 to 25 show up. Mostly attendance is higher for a communion service. My church has 135 members on the "Books". Also there is no full time pastor. We get guest speakers and the pastor shows up every 2-3 weeks.

Out west in Sacramento California the SDA church is growing rapidly.They planted a church in Granite Bay and then also in Loomis.

I wonder if it is a lack of Holy Spirit in these declining churches and an abundance of Holy Spirit in the rapidly growing churches?

I also wonder if every SDA church will receive the latter rain?

 

I hope my comments do not ruffle anyone's feathers. 

[LifeHiscost]

A church that sits in the pew one a week, sings the same old songs, listens to the same old sermons...

 

Rock of Ages, Oh, how I love Jesus, We Have an Anchor, Jesus Loves me, Come Holy Spirit, I Would be Like Jesus, Onward Christian Soldiers, Tell it to Jesus, and we even use the same old bible every Sabbath.

 

God is Love! Jesus saves!

[Sojourner]

Some "SDA" churches are growing very fast and like my local church,it is in decline. On a good Sabbath about 35 people show up.

On an average Sabbath about 15 to 25 show up. Mostly attendance is higher for a communion service. My church has 135 members on the "Books". Also there is no full time pastor. We get guest speakers and the pastor shows up every 2-3 weeks.

Out west in Sacramento California the SDA church is growing rapidly.They planted a church in Granite Bay and then also in Loomis.

I wonder if it is a lack of Holy Spirit in these declining churches and an abundance of Holy Spirit in the rapidly growing churches?

I also wonder if every SDA church will receive the latter rain?

 

I hope my comments do not ruffle anyone's feathers. 

 

My view is that the first question I would raise is if the Eldership of the church acknowledge the decline of the group and if they do, are they seeking God over what to do about it? Is the church prepared to look at church growth and evangelical programs? Or is it all left to someone else whilst the rest of the group go through the motions each week?

[psalms37]

My view is that the first question I would raise is if the Eldership of the church acknowledge the decline of the group and if they do, are they seeking God over what to do about it? Is the church prepared to look at church growth and evangelical programs? Or is it all left to someone else whilst the rest of the group go through the motions each week?

  I can,t speak for the elders. We have 4 elders and 3 are women. In 8 years according to the Pastor there have been no new baptisms. I have heard strange teachings like " the 2300 days is not fullfilled in 1844" also "if Cain had a better attitude God would have accepted his grain offering" and the head elder who is a woman said that "without women there would be no man".

I voiced my concerns and we will see what happens. I just attend worship service now and do sabbath study with Amazing facts.

[Gregory Matthews]

A number of suggestions have been made, both in this forum and elsewhere.  My thinking is:

 

1)  A study of many years ago has shown that in the U.S. a congregation needs 200 members to begin to have programs that enrich the lives of members.  Where these do not exist, people often go to larger congregations that do have such.

 

2) It has been suggested by non-SDAs who study church growth that denomination that stand for something, whatever that may be, are the denominations that grow.

 

3) We so seem in many geographic areas to be   growing in the developing countries and not the developed nations.

 

4)  Does our growth come from baptisms from our youth?  There is some indication that our youth are leaving in great numbers which casts doubt on this idea.

 

5) In many parts of the world it can no longer be said that we  keep inactive  members on our books forever.