Adventist Future

[Gregory Matthews]

Introduction: The Fall 2023 issue of Adventist Today I consider to be of profound value to Seventh-day Adventist members. This issue addresses the question as to what is the future of the SDA Church.

* 19 out of 20 SDA members live in the global South.

* 50% live in Africa, 30% live in Latin America and 15% live in Asia.

* The Caucasian NAD membership is barely holding its own.

* Jim Walters, writing for Adventist Today asked various people to address some five different questions related to the SDA denomination.

Rebecca Barcelo: Reminds us that truth must always be understood through the subjective lens of the observer. From this perspective, SDA members differ in their expectations as to what the SDA Church should be.

Reinder Bruinsma informs us that the SDA Church has some 4,000 institutions, 20,000clergy and more than 300.00 other employees. He points out that under the administration of Roert Pierson, a large number of SDA congregations were merged int what became 14 Union Conferences (Commonly called Federations). He informs that we have 135 Union Conferences that supervise some 700 local Conferenes, and suggests that those could be reduced to 500 administrative units. He suggests, as I do, that we do not need the duplication of positions in the General Conference that we have in the Divisions and in the Unions.

Christie Chui-Can Chow informs as to how the SDA Church in China has grown whil developing its unique form of ministry.

Edwin Torkelsen challenges us as to the central nature of SDA organization. He correctly points out that it is a hierarchical organization similar to the Roman Catholic church and that it has political. I agree. He gives specific examples that will likely challenge the thinking of many. He suggests some changes.

Laars Gustavsson informs us that by 2030 two-thirds of the world population will live in urban areas. This affects how we do mission.

Alvin Masarira presents an African perspective on Adventism in the future which differs is some ways from what we in the U.S. would likely have.

Daniel Mora presents a Latin American perspective, which is challenging.

Admiral Mcube (from Zimbabwe) reflects on how current issues have fragmented us.

Matthew Burdette suggests what Adventism might look like in the future.

 Notes:

* In the comments above, I have not always differentiated between my wording and the actual wording of the cited articles. IOW, the written material above contains both material written by the various authors and my comments.

* The AT announcement of this issue may be found at:

 https://atoday.org/the-adventist-future-project/

 

* Reinder Bruinsma is a retired Union Conference President who lives in the Netherlands and has written extensively about the SDA Chruch in English.

* Edwin Torkelsen, is a retired historian for the National Archives in Norway, and a former University Professor.

* Rebecca Barcelo is currently an M.A. student in theology at Andrews University.

* Christie Choi-Shan ia co-editor of The Oxford Handbook of Seventh-day Adventism, and she has authored Schism: Seventh-day Adventism in Post-Denominational China.

* Alvin Masarira is a Professor at the University of Cape Town.

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