At the 2026 North American Division (NAD) Annual Council, G. Alexander Bryant, NAD president, delivered his official President’s Report on October 30.
With more than 100 new members joining the executive committee this year, Bryant used his opening presentation, “Who Are We?” to establish the NAD’s identity, mission, and responsibilities within the global Seventh-day Adventist Church. His official President’s Report covered the state of the division and its vision for lifting up Jesus in North America and beyond.
His presentation spoke on collaboration, creative approaches to ministry, and dependence on the Holy Spirit to reach people in need of hope and healing. This emphasis on the Holy Spirit was also reflected in daily prayer sessions, where delegates came together in pairs or small groups, following the disciples' example as they prepared for Pentecost.
The power of the Holy Spirit
Bryant opened by sharing a photo of a small, one-room church. He recalled being tasked, as a recent theology graduate, with reviving the church, which had no members and had been closed for 30 years.
“By God’s grace, we were able to start a group there, and it grew to about 50 in a year, year-and-a-half,” Bryant said.
However, he was soon transferred, and, lacking consistent leadership, the congregation eventually declined to five members, who only met for Sabbath school each week.
In 2023, Bryant returned to the church where his ministry began and conducted an evangelistic meeting, resulting in 19 baptisms. Today, the congregation has 36 members who attend regularly and renovated the church’s run-down fellowship hall to better serve the community.
Bryant continued by drawing a parallel between this church and the early Christian church, whose rapid growth—including 3,000 baptisms on the Day of Pentecost—is recorded throughout the book of Acts.
He noted that the church in Acts had none of the “accouterments of ministry” the Seventh-day Adventist Church benefits from today. Yet the church had one thing it needed: the Holy Spirit.
“The Holy Spirit was the agent that God used to fill in the gap for everything they needed for the mission of the church, and I submit to you today, He still is,” said Bryant.
Noting that the early church was prone to disputes as it grew, Bryant added, “Perfection is not a requirement of the Holy Spirit, but unity of purpose is.”
Bryant also cited biblical examples, including the life of Jesus, to illustrate how spiritual high points are often followed by attacks. Pointing to the success of Pentecost 2025, he cautioned that difficulties may follow but need not defeat the church. He added that God can use difficult circumstances to advance His mission, recounting how persecution scattered the early Christians beyond Jerusalem, eventually spreading the gospel throughout Judea and Samaria. “Even when the devil attacks, . . . it might serve to move us in the direction that God wants us to go,” Bryant said.
Finally, emphasizing the mission driving the church’s organizational structure, Bryant quoted Kerry L. Heinrich, Adventist Health CEO: “We are not a business with a mission. We are a mission that requires a business.”
Who is the NAD?
In an earlier presentation, Bryant provided an overview of the NAD’s place within the worldwide Seventh-day Adventist Church. The NAD is one of 13 world divisions, with 59 conferences, nine unions, one attached field, and 6,761 local churches. Further, it represents around 5.4 per cent of the church’s global membership.
Bryant outlined the division’s role as providing centralized services, developing resources, supporting union and conference leaders, and facilitating the sharing of best practices.
He addressed mission needs worldwide, then highlighted two fields closer to home: the Post-Christian Window, encompassing regions including Canada, the United States, Australia, New Zealand, and parts of Europe, where the number of people identifying as Christians is declining; and the Urban Window, comprising 543 cities worldwide with populations of 1,000,000 or more.
While the average ratio of Adventists to the total population is 1:358 globally, it is 1:89,000 in cities. In the NAD territory, where 20 cities account for 50 per cent of the population, the Urban Window poses a significant mission challenge.
“We are not where the people are,” Bryant said, stressing the church’s need to direct more efforts toward these underserved fields.
The state of the NAD
Bryant presented graphs showing church growth trends over two decades. He pointed to a spike of growth in 2009, which was designated as a year of evangelism in the division, as well as in the years immediately preceding and following this emphasis.
Bryant highlighted a similar pattern around the NAD Pentecost 2025 initiative, where membership numbers rose in 2024 as congregations and schools prepared for the initiative, and remained strong through 2025 as they participated in evangelistic activities. While 2026 numbers are not final, he anticipates that the momentum will continue.
Given that even talking about evangelism fosters growth, Bryant said, “We need to keep talking about [evangelism], and we don’t need to do it now and then. We need to do it all the time, every year.”
Bryant also reported that the NAD's five healthcare institutions registered 13.6 million outpatient visits in 2024 alone. “What an opportunity to share the compassionate ministry of Christ across our division,” he said.
A changing religious landscape
Bryant cited research indicating a rapidly changing religious landscape in both the United States and Canada. In Canada, he said, 53 per cent of people identified as Christian, down from 77 per cent in 2001. Bryant said that even in the Southern states, a region known as the “Bible Belt,” those percentages had declined from the 80-per cent range in earlier tracking to the 70-per cent range.
He noted the growth of the religiously unaffiliated, or “nones.” Bryant reported that “individuals identifying as atheists, agnostics, or nothing in particular represent the fastest-growing segment of the American population.”
Among churchgoers, nondenominational churches are on the rise. Notably, these churches place less emphasis on institutional or denominational identity and focus more on Spirit-filled, experiential expressions of faith. Bryant encouraged listeners to reexamine traditions, such as music choices, that may create unnecessary barriers between the church and seekers in need of the hope and healing the Adventist Church can offer.
Bryant challenged attendees to adjust evangelism methods. “Our message is God-given, God-centered, God-ordained. How do we keep that and change our methods to meet where people are today?”
Using a beloved analogy, he stressed the importance of using different bait to catch different fish, emphasizing that the methods that worked 20 years ago may not work today. “The Holy Spirit will help us if we’re open to its leading,” he promised.
Bryant pointed to Christ’s method of ministry as the ultimate model, including mingling with people, meeting their felt needs, winning their confidence, and inviting them to follow Him.
“If you look at the life of Christ, He met people where they were, and then He brought them to where they needed to be,” he said.
Lessons from Pentecost 2025
During Thursday’s presentation, a video report on the NAD's Pentecost 2025 initiative highlighted the impact hearing the gospel had on individuals from different walks of life. One woman had been incarcerated for murder and felt unworthy of God’s grace. Ultimately, she chose baptism, and 12 other people were baptized with her. Another woman moved from reluctantly seeking help at the local pantry to becoming a volunteer to getting baptized.
Delegates also learned that more than 5,200 churches and schools participated in Pentecost 2025, resulting in nearly 43,000 baptisms and professions of faith division-wide.
Finally, Bryant shared lessons learned from Pentecost 2025 that can translate to future evangelistic efforts, particularly the benefits of collaboration, shared learning, and collective outreach.
All Things New: looking to 2027
Toward the end of his president’s report, Bryant shared his enthusiasm for the world church’s OneVoice27 initiative and its public-facing expression, All Things New. “I’m so excited about All Things New, I might dance up here,” he joked.
OneVoice27 is a global initiative of the Seventh-day Adventist Church leading up to September 2027, which marks approximately 2,000 years since the beginning of Christ’s public ministry. It aims to unite members in sharing Jesus through digital engagement, literature, and other outreach methods.
Bryant described it as a clarion call for the world church to set aside any differences and unite in mission. “If we can speak with one voice, we can speak with a loud voice. And say . . . Jesus makes all things new.”
In the NAD, All Things New is based on four pillars—pray like Jesus, serve like Jesus, share Jesus, and follow Jesus.
Bryant named resources being developed to support this initiative, including a sharing book featuring nine chapters of The Desire of Ages that the Ellen G. White Estate has produced. He also showed delegates the short film, When Hope Shows Up, which officially launched the NAD's All Things New campaign in September, and spoke to future video and digital evangelism resources.
Finally, putting on his evangelist hat, Bryant appealed to church leaders and members to keep Jesus at the center of All Things New and the church’s broader mission.
Referencing John 12:32, Bryant reminded delegates that Jesus will draw all men to Himself if His followers simply share Him with others.
“Our task is not to worry about who’s going to come. Our task is: are we faithful in lifting up Jesus more than anybody else and more than anything else?”
As he urged delegates to “lift Him up” in cities and regions across the division’s territory, they responded with “Amens” and raised hands.
Bryant then affirmed the NAD’s commitment to OneVoice27, declaring that its leaders and members were not only “in,” but also “out”—reaching every “nook and cranny” of the division’s territory; “down”—on their knees in prayer; and “up”—looking to Jesus to overcome the trials ahead.
In the final moments of his report, with passion in his voice, Bryant said, “We will reach all these people we don’t know how to reach because Jesus has promised His Spirit that will fill in our insufficiencies, and we will move forward in grace and in power. And then we will say, ‘Lo, this is our God. We have waited for Him, and He will come.’”
Bryant's report was approved without objection.
The original article was published on the North American Division news site.
