In the year since the establishment of a new Seventh-day Adventist Church region for southern Africa and the Indian Ocean, 100,000 people have joined the church, an overall growth of 4.5 percent, bringing membership there to 1.7 million.
In the year since the establishment of a new Seventh-day Adventist Church region for southern Africa and the Indian Ocean, 100,000 people have joined the church, an overall growth of 4.5 percent, bringing membership there to 1.7 million. The region is the fourth largest world church area, behind Inter-America, South America and East-Central Africa.
The statistics were revealed during annual business meetings held at the Adventist Church’s regional headquarters in Bloemfontein, South Africa. Twenty countries and islands, ranging from St. Helena and Tristan da Cunha in the Atlantic to Zambia, Zimbabwe and South Africa on the continent, to Indian Ocean territories including Mozambique, Madagascar and Mauritius, comprise the region whose overall population numbers 50 million.
By August of 2005, church leaders expect another million people to become members. Much of the growth appears to derive from new churches being started in the region; the year 2003 saw the establishment of 96 new congregations. Also, all regional church administrators are going out to conduct evangelistic campaigns, which is designed to encourage local church leaders in similar efforts.
According to Dr. Pardon Mwansa, regional president of the church, leaders must remember to keep their focus on their divine calling: “I have come to realize that an Adventist leader can be so busy working for God that he or she has little time to learn and talk with God. This work is spiritual and as such we need to stay in tune with our heavenly Father.”
In other developments, church leadership said efforts would be made to move regional headquarters to a suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, “as soon as possible.” The move is designed to give leaders faster access to flights traversing the region, which would save money, as well as access to various embassies and consulates in nearby Pretoria. The present location is not geographically suited to either task, leaders said.
Also, the church granted a higher administrative status to its operations in Botswana, creating a local leadership office for the entire nation, instead of having churches there report to regional officials. And, following a move decided during the world church’s annual business meeting Oct. 13, regional leaders discussed the planned opening of a graduate school in Africa. A location near Adventist-owned Helderberg College in South Africa has been suggested, but a final decision has not been made. (See ANN, Oct. 13, at http://www.adventist.org/news/data/2003/09/1066084594/index.html.en)
