Members of Annual Council voted September 29 to establish a Commission on Africa to help the Seventh-day Adventist Church effectively serve a region of the world that has seen rapid church growth in recent years, but faces many financial, organizational and leadership challenges. 

In his opening address to Council delegates on September 26, Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the Adventist Church worldwide, stressed the importance of the commission. He pointed out that in the past two decades the number of church members in Africa has increased 500 percent, but it will take only one decade to increase another 500 percent. 

“Our church in Africa is today experiencing rapid growth,” said Paulsen. “As we all well know, there are huge demands on infrastructures, institutions, pastorates, and leadership. So the time has come for us as a world body of leaders to ask: Have we provided our best to care for the future of our church family in Africa?”

The commission will assess church growth and development trends in Africa, as well as design a model for optimum growth, efficiency and stability in church life and organization.

“Almost a third of our world church membership lives in Africa,” says Pastor Lowell Cooper, Commission on Africa chair and vice president of the Adventist Church worldwide. “Over time, there has been a series of organizational readjustments in Africa to deal with new challenges. It’s time to again look at the church in Africa, especially because of the dramatic growth in recent years. We want to preserve it, to sustain it, to nurture it.”

The commission will include an in-house working group at the world headquarters, various invited consultants, as well as pastors, laypeople and administrators from Africa.