For the first time in the history of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, membership grew by more than 5 million new members in a five-year period. This was reported July 1 by Bert Haloviak, director of Archives and Statistics for the world church, to delegates at the 58th General Conference Session.

Church membership grew from 10,939,182 at the beginning of 2000 to 13,936,932 at the end of 2004, Haloviak reported.

However, he added, nearly 1.5 million left membership during the time period 2000 to 2005. “The bottom line for this quinquennium is that for every 100 accessions, more than 35 others decided to leave,” he told delegates. “That total is considerably more than the 24 subtracted for every 100 added as reported at our last session” in 2000. 

Despite a fast growth rate during the last five years, when considering the number of those leaving the church compared to how many joined, this is the “lowest growth rate since the 1960 to 1964 period.”

But, Haloviak said, an average annual growth rate of 4.97 percent during this quinquennium suggests the Seventh-day Adventist Church is prepared for a period of major growth in the near future.

“At the end of 2004,” he stated, “six of the current world divisions [administrative church regions] surpassed the 1-million membership mark, and of those, three fellowship more than 2 million members.”

“A new kind of million-member club was established this quinquennium,” he added. The North American Division became the sixth world division with 1 million members or more.

And it’s not just divisions reaching the 1-million member mark; countries are doing so as well, Haloviak added. Brazil did this since the General Conference Session in 2000, and India, Philippines and the United States are poised to do so within the next five years.

Haloviak concluded his report by highlighting the tools of evangelism used during the last half-century of mission, including television ministry, airplane evangelism, open-heart team evangelism, medical mission launches, orphanages, and “other innovative means of alleviating the suffering of the world while pointing toward a perfect kingdom of the future.”