{"id":223,"date":"2014-08-27T07:18:26","date_gmt":"2014-08-27T07:18:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/sitenews\/2014\/08\/27\/adventists-are-fastest-growing-denomination-in-north-america\/"},"modified":"2014-08-27T07:18:26","modified_gmt":"2014-08-27T07:18:26","slug":"adventists-are-fastest-growing-denomination-in-north-america","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/adventists-are-fastest-growing-denomination-in-north-america\/","title":{"rendered":"Adventists Are Fastest-Growing Denomination In North America"},"content":{"rendered":"

01 April 2011 USA [Global News, sizly.com]<\/span><\/strong> The Seventh-Day Adventist Church has long been known for quaint beliefs and rigid regulations, but surprisingly it is the fastest-growing Christian denomination in North America at the moment.<\/p>\n

Data shows Seventh-Day Adventism growing by 2.5% in North America annually, whereas Southern Baptists and other denominations are declining.<\/p>\n

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons, registered 1.4 percent growth. Their denomination also prioritizes numeric growth.<\/p>\n

Observers are surprised by the gains being posted by Adventism, known for resting on the Sabbath, and adhering to Old Testament dietary laws, including vegetarianism.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got a denomination that is basically going back to basics \u2026 saying, \u2018What did God mean by all these rules and regulations and how can we fit in to be what God wants us to be?\u2019,\u201d said Daniel Shaw, an expert on Christian missionary outreach at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, California.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just totally contrary to anything that\u2019s happening in American culture. So I\u2019m saying, \u2018Whoa! That\u2019s very interesting.\u2019 And I can\u2019t answer it,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Within their ranks, however, the Seventh-Day Adventists are thinking of growing more in North America, which only has 1.1 million of the 16 million Adventists worldwide. The church is growing almost twice as fast elsewhere.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe don\u2019t feel that we\u2019re growing very much, and that is a source of concern, especially for North America,\u201d according to Ron Clouzet, director of the North American Division Evangelism Institute at Andrews University, located in Berrien Springs, Michigan.<\/p>\n

Clouzet pointed out that within the church, the Hispanic Adventists are \u201cthe one group that is growing very well. If we didn\u2019t have that group, we would look even more dismal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Adventists have been stepping up evangelism efforts both in the U.S. and globally. In 2009, nearly 80% of the 6,000 Adventist congregations in North America held long-term outreach events in hotels and other venues.<\/p>\n

In the Pacific Northwest, traditionally one of the most non-religious regions of the U.S., the denomination has started \u201cChristian cafes\u201d, where people can sit back and relax while asking questions about the church, without pressure. [ted<\/em>NEWS]
\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n

ted<\/em>NEWS Staff: Miroslav Pujic, director; Deana Stojkovic, editor
119 St Peter’s Street, St Albans, Herts, AL1 3EY, England
E-mail: tednews@ted-adventist.org
Website: www.ted-adventist.org<\/p>\n

ted<\/em>NEWS is an information bulletin issued by the communication department of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the Trans-European Division.
You are free to re-print any portion of the bulletin without need for special permission. However, we kindly request that you identify ted<\/em>NEWS whenever you publish these materials.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

01 April 2011 USA [Global News, sizly.com]<\/span><\/strong> The Seventh-Day Adventist Church has long been known for quaint beliefs and rigid regulations, but surprisingly it is the fastest-growing Christian denomination in North America at the moment.<\/p>\n

Data shows Seventh-Day Adventism growing by 2.5% in North America annually, whereas Southern Baptists and other denominations are declining.<\/p>\n

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, or Mormons, registered 1.4 percent growth. Their denomination also prioritizes numeric growth.<\/p>\n

Observers are surprised by the gains being posted by Adventism, known for resting on the Sabbath, and adhering to Old Testament dietary laws, including vegetarianism.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1577],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-223","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news","category-organisational-updates"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ted.adventist.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}