Did You Know...
The name Seventh-day Adventist is based upon two core beliefs of the church? Seventh-day describes the observance of the biblical Sabbath, the seventh day of the week, Saturday, as God's ordained day of worship. Advent, or coming, describes a belief in the nearness of Jesus Christ's return to Earth.
* With nearly 13 million members (a community of over 20 million) and an average of 3,000 new members a day, the Seventh-day Adventist church is one of the fastest growing denominations in the world.
* Adventists work in 203 of the 228 countries and areas recognized by the United Nations, and communicate in more than 717 languages.
* Adventists run one of the largest Protestant educational infrastructures in the world, with 5,605 elementary through college-level schools worldwide. Of those, 99 are colleges and universities.
* 70 percent of the world's population is a potential audience for Adventist World Radio, which is recognized as a major religious shortwave broadcaster. These programs, broadcast in 55 languages, are produced in 69 different production studios around the world.
* The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International is an independent humanitarian agency established in 1984 by the Adventist Church for the specific purpose of providing individual and community development and disaster relief. ADRA has a presence in more than 120 countries and assists more than 15 million people annually.
* In order to carry out Christ's command to "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel," the Adventist Church started Global Mission, a program in which people work in unentered areas. More than 35,000 Global Mission workers, called pioneers, are serving around the world.
* John Harvey Kellogg, a physician and Adventist pioneer, guided the Adventist Church's first medical institution, Battle Creek Sanitarium, into becoming an internationally-known medical center. From its beginnings in the 1860s, the Adventist Church now operates more than 600 hospitals, sanitariums, dispensaries, and clinics worldwide.
* The Adventist Church has a global satellite network of six channels spanning the globe. In 2003, under the direction of Adventist Television Network (ATN), the church launched the Hope Channel. This global English language satellite channel broadcasts a variety of interesting Christian programs 24 hours a day, seven days a week. ATN also has full-time channels in the Spanish and Portuguese languages that can be seen in Latin America and North America. The largest satellite evangelistic meeting was simultaneously translated into 40 languages and seen around the world. The meeting holding the record for the most people attending a host site was Port Moresby, Papua, New Guinea. In July 2001, over 100,000 people packed into a stadium to hear speaker Mark Finley present the message of Christ. The Adventist Church is a leader in using modern technology to introduce people to Christ.
* Adventist News Network (ANN) is the weekly information voice of the global church. Via e-mail and the Internet, ANN reaches tens of thousands of readers worldwide with news about Seventh-day Adventist Church matters, social concerns, and global action. Hundreds of thousands more interact with ANN reports as they are republished in church and other media around the world.
