The North American Division (NAD) has a problem—a big problem, which they admitted at their recent year-end meetings in Columbia, Maryland. There is a precipitous decline in those willing to go into the pastoral ministry, and weekly church attendance is low throughout the division.
“We have a missional challenge—we have a shortage of pastors,” stated Ivan Williams, NAD Ministerial Secretary. “That shortage will impact how schools are run. That shortage will impact how we fill this room [NAD Year-end meeting] with leaders in our offices. That shortage will also impact how our communities are reached.”
The impact of this statement was illustrated through statistics given by ministerial associates, Gerardo Oudri, Esther Knott, and José Cortes, Jr. Enrollment in “Pre-Seminary” degrees, such as theology and religion, in Adventist undergraduate programs is dropping rapidly, with one college having to close its program due to lack of students, according to Oudri. At the seminary, numbers of students in the M.Div. program (the traditional degree for pastors) is also in decline.
Cortes explained that of the approximately 4,300 pastors serving across NAD, 880 will be eligible for retirement within the next 5 years. Following recent trends, the division expects that during that time around 480 pastors will retire, 150 will be asked to serve as leaders in administrative offices, and 300 will simply leave the ministry for other reasons.
Dire Predictions
He went on to explain the projections for 2023-2027. Based on current trends, he said, NAD is expecting a loss of 930 pastors during that time. Furthermore, they are expecting just 503 undergraduate (theology/religion) and M.Div. students to graduate over those years. This leaves, according to Cortes, “a deficit of 427 pastors in the next five years.” Urging the point further, he emphasized, “This is a conservative estimate. . . it could be worse.”
Alex Bryant, NAD president, gave further insight while affirming this reality. “We do not have adequate numbers in the system to replace those who are going to be retiring,” he said. “We’re going now to . . . Australia, Europe, trying to find pastors because we’re finding more and more difficulty finding pastors here.” (It should be noted that church membership in Australia has been static for many years, and in Europe has been in decline for decades.)
Questions Raised
After the statistics were presented, Ivan Williams returned to the podium to ask the NAD year-end meeting delegates to discuss three questions in sub-groups divided by union territories:
1. “How do we address and deal with the shortage which sends a ripple effect into the ministry and life of the North American Division?”
2. What are the reasons young people are not choosing to go into pastoral ministry? How can we address these concerns?
3. How can all levels of the church help with the NextGen Initiative—recruiting process?
The following day, responses were shared with the delegates as Judy Glass, NAD Treasurer, was asked to read the lists from the sub-groups. Keep in mind these sub-groups consisted of leaders from across the NAD. Some of the answers included:
“Low wages [for pastors], high education expense—not seen as worth it.”
“Putting young pastors into small churches that are toxic is very discouraging.”
“More training in social work so more young pastors can do community work.”
“Churches are not welcoming of females in ministry.”
“Women’s ordination vote, LGBTQ discussions, have been hurtful and young adults are discouraged by them.”
“Too many toxic churches.”
“Young adults do not like organizations that are oppressive to vulnerable people.”
“Put young pastors in ‘safe churches’ or let them plant churches.”
“The Seventh-day Adventist Church is still irrelevant in many ways.
“Pastors are not able to do a ‘side-hustle.’
“Lack of understanding that we are the remnant.”
“Is it that we have too few pastors, or too many dying churches?”
This last point had been raised the previous day following the Secretary’s Report, given by Kyoshin Ahn, NAD Executive Secretary. In his report, Ahn stated that at the end of 2022, NAD church membership stood at 1,234,397 members. He explained this was just 5.33% of global church membership and would result in NAD having fewer delegates at the upcoming General Conference Session in 2025.
Low Church Attendance
Considering local churches, Ahn pointed out that there are “plenty of small congregations, but fewer people in them,” explaining that 77% of Seventh-day Adventist congregations have 100 or fewer weekly attendees, and just 13% of Adventist congregations have more than 200 people attending weekly services.
In a detailed report on NAD church attendance, Brian Ford, director of eAdventist Membership Services at NAD, stated the median attendance in Seventh-day Adventist churches in 2023 was just 53 people. He noted this was almost back to pre-COVID levels of attendance where churches were averaging a 40-50 percent of membership attendance ratio in NAD. While there was a drastic drop in attendance during COVID, by 2023, 54 percent of NAD congregations were back with an attendance rate of 46 percent of their membership.
“Going in Reverse Order”
Immediately following the Secretary’s report, Tony Anobile, vice president for church ministries of the Southwestern Union Conference responded:
“I want to come back to that one about our church attendance,” he said. “We have great policies to become a group, company, and church, but we don’t really have a strategic approach to go the other way. And as I listened to this report, and as I’ve been hearing from ministerial, our financial resources are limited, but our bodies [pastors] are going to be very limited. . . I think it’s time for us to look at this as a division for a strategic approach—it’s a tough conversation to look at how to close churches that need to be closed. . . I believe God can do great things, but I think we need to be realistic and say in North America some of these churches are not going to grow and yet we’re spending a lot of resources and time with presence on churches that need to be closed, but we need to have a collective approach of how to do that.”
A few minutes later, Dan Linrud, president of the Oregon Conference, provided the answer. “Just piggy backing on my brother Anobile,” he said, “I’m wondering if there is a process that we can get the Church Manual to create the protocol for going in reverse order? We go group, company, church, but we need a process in the manual that states going from church to company to group. We need that backing as we relate to that in the field because without that in the Manual, churches tend to challenge going in that reverse order.”
Kyoshin Ahn, NAD Executive Secretary, strongly supported the idea, telling the delegates, “You have all received the newest version of the Church Manual this year. There is this section at the end of the Church Manual, “North American Division Supplementary pages.” We may want to talk to the General Conference whether they might be willing to consider us making a recommendation to them to allow us to put that whatever the decision we make with regard to this as an NAD specific supplement.
Alex Bryant, NAD President, also strongly supported the move. “Dr. Ahn, I was thinking of something similar,” he affirmed. “I was wondering if Dan [Lindrud] would come back to the microphone. The Church Manual is only changed once every five years. And at the General Conference, the last opportunity for changes are made at the Annual Council of 2024. And so, the way we process them is, we make a recommendation for something to be considered. And I think it is appropriate to take an action from this body that we will consider the reverse order as you have mentioned, and we can put the language what needs to be done to go there . . . So, if you would like to make that motion the chair will certainly entertain it.
“Sure,” Linrud responded. “I would be happy to make that motion to create a process in the Church Manual for moving from church to company to group and recommend that to the General Conference.” It was immediately seconded.
Mark Weir, president of the Dakota Conference, affirmed the decision, stating that his was “a small conference with small churches scattered across a wide expanse of land.”
A Provision Already in Place
Todd McFarland, an attorney who serves as Deputy General Counsel for the General Conference, reminded the group that the Church Manual already contains a provision for dissolving a church for loss of membership.
“This is a little out of my parliamentarian role,” he began, “but I’ve been working on this issue in another context. There is a procedure in there [Church Manual] for dissolution or expulsion. The way it’s structured, though, it doesn’t explicitly say that, is that expulsion is for disciplinary reasons—a church in rebellion. Dissolution is in there as a process for loss of membership. So, there is a process in the Church Manual on this.”
He then provided more information, stating, “I will say the expulsion provision is going to be rewritten. There’s some language in there which, quite frankly, got in there, I don’t think anyone really realized what it was saying, so that section is going to be rewritten to some extent to match practice. But there is a dissolution provision there. And I do want to just talk about the process. The NAD wants to make a recommendation there—yes, that needs to be done sooner rather than later because the window on that does close at Annual Council, and it is a multi-month process getting to there because the committee only meets a few times a year. But do take a look at that current dissolution language because it is in there now.”
Despite the fact that there is already a process within the Church Manual to dissolve a church due to lack of members, Alex Bryant pressed on with the motion to create a reverse process where a church could become a company, and a company a group. “This is a motion to recommend to the General Conference that we add something in the [Church] Manual regarding this,” he said. “And we can tweak how it’s going to look, or if it’s going to be in the NAD section, but to give us some tools in our hands as we address the church. He then called for a voice vote of “Ayes.” The motion carried.
Some Observations and Recommendations
It is sad to see a division and its leaders looking for ways to demote their churches rather than finding successful ways to grow them. Furthermore, since procedures are already in place for disbanding a church due to lack of members, might it be possible that this “reverse order” policy could be used to “discipline” churches that may not fall into line with strange and conflicting with the world church conference policies—such as the case in Potomac Conference?
Regarding the lack of interest shown by young people in becoming pastors—it would be interesting to see if this lack of enthusiasm is worldwide, or mainly within North America, since, as Alex Bryant indicated, pastors are being recruited from elsewhere since potential pastors are in short supply here.
Something else to consider—if you were a young person today, would you be interested in becoming a pastor within the North American Division? Why or why not?
Finally, regarding the crises the North American Division is facing, we would like to kindly and respectfully offer a few suggestions to the NAD leadership:
1. Focus on the reason the Seventh-day Adventist Church was formed and why it exists today. This will encourage both members, pastors, and potential pastors. Remind them that God didn’t just need another church when He guided this movement’s formation. This is the church of Bible prophecy, as described in Revelation 10:8-11, Revelation 12:17, Revelation 14:6-12, and more. Encourage your pastors to preach Bible-rich sermons focusing on our Fundamental Beliefs with practical applications for us today.
2. Give young people a reason to belong to the Seventh-day Adventist Church and a desire to serve as pastors in this Church. Teach them why being a Seventh-day Adventist matters, and how God can use them to bring hope and light into the world as they serve others. Help them to “be in the world but not of the world,” addressing the needs around them while keeping eternity in view.
3. Stop pushing the women’s ordination agenda. You’ve been pushing this agenda for decades now and it continues to be very divisive. Interestingly, the pushing of this agenda is discouraging young people from becoming pastors. Despite efforts to the contrary, there are many members throughout North America who are not supportive of female pastors.
4. Remember you are a division of the world church, not a separate entity. It often appears that the “Church in North America” thinks and acts as if it is its own entity. It is not. The North American Division is a division of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists—one of 13 divisions. You are supposed to represent the General Conference in North America, and as such should cooperate with and be a part of the world church within your territory. That means actively engaging with and supporting world church programs, following voted church policies, and encouraging the unions and conferences within your territory to do the same.
5. Be more inclusive in recruiting and hiring policies. There are many dedicated young people who would no doubt be happy to serve as pastors within the NAD. Unfortunately, however, conferences refuse to hire them because the potential pastors don’t support the litmus test—supporting women’s ordination. If you are truly looking for diversity and inclusion, encourage local conferences to hire pastors who may not support pushing the WO agenda and who would rather focus on building up churches instead of “bringing them into line” or demoting them into companies and groups.
These are just a few of no doubt many suggestions that could help turn around the discouraging and challenging situation facing the North American Division. Please know that there are many members within your territory who are very concerned and are praying that things will improve. We encourage these members to respectfully share their concerns and helpful suggestions by writing directly to Alex Bryant, president of the North American Division, at presoffice@nadadventist.org.
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Links to watch the NAD year-end meetings: