By Libna Stevens, Inter-American Division
The Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Inter-American Division surpassed its goal of baptizing at least 1 million new members over the five years, but it also removed more than 690,000 members during the first major audit of its books.
The two figures, presented in a report by division executive secretary Elie Henry at ongoing division year-end meetings, represent steady evangelistic growth across the region and an aggressive plan among leaders to keep the membership books more accurate.
The Inter-American Division baptized 1,046,766 new members from January 2010 through June 2015 and removed 690,366 names from its books during an ongoing audit that began in 2012, Henry said in his secretary’s report to 140 leaders attending the weeklong meetings at the division’s headquarters in Miami, Florida.
Membership now stands at 3,606,078, making the division the largest in the world church. Members worship in 21,179 congregations in 24 unions and 125 conferences and missions.
