Adventist growth boosted by immigrants
When the 2011 edition of the Yearbook of American & Canadian Churches was published in February, the Seventh-day Adventist Church drew special notice for its reported 4.3 percent jump in membership. It turns out, however, that the figure was miscalculated.
The Adventists' climb to 1,043,606 U.S. members in 2009 (the latest year tabulated) was really only a little more than a 2 percent increase. A news-service story put the one-year rise at 2.5 percent, but to be exact, the increase during 2009 was 2.1 percent, according to David Trim, the statistics director for the Adventists' General Conference based in Silver Spring, Maryland.
But any increase is newsworthy these days. Mainline denominations have reported membership declines for decades, and some conservative churches, such as the Southern Baptist Convention and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod, have reported net losses.
