The second half of the 20th century brought so many impactful events, for both world and church history. All of these events have led the Seventh-day Adventist Church to grow to more than 18 million members, with a special place for YOU.
Between 1950 and the 1990s, several monumental world events took place. Not the least among them is you. Yes, the majority of you here right now were probably born during the auspicious epoch known as the latter half of the twentieth century. You lived through some low points, and some high points. So has the Earth. So has the church.
You may remember when Pathfinders became a globally recognized church ministry. It was the same year the Korean War began, in 1950. And it was just a year later [1951] when Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay summited Mount Everest. Stunning feats of human endurance for New Zealand and Nepal, and the same year, the U.S. rolled out color television.
In ‘55 the Vietnam War began, and a year later [1956] the first Adventist church was established in Cyprus. Later, Dr. Roy S. Cornell opened a hospital in Benghazi, Libya; It Is Written became first Christian TV program to be broadcast in color; and the General Conference voted for a six week cross cultural missionary training program. This would become the Institute of World Missions.
While the Russians were busy launching Sputnik, [1957] Malta got its first literature evangelists. Then [1958] the Maltese government granted a three month annual bookselling campaign.
As Hawaii and Alaska join the United States and Castro took over Cuba, an Adventist evangelistic center opened in Beirut. They’ve done everything there from Bible correspondence classes to running a physical therapy clinic.
Remember the Benghazi, Libya hospital? The same year Alan Shepherd became the first American in space [1960], seventeen of the hospital staff organized a church. The following year, the Berlin Wall went up. Later, when the Benghazi hospital was nationalized, nearly all Adventists would depart Libya.
Pastor Joe Crews started a radio program in 1965 where he would open every show with an amazing fact. He creatively named the broadcast Amazing Facts, and followed up each nugget of trivia with a simple Biblical lesson.
Throughout the 1960s religious restrictions were relaxed in Kazakhstan. Perhaps Kazakhstan, like a lot of the world, was beginning to care less about religion in general. Whatever the case, Adventists were able form new congregations, construct church buildings, and hold public worship.
While Apollo 11 astronauts strolled across the moon [1969], the Adventist Youth World Congress met in Zurich, Switzerland. The same year, John Freeman founded Maranatha Flights International in an effort to organize shortterm mission trips for lay people. Twenty years later, they’d merge with Volunteers International to become Maranatha Volunteers International.
In 1971, the artist Jasper Johns would be credited with starting postmodernism in art. Adventist Health Systems broke ground two years later and would become one of the most robust hospital systems in the U.S.
In 1979, despite having no faculty or campus of their own, The Latin American Theological Seminary was established in Brazil, offering degrees throughout South America.
Marc and Aunie Scalzi along with their two kids became the first missionary family to operate under the newly incorporated Adventist Frontier Missions. They planted a church in the Philippines.
“It Is Written made history with the most massive satellite TV evangelistic series of all time. NET ‘ 95, ‘96 , a n d ‘ 9 8 won an estimated 25 to 30 thousand new converts.”
The once closed country of Mongolia established its first SDA church less than twenty years ago. And despite the recent decline, 1999 saw the worldwide enrollment in Adventist schools surpass 1 million students.
From the ‘50s up through the turn of the millennium, the global Seventh-Day Adventist Church said “yes.” We said “yes” to bold ideas, “yes” to innovative tools, “yes” to passionate ministries that grew our church all over the planet.
We are not referring to growth in the thousands, tens of thousands, or even hundreds of thousands. We are a church in the millions. Two Hundred thirty two countries, with seventy eight thousand eight hundred and ten churches, and eighteen million four hundred and seventy nine thousand two hundred and fifty seven members. We are like the sands of a desert, the stars of the night sky. We are an ocean.
So where does that leave... you?
