Like many people, perhaps you don't really know very much about Seventh-day Adventists. There may be an Adventist hospital or school in your town, or a Seventh-day Adventist family may live on your street. You may have seen the name in the newspaper or even attended an Adventist church service. And perhaps you have wondered, "Who are Seventh-day Adventists? Where did they come from? What do they believe? What are they accomplishing in the world today?"
What do Seventh-day Adventists think of Jesus?
The inmost heart and central core of belief for Seventh-day Adventists is Jesus Christ. He is the foundation of their faith. He is the basis of their religion. All that they believe, all that they teach, all that they do, all that they hope for, they center in Him and in His glorious work of salvation.
What are Seventh-day Adventists doing to make a better world?
Seventh-day Adventists uphold the gospel of Jesus Christ as the ultimate answer for all the world's ills. But they realize that to follow the example of Jesus, a personal work must be done to help people right where they are.
The church also operates 167 hospitals and sanitariums, 125 Nursing Homes and Retirement Centers, around the world, besides 449 clinics and dispensaries, as well as 34 orphanages and children’s homes. In many areas, these are the only medical facilities available. Over 14,000, 000 million persons received treatment at a Seventh-day Adventist facility during the year 2007.
Is the Adventist Church concerned about providing humanitarian aid to the poor?
The Seventh-day Adventist Church is also very concerned about providing help and relief through the impoverished areas of the world, this is why the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) was initiated by the Seventh-day Adventist church. The basis for its existence, its reason for being, is to follow Christ’s example by being a voice for, serving, and partnering with those in need.
ADRA seeks to identify and address social injustice and deprivation in developing countries. The agency’s work seeks to improve the quality of life of those in need. ADRA invests in the potential of these individuals through community development initiatives targeting Food Security, Economic Development, Primary Health and Basic Education. ADRA’s emergency management initiatives provide aid to disaster survivors.
ADRA is changing the world in 125 countries around the globe without regard to gender, age, ethnicity or political or religious association.
For more information about the ministry of the Seventh-day Adventist Church on behalf of the needy of this world, through ADRA, please click on the following link:
http://www.adra.org/site/PageServer
Does the Seventh-day Adventist Church address religious liberty and social justice through the world?
Since 1901, the Department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL) has represented the Seventh-day Adventist Church to governments, religious bodies, and international organizations. By supporting, protecting and defending religious freedom and human rights for all people everywhere, PARL speaks for the church on public affairs and shares Adventist values of freedom of worship and belief. In addition to its function at the General Conference, PARL operates offices on Capitol Hill for representative work to the U.S. Congress, and also in New York City for United Nations liaison.
Conducting congresses, conferences, and other events worldwide to promote religious freedom, inter-faith dialogue, and human rights, PARL helps develop crucial understanding between government officials and religious leaders of all persuasions.
PARL also sponsors, on behalf of the church, the International Religious Liberty Association (IRLA), a non-sectarian organization dedicated to the cause of religious freedom. Seventh-day Adventist leaders were the first to organize such an association, which serves as an umbrella for many regional and national religious liberty affiliates around the world. These connections bring involvement from Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Buddhist, Baptist, Mormon and many other religious persuasions, working together for the religious freedom of all.
The Adventist church is committed to the principle meaning of religious freedom: The differences in religions, throughout the world, should be respected. What we choose to believe and how we choose to worship should be according to the dictates of our conscience. The IRLA continues to defend the right to religious freedom worldwide, by helping all religions find a common ground.
For more information on the Seventh-day Adventist Church and Religious Freedom click here: www.parl.gc.adventist.org/
Why do Seventh-day Adventists emphasize health?
Seventh-day Adventists believe that the body, mind, and spirit are inextricably knit together. They believe that the body can affect the mind as well as the mind the body. They believe that God is concerned that the entire man be in the best possible condition, physically, mentally, and spiritually.
What are Seventh-day Adventists doing to promote health?
Adventists have several community services related to health. The Five-Day Plan to Stop Smoking is one such service. This unique plan was developed by a Seventh-day Adventist physician and a minister. It has proved successful everywhere it has been presented and has helped thousands of men and women quit smoking in only five days. The 4 DK Plan dealing with alcoholism is a similar service. Cooking classes, heart disease teams, and narcotics education are other areas where Adventists are working to promote public health. Also, it was Seventh-day Adventists who developed and pioneered breakfast cereals and nonmeat, vegetable protein sources.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church operates 30 vegetarian food industries through the world.
What about education?
Seventh-day Adventists operate the largest Protestant school system in the world. The Education Department team is responsible for the coordination, promotion, training, and quality of the global Seventh-day Adventist educational system, which includes 7,442 schools, colleges and universities, with approximately 75,000 teachers and 1,480,000 students. Working in close cooperation with the Education Department directors in the 13 world divisions, the staff offers services to boards, administrators, and faculty of Adventist colleges and universities worldwide. The staff also provides support through the world divisions to educational leaders at union/ conference/ mission levels and to teachers in Adventist elementary and secondary schools to ensure that the Adventist philosophy of education and the principles of faith-and-learning are integrated into the life of each institution. In addition, the staff cooperates with Adventist Chaplaincy Ministries and the Youth Ministries Department in nurturing the faith of Adventist students attending non-Adventist colleges and universities worldwide.
To get more information about Seventh-day Adventist Education, please click on the following link:
http://education.gc.adventist.org/index.html
What is the church's spiritual outreach and mission?
The Seventh-day Adventist Church finds its strength in mission. Its commitment includes a worldwide humanitarian work, and international volunteer program, satellite television and shortwave radio blanketing the globe, a huge publishing program, thousands of schools, a large network of hospitals and clinics, the Global Mission pioneer program, and hundreds of overseas missionaries.
Through the years, Seventh-day Adventists have generously supported mission through their tithes and mission offerings because they believe the gospel commission. They believe we're called to help the less fortunate, the poor, the sick, and those who don't know about Jesus.
It's true that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is one of the world's most rapidly growing denominations: Adventist mission reaches 204 countries, touching lives through medical care, media, education, mission workers, Global Mission pioneers, outreach resources and so much more. Adventist mission is entering new areas. Establishing new congregations. Changing lives.
Yet huge challenges remain. The 10/40 Window, with 60 percent of the world's population, remains largely untouched by the gospel. The Christian church is in decline in the secular, postmodern West. And the huge mega cities of the world, where the church struggles to find a foothold, are growing rapidly.
Of the 228 countries in the world, as listed by the United Nations, Seventh-day Adventists are proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ in 204. The gospel is preached in 885 languages. Sixty-five publishing houses print the gospel. There are more than 60,273 organized Seventh-day Adventist churches and 61,352 companies around the world, with over 15, 000,000 members, about 16,000 ordained active ministers, and nearly 186,000 active employees, missionaries, doctors, teachers, secretaries, and others who are not ordained ministers.
However, stretching from North Africa, through the Middle East, and into East Asia, the 10/40 Window is home to more than two-thirds of the earth's population, many of the world's major religions, the largest and fastest-growing cities, some of the world's poorest people, and the fewest Christians. Many living within this region have never heard the name of Jesus.
If you would like to know more about Seventh-day Adventist Mission through the world, please click on the following link: http://www.adventistmission.org/index.php
Does the Seventh-day Adventist Church own any Television Stations?
Yes, the Seventh-day Adventist Church places an enormous importance in the communication and its different and most modern means. It owns and operates 10m media centers around the world. Adventist Television Network is the 24/7 global satellite television service
of the world church of Seventh-day Adventists.
As the satellite voice of the Adventist church,
ATN broadcasts a range of international non-political programming
around the world in a number of languages.
Current programming includes
evangelistic series, major church organizational meetings,
sermons, Sabbath School study, weekly church news,
public health, education, family life and special church events.
For more information on the Seventh-day Adventist Television Network, please click here: http://adventist.tv/index.html
The official TV Channel of the Seventh-day Adventist Church is Hope Channel. Hope Channel is a family friendly television network that spans the globe. Our world headquarters is located just outside of Washington, D.C. in Silver Spring, Maryland USA. We also have several offices, television studios and uplink centers in places such as Brazil, Germany, South Africa, and California USA.
Our global network broadcasts to every inhabited continent via satellite and is widely re-distributed by terrestrial rebroadcast, cable, internet and direct-to-home TV.
Hope Channel programming appeals to people of different nationalities and languages. Since our 40 studios are located in the countries where we broadcast, we are able to provide a rich variety of culturally relevant programs that appeal to all ages.
Viewers of our many channels appreciate the positive programs. As a spiritual values network, shows are considered for broadcast if the content will improve our viewers' relationships, health, careers, intellectual knowledge, and spiritual well-being.
The learn more about Hope Channel, please click below:
http://www.hopetv.org/
Does the Seventh-day Adventist Church own any Television Stations?
Yes, hundreds of them. Adventist World Radio is the mission radio arm of the Seventh-day Adventist church, using shortwave, FM, AM, satellite, and Internet broadcasting. It broadcasts to the hardest-to-reach places on Earth, to people groups that are difficult to reach with conventional outreach methods.
Even in the modern era, there are still countries where mission workers cannot be sent because of political, religious, or geographic barriers. AWR’s goal is to share the hope of Christ with people around the world in their own languages. AWR currently broadcasts in nearly 70 languages worldwide, and is preparing to add more.
One of AWR’s main objectives is to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with the people living in the 72 countries within the 10/40 window. This is an area 10 degrees to 40 degrees north latitude -- an area spanning North Africa, the Middle East through the Asia / Pacific region. Over four billion people (two-thirds of the world’s population) live in the 10/40 window, and less than two percent of them are Christian.
AWR also broadcasts radio programs in Africa, Europe and South America. Satellite coverage extends to North America and northern Australia. Combining both satellite and radio, AWR can potentially reach 80 percent of the world’s population with the gospel in their own language.
Internet users can listen anywhere on earth.
For more information about Adventist World Radio and its affiliates throughout the world, please click here: http://www.awr2.org/index.php?option=com_frontpage&Itemid=1
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