Adventist Review ecorSOUTHWESTERN UNION RECORD REVIEW, March 29, 1984 — 16A A PROGRESS REPORT A Three Year Review Three years have passed since the last quinquennial consti- Tithe and Offerings tuency meeting of the Southwestern Union Conference in The health and growth of a church are reflected also in the 1981. About half of the "1,000 Days of Reaping" are past. Let financial support given by the members. A membership us take a brief look at what has been accomplished under increase should be accompanied by a corresponding increase God's guidance and with His blessing. in the amount of tithe and offerings. Such increases must also keep pace with inflationary increases in costs of operation. Baptisms and Memberships The past three years show a slowing down of the rate of The goal of the 1,000 Days of Reaping project is to baptize tithe increase, although the average tithe per member con- one million new believers around the world in the 1,000 days tinues to grow: between September 18, 1982, and June 15, 1985 - time of the Yearly Percent of next General Conference session. The Southwestern Union's Tithe Gain Increase Per Capita portion of that objective is 13,230 baptisms. 1981 $2,412,610.89 15.99 $450.73 The world field is right on target, keeping a little ahead of 1982 1,551,703.62 8.87 468.11 the 1,000 per day. How is the Southwestern Union doing? At 1983 1,365,744.46 7.17 479.50 the end of 1983 (46 percent of the 1,000 Days), Southwestern baptisms totaled 5,476 - 41.4 percent of the goal. Sabbath school offerings, on which the world mission pro- gram depends so heavily, show a similar trend: The program aims at a total membership for the South- western Union of 49,800 by June 15, 1985. To reach it requires Percent of Offering per Week a net membership gain of 6,162 during the 1,000 Days. Increase Per Member 1981 6 51 $.59 September 18, 1982 to December 31, 1983 1982 1 62 .57 1983 2 91 .55 (46 percent of 1,000 Days) 1,000 Days Achieved Percent of Sabbath School Objective Dec. 31, 1983 Goal Reached Baptisms 13,230 5,476 41.4 A unionwide Sabbath school workshop, held on the cam- Membership Gain 6,162 3,782 61.4 pus of Southwestern Adventist College, May 12-16, 1983, New Congregations 70 20 28.6 attracted 242 delegates and more than 60 observers. An all- day session on May 14 was attended by 32 delegates to The membership of the Southwestern Union has grown receive training as workshop demonstrators. from 40,156 on December 31, 1980 (just before the last Union One hundred churches from across the Southwestern Session) to 46,904 on December 31, 1983. Union were represented at this weekend meeting. An excel- Baptisms are the harvest of the gospel proclamation. We lent staff of guest demonstrators consisting of General Con- pray and work for larger results. But the real measurement of ference personnel and others from the West Coast, Michigan, the growth of the church is in the actual net increase in the and Alabama gave instruction and guidance. number of church members. Both baptisms (including new members received on profession of faith) and membership Comparative Sabbath Schoo I Report, 1981-1983 gains are best evaluated in terms of the percentage of total 1981 1982 1983 membership which they represent: Mission Offerings $1,182,625 $1,201,841 $1,236,808 Membership 29,430 31,831 33,221 Baptisms Percent of Membership Percent of Attendance 18,899 20,750 20,814 Memberships Increase Increase Vacation Bible Schools: Number conducted 86 96 113 1981 3,335 8.3 1,950 4.86 Enrollment 4,104 5,020 5,387 1982 3,963 9.4 2,610 6.20 Enrolled in Sabbath School .... 140 110 146 1983 3 875 8.7 2,188 4.89 Baptized 1 15 42 The Southwestern Union is reaching toward a goal of bap- Branch Sabbath Schools: Number conducted 64 21 24 tizing each year a total equal to 10 percent of our member- Enrollment 843 308 335 ship. We were close in 1982. An increased pace in all lines of S.S. Members Baptized 1 500 1,628 1,384 soul winning, with God's blessing, may reach that goal in 1984. Percent of Total Baptisms 51 45 36 The Southwestern Union has been leading the North Ameri- Personal Ministries can Division in these precentages for several years. On the The activities of Southwestern laymen are summarized as latest Division report (for the year ending September 30, 1983) follows: the baptisms for the nine unions averaged 5.8 percent of their membership. Our baptisms for that period were 9.2 percent of 1981 1982 1983 our membership. The union in second place stood at 6.8 Churches Reporting 206 164 155 percent. Members Reporting 1 749 1,992 3,130 The average membership gain for the nine unions was 2.9 Missionary Contacts 104,863 193,898 240,690 percent. The Southwestern Union is consistently standing at Literature Distributed 209,004 514,251 567,712 Bible Studies Given 8,413 25,084 24,865 the head of this list, too. As we seek to increase the record of Persons Helped 28,652 162,209 290,056 membership gains, it is as important to establish and hold Public Lay Efforts 177 153 256 church members as it is to win them. Souls Laymen Helped Win 142 661 512 16B - REVIEW, March 29, 1984 RECORD These figures reflect the reporting of approximately 35 per- Their sales of gospel literature continue to climb: cent of the churches, and about seven percent of the members. What would our record be if all the churches and $2,910,689 $3,256,045 $3,356,663 (12% Increase) (3% Increase) members were reporting! A unionwide lay congress is to be held, June 22-24, 1984, on Adventist Book Center Sales also continue to increase. the campus of Southwestern Adventist College. Representa- tives from the General Conference will join with leaders from 1,318,950 1,924,826 2,015,453 across our Southwestern Union to involve the church mem- (46% Increase) (5% Increase) bership in soul winning during these final days of the 1,000 Days of Reaping. Health and Temperance The Lord has richly blessed in the Health-Temperance Ingathering Department in the last few years. Strong leadership in our The Southwestern Union continues to lead the North local conferences is making steady progress in the promotion American Division in the average amount of Ingathering funds of better health. The most outstanding program has been the raised per member. The figure for 1983 was $20.98, compared organization and development of the Better Health Live-In to the average of $12.52 for all nine union conferences. The Clinic at Nameless Valley Ranch in the Texas Conference. Oklahoma Conference reached $27.01 per member, again Several three-week programs have been held with outstand- holding the highest Ingathering per capita for conferences in ing success and a regular schedule is being planned for the the United States. Our Ingathering record for the past three future. The plan is to promote similar programs in the other years is as follows: conferences as well. Workshops were conducted last year in our local conferen- Total Raised Per Capita ces combining the medical-spiritual concept. 1981 $946,847.17 $23.27 1982 954,616.52 22.42 Adventist Health System/Sunbelt has been a tremendous 1983 946,453.07 20.98 help to the Southwestern Union in promoting the Health min- istry. A new Health Education complex is under construction Our union is making a fair bid to become the fourth union in at Huguley Memorial Hospital in Fort Worth. This has tre- the North American Division to pass the million dollar mark in mendous potential for the Metroplex area and can be used as Ingathering (after the Pacific Union, the Southern Union, and a center to train health personnel for the entire Southwestern the Columbia Union). Union. Health professional recruitment is continuing to grow and Education we are seeing results from efforts put forth in this area. Two new day academies have been established in the Southwestern Union: Tulsa Adventist Academy and Parkview Adventist Academy (Oklahoma City). Both of these schools Continuing Education are operated by the Oklahoma Conference. This brings the This department is responsible for the ongoing education of number of church-sponsored secondary schools in the Union pastors. It was established in November of 1981. to seven. The primary focus of this work is with the ministers of other The academy students throughout the union are involved in faiths, who are most interested in our biblical beliefs, and with conducting Revelation Seminars, and are responsible for over the follow-up and nurture of the 30 ministers who have been 200 persons being baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist baptized into God's Remnant Church. These have come from Church. many denominations: Baptist groups (Southern, Missionary, Independent), Pentecostal groups (Pentecostal, Pentecostal The achievement test scores indicate that for every grade 3 Holiness, Church of God in Christ, United Pentecostal, to 8, our church school students are above the 72nd percen- Assembly of God, Apostolic), Presbyterian, Episcopalian, tile on national norms. Grades 9-12 show scores above the Nazarene, and Methodist. God's Spirit is moving with the 60th percentile. The 50th percentile is average. truth upon pastor's hearts. Seventh-day Adventist reading textbooks are being used in Five of the pastors are with us in full-time ministry.