For years the Adventist church has carefully kept track of its members and recorded the ebb and flow of membership movements in all fields around the world. When students of church growth wanted to gain access to these data, they had to wade through stacks of copies of reports officially collected by the GC Office of Archives and Statistics. While there were official Annual Statistical Reports these reports contained only incomplete data not allowing accurate calculations for different kinds of analysis of growth. Hence students had to work from paper copies of the non-published original data sheets collected on a quarterly basis in all fields of the Seventh-day Adventist church.

Then in 1996 the idea to create an electronic database of all official records was born. With the help of a research grant from the Theological Seminary and the GC Secretariat the Global Research Center was created. My research assistants, Petr Cincala and Nkosyabo Zvandazara, entered all the official data into a database I had designed. Jonathan Brauer, an information technology major, helped to translate the design into a web format that would allow easy access from around the world. In 1999 the first prototype was ready for testing. Soon the GC Office of Archives and Statistics offered to house the new database on their website. After graduating, Jonathan became the new information specialist in the GC Office.

The result is a highly functional database that allows you easy access to membership and tithe statistics of any Seventh-day Adventist field, anywhere in the world, for the last forty years. Check it out yourself.

Research Awards
1990
Allan Tippet Award
Research: “Towards a Model of Pastoral Leadership for Church Growth in German-Speaking Europe,” Fuller Theological Seminary

1989
Donald McGavran Award
Research: “Factors of Growth and Decline in European SDA Churches,” Fuller Theological Seminary