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I would like to say that I love God and I love His Word. I have never found peace in this world in anything other than the Bible, Nature, and Prayer. I realize now that if these three things are not a vital part of my day then I am a hopeless case that can be a blessing to NO ONE! In other words, without studying God’s word, spending time in Nature (with Nature’s Creator) and Prayer, I am as useless as a…well something really useless

Having said that, I want to be reunited with my Creator in the way He intended life to be..Eden Restored. I believe the Bible has guidelines of truth that have been mixed up in this world and that many are searching for what is the real truth. I personally believe that God raised up a movement in 1844 that would share the truest gospel on the earth since the day’s of Christ. I believe that the Seventh-day Adventist Church is the church of that movement. Unfortunately at times I have thought that all we needed to do was get the gospel to the world i.e every country and then Jesus would say…job well done. Nice Preaching…

Well, I thought wrong. If you look to Revelation 7 and 14. Look to Matthew 25 and Isaiah 58, and you will see that we have a work of service to our fellow man first. We are to be servants and as Revelation 7 clearly shows us…only servants will be sealed. I have been guilty of playing church for too long.

Read those chapters in the bible and see what God shows you. I would like to show you some statistics below that show that we are losing the battle on numbers in this world. At the rate of my own church(and other denominations in Christianity as a whole are in a similar boat), we will never catch up to the growth in the world’s population. So though we may be baptizing nearly 3000 a day(like at Pentecost, good news right?? , why do always forget that those were church leaders being baptized on the day of Pentecost…not unbelievers ??), so though we are baptizing many, we are losing and will never succeed in the mission we thought was our mission…

Our mission is to duplicate the character of Christ. When we allow Christ to do this in us…then He will do mighty things through His church. Until then, we will tout numbers like the ones below that may sound good but sadly they are not good.

Including inflation etc, these numbers are not encouraging. I love my church and I know that it is God’s church-the apple of His eye. The Bride He is longing to be reunited with. Also look at retention…we are not doing a good job making disciples.

Secretary’s Report - accompanied by the statistical report.  Here are some points of interest:

• Membership stands at 16,049,101.  Accessions during the past 4 quarters was 1,029,206-the 7th year in a row with over one million.  This averages out to be 2,818 per day in 2008.
• The retention rate, however, is low.  Church audits have been requested of each division.  One division reported a loss due to the audit of 300,000.  However, one division which did an audit earlier show rates of 8.3% and 6.65% during the past two years.
• War-torn countries in East Central Africa Division left many members in fear but now the greatest crisis is behind them.  Church life is back to normal.
• Many divisions report excitement over the Follow the Bible as this Bible traveled around the world highlighting Adventists strong belief in the Scriptures.
• The North American Division has boldly launched initiatives designed to reach 100,000 baptisms.  30% more baptisms year-to-date than last year!

Treasurer’s Report-Highlights

• Worldwide tithe in 2008 was up 8.56% over 2007 - 43% of this increase was due to exchange rates.
• Due to the exchange rates the gross tithe from the 12 divisions other than North America exceeded that of North America for the first time.
• The majority of the GC funds are invested in fixed income which has been helpful during this volatile time resulting in a net increase rather than a net decrease as has been the case with many businesses.
• Budgeting constraints were put in place including a freeze on wage increases as well as the hiring of additional office personnel except in critical areas.  Travel budgets have been cut back by 20%.
• Major study was given to GC appropriations to the world divisions resulting in significant adjustments in the next few years.
• The gift of “Extraordinary Tithe” of several million has impacted the mission around the world and coming at a most crucial time when the economy is down.  With each approved project a percent of the appropriation is to be used for assessment to assure the effective use of these monies.