Membership growth highlighted in secretary’s report

Encouraging church membership growth figures were presented in the secretary’s report on the second day of the Australian Union Conference’s constituency meeting.

From January 1, 2020 to December 31, 2024, church membership increased by 3377, a growth of 5.37 per cent, bringing the total to 66,215 members. In the same period, the number of churches, companies and groups rose from 633 to 679, averaging 10 new congregations each year.

“We praise the Lord that baptism is the highest number in the last 10 years—8 per cent higher compared to 2015,” shared Pastor Masengi in his first secretary’s report, having been elected in May 2024. While the COVID-19 pandemic caused a dip in 2020–2021, he noted that recent years have recorded significant gains.

The Victorian Conference led the nation in baptisms and professions of faith, recording 1193—accounting for 10.3 per cent of its membership. Northern Australian and Western Australian conferences also showed notable growth, with membership increases of 11.19 per cent (306 members) and 9.43 per cent (626 members) respectively.

Pastor Masengi also identified some of the challenges the Church in Australia is facing. Currently there is one Adventist for every 403 people, compared to one in 261 in New Zealand and one in 55 across the South Pacific Division. In Australia, it takes 42.7 members to bring in one new member, compared to four in the South Pacific Division and 12.5 globally, he said.

He highlighted the need to engage young people. Referring to the biennial AUC Attendance Survey, he shared that the largest group of unbaptised church attendees is among the teens and youth, approximately 48 per cent. “This is a great opportunity for us to work together on how to mentor our young leaders, how to help in their journey, but also accept them and help in their struggles,” Pastor Masengi said.

Encouragingly, 75 per cent of respondents reported that they are growing in their relationship with Jesus, and the survey confirmed that being an Adventist is important to a significant majority of the respondents.

Worship attendance has also rebounded, with 2025 headcount numbers returning to pre-pandemic levels.

At the end of the presentation, the floor was open for delegates to ask questions and make comments. Dr Irena Ali said statistics are very powerful “but there are many qualitative aspects that are much harder to capture that give representation of the health of the church—how nurturing we are, how cohesive the community is, how supportive the community is . . . If we look at the statistics country-wide or continent-wide, loneliness and isolation are of endemic proportions and if our churches offered that nurturing, inclusive environment I think the quantitative statistics would look different.”