About Adventists

What are Adventists all about?

OUR LIVES HAVE MEANING


Adventists believe life is more than just the accumulation of ‘stuff’. It’s about more than just surviving. It means more than simply maximizing pleasure and minimizing pain.

OUR LIVES HAVE MEANING, BECAUSE WE HAVE VALUE

Why do we have value? Because every human is miraculously crafted by God who wants us to live life to the full. What’s more, He sent His Son to demonstrate true love, forgiveness, grace and hope. It is our relationship with Jesus Christ that defines every facet of who Adventists are.


A HOLISTIC SPIRITUAL JOURNEY

Seventh-day Adventists have a holistic view of our relationships with Christ and the world around us. We believe that spiritual and emotional wellbeing foster an active mind; an active mind is fueled by a healthy body; and a healthy body and mind enables healthy social relationships.


As part of our holistic approach to the spiritual journey, we believe in disconnecting from the everyday world to prioritize our spiritual dimension one day every week—we call this the Sabbath. We follow the rhythm of the creation story by celebrating it on Saturday, the seventh day of the week. The Sabbath Day is a gift from God to all of us, because, as our Designer, He knows we need rhythms to help us remember. The Sabbath gives us time to refocus our lives on the things that matter most and to let our body, mind and spirit recuperate.


We also believe that the best way to avoid disease is to prevent it in the first place. Hence our emphasis on a lifestyle in harmony with the natural laws of health. This includes encouraging a vegetarian diet — the same diet God gave in the Garden of Eden — and avoiding putting toxins like alcohol, tobacco and narcotics into our bodies.


Following God’s natural laws for a balanced life provides a great blessing. Adventists are often studied because of our longevity and relatively low rates of some of the most devastating lifestyle diseases.



AUTHENTIC LOVE IS EXPRESSED THROUGH SERVICE

Love for Christ and one another are at the centre of every facet of our faith. Serving others is the highest form of that love. That is why we are so active in health, education, development and in spreading the good news of God’s forgiveness and promise of salvation.


Just how active are we? Currently, Seventh-day Adventists operate over 389 hospitals and clinics around the world that provide nearly 16 million outpatient visits annually. There are almost 1.7 million students in our global education system. Our institutions provide education from pre-school through to universities granting doctoral degrees. Adventists also operate a large network of aged care facilities and orphanages.


Much of our work occurs in poor and remote communities ignored by the rest of the world. For example, Adventists operate 47 hospitals across the continent of Africa, and 56 medical clinics across the South Pacific—and most are in communities that have no other healthcare providers. That is what the love of Christ looks like in our world today.



MEETING SPIRITUAL NEEDS

Our goal, however, isn’t just to meet the physical and educational needs of people—our goal is to also meet the deep spiritual hunger within everyone. And people all over the world are responding in record numbers to that spiritual call.


The Seventh-day Adventist Church is also among the fastest growing churches in many nations around the world, including the United States.

WE KNOW WE’RE IMPERFECT

Are we perfect? Of course not. Do we have our share of failures, problems, disappointments and unfilled plans? Indeed we do. But the love that God gives to us is so deep, so broad, so all encompassing, that we have joy in our journey, even in a world that can at times be impossibly cruel.


Life is good, because God is good. We have balance, because God gives us balance. We are whole, because Christ makes us whole. We have love to give, because God reinforces love for us every single moment of our lives.


Visit our church and you’ll meet ordinary people with a deep longing to learn how to improve their life and the lives of others. We hope you drop by, as we'd love to meet you!