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Seventh-day Adventist Church

Protestant Christian denomination · Sabbath-keeping

Founded ~163 years ago

  • FoundedMay 21, 1863
  • HQSilver Spring, Maryland, USA
  • Members~22 million baptized members
  • ReachPresent in 215 of 235 countries

About

A Protestant Christian denomination distinguished by observance of Saturday as the Sabbath and the imminent return of Jesus Christ. Grew out of the 19th-century Millerite movement after the Great Disappointment of October 22, 1844, and was formally organized in Battle Creek, Michigan, in 1863. Today the church counts about 23.7 million baptized members across 215 countries, and operates the world's largest Protestant educational and healthcare networks — roughly 9,000 schools and 200 hospitals.

Membership growth

4K in 186322.0M today

Teachings & Documents

Browse the Church's core teaching documents — and see the wider corpus that grounds every answer.

Also powering answers

  • GC Official Statements

    Position statements published by the General Conference Office of Archives, Statistics, and Research. Voted by the GC Executive Committee, Annual Council, or General Conference Session — the church's highest decision-making bodies. Cover topics like marriage, abortion, homosexuality, mental health, addiction, religious liberty, and stewardship of the environment. ~59 statements as of 2024.

  • Sabbath School Quarterlies

    Quarterly Bible study guides used in adult Sabbath School classes worldwide since 1888. Translated into 100+ languages each quarter. The same lesson is studied by every Adventist congregation on Earth on the same Sabbath.

World Headquarters

Silver Spring, Maryland, USA

Global scale

  • ~9,000schools
    largest Protestant educational network
  • ~200hospitals
    largest Protestant healthcare network
  • ~60publishing houses
    literature in 370+ languages
  • Radio + TV
    reaching 200+ countries via Hope Channel, 3ABN, and AWR

Did you know?

Operates the largest Protestant healthcare and educational networks in the world — Adventist hospitals were among the first in the U.S. to integrate plant-based diet, exercise, and mental health into clinical practice (NEWSTART, originating at Weimar Institute in 1978).