Dec. 15, 1998

Silver Spring, Maryland, USA … [ANN] An anticipated 30-40,000 will join the Seventh-day Adventist Church as a result of the NeXt Millennium outreach programs of Net ‘98, according to latest Church estimates.

While reports are still coming in, and Bible studies are continuing in many parts of the world. The best estimate is around the 30-40,000 figure, according to Brad Thorp, director of Adventist Global Communication Network (AGCN).

“It is not possible to get an actual definite figure,” says Thorp. “As best I can estimate from the reports coming to me there will be 30-40,000 baptisms world-wide from Net 98. It may be much higher than this, but I think this is a conservative figure from what I currently know.”

For North America, the total accessions to the Church is expected to be around 8,000, reports Kermit Netteburg, communication director for the region.

“Nearly 8,000 baptisms and professions of faith will come from Net 98 in North America, according to a survey of participating pastors completed during the last week of the satellite-linked evangelism initiative of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America,” says Netteburg. “The surveys also revealed that attendance on the opening night (October 9) was more than 161,000. About 36,000 of those attending on the opening night were not church members. The average nightly attendance throughout the five-week series has been about 80,000 people. About 25,000 of the average nightly attendance were non-members.”

The NeXt Millennium seminars with evangelist Dwight Nelson ran for five weeks from October 9 through November 14. The live seminar program was uplinked to satellite from its host site at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, and then downlinked to 4,600 locations in many countries worldwide. Other sites continue to run the series using taped programs. [Jonathan Gallagher]

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