Here’s a recent story on the SDA church from USA Today:

Newly released data show Seventh-day Adventism growing by 2.5% in North America, a rapid clip for this part of the world, where Southern Baptists and mainline denominations, as well as other church groups are declining. Adventists are even growing 75% faster than Mormons (1.4 percent), who prioritize numeric growth.

For observers outside the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the growth rate in North America is perplexing.

“You’ve got a denomination that is basically going back to basics … saying, ‘What did God mean by all these rules and regulations and how can we fit in to be what God wants us to be?’,” said Daniel Shaw, an expert on Christian missionary outreach at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena, Calif. “That’s just totally contrary to anything that’s happening in American culture. So I’m saying, ‘Whoa! That’s very interesting.’ And I can’t answer it.”

You could read the rest, but I’m sure you got the gist of it.

You may find this surprising, but that doesn’t trouble me at all. For starters, this isn’t news to me. After all, it wasn’t that long ago that I took a Church Growth class at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary. Considering how much better my life has been since leaving the church, you would think I wouldn’t like it that they are growing, but nobody makes atheists quite like the Seventh-day Adventists do…