BELIEFS

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Seventh-day Adventist Churches are located in 235 countries and areas of the world as recognized by the United Nations ( Summary of Statistics as of December 31, 2018 – https://www.adventistarchives.org/quick-statistics-on-the-seventh-day-adventist-church)

 The global  Church is organized with a representative form of church government. This means authority in the Church comes from the membership of local churches. Executive responsibility is given to representative bodies and officers to govern the Church. Four levels of Church structure lead from the individual believer to the worldwide Church organization:

The local church is made up of individual believers

The local conference, or local field/mission, is made up of a number of local churches in a state, province, or territory

The union conference, or union field/mission, is made up of conferences or fields within a larger territory (often a grouping of states or a whole country)

The General Conference, the most extensive unit of organization, is made up of all unions/entities in all parts of the world. Divisions are sections of the General Conference, with administrative responsibility for particular geographical areas.

Seventh-day Adventists beliefs are inclusive of the total person. This is Heart, Body and Mind. Its beliefs encompasses the total person -  Heart (behavior and personality) , Body (health and wellbeing) and Mind (education). To this end  the Adventist church has the second-largest Christian school system in the world, with more than 7,500 schools in nearly 150 countries serving 1.5 million students. Local schools operate under the umbrella of Adventist education, so even the smallest schools are part of a worldwide network of dedicated educators and Bible-based curriculum.