NAD 2024 Race/Ethnicity Survey Guide

The North American Division Secretariat does this survey roughly every 10 years to provide a clearer picture of the diversity of the members in our division. This survey is part of the Division’s ongoing efforts to ensure that our ministry efforts and the gospel reaches everyone. By understanding the diversity of our churches, we can identify areas for improvement and implement strategies to ensure our ministry outreach is inclusive.

It's a Survey

Keep in mind that this is not a "census," which means that you do not need to contact every member. Instead, it is a "survey," so use your knowledge and best judgement to select the group that most accurately describes each of your members. When the choice isn't obvious or clear, however, it's certainly appropriate to ask your members and honor their choice.

Each member should only be counted in one of the Race/Ethnicity groups. If they belong to more than one of the groups, choose the group that best describes them or choose "Multiracial."

Getting Started

1. Recruit a team to help - assistant clerk, pastors, elders.
2. Print or export your Member List from eAdventist. Use it to divide the work among team members and to ensure that nobody is accidentally forgotton.
3. Use best judgement to determine the category - only ask when you're uncertain.

If there are members that you are unable to determine a category for and unable to ask, remember:

• The team's "best judgement" is better than no information at all
• Information about most of your members is better than no information at all

Non-attending Members

Check your membership records in eAdventist to ensure that you know who all of your members are - including non-attending members. If there are non-attending members that you do not know well enough to select a group for, include them in the total for Question 3.

What about Mission Groups/Church Plants?

The people participating in a Mission Group are actually members of the "mother church" - which may be the Conference Church. The survey is only being done for churches and companies. Include any group members in the survey for their "mother church" that holds their membership.

Selecting the Race/Ethnicity Groups

The Race/Ethnicity groups used in this survey are based on the "race" or "people" groups used by the US Census Bureau and Statistics Canada. This allows comparisons between the NAD survey data for members and the Census data for the general population.

• US Census - https://www.census.gov/topics/population/race/about.html
• Statistics Canada - https://www23.::.gc.ca/imdb/p3Var.pl?Function=DEC&Id=45159

Thank you for helping with this important survey!