This year, as we celebrate the 150th anniversary of our name, we encourage churches, schools, health-care institutions, publishing houses, and conferences to seriously ask the question, “How can we maximize the impact of our identity, embodied in our name, ‘Seventh-day Adventist’ in our communities?” This website contains ideas and resources to help churches, schools and other institutions, not only celebrate the 150th anniversary of our name, but to explore this important question.
“The name Seventh-day Adventist, carries the true features of our faith in front, and will convict the inquiring mind.”—Testimonies for the Church, vol. 1, 223. Thus wrote Ellen White after the name Seventh-day Adventist was chosen in 1860.
In response to published invitations to attend a “General Conference,” ministers from five states met at Battle Creek, Michigan, September 28 to October 1, 1860. James White, one of those who called the meeting, urged the formation of an organization that could legally own the publishing house. Finally an organization was proposed, but without a name both legally and organizationally it could accomplish nothing. Some were opposed to choosing a name feeling that by doing so Adventists would become just another denomination, or even worse, we would become “Babylon.”
When possible names were finally discussed, “Church of God” was favored by many, including initially even James White. Others thought that name sounded too presumptuous, not to mention that it was already being used by other churches. Eventually “Seventh-day Adventist” was proposed. Adoption of the name was moved by David Hewitt, Joseph Bates’ first convert in Battle Creek in 1852. Once the name for the publishing house was chosen, it was quickly voted that the same name also be recommended to the churches generally. Thus, on October 1, 1860, the name that “carried the true features of our faith in front” was chosen. At the time, there were a total of about 2,500 Seventh-day Adventists in the northeastern United States and southeastern Canada. Today, that number has grown to well over 16,000,000 church members worldwide.
