The North American Division has no majority group. Its 2024 survey found members were 33 percent white, 30 percent Black, 23 percent Hispanic, 7 percent Asian, 2 percent Pacific Islander and 2 percent multiracial. Outside observers often call us the most diverse denomination in the United States.
Hispanic Adventism is a big part of that. At the September 2025 Hispanic Ministry Convention, leaders reported 263,495 members, 1,157 congregations, 458 companies, 287 organized groups and 38,060 baptisms in year-end 2024 data. That’s about a fifth of the division. In the Texas Conference, nearly half the membership is Hispanic. José Cortés Jr. calls North America the second-largest Spanish-speaking Adventist territory in the world.
The church has invested real money and effort here: Spanish-language resources for Pentecost 2025, media and publishing, coordinators in all nine unions, and a $1.5 million Lilly Endowment grant for Misión Next, which trains first-generation pastors and equips second- and third-generation Latino leaders.
But numbers in the pews don’t tell us who’s on the stage. We don’t yet have good data on how often Spanish-speaking leaders chair sessions, speak at major meetings or sit on nominating committees. That’s worth finding out, because translating a handout is not the same as sharing authority.
Hispanic ministry isn’t a booth at the edge of the church. In some conferences it is the conference. The good news is that the question is now too big to ignore, and a church this diverse is well placed to answer it.
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