Silver Spring, Maryland, United States …. [Mark A. Kellner/ANN]
Summing up the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s annual business meetings, Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the church worldwide, said church leaders “chose a deliberate pattern” for the meetings, beginning this year with a spiritual emphasis.
“We had a worshipful Sabbath, then devoted discussions on Sunday morning for mission and evangelism,” Paulsen, who celebrates 40 years as an ordained Adventist pastor this year, told reporters from general and church-related media outlets on Oct. 15. “Spiritual nurture was prominent in the early hours of the [annual meeting],” he added.
He said it was important for the church “not just to look back” at progress, “but to look forward [to the future], so that we are not merely looking at relics.”
In opening comments and in answers to reporters’ questions, Paulsen examined a plethora of topics related to a movement whose baptized membership now stands at 13.3 million, whose weekly attendance is now 20 million, and whose ranks could grow to between 35 and 40 million baptized members by the year 2020.
Paulsen noted active participation at the annual business meeting of many Adventist leaders from developing nations, and commented about the importance of a report and recommendations on Adventist higher education at the meeting. Reviewing other council actions, Paulsen also remarked about the church’s move to establish a graduate school on the African continent, and that the church released a statement on employer-employee relations.
Such actions, as well as other church administrative matters discussed during the five-day session, are part of responding to the needs of a growing church, he suggested.
“We need an infrastructure of leadership, ministry, educational centers and places of worship” in order to meet the demands of a growing church, Paulsen said. He noted that more than 3,000 new Adventist church buildings have been constructed in India, for example, as part of the commitment to provide a physical church home for those who join the movement. At the same time, Paulsen emphasized that such ministry development services do not originate “out of one central headquarters,” but rather are delegated and assigned to regional leaders who are closer to the specific areas of growth.
A notable item introduced to the annual meeting was a draft statement of an Adventist philosophy of music, which Paulsen said is being distributed to church leadership in order to elicit comments and suggestions, and will be considered next year.
“We are a global community,” Paulsen said, and some parts of the church have asked, “Is there no advice you can give” on the subject of music, particularly as it relates to worship, he added. Noting that there was a 30-year-old statement on the subject, he said the draft paper is a step toward providing “something more current.”
Although several reporters attempted to get from Paulsen a definition of what is good and what is bad musically, he demurred suggesting that there were a variety of cultural tastes to be accounted for, and that while he appreciates Mozart’s “Laudate Dominum,” for example, others may have different views.
Asked about the changes in the church he has seen in 40 years of ordained ministry, Paulsen said these were “not changes of the radical kind, but rather changes of degrees.”
He emphasized the major role being played by lay members in terms of church growth and service.
“There’s been a significant change in the recent few years of the efforts of lay people, a complete change in our view of ministry. The laity are the significant participants in ministry; in one [church region] 85 percent of the church pulpits are served by lay people. Where our church is having growth, it is the lay people that make the difference.”
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