September 13, 2004 Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States …. [Mark A. Kellner/Ray Dabrowski/ANN]
“We’re a family, a global community, bonded together in Christ. We belong to each other, and we had better talk to each other,” Pastor Jan Paulsen, world president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, said at the start of a global telecast Sept. 13 aimed at dialogue with young adults. “It is true that the [Adventist] family is a very rapidly growing, global family. Two-thirds, maybe even more are under 30 years of age, so, shouldn’t we talk?”
Talk they did, via e-mail, telephone and on the stage of the Howard Performing Arts Center at Andrews University, the church’s flagship institution of higher education. From that location, the “Let’s Talk – Again” broadcast was sent, via satellite, to locations around the world, as well as broadcast via the church-owned Hope Channel. It is the second live televised dialogue between Paulsen, president of the 13.5 million-member church since 1999, and young people in the Adventist community. John Torres, a public relations specialist at the Adventist church world headquarters, hosted the program, as he did for the 2003 event.
Speaking less than 72 hours after a 330-pound car bomb apparently aimed at the Baghdad Seventh-day Adventist Church exploded and damaged the church building – without causing any injuries – Paulsen responded to questions of war and peace with a restatement of his opposition to armed conflict.
“I think war is a terrible solution. That’s my very short answer. I think, that there are — in this day and age — there are surely a lot of other resources and recourses that should have been taken to resolve issues,” he said. “If tensions arise between nations, to go to war is a defeat in itself. I just think it is most unfortunate.”
Responding to a question about how Christians can show unity in the face of the tribalism that rent the fabric of Rwanda just 10 years ago, Paulsen said the mission of the church was to promote understanding.
“You just have to communicate a message, a message that has to do with tolerance; and understanding,” he said. “And understanding really is a very deep thing. You don’t just understand by having understood the other person’s sentence. You have to try to enter into the life, the dynamics, the depth that drive a community and a person for there to be a true understanding. I think that’s what Christ wants the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be: a healing component in a world that, without the presence of Christ, would so easily tear itself asunder.”
He added, “What happened in Rwanda 10 years ago is a terrible blight on humanity, and on Christians, because frankly there were many Christians who slaughtered others, and who dishonored the name of Christ and the Church in the process. And that really is a tragedy.”
Student reaction to Paulsen’s presence at the school was overwhelmingly positive, with those attending the event expressing approval through applause and comments after the event.
“”It was extremely important to confirm what the truth is, and to know where the Church stands on different issues,” said Tatiana Meharry a Brazilian student attending Andrews University.
Added Cara Swinyar, a junior who also attends Andrews, “This should have been two hours long. It was a good idea, and I didn’t know who Jan Paulsen was and now I have met him and saw how personable a leader he is. … It was really important for the leadership to reach out to young people.”
Several of the questions surrounded the issue of greater involvement of young adults in leadership of the Adventist Church, and Paulsen admitted that church leadership could do more in this area.
“The question here of the real, active participation by young people in a decision-making forum of the church is one that we in leadership feel we are addressing; we do want to find a better way to do it. I have to admit that we have not done it very well,” he said.
“We have not been very effective in communicating this and in implementing this, but we do want the younger people and we do want women to become greater participants in the life, the dynamics and the decision-making of the Church,” Paulsen added in response to a separate question. “We want them to be visible, to feel a sense of ownership, in that which the church needs to decide. The Church cannot afford to have observers sitting out there on the bleachers. We cannot afford it. The Church is all of us — men, women, children, youth and the older ones. We really have to acknowledge and affirm that, and make room for this kind of involvement.”
Addressing another question, Paulsen said that it was important to respond to a secularized society, but without compromising core beliefs in the evangelization process.
“The church needs to find a way in the secular, Western world to communicate, to convey to the men and women in the street, that the Christian option, the life of faith, is a good way to go into tomorrow. It is better than what we have today,” he said to a call-in questioner from Newbold College in Britain.
However, he added, “If you find that in order to be appealing and attractive to the mind that doesn’t believe, that you have to alter your God-given values, then don’t go down that road. It is not safe. I mean, Christ represents something which is fundamental, which is basic, which is cross-cultural, and I think you need to be sure that even as you examine creatively, how we can find new ways to witness in culture my society, that you don’t lose the moorings that are in the word of God and in the values that the Lord has given us to uphold.”
Paulsen, who is in his 41st year of Christian ministry, addressed other questions involving the place of competitive sports in Adventist schools; how to bridge an “information gap” of understanding between religions; as well as how the church can help pre-teen children deal with issues of sexual identity, among other topics.
A full transcript of the broadcast, along with archived video, will be posted at http://letstalk.adventist.org/, a new Internet Web site dedicated to increasing communication between Adventist church leadership and younger members.
Summing up the hour-long experience, Paulsen urged young adults to take their own initiatives in becoming part of Adventist life.
“Don’t leave it to others to look after your spiritual needs,” he said. “Look after yourselves, stay close to the Lord. Do it in what you read; do it in your prayer life. You are responsible for your own spiritual life. Second, make a determined decision on your part to become more directly involved in the life of your church.”
Copyright © 2004 by Adventist News Network.
