April 26, 2007 Angwin, California, United States …. [Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN]
Seventh-day Adventist world church president, Pastor Jan Paulsen, drove home a message of personal responsibility and resourcefulness to 26 students gathered for the 16th installment of the Let's Talk series, this time on the campus of Adventist-owned Pacific Union College.
“We have to accept that everyone is responsible for [their] own spiritual life. There are many who will impact it, but you have to be responsible for your own decisions. If you want to drift into spiritual obscurity, you can, but that's your choice. So you need to be honest with yourself and decide what you will do,” he told the young people.
With his Let's Talk series, Pastor Paulsen says he seeks to engage Adventist young people around the globe in conversation and encourage them to channel their enthusiasm and energy into what he calls “the life of the church.”
During the hour-long conversation, Paulsen made it clear that his message of empowerment and personal initiative extends beyond individual spiritual growth into the realm of outreach–both global and local.
He spoke of the importance of compassionate involvement in and genuine care for the lives of those in the community. Specifically referring to the worry that community engagement may somehow compromise a person's Adventist values, Paulsen said, “You know who you are, you know who you worship, you know where you belong and what your values are. So allow yourself to be drawn–with a sense of security and strength–into the lives of others.”
“Whom do you invite home for lunch, or have over to dinner on a Saturday night? We tend to invite our friends. But what about people you know from the community? Begin a dialogue, be a friend, and see what happens. If you want to be engaged, then do it!” he continued, advocating a gospel of deed rather than word that eliminates an “us versus them” mentality.
Many of the questions during Let's Talk PUC focused on local church issues. When a student asked how he should help revitalize his local congregation, Pastor Paulsen reminded the Let's Talk audience that the world church cannot dictate matters of personal faith and conscience at the local level, and that church members–such as the students gathered–needed to take initiative to inspire change.
“The power of the Holy Spirit is unlimitedly available to the church,” Paulsen said. “So you have to ask yourself, 'Why am I not experiencing this same renewing power?' It's not as though God is holding back a supply of power; it's a question of our readiness to plug into what God has in mind and allow his power to flow into our lives.”
One student, noting some church members' attitudes toward homosexuals, commented that God's power ought to transform the church into a community that welcomes all individuals, regardless of their struggles or shortcomings.
Pastor Paulsen agreed, and said the church is “Christ's prime chosen instrument to communicate the gospel of salvation” and its effectiveness depends on how “open and friendly” it is toward everyone. “The Lord cares for those who are homosexual,” he continued, “and we have not done the best job communicating that [love]. It's at the local congregational level that this must happen.”
Paulsen then added, “It's one thing to care for people. It's something else to endorse the choices they have made. We need to be open; we need to be friendly, but that doesn't mean the values [homosexuals] have chosen are identifiable with the values of the church.”
When one student asked what the Adventist church is doing on a corporate level to relieve global poverty and end travesties such as the conflict in Darfur, Sudan, Paulsen noted the work of the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) International. The agency, he said, “is in many places stretched very thin” and is “doing as much as [it] can” with available funds, personnel and resources. Paulsen then encouraged each young person to make community impact a personal mission.
But, the student pressed, shouldn't the church more visibly–and perhaps more verbally–spur such a level of involvement along? Answering, Pastor Paulsen suggested that church members should focus their energies on their own actions rather than wait for an official church response. “The church is not defined by an office building someplace. Church is not defined by being elected. Church is defined by community,” Paulsen explained.
And such a community, he went on to point out, is made up of individual members who are dedicated to living a life that illustrates Christ's unconditional care and compassion. “Yes, church headquarters can define values, initiate programs, make decisions and distribute resources–and we do,” Paulsen said. “But the ownership of the life of a local congregation belongs to the [members of] that congregation.”
Summing up his message of empowerment, Paulsen told the students gathered that they and other young people around the world are the church's “most effective partners in outreach. I truly believe that if the energy, talent and initiatives of young men and women such as yourself can be activated, you can [reach out] better than anyone can.”
Let's Talk PUC was broadcast live, April 21, on the Hope Channel and produced largely by a team of PUC film and television production students. Paulsen congratulated their involvement as an expression of the initiative he hopes more young people in the church take. For more information on Let's Talk, visit www.letstalk.adventist.org.
Copyright (c) 2007 by Adventist News Network
