Seventh-day Adventist world church president, Pastor Jan Paulsen, is scheduled to appear as a guest on the February 11 edition of Night Talk with Mike Schneider, a one-hour program airing on Bloomberg TV.

This is the first time the church’s president has granted an interview with a major international television network.

“We’ve never, as a church, had the opportunity to present our face to the public in this manner,” Paulsen said following the show’s January 24 taping in New York City. “I’ve said to many of my fellow leaders to both seek and use the opportunities that come your way to profile the church before the public.”

“We have something to say to the public, not only when we run the evangelistic campaigns or when we preach Sabbath morning,” Paulsen later told Adventist News Network. “We represent a community of so many values. People will know about us in the most unbiased, informed way if we tell them ourselves.”

Program host Schneider asked questions about the church’s history, growth and diversity, as well as its relation to contemporary issues.

When asked about the church’s future goals, Paulsen said, “My goal for the church is that we become more effective in communicating not only ideas, but care for people, so that they may discover that Seventh-day Adventists are good people to get to know.” 

Rajmund Dabrowski, director of communication for the world church, said “often times, when there is a lack of information, people tend to create who you are by connecting with rumors and hearsay. These caricatures do not do justice to the church or its mission. Interviews like this go a long way in establishing who we are.”

Night Talk airs on the Bloomberg television network in the United States, Europe and Asia on Bloomberg TV at 10 p.m. and midnight on weeknights and is simulcast on Bloomberg Radio at 10 p.m.