Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, has challenged leaders and members to define evangelism and mission on a grander scale. He urged them to look beyond mere headcounts of those baptized, and to work to ensure the long
Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the Seventh-day Adventist world church, has challenged leaders and members to define evangelism and mission on a grander scale. He urged them to look beyond mere headcounts of those baptized, and to work to ensure the longer-term spiritual and physical nurture of new believers. Paulsen made his remarks September 25 during his opening address to Annual Council, a two-day meeting of the Adventist Church’s executive committee.
“It is important that we reach the masses, that they hear the Gospel preached, that they meet Jesus Christ ... but that is just the beginning—the birth,” said Paulsen to an international group of nearly 200 Adventist Church leaders who have gathered at the church’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.
The Adventist Church is one of the world’s most rapidly growing denominations, adding some 2,300 new members every day. “New believers must be nurtured and cultured in the new environment of faith, or they will surely fall by the wayside,” said Paulsen. They need a church home, a church building, “where their lives of faith can be sustained and begin to develop.”
All those who conduct large evangelism programs—especially in developing regions of the world—should be sensitive to this basic need for a church building, he said. “To give a new life of lasting value to the new believers, you must help them with a home in which to worship and, where possible, a school to which they can send their children.”
The Adventist Church must also define its mission broadly in relation to its institutions, said Paulsen, referring especially to the church’s international network of schools, colleges, universities and hospitals.
Our focus defines us, he said. “In all that occupies us as a church, we need to ask: ‘Why are we doing it?’” An institution is adhering to its mission if it gives off the “aroma of Christ,” the “fragrance of life,” said Paulsen.
“I want all of our institutions, especially in health care and education, to be symbols of Christ’s victory over evil—over illness, illiteracy, ignorance, deprivation, and destruction,” said Paulsen. “That is our mission.”
Being Visible in the Community
Paulsen urged every local church and church entity to become an active, visible, and valuable force in its community.
“Why seek obscurity? What is so attractive about that?” asked Paulsen. “We represent everything that is good for the community, for the family, for our children.”
“I want the public to see us for what we are,” he added. “We are part of the community, the city, the world. I want people to know us, to see us as a community with them.”
From education, to health care, to development assistance, the Adventist Church offers top-level programs and services that minister to the whole person, said Paulsen. “The qualities of life which identify our church are of the highest order.”
“Let us surprise some people,” said Paulsen. “I would like to hear from some: ‘I didn’t know you as a church were like that!’”
Paulsen also affirmed the church’s commitment to promoting principles of religious freedom—a cause the church has championed for more than a century. This should not be seen as just a self-interested exercise, he said. Free religious choice is “God’s gift to all humanity.”
“Days will come when we will understand better than we do today why we are promoting this as one of life’s valuable qualities,” he added.
God Owns the Future
As news reports following the recent terrorist attacks paint a picture of an increasingly uncertain future, Adventists know that “God is the one who owns the future and who decides finally how it shall look,” said Paulsen.
“God will end it all, at His chosen hour,” he said, “but until then we must attend to our personal readiness and we must attend to the mission we have been given by Him to accomplish.”
Paulsen also spoke about the fragility of material possessions, which offer a false sense of safety and security.
“As I wake up every morning I must be clear about what I can walk away from without my life collapsing,” he said. “As I lie down to sleep every evening I must be able to know for myself, personally, that when all is said and done, when the ‘lid is closed and the ribbon is tied’ on all my earthly possessions, to know Christ is quite enough.”
“I can do without the goods I have collected,” he added. “I cannot do without Christ. That is how I would like to face the end-times.”
“Fear and questions about what will come next are constantly pressing in on us and our communities,” said Paulsen. “That is the way the world is, and we are part of the suffering world. But we are also Adventists, and we long for Him to come back and close this chapter on human suffering. And to that end we live our lives, make our choices, and engage in His mission.”
Before Paulsen’s address to Annual Council, members of the church’s executive committee stood for a minute of silence in remembrance of the victims of the September 11 terrorist tragedy.
Annual Council continues until noon September 27.
Read the full text of Pastor Paulsen’s Address to Annual Council at www.adventist.org/news/specials/annual_council_2001/paulsen_opening.html
Audio and video of the Address can be found at www.adventist.org
