Saying the 20-million-plus Seventh-day Adventist world community "is a big ship that turns around slowly," world church president Pastor Jan Paulsen told reporters Oct. 14 that leaders must consider the cross-cultural implications of growth and governance
Saying the 20-million-plus Seventh-day Adventist world community “is a big ship that turns around slowly,” world church president Pastor Jan Paulsen told reporters Oct. 14 that leaders must consider the cross-cultural implications of growth and governance in the movement.
He made his comment after a five-day meeting of the church’s executive committee, a session known as Annual Council, and noted that the 2004 council, the last annual gathering before the 2005 world session in St. Louis, Missouri, was particularly loaded with administrative items, as well as larger issues. The question of how to reconcile more conservative forms of Christianity found in some nations versus the “Northern Christianity” of many Western lands, is “a big issue,” he said.
“Even raising the issue is important,” Paulsen added when discussing the matters—such as the guidelines expressing an Adventist philosophy of music as well as a report affirming the church’s traditional view of a literal, six-day, recent creation.
Asked to comment on those academics and others who may hold differing views on such subjects, Paulsen said it was important to recognize the common Christian faith among members in the church. Those academics and pastors who disagree with various positions have settings in which to raise and examine their theories, he said, but the classroom or the pulpit are not proper locations for this.
“When you identify with the ministry of the church, you have to identify with what the church stands for,” Paulsen explained.
On the music guidelines, Paulsen said he was “not disappointed” that some of the more specific statements on music were not voted as the final document.
“I have learned there is a huge variety of music” in the world, and that people in different parts of the world respond to different kinds of music. Therefore, “it’s better to state principles, and not be overly prescriptive,” he added.
“Obedience to God is obedience where you are,” he said, acknowledging the differences in cultures. He added that the guidelines are just that, “not a policy statement—they are not an instrument by which we measure spirituality.”
Responding to a question about Christian-Muslim relations, Paulsen said “our relation as Christians needs to be non-confrontational, non-hostile ... there has to be an element of respect.”
He said that “once you become confrontational and hostile, you draw the worst out of others, including the fanatics among them.”
On what he, personally, expects from the church’s 2005 General Conference Session—a quinquennial world assembly that elects church officers, including his position—Paulsen said, “I serve at the pleasure of the church,” adding that it was his to “personally discover” what God wants him to do in the future.
“I understand the reality of spiritual leadership,” Paulsen said. “I need to know what the Lord wants me to do. We shall see what that discovery looks like.”
