Seventh-day Adventists make up a vibrant, growing, and positive force in Indian society, said Adventist world president Pastor Jan Paulsen during his five-state visit to India, November 26 to December 2.
Seventh-day Adventists make up a vibrant, growing, and positive force in Indian society, said Adventist world president Pastor Jan Paulsen during his five-state visit to India, November 26 to December 2.
Paulsen met with both Adventist believers and public leaders in New Delhi, Bangalore, Trivandrum, and Chennai. Throughout his visit, whether speaking to government officials, the media, or groups of church members, Paulsen emphasized that Adventists are committed to making practical, positive contributions to society.
“Adventists live with the promise that Christ will come back—we live in that expectation,” he said. “But we are also vitally interested in life here and now. This is God’s immediate gift to us, and so we take an active interest in the quality of life in the communities where we live.”
The Adventist Church has a long-standing commitment to education, health care and humanitarian assistance in India and around the world, said Paulsen, explaining that each Adventist school, hospital, or social welfare initiative becomes a “symbol of Christ’s victory over the forces of evil, intolerance, ignorance, and illness.”
During his seven-day itinerary, Paulsen also met with national and state leaders, including India’s president K.R. Narayanan, the governor and chief minister of Delhi State, the governor of Karnataka, and the chief minister of Kerala (see ANN report below). He met briefly with regional leaders of other religious groups, including Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu representatives, as well as leaders of other Christian denominations. At press conferences in New Delhi, Bangalore, and Trivandrum, Paulsen answered questions from the media about the work of the Adventist Church around the world.
“As you would expect, the primary agenda of the Adventist Church is a spiritual one,” Paulsen told some 1,000 civic leaders, media representatives, and Adventist Church members gathered November 29 at a public hall in Hosur, Tamil Nadu. “We are a spiritual community. But the Adventist Church around the world is not only engaged in preaching and teaching, or in formulating and conveying ideas. It is possible for a Christian to have a head filled with ideas—wonderful, correct ideas—and yet live a life of isolation from the rest of society. But that is not Christ’s model or wish for His people.”
A key reason for Paulsen’s visit was to meet with Adventist believers and church administrators—“to become better acquainted with my family in India,” he said.
“I do not come here as a visitor to the national Indian Seventh-day Adventist Church,” Paulsen told each crowd of Adventist believers that gathered at different venues throughout the visit. “There is no such thing as a ‘national’ Adventist Church. The Adventist Church around the world is one—one body, one family. And so I come to you as a member of the same family, to spend some time with my brothers and sisters.”
On Sabbath, or Saturday, December 1, Paulsen spoke to 6,000 church members who had traveled from across the state of Kerala to attend an all-day celebration. They gathered at an outdoor venue in the center of the capital city, Trivandrum, sheltered from the heat by a vast, make-shift plastic canopy.
In his address, Paulsen drew from the New Testament to create a theological framework for the key values that drive the Adventist Church’s strategic plan: unity, growth, and quality of life.
He spoke about the “creative force of the Holy Spirit” in the lives of all believers, a force which causes them to become “preoccupied with serving Christ.” The Holy Spirit gives Adventist believers, no matter where they live, a sense of belonging to a worldwide faith community, said Paulsen. “God’s plan for this church is that Seventh-day Adventists around the world would be as one; that whatever our language or culture, we are bonded and blended together as one body.”
Paulsen called the Biblical “fruits of the Spirit”—such as love, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, and meekness—qualities that “find their meaning and expression only in our relationships with other people. These things reflect the quality of life that you and I should represent.”
True Christianity means “taking the time to understand the struggles of another human being” and trying to help them, explained Paulsen. “I want the quality of life in the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be that which breeds acceptance of one another,” he added.
The growth of the Adventist Church is also dependent on the creative power of the Holy Spirit, Paulsen told the group. “It is the Holy Spirit who makes it possible for us to witness and share our faith.”
The Adventist Church has been present in India for more than a century and currently has almost 500,000 members. The church operates 12 hospitals, two medical clinics, and two orphanages. More than 140,000 students are enrolled in some 300 Adventist schools and tertiary institutions located throughout the country.