Twenty-seven graduates at Pacific Adventist University (PAU), a Seventh-day Adventist-owned tertiary institution in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea are now certified in their school’s Family Ministries certificate program, the first program of its kind offered within the Adventist educational system. 

“History has been made here at PAU, and this program will serve as a model for other mission institutions,” remarked Ron Flowers, director of the world church’s Family Ministries department, who, with his wife Karen Flowers, associate director of the department, delivered the commencement ceremony’s keynote address on August 3.

“Tonight represents the fulfillment of a dream that Karen and I have had to see pastors and lay leaders better equipped to offer instruction and guidance for people as they traverse the challenging journey of marriage and family life,” he added. 

The new program integrates textbook knowledge with practical skills, and zeros in on issues often sidestepped within regular theology degree programs, as Bryan Craig, director of Family Ministries for the church’s South Pacific region, explained. “Many get a degree in general theology, which is limited in the area of family ministry. The [Family Ministries program] will help them to focus specifically on families, parenting, sexuality and [other] issues relating to families.”

During his remarks, Flowers commended the new program for these emphases. Family studies, he said, are “far more central to us as a people than our written theology would sometimes suggest.”

PAU vice-chancellor, Nemani Tausere, who initiated the family ministry program and secured its accreditation, said that PAU was honored to be the first Adventist university to offer such a program. He also noted that PAU, as part of its ongoing effort to provide training programs for church workers, expects 15 current participants in its leadership certification program to graduate next year.

PAU officials report the graduates are predominantly family ministries leaders at local missions who completed the program during PAU semester breaks over the past four years.