There are reportedly about 35 people -- out of nearly 2,000 -- under age 30 serving as delegates to the Adventist world church session in St. Louis, Missouri. The delegates come from the church's 13 world regions across the globe to represent a church of
There are reportedly about 35 people—out of nearly 2,000—under age 30 serving as delegates to the Adventist world church session in St. Louis, Missouri. The delegates come from the church’s 13 world regions across the globe to represent a church of some 14 million members.
Estimates suggest that more than 70 percent of Adventist world membership is under 30, while less than 2 percent of the delegates to the Session are in that age range.
“We need experience to be chosen as young people and that means being more involved in our churches,” says delegate Eustace A. Penniecook, 31. “The older delegates have given years and years to the church. They deserve to be here. On the other hand, the older ones should be teaching the younger ones and maybe we can learn from each other,” Penniecook, who works at a hospital in Uganda with his wife, says.
Taking a quick scan of the delegate floor during the June 30 afternoon meeting, Marcel Wagner, a young Swiss living in North Korea, says, “There are [few] young people around here.” But, while at Session, he’s looking forward to getting “insights on how to involve young people” in church life.
Young adult delegate representation is less than in the 2000 world church session in Toronto, Canada, where there were 45 delegates under 30. “It seems that church leaders assume that youth aren’t interested in the business of the church, but that is a wrong assumption,” said Henrik Ingo, a delegate from Finland in 2000, as reported in “The GC Daily,” July 7, 2000. Ingo, 23 at the time, made his comments during a meeting of young delegates in Toronto. “The church is missing out on a great resource as a result,” he added.
“I’m looking forward to seeing how church business is run on this level,” says Session 2005 delegate Mark Howard, a 20-year-old history major at Oakwood College in Alabama, United States. “There could be more young people,” he says, but “I’m looking forward to learning new things from those who are older and putting it to use for years to come.”
During one of the daily business meetings at the 2000 Session, Andrej Godina, a Croatian living in the United Kingdom, 24 at the time, made a motion that young adults be represented as delegates in all future world church sessions. But, he suggested, without such measures being written into the church’s constitution, there are no guarantees that world church regions will not act indifferent to young adults.
Pastor Jan Paulsen, president of the world church, challenged young people in his opening address to the world Session June 30: “I want you to come in and to partner with the rest of us. I want to make room for you, for you have energies and ideas which no one can quite match. If you don’t find the church interesting, you can make it interesting. Just don’t walk away. That would be the worst possible thing you can do: It is Christ we are talking about. Don’t turn your back on Him, for if you do, all you then all you are left with is Peter’s haunting question: ‘To whom shall we then go?’” (John 6:68)
The General Conference, or world church headquarters, Administrative Committee has included more young adults in its delegation to Session. “We see it as extremely important, vital and critical that the young adults have a voice in the mission of this church,” says Orville Parchment, assistant to the president of the world church. He explains that the General Conference encourages the church’s 13 administrative regions to allow adequate representation when choosing who will serve as a delegate to a Session.
Paulsen has made a conscientious effort to send a message to church leadership around the world. “They [young people] represent in large measure the future of this church,” he says. “There must be a more intentional dialogue with young people, and a greater recognition of the contribution that they can and do make within the church.”
Paulsen has conducted three “Let’s Talk” broadcasts, conversations in which Adventist young people share their concerns and ask questions of the president. The first was held in Simi Valley, California, United States in 2003; the second was held on the campus of Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan, United States in 2004; and the most recent was in Darmstadt, Germany in April this year. A fourth Let’s Talk is being planned for the autumn of this year in Australia.
“I recognize that many, many of our young people feel distanced from the church—they feel as if they don’t have a voice, they don’t feel that they have been heard, they don’t feel that they have been understood,” says Paulsen.
“But I want them to know that the church cannot be defined and cannot survive without them.”
“It is time to include them in the decision-making process,” says Baraka Muganda, world church youth director. “When we involve them, they will own the mission of the church. Young people will feel that this is their church. They will support actions taken. When they see themselves getting involved, then the church becomes a reality in their lives.”
He adds, “They [will] say ‘our church,’ not ‘their church.’ We will see a lot of fire among the churches because of their support.”