Seventh-day Adventist church president Pastor Jan Paulsen affirmed the vital importance of community involvement at the Oct. 14 opening session of the International Conference on Adventists in the Community.
Seventh-day Adventist church president Pastor Jan Paulsen affirmed the vital importance of community involvement at the Oct. 14 opening session of the International Conference on Adventists in the Community.
“We’re known for a very active program that serves the community—education, health, ADRA,” Paulsen noted. “But it has to be more than this.” Individually “we need to remind ourselves that we have to make a positive contribution to society.”
The Adventist church “is no longer a small community,” Paulsen continued. Counting children and others, there are “more than 20 million in the Adventist family, and in some parts of the world we are a large part of the community. Leaders want to know what we can bring to the community.”
“While we are a spiritual community, we cannot afford to become preoccupied with the world to come and lose interest in the world where we are currently placed,” he stated.
“On the cross Jesus confirmed the value He places on humanity. We must make sure our mission is large enough to embrace Christ’s care for suffering humanity. We are humanity, we are part of the world, this is where we live, this is where we work. God has placed us here for a purpose. We are expected by God to be instruments in His hands to reach into the community.”
Paulsen concluded with a reference to Micah 6:8, stating that Adventists must “take an interest in poverty, inequality, education, health-take an interest in everything that affects life, asking ‘are we making a practical contribution?’”
The International Conference on Adventists in the Community, held October 14-16, is sponsored by the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s world headquarters. Its organizing committee is under the chairmanship of Eugene Hsu, a general vice-president of the world church.
