Opening the 2003 Spring Meeting of Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders, Dr. Jan Paulsen, president of the world church, said it was important to merge the work of laity and ministry in fulfilling the church’s three-fold mission of preaching, teaching and healing.

The Spring Meeting is one of two annual gatherings of the 13-million-member church’s world leadership; the other, Annual Council, takes place in the autumn.

Paulsen’s remarks were prefaced by a reading of the church’s mission statement, which defines the church’s objective as to proclaim the everlasting gospel to all peoples; leading them to accept Christ and unite with His church; and nurture them in preparation for His soon return.

“Keep this in mind that we are talking about something that is totally integrated, that flows naturally from the life and convictions of the church,” Paulsen said. “We don’t have to discipline ourselves to try to ‘think’ mission—it is what we are.”

He added, “It is important that we make mission our priority.”

Paulsen’s address came at the start of a Spring Meeting dominated by evangelism and ministry issues. Preparing leadership in the church as a new century begins; planning for a global “Sow 1 Billion” brochure distribution campaign and a “Year of Evangelism” in 2004; and renewing commitments to prayer and temperance were among the topics discussed on the first morning of the two-day session.

“All these initiatives,” Paulsen said of the meeting’s agenda items, “are part of this [mission].”

The church leader noted that by 2025, there are expected to be as many as 60 million members in the Seventh-day Adventist Church—four times the current membership and a number larger than that of many “historic” Protestant denominations. Unlike those that have fractured, he said, Adventism is “one family around the world,” whose leaders are responsible for anticipating this future.