Delegates to the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s Annual Council meetings received and approved a document outlining views on music in an Oct. 12 session.

Titled “A Seventh-day Adventist Philosophy of Music,” the document, which was presented to delegates during an earlier leader’s meeting in 2004 and then distributed to the world church regions for review, was brought for discussion and possible implementation.

“We believe that the gospel impacts all areas of life,” the statement reads, in part. “We therefore hold that, given the vast potential of music for good or ill, we cannot be indifferent to it.”

The church has not had a music statement, or guideline, since the early 1970s, explained Ted N.C. Wilson, a general vice president of the world church and member of the music committee. “This document, I’m sure, has some items that may not be agreeable to everyone,” he said. The committee aimed at a “very balanced approach to this subject based on scripture” and the counsel of one of the church’s founders, Ellen G. White, who wrote on the subject.

Pastor Jan Paulsen, world Adventist Church president, emphasized the nature of the document, stressing that this was not an official policy of the church.

“A document such as this is presented as guideline, not policy,” he told delegates. “Guidelines are a point of reference. It is there to help us. It’s something we come back to, consult, [as] it becomes educational. I would hope and will make specific recommendation that any guideline on music our church adopts does not become an instrument by which we measure spirituality. It is destructive to our community to engage in such.”

He added, “We allow it to talk to us in our various cultures. ... Music must express itself in every culture.”

Parsdon Mwansa, president of the church’s Southern Africa-Indian Ocean region, supports the document: “This is a guideline, something people can use to say ‘this is what I see as principles from which I can choose what I can or cannot do.’ The document is elastic enough to accommodate quite a lot.”

“We need guidelines regarding music,” said Ulrich Frikart, president of the Church’s Euro-Africa region. “This document could say a lot, but the language does not show to me the main target audience for this document is our young people. I feel a lack of sensitivity for our young people and this is a concern for me. I would like a document in which we would express that we understand their struggle. ... The culture of our young people in music is a major way of communication. As it is, it will be of no use. Our main target will not ... identify with this. We have to guide them ...”