Pastor Jan Paulsen, world president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, is turning words into action by holding an impromptu “Lets Talk” TV encounter with younger delegates here at the 58th business session in St. Louis. The broadcast will be taped on Thursday, July 7, and will include about a dozen delegates 30 years of age or younger.

With only about 35 of the 2,000 delegates at the session being under the age of 30, there has been a strong message to world church leadership to engage more with the young people of the church and to empower them as part of the world of today. Several speakers, including Adventist Evan Paki, the Ambassador of Papua New Guinea to the United States, who addressed the session on the morning of July 6, have stressed the need for more numbers of younger delegates at future meetings.

This, the fourth televised conversation between Pastor Jan Paulsen and the church’s young people, will be recorded at the Hope TV stand in America’s Center Exhibition Hall. The half-hour program will be unscripted and young delegates are enthusiastic about the opportunity to directly express their concerns to the president.

Just after his re-election as world president of the Adventist Church, Paulsen told the media, “We need to do better at talking with our young people. They need to feel that we are sincere about wanting to hear them ... We have not done terribly well in giving young people a sense of ownership and involvement in the church.”

It is anticipated that the program will be shown to the Session delegates on Thursday evening. For up-to-the-minute broadcast times worldwide, visit the Hope Channel at www.HopeTV.org.