President's Keynote Address

by

Jan Paulsen, President of the General Conference

At the beginning of this quinquennium we counseled together about a spiritual motif or focus that we as a leadership group would hold to and promote during the current five-year period. We decided to focus on "Experience Life as it is in Jesus." We would make this emphasis both instructional, i.e. we would study its content and meaning in Scripture; and we would make it invitational, i.e. we would invite: "Come and experience" the richness and fullness of the complete life of faith in Jesus Christ. That life will ultimately reach its peak in the Second Coming of our Lord. And, therefore, fittingly we have chosen as focus for our spiritual reflections at this final Annual Council of this quinquennium the theme: Experience the Certainty of His Coming.

While no Christian community owns this certainty, it is very fitting that we as an Adventist family--we who since our inception 150 years ago have more than any other Christian communion made the teaching and proclamation of Christ's Second Coming our spiritual trademark--it seems fitting that we should make this our focus as we enter the year 2000. Many individuals and churches, or Christian communions, as they approach the year 2000, plan for it with a mixture of celebration and mystery. And for some it has a blurred or ill-defined religious content. Many expect cataclysmic events to take place. To us the year 2000 has no more religious content than 1999 or 2001 have. The only significant event in the future which has ultimate consequence is the Second Coming of Christ. At that moment history will be summed up. Finality will have been reached. We will be home. It seems right that we should pause at this Annual Council to remind ourselves of that certainty, and to explore how that certainty should impact our lives today.

We have no control over time--the Lord makes His own decisions--but we have significant control over our lives, our values, and our choices. We have the right, the freedom, and the responsibility to set our agenda and to arrange our priorities. The mission of the Church is not finished yet, and it will not be finished by accident or coincidence or pure chance. In full awareness that these are the last days in which we live, and in contemplating the mission that lies before us, we must of necessity set ourselves a very deliberate pace; and there will be a number of specific choices that will have to be made. Finishing the mission is a very disciplined task. It must be highly focused.

It seems good to me, especially when we as Church leaders sit together in council, that we be acutely conscious of our mission--our decisions must make sense with it in mind--and that we be aware that we are a spiritual community, and nothing else.

The question that has been put to me most frequently during the past six months is: What do you see as the greatest challenge ahead for the Seventh-day Adventist Church? I want to reflect on that for a few moments. The challenges, as I see them, fall essentially into three main categories; and I want to pose them as questions:

1. Is our mission succeeding? Is the community of Seventh-day Adventist believers growing? However difficult it may be to fairly and accurately "number Israel," we know whether and where we are growing, where we are reaching out, where we are gathering a harvest, where we are expanding--we know! We also know, with considerable pain, where we are barely keeping afloat, and we know where we are "taking in water." Some growth is defined under Global Mission's entry into unentered areas; but most of it is growth in terms of reaching out into communities in which we are already established, and where the laity living in those communities asserts its rights and privileges of participation. As a witnessing community, we must constantly ask ourselves: Is it happening? And we must care what the answer is. The day it no longer matters, or we grow tired of this whole thing, decay sets in.

2.Is life in the Seventh-day Adventist community an appealing one? Is the Adventist Church truly a consumer-friendly community? Is it really an attractive and happy quality of life that is to be found and experienced in our Church? To the ordinary man and woman on the street, quality of life will always have a greater appeal than dogma. I praise God and I look with wonder at the extent to which we are growing, particularly in some areas of the world. The Spirit is alive, the Church is alive, and the days are full of wonder. New members join because everything that was presented to them seemed promising and appealing. Christ stands there with open arms, and the teaching and quality of life which He offers are attractive. And the new believers become part of the family. Sadly, after a while, some are gone. Maybe they just drifted away quietly. Why?

If we were able to conduct reliable exit-interviews, I wonder whether we might not find that they are gone because something happened to the quality of life as they experienced it in the Church, or maybe there was a quality of life they had hoped to find in the Church, but did not. They were promised so much, but, alas, it did not happen. There have been hurts and disappointments which they just could not cope with. The human failings became so large.

Your Church and mine must cultivate a warm and appealing quality of life within its community. We are constantly dealing with people, and some of them are very fragile; but they are loved by the Lord. The Lord's servant wrote: "You are related to humanity, and you must be patient, kind, and pitiful. You need to cherish thoughtfulness and subdue selfishness. Let your inquiry be: 'What can I do to bless others?' If your heart is yearning to do them good, even at inconvenience to yourself, you will have the blessing of God. Love, lifted out of the realm of passion and impulse, becomes spiritualized and is revealed in words and acts. A Christian must have a sanctified tenderness and love, in which there is no impatience or fretfulness; the rude, harsh manners must be softened by the grace of Christ. O my brother, my sister, educate yourselves in the school of Christ. Let the spirit of controversy cease at home and in the church."--5T 335

The Church is meant to be a good and secure home in which understanding, tolerance, and support are in evidence.

3.How are we doing at holding together? Unity may in part be a by-product of our common faith, our common policies, our common Church Manual, and our shared resources, but achieving unity and maintaining it must be part of a deliberate design. It must be seen as a determined objective that has to be worked at, and not left to chance or something that comes of itself. I know, we tend to say quickly that unity and uniformity are not the same thing; and then we turn the page and go on to a different matter. But, come back to it and hold it there for just a moment: Unity is what we have in "One Lord, one faith, and one baptism." We have it in what holds us together as one Body. And we have it in our shared history and tradition. Unity is deep. It is not made up of a loose collection of segments. Unity is intrinsic and is indivisible. Uniformity is an unnatural collection of many segments pushed together which may impose a strain on our fundamental unity, unless we are open and strong enough to allow room for the variance which is there. And the variance which is to be found among people is simply the elements of a finely woven texture of humanity. We are all children of our culture, and the diversity which is there is not a threat to anyone--rather diversity is a matter of beauty and complimentary fulfillment! Diversity means reciprocal enrichment. But it requires mutual acceptance and understanding. It also means that we have to allow room for the variance to express itself within our family--within the unity of the Adventist faith which binds us together. I suppose that what I am appealing for is that we be more ready to accept one another, and less inclined to be overly opinionated as we look across the boundaries of cultures and ethnicity, and that we be less judgmental in terms of "my culture" and where "I come from."

Unity is both fragile and strong. Unity is fragile in that it will not survive compromises for the sake of convenience. It cannot survive adjustments of principles to accommodate the secular society. If that happens, fragmentation inevitably sets in. But where loyalty to Christ and respect for fundamental principles are protected, unity is strong enough to constructively receive differences and diversities within the family, and it is strong enough to survive whatever the challenges and no matter how rough the road ahead is. Unity is neither a luxury nor a bonus; it is essential to the survival of the Church. Unity is Christ's gift to the Church. It is what we have and are intrinsically, in Him. It is what He wants for us; but we must be very deliberate in looking after it, for unity is not self-sustaining and does not look after itself.

While visiting a church a few weeks ago, I met a young lady who is a theology student at one of our universities. She said to me: "We are so glad that you are the president of the General Conference because we think you understand the academic community, and you are not going to bother the educational institutions about the directions they choose, and particularly about the content and structure of their ministerial training programs."

The statement is as perceptive as it is misguided.

I would like to think that I understand the academic community, although nothing stands still. That community was part of my professional life for many years. In my mind, that community is not on trial. I have no hostility whatsoever towards it. Quite the contrary. I have an enormous amount of respect and fondness for the fine quality of professionals who work in Adventist education. They don't come any better! I also trust them to be committed to the Lord, and to love Him as I do, and to serve and protect His Church as I would. So, I proceed in my view of and relationships with the academic community on the basis of trust. There is no acceptable alternative.

But to my fellow servants in Adventist education, let me remind you, if reminding is needed, that it is our history, our sense of calling, our mission, our sense of the lateness of the hour, and our God-given values which give Adventist education its identity. That identity is sacred! Do not try to change it. If you cannot live with it, try to find another way to serve the Lord. This is not a hostile comment, for I want Adventist educators to stay and I want them to be creative in their ministry of teaching, and I want them to feel free and safe in their ministry. But I want them also to preserve, protect, and hold high the identity which is ours. And that identity is not vague. I want them to care for it out of love for the Lord and His Church.

As for the content of ministerial training programs, we took an action a year ago which I recognize caused some consternation in some quarters. Not so much, I think, with regard to the content of the action itself, as with regard to how it is to be implemented; i.e. how do you practically and constructively do it? Maybe the wording needed some help. Let us not get hung up on that. When all is said and done, there are some fundamental points which must not be lost sight of.

There should be no question in anyone's mind that the Seventh-day Adventist Church, as an international community, must have a significant say in what constitutes training for its ministry. That community is much larger and broader than the campus of a particular educational center, although that institution is also part of that community--part of the larger Adventist Church--and not somehow outside of it. That larger Church community, involving professionals both in education and field ministry, together with its elected leadership and with lay participation, must, in creative consultation, define and design a structure of ministerial training that provides this Church with a ministry who is able to reflect accurately who we are, and who has the drive and vision to complete our mission. Shaping the mind of a Seventh-day Adventist minister is a unique and sacred trust. My own wish and hope is that the details of that process or activity can be accomplished essentially at the division level; and that the international board appointed for and by the General Conference will function as the support structure which will provide guidance and broad directions to the divisions, and see to it that the intent of the Annual Council action is accomplished. Where difficulties arise, the international board will serve as a point of reference and help in the resolution process. So, to the division and union presidents, the chairmen of the respective boards, and heads of educational institutions, I say, "We want it to happen. For the good of the Church, and with an eye to securing our future, please move briskly to accomplish what we have agreed on in this matter."

I would also like to say a word about evangelism and witness, and the General Conference's potential role in this matter. The General Conference is not set up to take control of the evangelism agenda of the Church. I am sure it would be counter-productive if we tried. The ownership of that initiative belongs primarily to the local church where the membership lives and where the everyday dynamics of life are experienced. However, the General Conference can be a significant support instrument and cross-divisional coordination center for major outreach activities, such as those we have come to know as NET or ACTS or PENTECOST. Through the NET programs, the North American Division has given a very significant boost to world evangelism. I thank the leadership of that division for their contribution. Significant lay leadership in North America has carried both the vision and the purse to make possible the ACTS programs which are currently going on. The target is 100,000 baptisms, and it is clear that number will be exceeded. I acknowledge that contribution and thank the mission-driven lay leadership for it.

But it all points to something which has unlimited scope and potential. Resources are probably the only human limitation. I wish that as we go into a new quinquennium the General Conference would set up an Advisory Council of Evangelism and Witness, as a somewhat permanent fixture in our jungle of committees. Its purpose would be (1) to focus our thinking and planning on witness, (2) to advise on specific multi-divisional initiatives, and (3) to make financial recommendations to our budgeting process. When all is said and done, if there is any church that should have such a council with a deliberate witness-agenda, it is the Seventh-day Adventist Church, because mission is why we are here. We already have a Global Mission office with its assignment primarily in unentered areas. And we have agreed that we will make a special effort in the "10/40 window" as we enter a new millennium. I just want to make sure that we coordinate our planning to maximum efficiency. Witness for our Lord is the one thing that must succeed. Where that does not happen, the very breathing of the Church falters, and its vision of the future becomes dimmed and uncertain.

"Experience the Certainty of His Coming." That is where we are today. That is the invitation which comes to us from the Lord, and which we are asked to pass on. We are in motion--relentlessly, inexorably moving towards and focused on that one event which will sum up history and bring us home.

"Are all the children in?" (In the words of the song). No, not all. Not yet. Therein lies our mission.