Annual Council 2003

Opening Address by Pastor Jan Paulsen,

President, General Conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church

October 10, 2003

 

In my address to this Committee immediately after I came to this position four-five years ago, I made some comments about the urgency of the Gospel, and stated in that connection that I would seek to make the Church, in her planning, focus particularly and primarily on 'Mission'. I am convinced today, more than ever, that that has to be at the top of our agenda. When we do, the members come alive and their gifts and potentials in Christ and His Spirit are realized. When we don't, the Church changes character, and everything conceivable goes wrong with her, as so readily happens in any community living just for themselves The Church has a cause to live for, and 'finishing the work' will keep the Church focused on Christ and sensitive to the lateness of the hour.

 

Yes, we have a variety of business items to care for when we meet in council, but our primary business is to tell others - all others, including the difficult-to- reach peoples of the 10/40 window and people in the highly secular post-modernistic world - it is our first business to tell them all about Jesus and his return; and what it means to live at this late and uncertain hour in history. And in respect to 'mission' nothing is routine. We will focus on bringing a witness to ALL, simply because that is our mandate. The administration, departments, and services at the GC are working, thinking, and planning together for this to happen. To reinforce this commitment to evangelism and to strengthen our capacity to do it well, I hope to place before you, while we are here in council, a proposal to set up a "Center of Global Evangelism" at the General Conference, built on the mandate for which the Council on Evangelism and Witness was established, and will ask you to appoint at the General Conference a director of world evangelism, who will work in close consultation with the world Divisions as well as with the departments at the GC all of whom, in one way or other, carry global initiatives in mission.

 

It would be a mistake to think that the appointment of a Director of Global Evangelism signals the end of something else - anything else - or that someone already on the team is not doing his or her job well. You have helped us staff the departments and services in this house with the most gifted and talented professionals we have, and they work tirelessly, driven by their love for the Lord and His church. But, frankly, the size of the assignment and the urgency which it carries compels us to ask: What more should we do.

 

See the establishment of this additional service at the General Conference as an attempt on our part to be creative and to offer a broad range of ideas for witness and evangelism aiming both at ministry and laity. The center will work with the Divisions to offer workshops and training programs in evangelism. It will seek and develop effective ways by which particularly the younger half of our world membership can define their use of time and resources in favor of witness and evangelism. It will seek to stimulate young professionals to redefine their vocation so as to allow 'mission' to rise to the fore; and, then, everything else they do professionally will be done to make that possible! It is becoming increasingly clear to me and my colleagues that laity holds the key to the finishing of the work.

 

You know well the oft-quoted counsel of the Lord's Servant, which in a real sense place us under orders:

"Those who have the spiritual oversight of the church should devise ways and means by which an opportunity may be given to every member of the church to act some part in God's work. This has not always been done in the past . . . . The leaders in God's cause . . . . are to give special study to the work that can be done by the laity for their friends and neighbors. The work of God in this earth can never be finished until the men and women comprising our church-membership, rally to the work, and unite their efforts with those of ministers and church officers." (Atlantic Union Gleaner, Nov. 4, 1908; cf. Testimonies, 9, pp. 116,117)

 

And, so, reflecting the priority of mission, initiatives such as "Go 1 Million", "Sow 1 Billion", "2004 Year of Evangelism", as well as the nurturing values which the Church seeks to bring to its own members, will be the first items of business we will attend to when we convene Sunday morning. You know these initiatives by several labels, and they have been presented by different individuals, but are they really one integrated whole - they flow into each other and out of each others. One may define a vision for mission, the other will provide a tool, and yet another will focus on harvesting the fruit of decisions for Christ. None is more valuable than the other, and none is possible without the other.

 

The success of all of this can only be measured in part, for the truth is that in soul-winning numbers can be misleading and will tell only part of the story. The success of the growing and maturing process, which makes us into persons and communities which are what God wants us to be, only He can measure. But that's all right, for we are not reliable assessors of each others spirituality and growth. God is the only one who does that well, and he does so with grace, mercy, and with forgiveness without which we would all surely fail.

 

And with an eye to mission may I also say that 'evangelism', as traditionally defined and as experienced in the big public event, although more effective in some countries than in others, will always have its place, not least as a moment of celebration, as occasion for 'hoisting of the flag' in public, and as the public marking of reaping a harvest which has been prepared for a longer period of time. It gives the community of believers a sense of an occasion. But the comprehensive, lasting growth, which contains decisions based on understanding and which brings people of mature commitment into the church, is an evangelism which grows out of the local 'soil', such as you find it in parts of the world, whether in the Americas, Africa, Asia, Europe, or the islands, where mission and out-reach are essentially done in 'small-group' activities - involving the laity of the local church. I see this type of activity as one of the arrival points for "Sow 1 Billion."

 

This is where the study of the Word and a corresponding maturing of decisions are made over a period of time. The study of the Word, accompanied by decisions is made in a familiar culture. It is done mainly with people who are part of that culture and who understand how the Word speaks to life as it is lived locally in that culture. Close friendships are formed; belonging is experienced, and when the moment of baptism comes, there is for that individual already a community and a sense of the family. It is in such initiatives that the 'doctrine of laity and ministry working together' can be most fruitfully demonstrated.

 

The added value of this is that the local church comes to experience ownership of mission. The work will not be finished until members worshipping in the pews on the Sabbath accept their ownership right and responsibility as part of a witnessing community. We are surrounded by the considerable force of youth in our churches. So, I say to them: "Don't just sit there! Do something useful for God. Go and plant a church!"

 

As some have done that in various parts of the world, we often, alas, find faults with what they do, or with what they say, and not always unfairly. As we speak words of correction, appropriate as they might be, let us also thank them, and let there also be words of support expressed in a spirit of care and love. Our youth and young professionals, without whom we are not going to finish the work, have been endowed with an immeasurable wealth of energies, creative ideas, and spiritual gifts which must find ways of flowing to the glory of our God. I believe that is his will.

 

Next to mission, but not really separate from it, in the thinking and planning of our resource allocation, is education - higher education especially. The International Board of Ministerial and Theological Education is consulting with you to develop workable and flexible procedures that can best fit the various customs and situations around the world and at the same time protect and secure that which we call good and holy. Christian education is a sacred ministry, and the consumers are our own children and youth. As we teach them today, our church will be tomorrow.

The Commission on Higher Education which has been at work for the past 18 months, is ready to present its report to this council. The question we ask is: How can we, from the General Conference, best and most effectively serve you, the Divisions and Unions of our world family -

-you who have an ever-expanding number of universities and graduate programmes;

-you who are caught in the tension between local needs, community expectations, government good-will, but very limited financial capacity;

-you who are only too well aware that the church and our mission will not be served by our institutions just cutting themselves loose settling with whatever identity comes;

The question we ask is: How can we as an international community together develop a link-up system which is workable, effective, and acceptable to the local university/college? As we all know, ours is a free community, it is built on consultation and good-will, with delegated responsibility. Only that which you find attractive and effective will actually work. Anything else is just frustration. So, I ask you to help us not to walk away from this one, but to find a workable system.

 

Let me move to another matter - a matter you are all well familiar with; it is not on the council agenda this year, but it will be next year. I am referring to the conversation we have going between faith and science as the two talk to each other about origin and creation. It is a necessary conversation, but it was never going to be an easy one. I know there are some who wonder what possible good could come out of such a conversation. But this is a conversation which the church as a healthy community needs to have, and fear is not a valid restrainer in an open, free, and strong community such as ours.

 

From the earliest times of our church we have held that if someone has a divergent understanding on a given issue, i.e. different from that held by the church, let that person be given an opportunity to present it in an appropriate forum of colleagues and peers. And in speaking to a group of some 100 educators and theologians in this hall a few months ago I stated that there is a proper forum for the airing and testing of such views or 'new light'. But it is my view that that forum is neither the classroom, nor the pulpit, nor the church's official papers. Whether the appropriate forum be a BRICOM or a specially set up committee of scholars and leaders, the church must and will provide the opportunity where seriously held views can be stated, assessed, and responded to. And that is what is happening in the conversation between faith and science.

 

In addressing the opening meeting of this 'Creation Conference' just over a year ago, I reminded those in attendance - although 'reminding' was hardly necessary for all participants were of our family of faith - of the uncompromising position that we hold on the primacy of Scripture; and we were mindful of the inspired counsel of Ellen White that "God has permitted a flood of light to be poured upon the world in discoveries in science and art; but when professedly scientific men lecture and write upon these subjects from a merely human stand-point, they will assuredly come to wrong conclusions. The greatest minds, if not guided by the word of God in their research, become bewildered in their attempts to investigate the relations of science and revelation." (Ellen G White, Signs of the Times, March 13, 1884)

 

We are a conservative church. Yes, we wish to be open, responsive, and sensitive, as must any strong and free community of believers be. But we are conservative in the sense that we wish to stay close to Scripture, and, in the words of Paul to Timothy, we "guard that which has been entrusted" to us (1 Tim. 6:20). We see the Bible not as a mere cultural product, but as a book in which God speaks to us. We hold it to be reliable and trustworthy. And in its account we are told that God created this earth, and the living things upon it, and he did it in six literal days. That is the testimony of Genesis 1 and 2, and this is the position we hold as a church. We say: "That is the origin of the earth and life on it as we know it today."

 

I know of nothing that is about to move us as a church away from that position. But we will, in a congenial environment of shared faith and shared commitment to the Lord, and with mutual respect, talk about this matter and examine whether and how what we believe is impacted by views and 'findings' so-called. It is good for us to learn to talk also about difficult things. It would be good, however, for all of us to remember that when we have corrected those who differed from us, we did not forget to call them 'brothers' and 'sisters', for that is what they are. Loved by Christ, and bonded in a love which keeps us together as a family. It is precisely that 'love of Christ', for us and in us, which will bring out the best in us all.

 

At Annual Council next year, after the final segment of this conversation is over, a full report will be brought to this Executive Committee.

 

Continuing the theme of "Unity", selected at the beginning of the quinquennium, our emphasis at this Council will be on "United in the Warmth of Fellowship". You will see various phases of this motif reflected in the devotional presentations.

 

Now, leaving the agenda aside, as we have now entered the Sabbath hours, I invite you to reflect with me for a few moments on one of the paradoxes of the Gospel, namely the fundamental enmity which there is between the world of unbelief and the world of Christ, an enmity which nevertheless - and herein the paradox - is permeated by the uncompromising love of Christ for lost sinners. Consider what this says to us as a church community entrusted with a mission. Our assignment is to move out. We are to reach out. People are what matters.

 

God acknowledged this enmity when he cursed the serpent after the fall of our first parents. They had been deceived and were seemingly trapped, for having yielded once they would have no power in themselves to resists the forces of evil. (E. G. White, Patriarchs and Prophets, p. 53). They were caught. And that's the nature of humanity. And, in a sense, from that moment on we find ourselves in enemy territory. But in that same moment he declared that victory over the evil forces will come and will prevail. God had at no time the intention that faith-hostile forces of a secular world, with its values, would be allowed to so encircle men and women that the rays of hope and the sound of the promises could not reach them. God is in the business of finding, reaching out for, loving, and saving people who are lost and who have no future without God's help.

 

But it is a fact that since that fateful day in the garden there has always been a world of evil forces - a world of values and conduct - which expressly rejects or is hostile to the God whom we know as our Father, and His Son, Jesus Christ. The annals of humanity, whether read from the pages of the Holy Writ or from the never-ending abundance of secular literature, illustrate where these forces would take us, and how they would like for us to think, to be, and to behave.

 

In the New Testament especially, and particularly by the apostles John and Paul, we are reminded of the polarity which exists between darkness and light, between the flesh and spirit; and an appeal is made to the believers to recognize the radical difference between them. In other words, do not so gloss over these differences as to make them into just innocent cultural choices. Secular society has never recognized that 'rights' and 'wrongs' has anything to do with God. They are to them just social and cultural choices. The Bible makes the distinction. The appeal is to make a choice which in fact constitute a crossing "over from death to life" (John 5:24). The sad reality, said Jesus, is that men have come to love darkness instead of light because their deeds are evil (John 3:19). That's the nature of the world which surrounds us. In a sense mankind is caught in enemy territory.

 

This is the polarity which Jesus Christ reminds the disciples of during the final moments he has with them before he crossed the Kidron Valley. He said: "If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first. If you belonged to the world, it would love you as its own. As it is, you do not belong to the world, but I have chosen you out of the world" (John 14:18, 19); "In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world" (16:33); and so he prays to his Father that he will "protect them from the evil one" (17:15).

 

Similarly Paul, maybe reflecting on his own life as it is approaching its end, writes to Timothy: "Everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted" (2 Tim. 3:12).

 

What does this say to us, Seventh-day Adventists? How can we take this in without becoming destructively negative or developing unfriendly attitudes towards society and people - attitudes which are counter-productive to our mission? How can we accept this reality without running away and seeking to hide; actually the very opposite: How can one accept this reality and still be pro-humanity, pro-society, pro-community, friendly, loving, courteous, and hospitable? For the paradox of the Gospel is God's uncompromising love for people simply because they are human beings, and he has insatiable drive to reach people 'caught in enemy territory' and bring them hope.

 

I think it is important for us as a church always to be clear in our statements and teachings about the values we stand for and advocate over against values and directions that we cannot share, however popular and widely subscribed to they may be. That applies to individual life-style values as well as to stands that we take as a church. It applies to social issues as well as personal life-style choices. It is good and important to be clear, and important to state why.

 

But when that is done, I am as much concerned about how we relate to people who may not be part of our personally selected circle of friends. They may be strangers, or just new to my group. It troubles me when a couple, professionally well-accomplished and well-employed, very intelligent, sit down in my home and says: "I find our church on the whole very unfriendly". - It does not bother me that they say this to me; In fact I am glad that they know me well enough and feel that they can trust me to be free to say that. But it does bother me that this is what they experience. And I ask myself: Is it really so, and is it wide-spread? Is it an unfair over-generalization? We are all social beings, and whether you are in or out of the church, people need friends. We don't function well without them.

 

And then are those who have in fact made precisely the choices that I stated I cannot accept. They are openly by their choice of values different from me. Can I make friends with them? Should I try? Is it not risky?

 

Listen to the counsel of the Lord's servant:

"I saw that those who profess the truth should hold the standard high, and induce others to come up to it. I saw that some would have to walk the straight path alone. Their companions and children will not walk the self-denying pathway with them. Patience and forbearance should ever characterize the lives of those lone pilgrims, following the example of their blessed Master. They will have many trials to endure, but they have a hope that makes the soul strong, that bears them up above the trials of earth, that elevates them above scorn, derision and reproach. Those who possess a hope like this should never indulge a harsh, unkind spirit. This will only injure their own souls, and drive their friends farther from the truth. Treat them tenderly. Give them no occasion to reproach the cause of Christ; but never yield the truth to please any one." (Spiritual Gifts, II, p. 266).

 

"He who loves God will not only love his fellow men, but will regard with tender compassion the creatures which God has made. . . . . We are to care for every case of suffering, and to look upon ourselves as God's agents to relieve the needy to the very uttermost of our ability. . . . There are some who manifest great affection for their relatives, for their friends and favorites, who yet fail to be kind and considerate to those who need tender sympathy, who need kindness and love. With earnest heart, let us inquire, Who is my neighbor? Our neighbors are not merely our neighbors and special friends, are not simply those who belong to our church or who think as we do. Our neighbors are the whole human family." (Sons and Daughters of God, p. 52)

 

"Kindness and love and courtesy are the marks of the Christian. . . . In our association with each other let it be ever remembered that there are chapters in the experience of others that are sealed from mortal eyes; there are sad histories that are written in the books of heaven but are sacredly guarded from prying eyes. There stand registered long, hard battles with trying circumstances, arising in the very homes, that day by day sap the courage, the faith, the confidence, until the very manhood seems to fall to ruins. But Jesus knows it all, and He never forgets. To such, words of kindness and of affection are welcome as the smile of angels; a strong, helpful grasp of the hand of a true friend is worth more than gold and silver." (My Life Today, p. 242)

 

I am concerned about the quality of life which is found in our churches. And I say to myself: if our communities were to be known, by those who despair, who suffer from loneliness, or who are ill and are gripped by fear, as a haven, a place of healing, a place where you find and meet friends, would we not then more truly reflect the qualities of life that Jesus Christ expressed? Is there not magnetism in this to draw people to Jesus as Savior?

 

We will, I believe, be a more complete witnessing instrument in the hands of the Holy Spirit, when our teaching of the truth and standards of living, and our public evangelism, are complemented by the atmosphere and spirit of compassion and friendliness coming both from our church community and from me as an individual.

 

People who carried pain, anxiety, and sorrow were drawn to Christ. Are they to me and my church?