Unity, Growth, and Quality of Life Express "Genius of Adventism," Says World Church President
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In a gathering of the church's executive committee, pastor Jan Paulsen, world church president, challenges church leaders and members to focus more deliberately on the three strategic values of the world church: Unity, Growth, and Quality of Life. |
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Jan Paulsen, president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, addresses delegates at the 2002 Spring Meeting--a biannual gathering of the church's executive committee.
More than 250 church officials from each of the church's 12 Divisions meet at the Adventist world headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States.
Seventh-day Adventist Church president Pastor Jan Paulsen has challenged church leaders and members to focus more deliberately on the three strategic values of the world church: Unity, Growth, and Quality of Life.
"These are not slogans; they are not frivolously chosen side-issues," said Paulsen. The three values of growth, unity, and quality of life collectively express the "ethos and self-awareness" of the Adventist Church, he said. "These three values contain the genius of Seventh-day Adventism."
Paulsen made his remarks April 17 at the opening of Spring Meeting, a three-day meeting of the General Conference executive committee. The committee, a planning and decision-making body of the Adventist world church, is made up of more than 250 laypeople, pastors, and administrators from each of the church's 12 divisions.
The value of "Growth" is expressed through evangelism, public witness, and nurturing the personal spiritual growth of believers, said Paulsen. "Unity" reflects the nature of the church as "one family around the world, constantly communicating with one another, constantly sharing, and in that process learning to defer to one another for the good of the One Body of Christ."
"Quality of life" is a multi-faceted concept that goes to the heart of what it means to be an Adventist believer, said Paulsen. For an Adventist, quality of life means first and foremost "being sure of belonging to the Lord," he said, "finding the rest and assurance of forgiveness; and, finding contentment on our life's journey."
But quality of life has a broader, public significance as well, he said. "It is a quality that is visible to the public in what we say is important, and in how we behave; it is spread across the whole range of our every-day life decisions."
Paulsen challenged the members of the executive committee to integrate the three strategic values into every aspect of their work. "How deliberate are we in incorporating [these values] into the planning and activities of our church? How deliberate are we in laying them out before our people in our preaching?"
"Growth, Unity, and Quality of Life" were adopted as the three strategic values of the Adventist world church in April 2001. These values are intended to permeate the day-to-day functioning of the Adventist Church, impacting how decisions are made, how finances are used, and how leaders--from church pastors to division presidents--go about setting priorities and making plans.
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