Adventist Leaders Should Have Humility, Integrity and Vision
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In a historic vote today Seventh-day Adventists elected a woman as general vice president of the world church. Dr. Ella Louise Smith Simmons, is the first woman to fill this position. Until recently she served as provost/vice president at La Sierra University, in California. Before that she was vice president of academic affairs at Oakwood College in Alabama. Both schools are operated by the Adventist Church. Simmons has a doctorate in education from the University of Louisville. |
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Humility, integrity and vision are traits essential to all Adventist leaders, Jan Paulsen, president of the Adventist world church said today. [photo by Gerry Chudleigh]
Just hours before Dr. Simmons' historic election delegate Flavia Rwabuhoro Kabaherda wondered if the Adventist church planned to ever fully welcome women to top leadership posts. [Photo Gerry Chudleigh]
In a historic vote today Seventh-day Adventists elected a woman as general vice president of the world church. Dr. Ella Louise Smith Simmons, is the first woman to fill this position. Until recently she served as provost/vice president at La Sierra University, in California. Before that she was vice president of academic affairs at Oakwood College in Alabama. Both schools are operated by the Adventist Church. Simmons has a doctorate in education from the University of Louisville.
Her election came on the heels of a presentation by newly re-elected church President Jan Paulsen on characteristics essential to Adventist leadership where he fielded questions from members of the delegation, one of which concerned the promotion of women to top levels of church leadership.
During a discussion on character and personality of Adventist leadership the morning of July 3, Paulsen admitted that women are underrepresented in church leadership. "It's an issue that even the nominating committee is now working with and we will have to see what comes out of that. We just have to be deliberate about it. And we'll see whether we can, even coming out of this Session, we can give a signal that we are trying to do better."
As the keynote speaker for the first of a series of five topics on leadership, Paulsen spoke on "The Character and Personality of Adventist Leadership." This took place on the fourth day of the world church's business meetings in St. Louis, Missouri. Church leaders say with explosive growth of the church globally the series of seminars - new to business agenda - will help the next generation of leaders who may not have traditional backgrounds in leadership remain true to the some of the church's traditional immutable values.
The issue of developing leadership skills was also raised. Paulsen says "The gift and skill of leadership does not come overnight." He put much of the onus for initial leadership training on the local church.
Paulsen added, "There is no Biblical requirement that says you have to be 50 before you become a [lay leader]," which was greeted with applause. "Christ's original disciples were not chosen when they were approaching retirement."
Pastor Maw-Feng Ko spoke to ANN following the forum. In his native Taiwan the Adventist Church is facing a lack of potential leaders, particularly young leaders, he said, adding the church is responsible for exposing people to leadership. "We get our young people to take important roles in church," he said.
Up until very recently much of the church's leadership standards reflected the culture of its founding country -- the United States. But with an influx of members around the world, creating a very distinct mix of new leaders, Paulsen said it is vital for the church to incorporate changes that consider various cultures. With estimations claiming the church could reach 50 million members worldwide by 2020, the president explained that change is inevitable.
"Our being global means that our church contains a huge variety of cultures, traditions and diversities. To resist change is unnatural," he said.
At the same time, he added "Only when we are vague, unclear, and uncertain about our faith and our moral values can culture and local traditions undo our identity and do us harm."
He cautioned that the global church's core values should not be markedly different from place to place, culture to culture. "We have a common model constitution, we share the same policies, we have one common manual which describes the authority and functions of the local congregation, we have a common statement of fundamental beliefs, and we have integrated resource support systems."
Paulsen stated that the church cannot rely on secular expectations of leadership as they "will not reflect the will of Christ for His people and will not meet the needs of a spiritual community."
However, he agreed with Jack Krogstad, from North America, who pointed out that Jesus was an example of great leadership. "Even the secular world studies Jesus Christ as a great model of leadership," Krogstad said. "Those traits are openness, flexibility, tolerance, and acceptance."
Astrid Thomassian, from North America, commented after the discussions that she found Paulsen's presentation very useful. However, she wondered what tools were in place to evaluate effective leadership.
Humility, integrity and vision are traits essential to all Adventist leaders, Paulsen said.
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ANN World News Bulletin is a review of news and information issued by the Communication department from the Seventh-day Adventist Church World Headquarters and released as part of the service of Adventist News Network. It is made available primarily to religious news editors. Our news includes dispatches from the church's international offices and the world headquarters.
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