Africa: Be Participants, Not Spectators, World Church Leader Says to
Young People
Cape Town, South Africa .... [Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN]
Let's Talk South Africa, the 14th in a series of unscripted, unedited
conversations broadcast live between Seventh-day Adventist Church world
president, Pastor Jan Paulsen, and a group of young people, might well
be dubbed 'Let's Get Involved.'
Continuing his commitment to "feel the pulse of the youth and young
professionals of our church," Pastor Paulsen on Sunday, December 3, met
in Cape Town, South Africa, with 50 Adventist young people representing
11 countries across the church's Southern Africa-Indian Ocean region.
Throughout Let's Talk South Africa, Pastor Paulsen reiterated that
young people themselves are often the answer to their questions.
Specifically regarding young people who have left the church, he said,
"Why don't you reach out and try to talk to them? Tell them 'we miss
you,' and that life is richer in the church. That is an initiative that
I want to place on the shoulders of you who are young. Please minister
to your own peers and your own colleagues. Encourage young people to
hear each other out, because they are more likely to listen to each
other. And then we as leaders have to reexamine what we do to support
you in that ministry."
During the broadcast, several young people posed questions with a
common premise: why world church administration is not more visibly
involved in local congregations. Continuing his 'ask not what your
church can do for you, but what you can do for your church' theme,
Pastor Paulsen responded to a question regarding church unity with the
following: "I think young people, particularly here in South Africa,
because you live in such a diverse society ... are better placed than
many who are older than you. So I see you have a ministry."
"I think it's very important that our churches at the local level
should truly become integrated churches where you share in worship and
share in leadership, and where you affirm each others' genuineness in
Christ and you are blessed by the richness which we may experience in
that diversity."
In answering several questions, Pastor Paulsen took the opportunity to
remind young people to safeguard their personal relationships with
Christ. "Don't be passive, but active in the life of the church. And be
serious about looking after your spiritual life. Nobody else is going
to do it if you don't; you have the primary responsibility."
Throughout the hour-long Let's Talk South Africa, audience members
repeatedly questioned the church's efforts to combat HIV and AIDS. In
response, Pastor Paulsen readily admitted more work could be done, but
that local churches and individual members hold as much responsibility
as church administration to that end. "The church must be a place of
hope. It must be something people can turn to and find that the value
God has placed in every human being is recognized by the church."
When some young people implied that the world church is not doing
enough to regulate the behavior of church members, Pastor Paulsen made
it clear that world church administration is not a micromanaging body.
"You don't deal with people that way. You can minister to people, you
can love people, and you can tell them about Christ and the gospel and
demonstrate the richness of the Christian life to them and make an
appeal to them. But at the end of the day, it's going to be [their]
personal choice," he said.
Encouraging young people to make that choice is one of Pastor Paulsen's
greatest hopes for the Let's Talk series. He says young Adventists are
the church's future and its most important asset. "I don't believe you
can build [that future] without Jesus Christ," he said during the
broadcast. Paulsen urged the audience members to fully integrate
themselves in the activities and initiatives of the church.
"Participate in every aspect," he said, and "allow your talents, energy
and creative initiative to ... flow into the life of the church."
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