ANN Bulletin - April 1, 2008 - unOFFICIAL ADVENTIST FORUM

Welcome with open arms fellow believers who don’t see things the way you do.
And don’t jump all over them every time they do or say something you don’t agree with
– even when it seems that they are strong on opinions but weak in the faith department.
Remember, they have their own history to deal with. Treat them gently. Romans 14.1: The Message

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#164656 - 04/04/08 09:57 AM ANN Bulletin - April 1, 2008
magilly46 Registered: 10/29/02 Posts: 120 Loc: BC	Seventh-day Adventist Church world headquarters April 1, 2008 In This Issue: -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let the community be the pulpit, Adventist Church president says March 28 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States Paulsen urges church's leadership to demonstrate compassion, respect Six Sigma for the church? Brantley on the role of assessment March 31 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States The world's best organization should be the church, says new director of program effectiveness As Adventist Church in Brazil grows, so do schools March 28 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States College planned for world's largest union region; vice governor helicoptered in for high school inauguration -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Let the community be the pulpit, Adventist Church president says March 28, 2008 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States ... [ Elizabeth Lechleitner/ANN ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- It's up to individual church members to shape how the Adventist Church is perceived, world church president Jan Paulsen told a group of church leaders yesterday. [ANN file photo] Don't confine spirituality to the church pew, Seventh-day Adventist world church president Jan Paulsen told a group of church leaders yesterday during remarks meant to kindle more deliberate community involvement by Adventists, who -- despite recent marginal improvements -- still score low in ministry beyond the pulpit according to church officials. The conduct of church members within the community is either a "confirmation or a denial of our faith," Paulsen said, adding that "silence can be as much a failure as speaking the wrong words." Addressing members of the church's Council on Evangelism and Witness who were gathered at world church headquarters near Washington, D.C. for one of the church's biannual business meetings, Paulsen said the Adventist faith shouldn't just exist in books or church archives. "The faith we have is not best explained by academics or theologians. Our faith finds its most compelling expression in the everyday words and actions of Christians in their communities," Paulsen said. During his comments, Paulsen referred to a pivotal question -- "Who are you Adventists, anyway?" -- asked by a reporter during his recent interview on Bloomberg television. Paulsen said Adventists must fill that knowledge gap by being "seen and heard. ... We want the public to know us," he said. "There are moments when you must step back and consider how your life looks through the eyes of somebody who does not share your faith," Paulsen said. "What do you want them to see?" he asked, suggesting several traits he said Adventists would do well to embrace -- among them compassion, tolerance, respect and generosity. "Am I talking about things that are at the core of Adventism?" he asked. "I hope they are." When community members meet Adventists, the attitudes and behavior of church members should illustrate those qualities, Paulsen said. "Probably more than 99 percent" of the people Adventists meet have either never been invited to attend church meetings or consider such meetings a "waste of time. ... These people do not study Daniel and Revelation. They may even be strangers to basic Christian values. You have to ask yourself, 'What do I want them to know about my church?'" Adventists should be know as "freedom fighters," Paulsen said -- "not the violent brand, but those who work not only for people who share our point of view, but for everyone, regardless of their beliefs." He cited the church's efforts to promote religious liberty around the world and added, "I want the public to think of Adventists as the strongest supporters of freedom -- freedom to think, freedom to hold convictions and freedom to communicate them." Of the convictions held by Adventists, Paulsen said the church's commitment to education and healthy living are two ways Adventists can influence the public sphere by offering something relevant rather than something divisive. During discussion that followed Paulsen's comments, other church leaders made similar observations. "There have been times in the past when the only time the public saw us was when we were either asking for money or trying to convert them," said Gary Krause, director for the church's Office of Adventist Mission. "I think we should always have that ambition to lead people to Jesus, but unless people see that we care for them even if they never decide to become Seventh-day Adventists, we will never be seen as the caring church." Allan Handysides, director of the church's department of Health Ministries, said church members must steer clear of a "culture of negativity" that leads to "killjoy religion" instead of a "ministry of healing." "People are more concerned with who we are than with who we say we are," Handysides added during his comments on the role of health in church outreach. "Evangelism only lets them see what we want them to see. But witness, whether we like it or not, allows them to see who we truly are." People should see Adventists as peacemakers, but not people who dodge defending the rights of others, Paulsen said, noting the church's failure to respond to the Rwandan genocide. "Silence in the face of evil is complicity in what is wrong," he said. "Let us speak from the pulpit and show from our actions that we oppose anything that instills hatred or inflames violence." Paulsen then urged church leaders in particular to "avoid tainting the church" with so much as the "aroma of partisan politics." Adventists must be "people of integrity" in a time when "corruption of all kinds dominates headlines." "I want Adventists to be known as honest people who teach and practice morality, people with the highest ethical standards, people who speak out against greed and against the self-serving attitudes that do so much damage to society," he said. Six Sigma for the church? Brantley on the role of assessment March 31, 2008 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States ... [ Ansel Oliver/ANN ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Brantley is the Adventist world church's director of the new Office of Assessment and Program Effectiveness. [photo: Rajmund Dabrowski] Paul Brantley wants the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be the world's best-run organization. It's now his job to help make that happen. Brantley, a former education and healthcare consultant, is director of the church's new Office of Assessment and Program Effectiveness. And he'll start at the top, beginning with the 500 staff members here at world church headquarters. "I find it profitable to sit down and say, 'I need to learn how to put the keys in the right place so I don't waste time looking for the keys;' this is what I want to help the church do," Brantley said in a recent interview replete with examples of management effectiveness. He draws his examples from top multi-national corporations across many industries. "The service you get at a Ritz Carlton Hotel is incomparable," Brantley said. "It's the top rated hotel, but it didn't get that way by accident. It became a best run organization. Great management principles are as real as the laws of health." He rejects such labels as "hatchet person" and "efficiency expert," instead saying the best efficiency experts are people who work on the job. "Instead of going around holding people accountable, I would like to see my office build into our organization a sense of stewardship and a sense of assessment in order to improve," he said. He plans to partner with administrative officers at all 13 world church regions to install assessment systems in their territories. Last week, Brantley addressed the church's General Conference Leadership Council to introduce his new office, which was created with a vote of the Executive Committee in October. "My role is to promote a spirit-filled, evidence-based culture of excellence within the world church that inspires each employee to see the excitement and the potential and the joy of being of a part of the world's best run organization," he said. Response has been positive. "We are enthusiastic so I invited him to come," said Paul Ratsara, president of the church's Southern Africa-Indian Ocean region, one of the first world church leaders to request Brantley's attention. "We want to start as soon as possible, starting with me. It will bring a lot of progress and improvement and it will reinforce what we are already trying to do as a [church here]," Ratsara said. Originally, Brantley questioned if having the Adventist Church the world's best run organization was presumptive. "Then I looked at quotations from the Bible and writings from church co-founder Ellen White on excellence, order and system and I said no, that's not presumptive," he said. Among other things, Brantley plans to help assess if several world church departments can work together better, including Youth and Volunteers. "Lots of departments deal with youth," he said. "And we also have a number of different departments dealing with missionaries and sometimes I get the feeling that those departments don't always necessarily connect from the missionary's standpoint." He also intends to have departments focus on their goals instead of their budgets. "Instead of just increasing the budget by 2 percent, 5 percent each year, we'll look at the budget in relation to the program," he said. "The budget is only a means to an end." Brantley earned a doctorate from Ohio State University in educational development with an emphasis in evaluation in 1975 and has since conducted national evaluations of Adventist curriculum. He also served as director of the education department at Oakwood University in Huntsville, Alabama, and launched a refereed research journal on Christian education while a professor at Andrews University in Berrien Springs, Michigan. He said he hopes to conduct leadership assessments at all levels of the church, eventually working toward local pastoral assessments. Brantley has given attention to front-line workers before, most recently during a six-year stint as a consultant at Florida Hospital in Orlando. "He has a vision of excellence, always calling people to do their best," said Dick Tibbits, chief people officer and senior vice president for Florida Hospital. Brantley served the seven-hospital network by helping implement training for leaders at all levels of the organization preparing to move up to the next level of responsibility, Tibbits said. Brantley also provided training for hundreds of nurses, empowering them to make decisions about improvements. "The employees got excited about the organization, Brantley recalled. "We miss him around here," Tibbits said. The Adventist Church's new Office of Assessment and Program Effectiveness invites feedback and suggestions. Interested persons may contact Paul Brantley at brantleyp@gc.adventist.org or (301) 680-6630. --additional reporting by Taashi Rowe As Adventist Church in Brazil grows, so do schools March 28, 2008 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States ... [ Ansel Oliver/ANN ] -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Ella Simmons, center, at the inauguration of Santa Catarina Adventist Academy last month. Educational infrastructure is growing in Brazil, the nation with the most Seventh-day Adventists. [photos: Luis Schulz/ANN] With messages such as this one found throughout the country, church education officials in Brazil have chosen a coordinated advertising effort for Adventist education. Church leaders in Brazil hope the construction of new schools, one of which will open in two years, will encourage more Adventists to attend church-run schools. Right now, only 8 percent of Adventist young people in Brazil are enrolled in the church's school system. With a 37 percent increase in schools over the past decade -- now 318 -- Seventh-day Adventist education in Brazil is booming. Adventist-run schools are deemed some of the country's most competitive, drawing significant non-Adventist enrollment, and are positioned to help grow the church's membership, Adventist leaders there say. "Adventist schools already appear among the best in the country in the teaching rankings from the Ministry of Education," the Brazilian news magazine Veja reported last September. But even with the boom in schools, educational infrastructure isn't matching membership growth. Brazil already has the largest Adventist Church membership of any country -- about 1.6 million. But in the country's largest region -- the North Brazil Union, home to some 541,000 Adventists -- there is no Adventist school at the university level. A delegation of world church leaders visited a property there last month, which will be home to a new college in 2010. "The community there is excited about this new school and the government leaders are excited because the campus is an aesthetically pleasing addition to the community," said Ella Simmons, an Adventist world church vice president. "I think what our church is doing in Brazil in higher education, and its understanding of the importance of higher education to the church's mission -- to our bottom line of spreading the gospel to the world -- is exemplary," Simmons said. The delegation also visited the inauguration of the Santa Catarina Adventist Academy. The state's lieutenant governor, Leonel Pavan, was helicoptered in for the ceremony. Pavan congratulated the growth of Adventist education in Brazil and told school officials that "investing in education is investing in people." Billboards across Brazil advertise Adventist education -- a smiling girl poses next to the slogan, "My father believes in my future, that's why I'm enrolled in Adventist education." The unified ad campaign helps keep the church's individual schools on the same page. In most elementary and secondary schools throughout Latin America, classes are held in morning and afternoon shifts, allowing teachers to double classroom usage. "You get a lot of mileage out of the square footage of a school," says Roy Ryan, associate treasurer for the world church. Still, "there aren't enough schools," says Luis Schulz, associate Education director for the Adventist world church. Church leaders estimate that only about 8 percent of Adventist students throughout the country attend Adventist schools. But about 70 percent of the estimated 217,000 students attending the country's Adventist schools are not Adventist. Part of the reason, Ryan says, may be the strong sense of evangelism Brazilian Adventists share. "It doesn't matter what your job is or what department you work in, the question is always asked, 'How does this contribute to sharing the good news of the [church]?'" Ryan says, commenting on the deliberate "completeness" of the church's approach to evangelism in South America. "Everyone has a role," he adds. --Elizabeth Lechleitner contributed to this story -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- news.adventist.org 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. Reproduction Requirements: Reproduction of information in this article is encouraged. When reproducing this material, in full or in part, the words "Source: Adventist News Network" must appear under the headline or immediately following the article. The words "Source: Adventist News Network" must be given equal prominence to any other source that is also acknowledged. Ground 7 News Podcast: Ground 7 News 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. Reproduction of the ANN podcast is encouraged. When rebroadcasting this material, in full or in part, the words "Source: Adventist News Network" must be mentioned before and after the podcast. ANN Staff: Rajmund Dabrowski, director; Ansel Oliver, assistant director; Taashi Rowe, editorial coordinator; Elizabeth Lechleitner, editorial assistant; Natacha Moorooven, proofreader. Portuguese translation by Azenilto Brito, Spanish translation by Marcos Paseggi, Italian translation by Vincenzo Annunziata and Lina Ferrara and French translations by Stephanie Elofer. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- No virus found in this incoming message. Checked by AVG. Version: 7.5.519 / Virus Database: 269.22.4/1355 - Release Date: 4/1/2008 5:37 PM
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