“173 years old and 20 million (plus children) strong”

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is no longer a religious revival and reform movement in Christendom but an established, highly structured, tightly organised community. As such, it cannot escape the world’s social, religious, economic and cultural forces, especially in developed countries where it has existed the longest. It’s not suffering from liberalisation or secularisation but maturation.

So says Dr Niels-Erik Andreasen, who has now retired after 22 years as President of Andrews University. Leading the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s flagship educational institution places him in an ideal position to reflect on the church and the major issues it faces.

Those issues include questions about:

• How we keep united when the church is subject to the common principles of organisational behaviour
• How do and how might we read Scripture—the challenges of understanding questions about origins and interpreting Scripture are an outgrowth of our educational aspirations; and
• The relationship between knowledge and faith.

Other challenges arise from the fact that the story in the developing world differs from that in the developed world, for cultural, economic, political and other reasons, and we fail to understand that.

Presented by Sydney Adventist Forum with Avondale College of Higher Education.

Freewill offering.

Biography

Born in Denmark in 1941 and educated there, Dr Niels-Erik Andreasen matriculated in mathematics and science before undertaking a Bachelor of Arts at Newbold College in England. His postgraduate study included a Bachelor of Divinity from the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary at Andrews and a PhD on the topic of the Hebrew Bible from Vanderbilt University. Dr Andreasen taught at Pacific Union College, Avondale College and Loma Linda University and served as President at Walla Walla University before accepting the presidency at Andrews. He has published three books as well as articles, essays and reviews. He is married to Demetra and they have one son and two grandchildren.