Record Live Podcast

 Hi there everyone. I'm Jared. And I'm Sunita. We are your hosts of Record Live, a podcast where we talk about church faith and living well. We believe as followers of Jesus faith is more than just a set of beliefs. It's a way of life, something we'd put into practice. Let's go live.

Hello everyone. It is your host Zanita here. I hope you are all having a splendid week this week on record live. We are gonna do something a little bit different. My trustee, co-host Jared, has been in the United States in St. Louis at the general conference sessions for the Seventh Day Adventist Church, and he was able to sit down with Pastor Glen Townend, who has been reelected as the president of the South Pacific Division.

They had a conversation about how he feels about being reelected and what his hopes and plans are for the church moving forward. So I'm gonna tap out of this conversation and listen in with you.

 Hi, I am Jared ov and we are here in the Adventist Review Studio at the general conference session in St. Louis, and I'm joined today by Pastor Glen Townend. He is one of the vice presidents of the general conference for the region of the South Pacific Division. Welcome, Glen. It's good to have you. Hey, nice to be here, Jared.

Now, for those who may not know the scope of the South Pacific division, can you tell us a little bit of the context? What does the church look like in that part of the world? So the church in the South Pacific is, a lot of Pacific Ocean, so there's a lot of tiny islands. Mm-hmm. Um, as far as our church membership goes, we have the most in the Melanesian countries, Papua New Guinea, Solomon Islands, Vanuatu and Fiji.

And, then we have the Polynesian Islands of Samoa, American, Samoa, Val, uh, few there and bu with Micronesia. Mm-hmm. Then there's Australia and New Zealand. Mm-hmm. So, um, yeah. And it's the biggest division in terms of territory, but there's not a lot of land that people can live on because it's mostly ocean.

It is. It is. So it means a lot of flying or going by boat, but we mainly fly these days. Mm. Now you've just been reelected as the division president for the third time, so you've done 10 years. Mm-hmm. And this will be your next term. How does it feel, how does it feel to be elected? You've done this before.

Is there any sort of trepidation. Any sort of worry leading up to it or is it sort of just see what happens? Uh, look, you are always thinking about, you know, it, what does God want for me? What was does God want for the church? And to, to be asked to do it for a, a third time. It's quite humbling to think, you know, I've.

With, with our people, we've set a direction, uh, we've worked with God and and, and the people and, and God and the people want it to continue. So it is quite humbling. And, and you kind of go, wow, what an opportunity. Let's see that we can do even better and see God do some greater things than what's happened in.

The last 10 years. Mm. And speaking of the past 10 years, what sort of would your highlights be? What do you feel like you've achieved or seen the church and, and seen God working in the South Pacific? Our, our focus on discipleship and disciple making has been very, very clear. And, and our resourcing for that.

Mm-hmm. In different cultures, we've seen media grow. Mm-hmm. Significantly in radio, tv, digital, you know, in different, different places. Like Papua New Guinea now has not only radio around the country, but, but television, and Australia, you know, with Faith fm. So yeah, media's been been big. And then in health, the 10,000 toes.

It's, it's kind of exploded. I mean, we are doing health in other places, but in the Pacific Islands particularly, dealing with lifestyle. Diseases and dealing them with lifestyle, health message. It's, it's simple. It's not expensive and people are really jumping on board. Mm-hmm. And, you know, I guess the highlight of all putting it all together was certainly p and g for Christ.

Mm-hmm. Where I have, I've been involved in programs before and there. Mm mm. But. This was huge. And the thousands of people that just kept coming. Mm. And it was all over the country. Like it wasn't just in one spot and it didn't matter who you were. You could have been a first time preacher or a seasoned evangelist.

You could have been, you know, we say the right of the church or the left of, of whatever. God just did his thing. If we were preaching God's last day. Gospel message. Yes. Yeah. So yeah, they're some of the highlights for those that may not know in our audience, 10,000 Toes is an initiative that deals with particularly type two diabetes.

Yeah. Lifestyle diseases, because some of our Pacific countries have like the highest rates, well, diabetes in the world, south Pacific, Australian, New Zealand, the rest of the Pacific, we are the highest with diabetes. Mm-hmm. And that is not. A good thing and type two diabetes with good intervention lifestyle mm-hmm.

Can be reversible. Yeah. And medically, um, and scientifically proven through the, the kind of the methods that we know as an Adventist health message. Mm-hmm. On the first Sabbath, pastor Ton Kolo was talking about sort of, it seems his emphasis is he's got a strong background in media evangelism. Mm-hmm.

Youth. He was saying be bold and, and go with the mission. How does that look for the South Pacific division, coming up? Uh, we are being bold and you can't replicate what happened in P and Papua New Guinea in 2024, but we learn so much there. Mm. We are applying those principles next year to the transpacific.

Mm-hmm. And the, those countries. The 11 countries there all planning reaping programs and are praying now and doing lots of community service and health work to, to help people. Yes. And then say, you know, well if you enjoy the help and the wanna know the God that we know, we, we've got these programs coming and so we're gonna do that, in the transpacific and then New Zealand.

Mm-hmm. And the French places and the Cook Islands, and then Australia and then Papua New Guinea again. Right. And what happens there, which is really good because we talked about that diversity. Mm. All of the unions, Papua New Guinea, Australia, New Zealand Pacific, will go to the transpacific next year.

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And there'll be a couple of hundred preachers. Coming in and, and so they will get to experience the culture of Fiji, Samoa, Solomon's bu, and all of that. And, and whatever God does there, they go back to their places. They've got extra learning. They've been on fire because of what God's doing, and then that spreads, and has an impact, back in their own home.

Churches and unions. And this strategic plan has already sort of been set for Yeah, we, we worked on it based on the, the general conference strategic plan. Yes. And, and so, yeah. One part. The last part of that is mission for all. Mm. And the one before that is unity in the spirit. And so we see the spirit working in God's mission.

And that's why all of these, you know, that particular, um, emphasis. Another emphasis that we'll be having is leadership development. Now we've done lots of good leadership development. Mm-hmm. Um we are wanting our leaders to understand the different cultures. Now I've been blessed. Yes, I'm an Australian.

My father's a New Zealander. I grew up in Papua New Guinea. Mm-hmm. I worked in Fiji. Yep. Yeah. That's all of the unions you've had the experience throughout. I've, yeah. Yeah. And, and, and that's unique. Yes. Now there's one or two other people like that, but many of our leaders haven't had that opportunity, so we are wanting to expose like Papa New Gillian to work in New Zealand.

Mm-hmm. Or Australians to work in. Fiji. Yes. And we are looking at doing that in lots of different ways. Mm-hmm. So, so that, you know, there is a, you know, a communal understanding. In the Pacific to a more individual understanding in, in Australia and New Zealand? Yes. Australia and New Zealand. Really time conscious.

Yes. Pacific. Yeah. As long as it happens. Yep. Around the time. Yes. Yeah. You know, and understanding, you know, those differences in what matters and how to deal with. And apply church policy across the cultures, different cultures, we can learn from each other. Absolutely. Collaborate together. Yeah. And go forward together.

I really like that idea. So you know, I've worked for the church for a little while and, I was privileged to be part of one of the leadership programs that's being provided by the SPD and that was a really good thing. 'cause I think in the church often we, we become good at our jobs, so we get higher responsibilities, but we don't always have some of the mentoring and the training and, and so the program's very practical and now we're adding this cross-cultural component.

I think that sounds really, that sounds really great. Yeah. Well that's part of the strategic plan. Like we see what we've done and people have said it's good, but then we have also discovered, hey, we something missing. Yes. Yes. And so for some, not everyone, but we will do a lot more cross-cultural things.

And so that's the, the process. And I think that's what any strategic plan and focus should, should do. And I mean, we work with the general conference focus on leadership. Yes. And they use Andrew's University and their leadership department. Mm-hmm. And so we're giving input there and they're giving input to us.

And so being part of the general conference you know, there's benefits there and I mean, the general conference helped with Papua New Guinea for Christ. Yes. They're going to help with South Pacific Division for Christ. Mm-hmm. We've got some of the, the leaders coming and, and so they learn about us and we learn about them and yeah.

Look, it, it's good seeing that cooperation, the unity. Yep. People like seeing it. Yeah, I like seeing it. Yes. And being a part of it. Speaking of that cooperation and that unity, the SPD is now involved in a partnership or a sister sister division kind of arrangement with the SSD. Mm-hmm. Can you tell us a little bit about that program?

Yeah. Well, program, we, we've, we've got the South Pacific division's got the best ratio of people. Um, to population. So one in every 55 people? Yes. Are Seventh State Adventist in our territory. Now it's only a small 46, 40 7 million, but we in the past, early 19 hundreds mm-hmm. We shared that we were the first pioneer missionaries.

To Asia. Mm. You know, the Philippines, Indonesia, Malaysia, and all of that. And we used to oversee that area. Yes. But in time that changed and in those, those areas now, there are still places. One in 10,000 people Wow. Are Adventists now. And so we've got our, all of our four unions have adopted a union.

In the Southern Asia Pacific? Yes. So, uh, New Zealand Pacific have adopted Malaysia. Mm-hmm. Australia has adopted the new Southeast Asian Union. TPM have adopted the West Indonesia. Mm-hmm. And apart from New Guinea. East Indonesia. Okay. Because they share a border. Yes, yes, yes. And we are sending missionaries to those, those places.

There's 40 something in from the transpacific. In, uh, west Indonesia already. Already. Yes. And there's, there's some in uh, Tim Leste Australia have sent, uh, a few, not, not as many, yes. To the Southeast Asia, but have got more plans and they've do, have done a lot more volunteer stuff. Mm-hmm. Papua New Guinea and west Papua continual cooperation and.

We're excited and they seem to be happy about it 'cause, 'cause we're saying, Hey, the mission, we're succeeding, we wanna share that with others, and they're willing to to accommodate us and it's gonna be great learning. Yes. Because you talk about the cross-cultural thing. We're going to Asia now.

Yes. And, and our people from all over the division will come back with Asian experience and perspective. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. Um, and, and when you learn to, from different cultures and how you see the gospel working in different ways, and church, uh, the way the church operates, you come back a whole lot better.

And say, Hey, this can work and this will make our work better. So yeah, we're excited by that. Your passion for mission is really shining through. It comes outta. Yeah. And, and it's great to see. We're, yeah, very privileged to have you give us some time. I know you've been very busy at these meetings.

You've got a lot of meetings outside the normal meetings as well, so we really appreciate you joining us here. And yeah, may God bless you for the next five years. Thanks, Jared. Appreciate, uh, that and would covert people's prayers. There we go. We can pray for the president and that will give him much support.

Thank you for joining us today. God bless.

 There you have it. That was a short conversation with Jared and Glen and it sounds to me after listening to that that the emphasis going forward is unity and cooperation.

I hope that you are able to jump in on some of the live conversations at the general conference. Hear some conversations, be inspired, and listen in on some of the decisions that were being made. Bit of a shorter conversation today on record live than usual, but sometimes less is best.

So we'll leave it there and see you next week. thanks everyone.