Erton Kohler, a Brazil-born pastor known for his innovative approach to evangelism, is the newly elected president of the Seventh-day Adventist Church General Conference — and the first to hail from South America.

Kohler will serve as the spiritual and administrative leader for the global movement, which claims 23 million members in more than 200 countries. He was voted into the position during a recent gathering of the General Conference, the denomination’s top governing body, in St. Louis.

The church’s sprawling geographic reach poses just one of the hurdles ahead in his duties as president, especially with today’s political polarization and national allegiances, Kohler said in an interview with The Associated Press.

“If I can choose one word that represents the challenge of this moment, the word is ‘unity,'” he said. “It’s not easy to keep that unity because our members, they’re citizens, they’re living in the local society, they’re influenced by that.”

The Seventh-day Adventist Church is a Protestant denomination that views the Bible as the inspired word of God and the primary authority for Adventists. They are known for their beliefs that Christ’s second coming is near, and observing the Sabbath on Saturday, the seventh day of the week.

Just days into his new role, Kohler shared his hopes for the future, including his plans to use technology and social media to reach young people. He also reflected on how the faith’s spiritual focus on healthy living resonates with many today and other issues facing the church.

Kohler explained his job like holding a puzzle together and compared it to that of another recently elected church leader with South American ties, Pope Leo XIV, the Catholic Church’s first U.S.-born pontiff who has dual Peruvian citizenship.

“I’m not the pope of the church. I’m a pastor. We don’t have a leadership that’s vertical, that we can decide something and impose that for everyone,” Kohler said, noting the denomination’s various levels of authority.

“We respect those voices. We receive suggestions from other levels, we discuss it; we discuss how to implement it together. My role is to try to keep all this puzzle together in a positive way.”

Kohler wants to see more young people involved in the church, more women involved in leadership and more investment in communication and technology to advance its mission.

He also wants to focus on continuing to spread the reach of the church, which is especially growing in parts of Africa and Latin America.

“No. 1, I’d like to see more young people involved in the church activities, sometimes in leadership, sometimes sharing their opinions, their ideas, sometimes in the local community,” said Kohler.

In addition to the church’s emphasis on the Sabbath, Kohler also thinks Adventists’ long-standing focus on healthy living can appeal to younger generations.

Many church members are vegetarians and abstain from alcohol and tobacco as part of their spiritual discipline. Adventists also run a large network of hospitals and health clinics worldwide, and many church members go into the medical field.

“The new generation is looking for health, beauty. They’re taking care of their bodies,” Kohler said. “We have a message to show to them that we’re not only an institutionalized religion, we’re a body of believers that trust in the Bible with a message that can make our lives better.”

For women in leadership, Kohler said he’s not opening discussion of women’s ordination, an issue that in 2015 then-Republican presidential candidate and Adventist Ben Carson said he supported.

“It’s not the moment to do that,” Kohler said. But he acknowledged that Adventist women “deserve more presence in leadership,” and “their voice needs to be heard.”

The faith was influenced by the visions of Ellen White, who is considered a prophet. Her extensive religious writings, while deeply influential in shaping the church, are not given the same weight as Scripture. Today, the denomination says women’s leadership is present at high levels of the church — in health care, education and administration — and also includes community service and the leadership of women’s ministries.