Putting the pieces together
Published on: 03-31-2022
Do you remember the last large family reunion you attended? Wasn’t it fun to catch up with uncles, aunts, grandparents, cousins, or nephews and nieces? This section is designed for you to meet the large family of Adventist Review Ministries (ARMies) products and initiatives. Some you may already enjoy, while others may be completely new to you. We hope you’ll relish the “family reunion” and make new and long-lasting friends. —Editors.
Adventist Review
Still Shining—Keeping Company and Building Faith
Friends of mine and entire church congregations are often glad to assure me that they read the Adventist Review (AR). Truth be told, most of the time the magazine they know is Adventist World (AW), a paper that circulates by the millions all over the Adventist world. And though AR is more than 170 years old—older than the Adventist Church itself—its young and sprightly relative, AW, quite outdistances it in global spread and hard copy readership.
This wonderful reality acknowledges that multiple audiences make up worldwide Adventism. Having a single editorial team produce both magazines keeps us alert to the diet our younger church members need for growth to spiritual maturity, and, simultaneously, conscious of what older, stronger, and more mature Christians need to be digging their teeth into. Planning print issues together is the first level of integration for ARMies, and illustrative of what we seek to achieve at all levels on all our platforms. AR, the veteran, continues to blaze a trail along with its fellow print journals and multiple digital platforms.
A regular, monthly, 76-page issue of AR [72 pages plus covers] contains news pertinent to the world church, biblical studies, devotional thoughts, theological discussions, commentaries by leading thinkers and writers, as well as a miscellany of faith-building stories, data charts on some current question, or a time line on some relevant historical matter. For spiritual edification and growth, and for a word of truth to share in your witness, AR is there for you.
Visit www.adventistreview.org and get a taste. Then sign up to subscribe to the oldest thing in Adventism that keeps us thinking and growing together.
Lael Caesar serves as an associate editor of ARMies and leads the editorial team working on Adventist Review.
KidsView
It’s a Child’s World We Need to Live In
When pondering the future of an organization, a publication, and yes, a ministry, we think about the people being served and anticipate their coming needs. But to build upon that, we look to the generations coming up behind those who patronize you now. For us, the future of ARMies is found in the children of this church.
This coming autumn KidsView will celebrate 20 years of being the “baby” in the ARMies family. A publication founded to meet a need that was not being met at the time—a general-interest Adventist magazine for children ages 8-12—KidsView aims to create a vital link between the future of the church and ARMies.
My job, since 2007, has been to be the editor of KidsView. In that capacity I work with our designer, Merle Poirier, to create issues that feature activities, STEM (acronym for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) columns, devotionals, student writing, quizzes, stories, and a perennial favorite, our interactive and highly creative calendar. I look at new content creation through the eyes of children with the aim of keeping them smiling. KidsView can be the vital link between the Adventist Church of the present and the Adventist Church of the future.
To read the latest issue and back issues of KidsView, visit www.kidsview.com or connect on Facebook.com/kidsviewmagazine.
Wilona Karimabadi, an assistant editor of ARMies, is editor of KidsView.
News
Telling the Stories
Several months after I began contributing to ARMies, I was asked to cover an important church event in Cuba. Once there, I was able to witness the unabated enthusiasm and joy of faithful church members in that nation. Everything I had heard about our church family in Cuba was accurate.
A year later I traveled to Japan to support evangelistic efforts by the General Conference. In a more challenging field, I felt moved by the quiet devotion of Japanese Adventists. Their songs, prayers, and greetings reached me to the core.
Telling stories about the church and its members connects us with people so different and yet so similar to us in purpose and goals. It makes prejudices fall. God loves the few thousand calm and committed members in Japan as deeply as He cares for the many thousands more outgoing members across Cuba.
The news operation of ARMies works with world church fields to update and encourage our readers around the world, both online and in print. It provides journalistic coverage of the church’s major events offering two or three daily news pieces six days a week, sharing vetted articles on theology, religious liberty, health, mission, and outreach. Important decisions made by collective leadership and copies of voted documents are shared. Members from one region learn to connect and pray for others.
Above all, the ARMies news operation illustrates that God is engaged and active, working to draw people to Himself.
Follow the news affecting your Adventist Church family and the larger world around us every day at www.adventistworld.org and www.adventistreview.org.
Marcos Paseggi is a regular contributor to the news operation of ARMies and lives in Ottawa, Canada.
Adventist Review Ministries Books
Repurposing the True and Trusted
About six years ago, the ARMies team developed a strategic plan to repurpose articles from the vast repertoire of past issues of AR and AW into book-length publications. Over a period of years, several articles will appear on a related topic and bless thousands of readers online and in the print magazines. Separately, each article was helpful, but drawn together, these related articles can be shared with a new audience in a new format, and the blessing is multiplied many times over.
An example of this beneficial reuse is the recent book, 28 Ways to Spell Your Faith, which started out as a series of articles in AW on the 28 Fundamental Beliefs of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Each of the articles was written in a timeless way to introduce to new believers (and as a review for other church members) the precious Bible truths we hold dear. With authors from all over the world, the series was well received in the magazines. Why should those articles go into a drawer or the rubbish bin, one by one, over several years? Why not put them together in a book and give them new life to minister in many other ways?
AW and AR are committed to inspiring and edifying members of the Adventist Church, and a book collection of articles is an invaluable way to expand the reach of the ministry.
Interested in catching up on Bible truths? Visit https://tinyurl.com/muamyane and order your copy.
Tim Lale is a freelance editor and copyeditor living in Columbia, Maryland, United States.
Adventist Review TV
1,500 and Counting
The aroma of breakfast still lingers on a warm Sunday morning as I reach out for my remote control. I flick through the many TV apps on my Apple TV: Netflix, Disney, HBO, and finally settle on Adventist Review TV (ARtv).
Instead of watching programs in a predetermined traditional linear progression of 30-minute slots, an extensive menu of “on demand” videos appears on the screen in front of me. I scroll through several categories: Health, Business and Money, Devotionals, Music, Faith, Nature and Science, Documentaries, Cooking, Mission, until I get to the category I am looking for, History. There is a new series that I would like to binge-watch. Gone are the days of waiting a whole week to watch the next episode in a TV series.
I settle back into my chair as I start with episode 1. ARtv was the first on-demand streaming channel in the Seventh-day Adventist Church and also one of the first religious channels. It started in late 2017, years ahead of such other streaming giants as Disney, HBO, and Amazon Prime. The Adventist Church is known for being a pioneer in media, having been one of the first religious organizations to broadcast on radio and television. It is great to contribute to a pioneering work—daily curating and creating content in video form.
You can access ARtv, with a catalogue of more than 1,500 videos, online at adventistreview.tv, on Roku, Apple TV, Fire TV, Android TV, and on iOS and Android phones.
Watch the documentary “Breaking the Curse,” about the Otamari people of Benin in Africa and see how introducing the cursebreaker can transform a people. https://tinyurl.com/25ak76su
André Brink is a video producer who lives near Capetown, South Africa.
Podcasting
Listen to the Good News Anywhere
Audio on demand, or podcasting, is a collection or series of digital audio files made available for downloading or listening via the Internet. Podcasts are typically hosted by an individual or individuals who lead a conversation, share stories, or report the news.
AR Audio’s earliest digital releases featured AR’s Digging Deeper series, which delved deeper into important doctrines of the church. This series, along with audio versions of numerous articles featured in both print magazines of ARMies, is available each month, recorded by the authors and made available as podcasts and on the AR and AW websites.
Currently the GraceNotes podcast, a weekly devotional on grace, written and narrated by Bill Knott, is produced in English and French. In North America a radio version of GraceNotes is broadcast each week on the LifeTalk and 3ABN radio networks. Plans to produce GraceNotes in Mandarin, Spanish, Portuguese, and Swahili are under way.
As AR Audio continues to produce AR and AW podcasts, supporting and augmenting the mission and vision of our magazines, we show that podcasts are just another way to share gospel content “on demand,” so the bread of heaven may be consumed in the most efficient manner possible, providing for as many as possible the nourishment of eternal life that is Jesus Christ Himself.
To get a taste of this, listen to Adventist World storyteller Dick Duerksen recounting “An Incredible Partnership With God” at https://tinyurl.com/yc5d7y5h
To access all our podcast content, visit https://adventistreview.podbean.com or https://adventistworld.podbean.com.
To sign up and receive GraceNotes by email, go to: https://tinyurl.com/2p89ww6p
Greg Scott is an associate director of ARMies and directs the AR Audio division.
Social Media
Find Us at Your Favorite Social Media Platform
I remember sitting in a church business meeting of my local congregation while some of the founding members emphatically stated that social media was not real evangelism. It wasn’t really outreach. It didn’t really influence people to decide for Jesus, join the Advent movement or further their Christian walk.
But the data is clear, both in my own experience and in how ARMies has engaged in social media over the past few years. Social media is where the flock is at. In the past, the medium was historically a print platform, followed more recently by Web-based content. Today, most of the engagement of the ARMies ministry is on social media, where people are spending most of their time. Specifically, Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter are the three channels where the most engagement is seen.
The ARMies social media channels have seen a dramatic increase in engagement over the past few years, particularly around content that is simple and closely connected with Scripture, as well as discussing ideas that appear in Ellen White’s writings. As Wilona Karimabadi, one of the editors working with social media, noted: “People appreciate things that connect them to these sources of inspiration and truth. This is why we share quotes and inspiring stories. But the most engaging content emerges when members around the world share about their culture and how it can inform and inspire the greater Adventist family.”
FACEBOOK:
@adventistworldmagazine [for AW]
@adventistreview [for AR]
@adventistworldswahili [for AW Kiswahili]
@adventistworldespanol [for AW in Spanish]
INSTAGRAM:
@officialadventistworld [for AW]
@adventistreview [for AR]
TWITTER:
@adventistreview [for AR]
@adventistworld1 [for AW]
Jared Thurmon is a marketing consultant and lay pastor who lives in Adairsville, Georgia, United States.
Adventist Review Ministries Media Lab
Staying on the Cutting Edge
The Adventist Review Ministries Media Lab’s role is to imagine content creation for up-and-coming media platforms, and to harness and maximize the potential of these new platforms—as well as shaping them.
Aristotle once said, “Tell me and I forget. Show me and I remember. Involve me and I understand!” The Media Lab is constantly looking at new media platforms to share and engage with our audiences. One such example is our implementation of augmented reality in our children-focused magazine KidsView. Using an accompanying app, the user can visualize relevant 3-D objects from the article.
Keeping at the forefront of technology and sometimes forging forward in the creation of new media technologies to better communicate with digital natives and digital innates are some of my passions.
In many cases there is no stylebook on how to adapt content for virtual reality, augmented reality, or gamification. The Media Lab interfaces with content creators and experts to optimize the narrative to the platform.
I’m sure that James White, if he were alive today, would embrace every media platform available to communicate the everlasting message of God’s love to the world.
Learn more from about the visualization by visiting https://www.kidsview.com/app.
Daryl Gungadoo directs the ARMies media lab and lives in the United Kingdom.
Adventist World Kiswahili WhatsApp Channel
Reaching and Sharing Where People Are
Adventist World began as a way of reaching a global audience in more contextually relevant ways. As a member and reader, I feel passionate about contextualization of the gospel. We benefit so much when we listen to one another in the great diversity among humanity. We all experience God in different ways. Language is one of our differences. From my home in South Africa, I help to coordinate the production of AW for Kiswahili readers in East Africa and all over the world.
Part of this contextualization involves generating content created by Kiswahili authors from within the East-Central Africa Division (ECD). One of the most enjoyable parts of this work is engaging with wonderful Adventist believers from Kenya and Tanzania, and learning more about their lives and the church’s work in those regions.
I find it particularly exciting to support a product that is delivered digitally on WhatsApp, to be read on mobile phones or tablets. For this project, Adventist World doesn’t have to worry about ordering enough paper to print a magazine and then shipping the finished product to a far-distant place. The content of AW is literally reaching thousands of people wherever they are and making it easy for them to “click and share” the life-changing material with friends. Adventist World plans is to add more languages using this delivery method in the future.
How to Subscribe and Share
Method One:
1. Add the number 1-240-540- 3000 to your phone’s contacts list.
2. Go to your WhatsApp and send any message to that number’s WhatsApp.
3. You’ll receive a message in return. Choose your menu language. (Materials are all in Kiswahili.)
4. Follow the menu by typing the item number in the message bar and sending the message. In this way, you can choose to read the magazine or GraceNotes, send in a message to Adventist World, or share the group with a friend.
Method Two:
Click this link to watch an animation in Kiswahili about the WhatsApp group and how to subscribe: https://tinyurl.com/59jn43e2.
Penny Brink is a pastor and editor who lives near Capetown, South Africa.
Adventist Review Ministries Digital Platforms
Staying Relevant and Connected
How can ARMies continue to provide meaningful dialogue, interaction, inspiration, and noteworthy news to a new generation of readers?
We recognize that current media consumption trends point to digital media as the preferred platform of a new generation of readers. In line with our mission, ARMies digital platforms bring to the audience new ways to organically integrate deep spirituality into their daily routines.
Our dreams about flexible, well-designed, curated digital venues providing an atmosphere conducive to spiritual interactions, introspection, growth, and understanding are becoming a reality. In the first week of 2022 we released the new AR website. While still in its infancy, it represents a flexible platform that changes and adapts, grows as it learns about the user, and delivers the things that matter in the user’s journey with Christ.
We have concentrated our efforts on making the navigation process as straightforward as possible. A minimalist design provides focus and concentration, while the new robust search feature makes the magazine’s rich heritage of content available to the user. The website will develop from its current multimedia state into a fully interactive site and a virtual community of believers.
We also plan to launch a refreshed version of the AW website in 2022. As we navigate the volatility of the end-times, our digital platforms will continue to support mission, nurture, and hope to those seeking wholesome multimedia expressions.
Visit www.adventistreview.org and www.adventistworld.org, bookmark these pages, and include them in your daily wanderings of the digital realm.
Gabriel Begle is the director of ARMies digital platforms.
GraceNotes
Sharing the Best News
Hundreds of thousands of Adventists and friends around the globe follow the weekly ministry of GraceNotes, a brief, inspiring focus on goodness of the everlasting gospel. GraceNotes appear in text; via email; on FaceBook, Instagram, and Twitter; and on radio through the LifeTalk and 3ABN radio networks. Thousands of believers share, translate, and propel this “open source” gospel content to those they care about.
You can sign up for GraceNotes at https://tinyurl.com/2p89ww6p and read past GraceNotes at www.moregracenotes.com.
Bill Knott serves as the executive editor and publisher of ARMies.
Adventist Review Ministries Newsletter
Bringing It All Together
One of the ways ARMies continues to connect with our audience is through daily social media posts and a weekly email newsletter. The newsletter brings to our readers a digest of the biggest news stories and articles of the week, along with a GraceNotes podcast and highlighted videos from ARtv.
The Friday email is a weekly touchpoint that helps us to engage with our readers and raise awareness of influential articles and videos. The newsletter reaches thousands of subscribers who can connect to events and developments in the Adventist Church and find inspiration in devotional and practical content.
Online audiences have become used to receiving emails to be notified of new content, and they are also more oriented to finding articles of interest through social media posts. Every day, posts about AR and AW articles appear on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram to help readers connect with church-related topics of interest to them. The newsletter and social media posts provide extensive visibility for ARMies products in a world of online readers and viewers who have come to expect a curated product that brings them relevant content.
You can sign up for the newsletter on both adventistreview.org or adventistworld.org.
Enno Müller serves as communication director of ARMies.
Adventist Review Ministries
To bind together the Adventist people as we wait for Jesus to come back, by sharing news and information about the church plus articles on doctrine, spiritual growth and mission.
