Justin Kim Voted as Editor-Elect of Adventist Review Ministries

Members of the General Conference Executive Committee (GC-EXCOM) of the Seventh-day Adventist Church voted to accept the Nominating Committee recommendation to elect Justin Kim as the new editor-elect of Adventist Review Ministries (ARMies). The vote took place October 9, 2022, at the denomination’s headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland, United States, where more than 340 people gathered for the 2022 Annual Council business sessions.

Kim is expected to become editor January 1, 2023, when current executive editor Bill Knott leaves the position after 16 years. GC-EXCOM members also voted Knott as the new associate director of the GC Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL) Department, replacing Jennifer Woods.

“I am humbled by this appointment,” Kim said. “This ministry was birthed in serving God’s people with inspiration, insight, and information. By God’s grace, I hope to be faithful to this sacred trust in continuing the fidelity that has been manifested by the long lineage of the Review’s editors.”

Kim also highlighted the need for prayer as he steps into his new position. “I request prayers. Kindly pray for those involved in the transition and for the Lord to smile upon [the] Review in unique and unexpected ways,” he said.

“I am standing here to offer my support to Justin Kim as the editor of Adventist Review and Adventist World,” Knott said to the delegates before the vote was taken. “I have been privileged to know Justin as a friend, and later, as a colleague, for more than 15 years, and I have every confidence in his ability to lead this ministry and this team in the important work it is doing for the world church.” 

A Young Experienced Leader

Justin Kim was born in Queens, New York, United States, in 1980. He has a master’s in pastoral ministry from Andrews University Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary, and an undergraduate degree in biology and sociology from Brandeis University in the U.S.

An ordained pastor since 2011, Kim served as a youth and local church pastor in the Michigan Conference in the U.S. In the same church region, he also served as director of Public Campus Ministries, and director of Communication, Sabbath School, and Men’s Ministries.

In 2016, Kim was called to serve as assistant director of the GC Department of Sabbath School and Personal Ministries. In that capacity, he was a cofounder and then editor of the inVerse Bible Study Guide, the new Sabbath School lessons for young adults.

In June 2022, Kim was elected as associate director of the same GC department.

Kim has been involved in various service, editorial, and evangelistic endeavors since he was in college. In 2002, he was one of the cofounders of Generation. Youth. Christ. (GYC), a movement of young people that aims to mobilize existing youth and young adult ministries that are fully committed to the distinctive message and mission of the Adventist Church. A sought-after speaker, Kim has been a keynote speaker on several continents for evangelistic, youth, and workers’ training events.

Kim is married to Rachel Jihyun, and they are proud parents of Noah (8) and Nathaniel (5).

Older than the Adventist Organization

ARMies is the publisher of the Adventist Reviewmagazine, which began publishing in 1849 and is one of the oldest religious publications in North America. The magazine was established 14 years before the fledgling Advent Movement organized to become the Seventh-day Adventist Church in 1863. 

Unlike other departments and ministries of the world church, what is now Adventist Review was the result of the direct vision that Adventist Church cofounder Ellen G. White had in Dorchester, Massachusetts, on November 1, 1848. Sometime later, she recalled, “After coming out of vision, I said to my husband: ‘I have a message for you. You must begin to print a little paper and send it out to the people. Let it be small at first; but as the people read, they will send you means with which to print, and it will be a success from the first. From this small beginning it was shown to me to be like streams of light that went clear round the world’” (Life Sketches of Ellen G. White, p. 125).

The November 1848 vision launched not only the magazine Present Truth (now Adventist Review) a year later but also was the starting point of the Adventist publishing ministries around the world.

Latest Developments

In 2005, the General Conference and ARMies launched the Adventist World magazine, with the primary goal of connecting Adventist members around the world. The magazine is published in a dozen languages, and its articles are regularly translated and posted online in many more.

Lately, the ministry has included other ways of sharing biblical truth, including podcasts, a depository of TV programs (Adventist Review TV), and language-specific WhatsApp-related applications.