How our publications intersect with Christ’s method of reaching people
Published on: 08-23-2024
Some people think the Adventist publishing work is a perfect example of our church’s unwillingness to adapt to a changing world. In the Internet age, how can paper-based periodicals, door-to-door canvassing, and handing out tracts be a wise use of the evangelistic dollar? While some believe our existing publishing apparatus can be out of step with the ministry needs of the church, publishing is just as essential to the accomplishment of our church’s mission today as when it was first established back in 1849.
Publishing was crucial to early Adventist evangelism in two ways: First, it gave people they had witnessed to (whether through public meetings or personal conversations) the chance to examine for themselves the message shared with them—on their own schedule. Second, it gave the church the ability to befriend and disciple those seeking truth across the globe when an in-person witness was not available. The world has changed drastically since the 1860s, but those two central purposes of publishing are still deeply relevant to our church’s mission in the twenty-first century.
As the world has changed, however, some ways we use printed (and now, digital) material in our evangelism have not. As a result, some believe that Adventist literature has become increasingly irrelevant to our church’s evangelistic efforts. To understand where we went wrong and how to fix it, we must examine how the early Adventist Church used literature to advance its mission.
A Partnership of Preacher and Paper
During their first decade of existence, Adventists relied almost exclusively on the efforts of in-person preachers to spread their end-time message. In this work, tracts and pamphlets became an essential tool. Why? As James White explained in 1872, the system of Adventist truth was too complex to fully understand in a public meeting. The living preacher could “cause conviction,” but for our message to be accepted, it must be “read, studied, and clearly seen.” Without this help, evangelistic preaching would accomplish “but little.” While many believers took it upon themselves to distribute tracts “indiscriminately,” White grew to frown on this practice as a waste of precious church funds, encouraging members to instead distribute tracts at our public meetings “when the crowd is impressed with an important subject.”1 Preaching and publishing worked best as a team.
A decade later Adventists discovered a second way for publishing to assist the preacher: door-to-door canvassing.2 This new method of distributing our publications had two key benefits: (a) people hesitant to come to public meetings could learn about our message through tracts and books, then be encouraged by the canvasser to connect with the church, and (b) in contrast to full-time preachers, the canvasser could support themselves. These two benefits made canvassing essential to the church’s foreign expansion in the 1880s and 1890s. Among many other places, canvassers played a central role in launching our church’s work in Samoa and Hawaii,3 Great Britain, Fiji, Jamaica, Chile, and India.4
Clearly, the Adventist Church had no appetite for disconnecting publishing from personal and public evangelism. On the contrary, publishing was crucial to the canvassers’ success because they used it to enhance the only method of evangelism guaranteed to give true success—selflessly spending time with people, empathizing with their struggles, helping them with their needs, winning their confidence, and then calling them to follow Jesus.5
What If the Preacher Can’t Reach Them?
In its early days, the Adventist Church was heavily dependent on a comparatively small number of preachers to spread its message. There were vast territories across the globe where the church simply didn’t have the resources to send missionaries. Their periodicals and tracts became a means of befriending and discipling seekers across the globe through the postal system.
The first arm of this “silent preacher” ministry, the periodical, functioned much like a modern email newsletter. When someone subscribed to the Review (either at their own request or at the request of an Adventist friend who could assure they “would candidly read it”),6 they were joining the 1800s version of a “drip campaign.” Each new issue would explain a different aspect of the Adventist message, offer additional tracts for purchase, announce upcoming events, and encourage the reader to write back for more information.7
While members were strongly encouraged to sell periodical subscriptions, Ellen White urged writers to prepare articles “as attractive as possible,” with an “influence to persuade.”8 Following White’s lead, editors worked hard to curate content that would spread by “word of mouth.” In Britain, Stephen Haskell added illustrations to The Present Truth to match his readers’ evolving tastes.9 In South Africa, the church launched two periodicals addressing local religious liberty issues.10 Similarly, the 1922 Signs of the Times addressed racial intolerance in response to a revived Klu Klux Klan.11
By today’s standards, the Review and the dozens of periodicals that followed it were incredibly successful. By 1884, the eight North American periodicals had an “aggregate monthly circulation of 200,000,”12 an astonishing 11 times larger than the North American membership at the time (17,711).13 Overseas, the contrast was often greater: In 1887, the British Present Truth had a domestic circulation almost 30 times its membership,14 while in 1895, the South African Sentinel had a domestic circulation 21 times its membership.15
The second arm of the “silent preacher” ministry, the “Tract and Missionary Society,” enabled the church to proactively befriend and disciple people they couldn’t reach through other forms of evangelism (because of distance or prejudice). Here’s how it worked: Members would mail periodicals and tracts (at their own expense) to non-Adventists, accompanied by a personal letter16 that attempted to “[draw] out the [recipient’s] true feelings”17 toward the literature, and ask if they were interested in learning more about the Adventist faith. In many cases this would lead to a back-and-forth of letters and tracts that resulted in conversion.
Started by a small group of New England women in 1870, the ministry, spurred on by Stephen Haskell and James White, quickly grew into an evangelistic behemoth. By the early 1880s, tract societies across the world were distributing close to “5 million pages of material a year” through this correspondence method, “resulting in as many converts as produced by the traditional evangelistic preaching series.”18 Even when they couldn’t interact with seekers in person, the Adventist Church implemented Christ’s method of reaching people, in principle, by befriending and discipling through the communication channel of the postal service—combining deeply relevant material with ongoing invitations to connect directly with the church.
Publishing in a Changing World
Christ’s method is still the only one that “will give true success in reaching the people.”19 Likewise, publishing’s role of enhancing the work of the in-person witness and discipling seekers we cannot reach in person is just as relevant today as it was in 1849. In the intervening century and a half the world has changed drastically in three ways that compel us to adjust our means to better accomplish the same ends:
Age of Information: Technology has enabled an explosion in advertising and access to information, leading consumers to increasingly ignore both. For example, the average consumer receives more than 3,000 marketing messages a day,20 while more than 500,000 new books are published each year in the United States alone.21
Age of Entertainment: The arrival of new communication mediums—radio, television, the Internet, and social media—has shifted communication to dominantly visual mediums. Context and clarity of thought, valued in a print-based culture, have been replaced by entertainment value as the primary quality22—a trend most clearly demonstrated in the rise of addictive apps such as TikTok and Instagram.
Age of Authenticity: Western culture has shifted from a Christian paradigm (in which Christianity is the default belief system) to a secular paradigm (in which Christianity is one of many acceptable belief systems). This shift reflects a rejection of the hypocrisy and scandal perennially associated with organized religion while retaining the desire to experience an authentic sense of meaning and higher purpose.23
In this age of entertainment overload, Christ’s method of reaching people will find success when nothing else will. People jaded by organized religion, searching for a genuine spiritual experience, will be convinced only when they see God’s “power [at work] in our . . . hearts and lives.”24 In this new age, publishing’s two roles are equally necessary if their methods can be adapted to the realities of the twenty-first century:
Enhancing the Living Witness: At a time during which people are more skeptical than ever, written material addressing a seeker’s deepest and most difficult questions can demonstrate care and explain the logical rationale behind a genuine personal witness.
Discipling From a Distance: For those we can’t reach directly, the Internet provides an unprecedented opportunity to spread relevant digital content (podcasts, videos, reels, blog posts, and so on) while encouraging viewers/readers to “opt in” to email-based newsletters (the periodicals of the twenty-first century) and connect directly with Adventists who can guide them on their journey toward truth—in much the same way as periodicals and the tract societies did in the 1800s.
The State of Adventist Publishing
Publishing continues to prosper in many divisions across the world,25 yet some adjustments are called for in our changing world to avoid this tool becoming irrelevant to our evangelistic efforts. The distribution of tracts and door-to-door canvassing do produce some evangelistic success, but the efforts fail to realize their full potential when they are not integrated with the larger evangelistic cycle.
Tracts: The use of literature has been largely siloed from the rest of our evangelistic work, preventing a deep integration with other ministries. When literature distribution is emphasized, it is often seen as a “sowing” activity in which tracts are handed out indiscriminately, with little connection to the church other than the name of the church on the tract or an accompanying flyer. Further, some think using literature in combination with other events is merely a duplication of effort (i.e., “Why should we give them a tract when they just listened to a presentation on the same topic?”). As a result of these views, churches seeking to emphasize Christ’s method of relational witnessing see literature as an irrelevant product of a bygone era of “hit-and-run” evangelism.
Canvassing: Canvassing has become increasingly disconnected from the local church and its evangelistic work. As the higher-priced Bedtime Stories and The Bible Story became the primary source of income for literature evangelists in the 1950s, the work of canvassing shifted from a mission-centered partnership with the local church to a commercial enterprise that ultimately fell victim to unsustainable debt. Student magabook programs, introduced in the United States in the mid-1990s, represent a much-needed shift back to a ministry-focused model, yet still with significant gaps: While programs collect Bible study interests for their host church during the summer, poor coordination often results in little to no follow-up by the church.
Periodicals: Our periodicals have struggled to adapt to the digital age. In response, church leaders have invested significant resources in our periodicals and publishing houses, acknowledging that “if we won’t invest in the digital world, we will be left in the same spot as Kodak.”26 Much remains to be done, however, and our papers have yet to regain the non-Adventist readership that once made our periodicals a potent evangelistic tool.
When you strike up a casual conversation with a stranger, share a relevant tract and offer to continue the conversation.
What Can My Local Church Do?
If our books, tracts, and (now) digital content are to regain their place as an essential component of our work, we must be willing to radically alter how we use them to meet the needs of a twenty-first-century secular age, following the principles that led us to success in the first place. While the responsibility for developing relevant publications, adopting a “digital-first” periodical strategy and rebuilding our canvassing operations rests with our publishing institutions and conference/union leadership, the most important steps toward a more effective partnership of preacher and paper must be taken by our local churches.
Integrate Literature Into Evangelism: We must integrate literature into the ministry of every local church ministry that interacts with their community. Books and tracts relevant to every church event should be sold (as appropriate) or given away, be it a health class, cooking school, Vacation Bible School, prophecy seminar, stop-smoking seminar, or community service center. A church’s evangelism strategy should include literature being “planted” at every opportunity, enabling each recipient to understand our message within the context of a relationship with their local church.
Curate World-Relevant Material: The books and tracts we share with our communities must be deeply relevant to them. 27 We must take care in selecting materials that match our individual demographics and felt needs. Using GLOW as an example, use “An Intelligent Faith?” in a secular, educated neighborhood, “Certainty in an Uncertain World” in a politically unstable region, “When Freedom Dies” in a Bible belt neighborhood, and “Can Dead People Talk?” in an animist community.
Plant Seeds With a Personal Touch:For churches without an active schedule of outreach events, literature can help develop relationships with the community—just as the Missionary and Tract Societies did in the late 1800s. For example, members can assemble simple care packets with everyday items (snacks, lotion, etc.), some relevant tracts, and a handwritten note with an invitation to connect further. When you strike up a casual conversation with a stranger, share a relevant tract and offer to continue the conversation. In Japan, for example, this simple approach led to a local fisherman accepting Bible studies and baptism.28
Conclusion
Publishing was central to the work of the early Adventist Church. It enhanced the work of the in-person witness and discipled seekers we couldn’t reach in person. In the same way that the publishing work helped build the early Adventist Church, it can help advance the mission of the church at the closing of its work. Today, published works, both print and digital, can give people the opportunity to examine for themselves the message we share with them, at their own convenience, on their own schedule. If we are intentional, we may also use published works to befriend and disciple those in our immediate communities or across the globe and share spiritually relevant truths for this day.
1 James White, An Appeal to the Working Men and Women in the Ranks of Seventh-day Adventists (Battle Creek, Mich.: Steam Press of the Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association, 1872), pp. 2-10.
2 German Martinez, “King, George Albert (1847–1906),” Encyclopedia of Seventh-day Adventists, Oct. 27, 2022, https://encyclopedia.adventist.org/article?id=GJK9 (accessed May 9, 2024).
3 J. N. Loughborough, The Great Second Advent Movement (Nashville: Southern Pub. Assn., 1909), pp. 352, 361.
4 Gerald Wheeler, S. N. Haskell: Adventist Pioneer, Evangelist, Missionary, and Author (Nampa, Idaho: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 2017), pp. 106, 354, 355, 357, 360.
5 Ellen G. White, The Ministry of Healing (Mountain View, Calif.: Pacific Press Pub. Assn., 1905), p. 143.
6 Publishing Committee, “How Shall We Circulate Publications?” Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 1, no. 1 (November 1850): 7.
7 For example, see Second Advent Review and Sabbath Herald 1, no. 4 (January 1851).
8 Ellen G. White, “Address and Appeal, Setting Forth the Importance of Missionary Work,” Review and Herald, Dec. 19, 1878, p. 1.
9 Wheeler, p. 126.
10 Loughborough, p. 351.
11 Wheeler, p. 336.
12 J. N. Andrews, “Seventh-day Adventists,” The Present Truth 1 (May 1884): 2.
13 “Seventh-day Adventist Statistics, 1884,”https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/ASR/ASR1884.pdf (accessed May 9, 2024).
14 The Present Truth had a domestic circulation of 3,400 (cf. Wheeler, p. 126) compared to the British mission’s 1887 membership of 115 (https://documents.adventistarchives.org/Statistics/ASR/ASR1887.pdf#search=1887).
15 The English journal had a circulation of 4,000, compared to the 1895 South African conference membership of 184 (see Loughborough, p. 351).
16 Loughborough, p. 363 (cf. Wheeler, pp. 84, 178).
17 E. G. White, “Address and Appeal, Setting Forth the Importance of Missionary Work.”
18 Wheeler, p. 88.
19 E. G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 143.
20 Seth Godin, Permission Marketing (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1999), p. 29.
21 Dean Talbot, “Number of Books Published Per Year,” Wordsrated, Feb. 2, 2022, https://wordsrated.com/number-of-books-
published-per-year-2021/(accessed May 9, 2024).
22 Neil Postman, Amusing Ourselves to Death: Public Discourse in the Age of Show Business (New York: Penguin, 2005), p. 87.
23 Charles Taylor, A Secular Age (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2007), p. 506.
24 E. G. White, The Ministry of Healing, p. 469.
25 William G. Johnsson, “Publish or Cherish,” Adventist Review, June 9, 1983, p. 14.
26 Robert Lemon (quoted in Andrew McChesney, “With Goal of Repositioning Its Media, Adventist Church Overhauls North American Publishing Operations,” Adventist Review, June 18, 2014, https://adventistreview.org/adventist-church-overhauls-u-s-publishing-operations/adventist-church-overhauls-north-american-publishing-operations/).
27 Relevance does not imply a lack of faithfulness to doctrinal truth. To apply Alec Moyter’s reflection on preaching to written material, every author has two responsibilities: “First to the truth, and secondly to this particular group of people. How will they best hear the truth? How are we to shape and phrase it so that it comes home to them in a way that is palatable, that gains the most receptive hearing, and . . . avoids needless hurt?” (quoted in Tim Keller, Preaching: Communicating Faith in an Age of Skepticism (New York: Viking Press, 2015), p. 21.
28 Kurihara Kimiyoshi, “Japanese Fisherman Caught by Jesus,” Adventist Mission, n.d., https://www.adventistmission.org/japanese-fisherman-caught-by-jesus (accessed May 14, 2024).
Seth Roberts
Seth Roberts is originally from Sydney, Australia, and now serves as assistant director for the Literature Ministries Department in the Michigan Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.
