17 January 2023| St. Albans, UK [David Neal]
I’ve been reading the Adventist Review since 1968, when it would drop through the letterbox of my parents’ home – arriving over a month later than the US publication date. My parents had recently become Adventists and belonged to a small UK church of about 15 members. Formerly active and committed members of the Salvation Army, their extended family struggled deeply with their newfound spiritual home. With the Church of England being the Established Church, Adventism was seen at best as a small denomination and, at worst, a most strange sect indeed.
Back in 1968, I can’t say I actually read the Adventist Review, but I remember my dad reading it avidly from cover to cover – on cold winter Sabbath afternoons. As he read, I’d look at pictures of church life worldwide. All in black and white, it showed thousands of Adventists gathered together for worship, missionary work to countries I had never previously heard of, and church leaders who looked severe and earnest! For a boy whose main picture of ‘church’ was of an old lady playing the Harmonium in a decaying and cold church building where the heating failed more often than it worked, and the only child in the kindergarten Sabbath School class, the Adventist Review and Sabbath Herald (as it was then called) began a journey of understanding the global nature of this so-called ‘small’ denomination.
Over the years, the Adventist Review has significantly helped shape and keep my Adventist identity balanced. For example, which was my ‘go-to’ resource for help during my first years of pastoral ministry when ‘strange’ and ‘variant’ biblical teachings arose in the congregation? For most of my lifetime, which magazine has encouraged a ‘balanced’ and ‘Christ-centered’ view of Adventism in the face of those wanting to take the church theologically far right or left? Which magazine continues to wrestle with the continuing challenge of staying faithful to biblically revealed truth while at the same time extending unconditional grace and love to those who think or behave differently? Which magazine contained inspiring stories of faith about growing up Adventist – and continuing to grow as an Adventist Christian?
With the rise of the World Wide Web, the world changed. Multiple digital communication channels joined the single print news feed and, as significant, the democratisation of news. Whereas at one time, ‘content creation’ from idea to reader involved a massive team of people (writers, editors, designers, photographers, printers, machinists, distributors, etc.), today, anyone with the appropriate skill set can publish digitally with the potential to impact the world. With that comes huge implications of how we make and receive news, with the ability to ‘fact check’ linear news sources in seconds. It is also a reminder that how the church understood ‘transparent and accountable’ in the 20th century regarding the news it shares has changed dramatically in the 21st century.
The Adventist Review has been joined in recent years with the formation of the Adventist News Network. Why have multiple media outlets with news from the General Conference, no longer a single source? Why duplicate the news feed? What is the purpose of Adventist World magazine?
As two of the many media ministry partners of tedNEWS, present at the 2023 GAiN Europe were Justin Kim (AR editor) and Alyssa Truman (ANN editor). After their busy afternoon of lectures, I brought them together in a corner of the conference centre. Who better to answer questions about their respective ministries and how they work together? In contrast to those ‘serious and earnest’ church leaders I saw in my childhood, their enthusiasm and vibrancy inspired me.
At the click of a mouse or the touch of an app, we can go where we want. Over the next few months we will take a look at Union media ministries within TED. For the moment, Kim & Truman make a good case for connecting with both AR & ANN in 2024. Meet up with them in ‘Good Conversation’ and decide for yourself.
Podcast production: Atilla Erdeg
Photos: Tor Tjeransen/Adventist Media Exchange, CC BY 4.0
