In July 2014 Adventist Review and Adventist World magazines welcomed John M. Fowler as editor-at-large. Fowler has served the Adventist Church for more than 50 years as a pastor, editor, departmental director, and administrator. Although officially retired, Fowler recently sat down with Andrew McChesney, Adventist Review news editor, for a conversation about his role, and about the ministry of Adventist Review.—Editors.

What do you hope to accomplish as editor-at-large?

The Advent Review and Sabbath Herald, as the magazine was once known, entered my life three years before I left the Anglican Church to become a Seventh-day Adventist. The content as well as the beauty and the writing style of its longtime editor Francis D. Nichol captivated me as a teenager.

Nichol was a crusading editor. He employed biblical faithfulness and unwavering adherence to the Spirit of Prophecy to let readers know that Adventists do not follow cunningly devised fables. His use of logic, argument, and persuasion, and an unwavering commitment to Adventist faith and lifestyle, could be seen in every editorial he wrote. His editorials were the first [things] I read as a teenager.

Ever since I was 12 the Review has been part of my spiritual menu and has strengthened my belief, lifestyle, and work as an Adventist.

The journal’s commitment to the worldwide mission of the church was no less sure and certain in shaping my life. So ever since I was 12 the Review has been part of my spiritual menu and has strengthened my belief, lifestyle, and work as an Adventist.

Editors from Nichol to Kenneth Wood to Bill Johnsson to Bill Knott have given me, for more than 62 years, an unshakable foundation in Adventist apologetics, commitment to the Spirit of Prophecy, Christ-centered faith and vocational calling, and the contours of an Adventist worldview.

With such a role the Review has played in my life, I am humbled and honored to be invited to serve as editor-at-large. Writing for the Review is not new to me; reading it has always been a part of my life. But this new role comes as a challenge. I hope to do what I can at the direction of the editors to strengthen the worldwide mission of the magazine. I hope to utilize every talent God has given me in reading, writing, pastoral, evangelistic, and educational ministry to strengthen the work and content of the magazine.

I see my work as being “at large,” providing a view from a distance of what the magazine does and what it can do better, and sharing my findings with the editor. To enlarge the magazine’s vision and strengthen its work, to link the readers in the field with the aim of Review, is a challenge I wish to take part in.

What do you see as Adventist Review’s core calling and mission?

The world has changed a lot since the turn of the century. The rising tensions in different parts of the world are quite divergent in nature, compared with previous periods. Political, sociological, economic, and religious trends around the world constitute a different kind of challenge to the witness and mission of the church. A new awakening, particularly in religious circles, stirs human passions in different ways, from the dangerous to the indifferent, so even once-strong, biblically rooted Christian positions in theology and mission are subject to compromise and denial.

What does it mean to be a Christian? More particularly, what does it mean to be a Seventh-day Adventist? This task should be continually addressed passionately, biblically, missiologically, and in the uncompromising setting of the Second Coming.

The children of Israel, when they were enslaved in Babylon, wondered, “How can we sing the songs of the Lord while in a foreign land?” (Ps. 137:4). We too live in a strange land, but we must not stop at wondering, but press on singing the Lord’s song until we join the heavenly chorus. The Adventist Review’s core mission is to keep singing that song, and keep the church alive and well.

Who or what inspires you?

The church at its grass roots is always an inspiration. Regardless of what I do during the week, when the Sabbath closes in I am totally in a different place. To enter the doors of the house of worship—to greet and be greeted by fellow believers, to join in an inspirational song service, to study with others the Sabbath school lesson, to listen to reports of what fellow believers in distant parts of the world do, to see my 8-year-old and 8-month-old granddaughters come out of their Sabbath schools with different feelings, to hear the Word preached—these are not just routine events. They are mileposts in my spiritual journey. I find in the life and mission of my local and global church my greatest inspiration and my most satisfying challenge. I cannot exchange this experience with anything anyone can offer.