In 1998 the Adventist Review staff embarked on a journey of faith. We set out to provide the weekly Review to every new member in North America, relying not on church funds or budget but on the generosity of our readers.

What a ride the past two years have been!

You can be sure that it wasn’t a hasty decision. By nature and habit I am a careful person, especially in money matters. But I came under deep conviction that the Lord was calling us to minister to the crowds of people joining the church from Net ’98, and the Adventist Review staff, bless them, listened and prayed and joined me in the endeavor.

We launched the plan with my editorial “Confessions of a Fiscal Conservative” (NAD Edition, December 1998). The plan was, and remains, very simple: the conference puts in $10 per new member, the publishing house offers a discount price of $25, and we raise the remaining $15 from people who want to get involved.

During the next year more than 11,000 new homes were blessed by receiving the Review every week. That meant we had to find more than $150,000. But the money came in; it seemed as if the checks always arrived just when they were needed.

I believe in taking risks—calculated ones—if the Lord calls me to launch out into the deep. But that is on the personal level; it is quite another to involve others and especially the Review. To take the Lord at His word and to see Him come through in a group endeavor is wonderfully exhilarating. Twelve months ago I attempted to convey something of that elation when I reported on what had happened for the first year of the plan (see “When the Editor Walked on Air,” Nov. 25, 1999).

Here we are, another year along. I look back and can only exclaim: What a ride!

I thank the good Lord and I thank you. With the apostle Paul I affirm: “I always thank God for you” (1 Cor. 1:4, NIV).

This simple plan seems so right, so obvious, that it has to be made ongoing. The Seventh-day Adventist Church is growing in North America. In spite of flaws and failings, the Lord is blessing us as never before in our history.

In 1999 He added 40,766 new brothers and sisters to our fellowship. That is the largest number ever for one year. And for the first half of this year baptisms exceeded those for the first six months of 1999!

These new friends need to be grounded in the present truth. They need to grow in the Lord and remain strong in Him. They need help to meet the challenges and temptations that are bound to come.

The Review can help them. It can build their faith and strengthen their commitment. I have a passion: to get the weekly Review into the home of every new believer in North America.

Recently the Adventist Review editors met for our annual day of long-range planning. We decided that we should make the nurture of new believers a primary thrust of the Review—not just an article here or there, but an ongoing concern.

So right from the first issue of 2001 you will find a new feature—stories of people who have recently joined the Adventist Church. In February a cover story will tell readers how to listen to the sermon for maximum spiritual blessing. You get the idea.

I invite you to join us in this ministry for new believers. We expect many thousands of names to come in: not only are baptisms increasing, but Elder Philip Follett, formerly a vice-president of the General Conference, has joined us to work with conferences and unions in implementing the plan. Our obligation under the plan will come out at $200,000-$250,000. That’s a lot of money, but with many people helping everything will work out.

Every check sent to us for new believers goes 100 percent to the plan. My wife and I believe in this ministry. I have just written a check for $1,000; next spring I will write another for the same amount.

Pray for our new believers. Look out for them—welcome them, love them, encourage them. Invite them home. Pray for this plan. And do what you feel impressed to do to help.

Make your check to the Adventist Review and mail it to; New Believers, Adventist Review, 12501 Old Columbia Pike, Silver Spring MD 20904-6600.

Join us in the ride of faith.

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William G. Johnsson is editor of the Adventist Review.