WILLIAM G. JOHNSSON

have a confession to make. With this editorial I am departing from a commitment I made to Adventist Review readers in 1998. I hope as you read on you will realize why I have made the change.

In 1998, after much prayer and discussion as an Adventist Review staff, we launched a plan to send the weekly Review to new people who joined the Seventh-day Adventist Church through the Dwight Nelson satellite evangelism campaign. The plan, known at that point as the $25 Club, invited readers to become participants by helping to fund it.

In effect, we said to readers: "You tell us. If you think this plan is right and you want to get involved, show us by your support."

And you told us!

But you not only generously contributed; you also sent notes of such warmth and appreciation as I have never received in my ministry. You thanked me for giving you an opportunity to help! I remember sitting in my office, feeling overwhelmed at what I was reading, my heart glowing, a well of gratitude, awe, and praise to the Lord springing up and consuming me.

It is a precious thing to know that the Lord is working-working in tangible, concrete ways, taking our flawed clay vessels and graciously filling them with His blessings. This is a joy that those who do not know Jesus can never experience, a joy that all the glamour and glitz of the world can never approach unto.

Well, the $25 Plan grew into the New Believers Plan. Your response to the initial editorial told us that the Lord was in this plan and that we should be ready to move as He directed. Why send the Review only to new members from Net '98? Do not all new brothers and sisters need to be built up in their walk with the Lord and the Adventist faith?

Under the New Believers Plan the conferences got involved, so that the funds sent in by our readers could stretch much further. The Review and Herald Publishing Association continued to make the Adventist Review available for a rock-bottom $25, but conferences now put in $10 per subscription, while the other $15 comes from the donations you send to us.

This is a wonderful ministry that has blessed more than 30,000 homes of new members. Many have written us to express their delight and appreciation for the gift of the church paper.

Now, to my confession, and the reason for it.

When the Adventist Review editors got into this activity--something totally outside my previous frame of reference--I pledged readers that I would write just one editorial per year dealing with it. And that is the course we have studiously followed each November.

Up to now. Here it is, only May, and I am coming back to you. Why?

Because we have come to a crossroad. The plan is not in danger, not at all; the question is: Should we expand it?

We are ministering to new members from about half of the 58 conferences in the North American Division. This outreach consumes our financial resources to the last penny (and by the way, every dollar you give goes 100 percent to the plan; not a cent goes into overhead). If we are to move beyond the 50 percent figure, we will have to find additional resources.

Should we expand the plan? You tell us. Tell us as you did before, by word and by check.

And, just in case a reader is not familiar with our practice, let me mention that the Adventist Review staff believes enough to give to the plan themselves. My wife, Noelene, and I have given $1,000 each spring and another $1,000 each fall from its inception.

In coming to you like this and asking for your direction, I am following a very old Review custom. When James White, pioneer and founder of the church paper, sent out the first issue, called The Present Truth in July 1849 (yes, we are that old!), he invited readers to tell him what to do:

"This little sheet is free for all. Those who are interested in Present Truth, and esteem it a privilege, are invited to help pay the expense."

So, dear reader, tell us what to do. May you too be "interested" and "esteem it a privilege" to expand this ministry to new believers.

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William G. Johnsson is the editor of the Adventist Review.