WILLIAM G. JOHNSSON

ake a good look at this magazine. This is the last issue. Next month a completely new paper will take its place--the Adventist World. And it will be mailed to your home or church, just as this one was.

The Adventist Review-NAD Edition has served Seventh-day Adventists in the United States, Canada, and Bermuda since 1986. Created to be the paper for the newly emerging division, it has helped keep members informed and provided articles of inspiration and spiritual nurture. We hope you found the materials a blessing: the staff of the Adventist Review, assisted by key division personnel, gave our best to make this paper the best.

Time moves on; we're moving on. Worldwide the Adventist Church is growing by leaps and bounds. We now have more than 5 million adherents in Africa alone. The Adventist Review, started in 1849 by James White to bind together the "little flock" as they waited for the Second Coming, now faces a hugely enlarged mission if it is to serve the world church. So, to meet the need, a new magazine--a church paper for the world--is about to be launched.

General Conference president Jan Paulsen asked us to study the feasibility of such a world voice. The Adventist Review staff worked intensively on the task during the past 18 months, seeking counsel from leaders at world headquarters and also in the 13 divisions of the global Adventist Church. By October 2004 we had a plan in place; the Annual Council considered it and gave us the green light.

So we have come to launch time. During August 2005 we will send out electronic files of the first issue of the Adventist World to four different printing presses, located in the United States, Korea, and Australia. More than 1 million copies in English will roll off the presses and begin to make their way around the globe. From Nairobi to the Netherlands, from Jakarta to Jamaica, the Adventist World will go out to serve the world Adventist Church.

Funded by the General Conference, the Adventist World will come without charge to members around the world.

The basic plan calls for printing in the English language. However, some divisions already decided to cover costs of printing in Spanish and French, so the initial print run of 1.1 million English copies will be increased by about 300,000 with these additional languages.

We anticipate that at least 5 million people will read each issue of the Adventist World.

For North America, the Adventist World will come in a customized format. Elsewhere the Adventist World will be a 32-page magazine; here it will be 48 pages. You will receive the 32 pages of the Adventist World plus 16 additional pages containing material and ads specific to the North American Division, in an integrated issue that maintains the new Adventist World design throughout.

Look for it in your mailbox next month--the Adventist World, with a slash across the corner designating it as the edition tailored for the NAD.

It's been a lot of work, but a lot of fun dreaming a brand-new magazine, a church paper for the world. My colleagues and I have felt God's hand over the project.

It's been a lot of work and a lot of fun tailoring the enlarged Adventist World to serve the NAD. Division leaders, especially Don Schneider, Hal Thomsen, and Fred Kinsey, put in many hours of brainstorming and working through challenges with us. I am indebted to them and grateful for them.

What about the Adventist Review? It will continue with its weekly ministry, just as it has, three issues each month. If you subscribe, it will keep coming to your home, right on time.

But there'll be one change. The second issue of each month has had a mission focus--The World Edition. Because the new Adventist World covers the same ground, we will give this issue a new slant. It will feature discipleship in action--stories of Adventists here and abroad, of all ages and backgrounds, involved in service. In mission. In volunteer activities. Laypeople. Church workers. Ordinary people, just like you and me.

I think you'll love it. (To subscribe for this one issue or all three issues per month, call 1-800-456-3991.)

Big changes. Next month. Look for them.