Adventist World (AW) magazine, which contains spiritual food and promotes mission work, is a special gift from the General Conference (GC) to Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) churches in approximately 152 countries.
From February 26 to 27, 2014, the AW International Editors’ Conference and the AW management board meeting were held at the Northern Asia-Pacific Division (NSD) office in Ilsan, South Korea, with the participation of Jairyong Lee, NSD president, Bill Knott, AW executive publisher, Claude Richli, AW associate publisher, Chun PyungDuk, AW international publishing manager, Han SukHee, NSD communication director, Park JaeMan, AW editor in Korea and managing editor at the Korean Publishing House, Kim HyoJun, editor of Church Compass, Lee Sangyong from the Media Center of the Korean Union Conference, and others.
Participants reviewed last year’s business and discussed future plans. “It is inspiring that AW performs a missionary function around the world in contrast with its purpose in the early stage as a church magazine,” Knott said in the business report.
“Even though we are on a tight budget, we are considering publishing a special issue for evangelism each year, focusing on non-Adventists,” he said, asking for cooperation on editing the special issue from editors in each division. During the sharing session, it was suggested that strategic actions appropriate for the information technology era should be reflected in publishing the periodical.
Dr. Jairyong Lee, who conducted the meeting, stated, “AW has grown rapidly since its first issue was published in English in September 2005 and is the top magazine in the SDA church with a circulation of more than 149,000. It is currently published in nine SDA publishing houses, including the Korean Publishing House, and in eight languages: English, Korean, Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, Russian and Indonesian. This periodical will enlighten Adventists around the world on the identity of our church and its religious value. Moreover, I hope it serves as a pivotal role to strongly unite us in mission.”
AW is now accessible online in 13 languages and obtains 60,000 visits per month. It is one of GC’s largest-scale projects. In South Korea, AW is completely translated into Korean and bound with Church Compass every month. Also, 4,000 copies per month are mailed to Korean Adventists living in the United States.