March 1, 2022

The Making of Ministry

Getting to know what you hold in your hands.

Adventist Review Editors

In that famed line of classic literature Mark Antony comes “to bury Caesar, not to praise him.”*

Mine, and myriad minds besides my own, have pondered the purpose of Antony’s line, particularly, in my case, in relation to the magazine before you, number three of this year’s 12 issues of the Adventist Review (AR03, ’22). For if the gamut of possibilities for words is either praise or funeralizing, our effort in the current issue has faltered from the start. Adventists, you may know, aren’t known for heaping fulsome praise on their work. No year goes by without this magazine winning a half dozen and more awards from national evaluators of journalism. We’re thrilled that others consistently find us worthy of praise. But we know full well that laud and honor belong to Jesus.

We’ve decided, though, that it’s time we gave you some concrete idea about your magazine: you deserve to know it better. And that’s what AR03, ’22 is about. In good Adventist tradition, though, AR03, ’22 aims, not at affirmation or compliment, but simply at candid introduction—not of the magazine itself, since you do know the magazine; you’re a reader; you’re a subscriber. But how does this product of Adventist Review Ministries (ARMies)** come to be from issue to issue? And how about the entire ministry of which this magazine is a part? We seek to answer these questions in the current issue, by

(a) listinganddescribingtherolesteammembersplay,andhigh- lighting the integrated nature of multiple tasks and multiple platforms to show how the magazine and other ARMies platforms stand individually and together as one integrated whole.

(b) Ourtell-alldoesn’ttelleverything:wehaven’twrittenuptherole of our financial manager, Kim Brown, or that of our London-based distribution coordinator, Sharon Tennyson; or Yves Senty, pro- ducer of the French version of GraceNotes; and Bryan Gray, our art director.

As you see, there will always be more to tell. What we ever remember is our mission: the gospel to the world. And our prayer? That after this issue you’ll be better prepared to work with us to fulfill that mission so we may all bury the magazine because it’s done its job, and Jesus has come, and we’re all going home.—Editors.

*William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act III, scene ii.

**Adventist Review Ministries, ARMies—as used throughout this issue, is the multi-platform, multimedia ministry that, beginning with the magazine Adventist Review, now embraces print, audio, video and social media ministries.

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