Nearly 150 years ago, Ellen G. White pictured Adventist literature “scattered like the leaves of autumn” (Testimonies for the Church, 9:230), reaching places that preachers cannot. Holding on to that vision, ANN spoke with leaders from six Adventist publishing ministries exhibiting at this year’s GC Session in St. Louis. They showed how old-school pages and modern tech can work side by side, and why a printed book, even in a digital world, still has the power to grow hearts and minds.
Literature Evangelist: Simple Supply Chain, Lasting Impact
Over the past decade, Almir Marroni, former GC publishing director, put 55 million printed copies of The Great Controversy into circulation, with millions more downloaded. Asked what logistics make such scale possible, he pointed to a “disarmingly simple” chain: presses ship to divisions and unions; conferences forward the print edition to local churche; and organized volunteers become frontline ambassadors, carrying books to doorsteps. Digital links help, he said, but the book itself remains mission critical:
“A digital file gets lost in the endless scroll of your phone/laptop, but a printed book keeps whispering, ‘Please read me, please read me.’ ”
Marroni expects that a decade from now, online platforms will amplify awareness, yet he insisted that Sabbath-afternoon visits to neighborhood doors will remain the movement’s “best power.”
Streams of Light International: Doorstep Ministry in Action
While canvassing (selling books) in California, Oleg Lotca, arrived at a home where a family was glued to a soccer match on their TV. His gentle insistence led a father of four, who had recently been warned by doctors about his health after a stroke, to invite him in for a brief health talk. That short visit blossomed into months of plant-based meals at the home of the local pastor, Bible studies, a wedding ceremony, and eventually the baptism of the entire household, who now serve as volunteer missionaries.
Streams of Light aims to place The Great Controversy and a companion health magazine in every home across North America and Europe by 2030. The strategy has three parts:
Training local churches to canvass their own streets
Mission trips that deploy hundreds of volunteers
A missionary school that multiplies trainers for new territories
Each volume carries QR codes linking chapters to video and audio resources, pairing permanence with interactivity.
“When the man turned off the TV and said, ‘Health is more important than soccer,’ I saw one doorstep [visit] transform a family and, through them, a community,” Lotca recalled.
Daniel Dreamgazer: Bringing Apocalyptic Drama to the Comic-book Generation
Writer-producer Wayne Jamel created Daniel Dreamgazer, the first full-length Adventist graphic novel series, to reach teens and young adults who drift between children’s programs and adult seminars.
“Our hardest task is simply letting people know the book exists,” Jamel said. A second challenge is visual expectation as readers debate art style and ethnicity. Jamel’s team drew historically plausible Jewish features, acknowledging, “You can’t please everyone.”
For those interested in creating their own comic books, Wayne shares that all artwork is hand-drawn on a Cintiq tablet in Clip Studio Paint, colored in Photoshop, and laid out in InDesign; motion clips are edited in Premiere. “Nothing is AI generated,” Jamel noted, adding that the team prays over each panel because “a picture can preach a thousand words.”
“Today’s Marvel and DC fans will turn pages of a Bible comic long before they’ll open a prophecy chart,” he said. The team plans more biblical narratives in graphic-novel form.
Liberty Magazine: Promoting Religious Freedom to Society’s Decision-makers
Founded in 1906, Liberty magazine targets lawmakers, judges, attorneys, and academics with the Adventist Church’s perspective on religious liberty. Editor Bettina Krause said the 24-page bi-monthly offers decision-makers a biblically grounded view on church-state issues that are impossible to capture in social-media snippets. One of the magazine’s hottest topics right now is the intersection of LGBTQ rights and religious freedom.
Liberty argues that strong anti-discrimination laws can coexist with robust religious liberty, challenging claims that society must choose one or the other. Krause also reminds politicians that Adventists seek no civil power to coerce belief.
“We follow a God of freedom and free choice, so we do not use political power to coerce others,” Krause explained. “That surprises many policymakers, who expect Christians to demand laws that force their views on society.”
Safeliz: Scaling Scripture for a Global Church
Spain-based Safeliz publishing house produces in more than 40 languages and ships to 120 countries, with print logistics centered in Bangkok. Business manager Sergio Mato Rhiner notes that Safeliz now prints about one million annotated Bibles each year for ministries ranging from Children’s to Ministerial. Print-versus-digital choices hinge on projected demand, while sustainability guides production: paper for Bibles comes from renewable forests, and carefully chosen trim sizes shrink freight volume.
A recent highlight is the “Israel for Christ” project, which donated 100,000 copies of Steps to Christ in nine languages — Arabic, English, French, Hebrew, Romanian, Russian, Ukrainian, and two African languages, to Jerusalem’s 800 Adventist members, who distributed every copy within two weeks, right before the war started.
“Every project must pass one filter,” Mato Rhiner said. “Will it help people read the Bible and pray? If it does, we print it.”
Pacific Press: Print, Audiobooks, and Podcasts for Every Reader
Pacific Press turned its booth into a hybrid lab: books wear QR stickers linking to AdventistBookCenter.com, where visitors preview ebooks and audiobooks. Readers are split into two camps, marketing manager Alicia Adams said. Some readers still want a paper copy they can keep if a device fails or a cloud account disappears. Others have “completely abandoned hard copy” for ebooks, and commuter culture fuels a spike in Audible downloads.
“A lot of people still crave a book they can hold, but others want a whole library on one device, so we make something for everyone,” Adams said.
Pacific Press sources content three ways: classic imprints; print book contracts; and distribution for self-published titles, while also investing heavily in audio and social clips. Modern presses can print thousands of books an hour, but trained pressmen are hard to find, and paper keeps getting pricier, so the team is branching out into other formats.
From door-to-door visits to QR-code shopping, Adventist publishers blend old ways with new. Whether on paper or on a screen, a good book still reaches hearts one copy, one family, one reader at a time.
