Guide (Adventist magazine)

''Guide'' magazine is a Seventh-day Adventist weekly periodical published by Pacific Press Publishing Association. It is a Christian story magazine that uses true stories to illustrate Bible passages and is targeted to 10- to 14-year-old youth.

''Guide'' is often distributed to "Earliteen" and "Junior" Sabbath School students at the end of class and provides a Bible study guide for the week. Since its beginning, ''Guide'' has been popular reading during the church service for young people.

The magazine is published in a 32-page full-color 6x8" format.

History

In the years following World War II, the Adventist church had two magazines for children – '' Our Little Friend'' for children preschool to preteen and '' Youth's Instructor'' for older teenagers. A magazine for junior-age youth was originally proposed at the 1951 Autumn Council of the Seventh-day Adventist Church and voted in Spring Council on April 9, 1952 designating the Review and Herald as the publisher. A relatively young 27-year-old pastor from Northern California, Lawrence Maxwell became the first editor.

The magazine was announced in an ad in the ''Youth's Instructor'' in 1953 promising a magazine "Packed with stories, pictures, games, puzzles, camp craft, Junior Sabbath School lessons, and interesting Pathfinder activity"
in a 16-page weekly publication. A contest to decide the name of the magazine was advertised in the ''Youth's Instructor'' magazine and drew 16,000 entries. Of those entries 225 suggested ''Junior Guide'' which became the original name of the magazine.

At the launch of the magazine, there were complaints that it looked much like ''Youth's Instructor''. Another complaint was that the margins were too wide. In January 1953 the format of the magazine was changed to a smaller size, page margins were reduced and the number of pages increased to 24 per issue.

Beginning in 1954 color ink was used for three issues a month. The entire magazine would be printed in green, brown or blue tint, including the illustrations. The magazine included a steady formula of stories of worldwide missionary activities, crafts, stories of inventions, conversions and life lessons. The magazine cover always included a photo of children engaging in wholesome activities reflecting the times. Subscriptions reached 28,000 after one year and 43,000 after 10 years.

With the segmentation of the church into "junior" and "earliteen" divisions the name of the magazine was changed from ''Junior Guide'' to ''Guide'' as of January 1, 1964 and it was focused on elementary school grades 7-8.

With the changing times of the 60s and 70s and the advent of a new editor, the ''Guide'' changed also. Multi-ethnic images in non-mission stories were featured as well as placed on the cover of the magazine. Stories against racial prejudice and segregation appeared and circulation reached a record of 60,000 subscriptions, based partly on the demise of the ''Youth's Instructor''. By this time the magazine had expanded to 32 pages.

In the 1980s a new feature was introduced – Guidelines question and answer column written by Madeline Johnson.
Another introduction was the "Guide Dog" mascot who first appeared in 1985 at the international Pathfinder camporee in Colorado and since at campmeetings, camporees and conventions where ''Guide'' readers congregate.

At least one predatory incident in the 1990s put an end to a four decade ''Guide'' tradition of penpals. Circulation also began to decline during this period.

In 2000 ''Guide'' switched to a four-color format as production costs declined and circulation began increasing. During 2002–2003 ''Guide'' celebrated its 50th anniversary.

Authors for the ''Guide'' range from church workers to housewives and come from all parts of the world. They are devout Christians, including Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Roman Catholics, and Seventh-day Adventists. They are aged from under nine to over 90 years old.

Editors

*1953–1970 Lawrence Maxwell
*1970–1983 Lowell Litten
*1983–1986 Penny Estes Wheeler
*1986–1994 Jeannette Johnson
*1995–1997 Carolyn Sutton
*1997–1999 Tim Lale
*1999—2016 Randy Fishell
*2016–2019 Kathleen Beagles
*2019-2021 Lori Futcher
*2021-present Randy Fishell

Contents of a ''Guide''

*Stories
*Editorials
*Factory Facts
*Smile File
*Explore God's Word
*Junior Sabbath School Lesson
*Earliteen Sabbath School Lesson
*Find the Coin

See also

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*List of Seventh-day Adventist periodicals
*Pacific Press Publishing Association
*Seventh-day Adventist Church

References

External links

''Guide'' website

{{DEFAULTSORT:Guide (Adventist Magazine)
Children's magazines published in the United States
Magazines established in 1953
Magazines published in Idaho
Religious works for children
Religious magazines published in the United States
Seventh-day Adventist periodicals
Weekly magazines published in the United States