Spectrum Will Expand Health Care, Education Coverage in 2015

Big things happened in 2014 for Spectrum. We saw significant growth in readership, we saw many of our news stories and features go viral on social media and we expanded our team by one full-time editor and two interns. In October, we provided moment-by-moment coverage and daily reports at Annual Council, where delegates set the course for the Seventh-day Adventist denomination’s next steps on women’s ordination, which will come up for a vote at the 2015 General Conference Session in San Antonio, Texas. I’ll say more about our plans for expansion in 2015 involving ordination and the GC Session in a subsequent post. Here, I’d like to note two other areas of expansion for 2015: coverage of Health Care and of Higher Education.

Since the Great Disappointment in 1844, when it became evident that the “Little Flock” might be earthbound a while longer than previously thought, Seventh-day Adventists have built up world-class education and health care systems that span the globe.

Health Care has recently exploded in significance, both nationally in the United States and globally. In the U.S., health care policy has stormed to the fore with heated, ongoing debating over how care will be paid for and with often divisive deadlock over The Affordable Care Act. Globally, the West African Ebola crisis has impacted individuals and governments around the world, as one recent example of transnational health related events. Adventists have been present in both cases, though headlines have not always followed the action. We aim to change that fact by expanding our coverage of Health Care and Humanitarian Aid work in 2015. Chuck Scriven’s interview (Richard Rawson Discusses Innovation and Whole-Person Healthcare) with Loma Linda University Health’s Murrieta campus CEO, Richard Rawson, opened a substantive conversation on how Adventists do Healthcare; a presentation by two Adventist physicians serving in Monrovia, Liberia at the height of the Ebola outbreak provided a broader focus on global health initiatives.

Higher education continues to dominate headlines these days, too–many of the stories having to do with the steadily rising cost of college tuition and the growing burden of student debt. Adventist education in general, and higher education in particular provides compelling stories on a regular basis. Whether stories about how Adventist students have embraced new social media apps, or student responses to the removal of controversial video footage from college campus servers; when a struggling Adventist college tries to start over with a new president, or the president of an Adventist university swats down sinister accusations, Spectrum has told the stories.

If you appreciate stories about the intersections of the Adventist faith community and health care at the local and global levels, and if you enjoy coverage of education with an eye on Adventist Higher Ed, consider helping us expand our coverage of these topics.

We’re participating in Giving Tuesday, the non-profit community’s response to Black Friday and Cyber Monday. The Giving Tuesday website describes the day this way:

We have a day for giving thanks. We have two for getting deals. Now, we have #GivingTuesday, a global day dedicated to giving back. On Tuesday, December 2, 2014, charities, families, businesses, community centers, and students around the world will come together for one common purpose: to celebrate generosity and to give.

To help fund our expansion of health care and education, we’ve set a goal of raising $10,000 from at least fifty donors.

Help us meet our fundraising goal by clicking on one of the two categories below, and in the donation form, specify “Health Care” or “Education” in the Additional Comments field at the bottom of the page. And thank you for supporting Independent Adventist Journalism!

You can also contribute in one of the following ways:

1. Donate to Spectrum here, call our office at (916) 774-1080, or mail a check to Spectrum,
 P.O. Box 619047,
 Roseville, CA 95661-9047.

2. Subscribe to our quarterly journal here, by phone, or by mail (download the form here) for a wide range of thought-provoking articles, visual and literary delights.

3. Support Giving Tuesday by sharing your story about giving with your friends and family.