The Divine Service Guide is the most important publication for the ministers of the New Apostolic Church. How is it developed? Where is it distributed? Following is a look at the large-scale project.
The articles in the Divine Service Guide are not a manuscript for a sermon, but are intended to promote the preparation for a divine service. The articles follow a series of topics. Each article contains a central statement, in other words, an important message which the listener can easily remember. Each article closes with a summary that is intended to help ministers better understand the most important thoughts so that they can communicate these to the congregation.
An international group of authors
Some 25 Apostles from all parts of the world collaborate to develop the Divine Service Guide. Four to five articles every month are based on a divine service by the Chief Apostle. The other articles are developed by a group of authors which the Chief Apostle has appointed. As publisher, he reviews every article.
Editing and coordinating tasks are assigned to the working group “Divine Service Guide”. The Divine Service Guide has a worldwide circulation of nearly 200,000 copies. The monthly publication is produced simultaneously in five languages and is then translated into another two dozen languages.
Also available as a yearbook
In addition, the Divine Service Guide is published as a so-called yearbook in about 50 languages, which is published with a time delay of two years. The collection, which includes a whole year’s worth of articles, is used especially in Africa and Asia, where the distribution of printed matter is more difficult to organize. The New Apostolic Church in the south-eastern part of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, for example, needs about a month to supply its congregations in the major cities with copies of the Divine Service Guide and an additional six months until the most remote congregations receive their copies.