About Herold

Herold

Herold is the monthly magazine of the Herold-Schriftenmission, a Christian mission and publishing house based in Leun in central Hesse, distributed free of charge and financed by donations. Founded in 1956 by the American missionary Elmer Klassen, the mission's main task to this day is the publication of the monthly magazine Herold, which appeared until 2013 under the name "Herold Seines Kommens" (Herald of His Coming). As a nonprofit association, the Herold-Schriftenmission is one of the few evangelical publishers that sends the majority of its products free of charge, sustained for over 60 years by the donation readiness of fellow believers. The magazine proclaims the Christian gospel in the evangelical tradition, with translations in French, Italian, and Dutch extending its reach beyond the German-speaking world.

Overview

Herold appears monthly as an evangelistic magazine in the tradition of the free-church evangelical movement. Its content proclaims the Christian message with biblical fidelity: the magazine's self-understanding is to live as God demands in the Bible, in trust in the gospel and according to its principles, and to help readers grow in faith. The editorial stance emphasizes the Bible as the absolute standard for the knowledge of God and the Christian life, with neighborly love, self-sacrifice, and following Christ's example as the marks of discipleship.

The magazine is distributed free of charge to congregations and individuals who use it for large-scale evangelism, a distribution model that makes it a tool of mission rather than a commercial product. The digital networking of recent years has enormously expanded the possibilities for publishers and readers: the magazine's content reaches far beyond the printed copies through the website and social media. The Herold-Schriftenmission also publishes Christian books, extending its evangelistic publishing beyond the monthly magazine.

History

After attending a Bible school in the USA, Elmer Klassen felt called to go to Germany as an evangelist. There he came into contact with the Church of the Nazarene in Frankfurt am Main. With the support of Christians of this denomination and the American magazine publisher Gospel Revival Inc., Klassen began printing evangelistic tracts and distributing them on the streets of Frankfurt. In 1956 he founded the Herold-Schriftenmission, whose main task remains the publication of the monthly magazine Herold.

In the following years, translations of the magazine were added: French (Héraut), Italian (l'araldo), and Dutch (de Stem), making the Herold a multilingual mission instrument. In 1988, the Herold-Schriftenmission, then under the leadership of the German publisher and entrepreneur Klaus Gerth, moved from Frankfurt am Main to Aßlar in central Hesse, and the association Herold-Schriftenmission e.V. was founded. Two years later, in 1990, Klaus Gerth handed the leadership of the association to Wolfgang Gerstenberg, who in turn passed it to Benjamin Schmidt in 2012. In 2013, the magazine's name was shortened from "Herold Seines Kommens" to "Herold." The mission is now based in Leun in the Lahn-Dill district.

The Mission Model

The Herold-Schriftenmission's operating model is distinctive in German publishing: a nonprofit missionary association that produces a monthly magazine and Christian books and distributes them free of charge, financed entirely by donations. This model, sustained for over 60 years, reflects the evangelical understanding of mission as a shared task of all believers: those who cannot go as missionaries themselves participate through their financial support, and the printed word becomes the missionary.

The model's economics are straightforward: without subscription revenues or advertising, the mission depends on the continued donation readiness of its supporters, a dependence that the mission's representatives acknowledge with gratitude. The advantage is independence: free from commercial pressures, the magazine can pursue its evangelistic purpose without compromise. The challenge is sustainability: each generation of supporters must be renewed, and the mission must continually demonstrate the fruit of its work to maintain the donors' trust. The digital transformation has improved the economics: online distribution reaches additional readers at near-zero marginal cost.

Coverage and Content

The magazine's content is evangelistic and edifying: articles on the nature and work of God, biblical teaching, testimonies of faith, and calls to discipleship. The editorial line, in the words of the mission's representatives, is biblical fidelity: a life as God demands in the Bible, in trust in the gospel. The magazine addresses both believers seeking spiritual growth and non-believers encountering the gospel, serving congregations as an instrument of evangelism. Study books on God's nature and work complement the magazine's articles, offering readers deeper theological formation.

The multilingual editions extend the content to French, Italian, and Dutch readers, a remarkable scope for a donation-financed mission publisher. The French Héraut, the Italian l'araldo, and the Dutch de Stem carry the same evangelistic message across language borders, making the Herold a small but genuinely international mission medium. The book program complements the magazine with Christian literature for deeper study, from biblical commentaries to practical discipleship guides. The content's theological profile is evangelical and free-church: the authority of Scripture, the necessity of personal faith, and the call to a consecrated life are the recurring themes.

Organization and Ownership

The Herold-Schriftenmission e.V. is a registered nonprofit association based in Leun, Germany. Founded in 1956 by Elmer Klassen, it was led by Klaus Gerth (until 1990), Wolfgang Gerstenberg (1990-2012), and Benjamin Schmidt (since 2012). As a publisher, the mission publishes magazines and books with Christian content, with the monthly Herold as its flagship.

The financing model is donation-based: the magazine is sent free of charge, with the costs covered by the donations of fellow believers over more than six decades. This model makes the mission independent of the advertising and subscription markets, but dependent on the continued generosity of its supporters. The association's nonprofit status reflects its missionary purpose: the spread of the Christian gospel through the printed word.

The Evangelical Print Landscape

The Herold belongs to a distinctive segment of German religious publishing: the evangelical and free-church press, which operates alongside the large Catholic and Protestant-mainstream publishers with its own associations, bookshops, and periodicals. These publishers serve the evangelical movement's congregations, from Baptist and Pentecostal churches to independent free churches, with literature that reflects their theological convictions: biblical inerrancy, personal conversion, and active evangelism.

Within this landscape, the Herold-Schriftenmission occupies a specific niche: the free-distributed evangelistic monthly, a format with roots in the tract societies of the 19th century. Where commercial evangelical publishers sell books and magazines through the Christian book trade, the mission gives its products away, trusting in donations. This places it among the few publishers that have maintained the pure mission model into the 21st century. The magazine's longevity, nearly 70 years of monthly publication, testifies to the model's viability when sustained by a committed community of supporters.

Digital Presence

The website heroldverlag.de is the mission's digital home, presenting the magazine, the book program, and the mission's work. The Facebook page extends the community into social media. The digital networking, as the mission's representatives note, has enormously expanded the possibilities: the magazine's evangelistic content can now reach readers far beyond the printed distribution, and congregations and individuals can access the materials for large-scale evangelism online.

For a mission founded on street-distributed tracts in 1950s Frankfurt, the digital presence represents both continuity and transformation: the medium has changed from the printed tract to the website and the social-media post, but the mission remains the same, the proclamation of the gospel. The free distribution model, sustained by donations for over 60 years, continues online, where the marginal cost of reaching an additional reader approaches zero.