Magabooks were originally commissioned in 1987 by Glenn Aufderhar, Michigan Seventh-day Adventist Conference President, and Dick Thomas, marketing director for the Review Publishing Association, as a response to Ellen White’ s counsel that the book Christ’s Object Lessons was a gift of heaven to be used by students to help defray the cost of Christian education. The first Magabook, a half magazine, half book edition of Christ’s Object lessons, titled He Taught Love, features a commentary on twelve of the parables of Jesus Christ.
Cindy Tutsch directed the first summer Magabook program in 1988 with 15 students based in Edmore, Michigan. Since then, Magabook student canvassers have grown to about 2500 in North America, distributing hundreds of thousands of 17 titles of Magabooks, from healthy choices cookbooks to adult devotional books to teen books promoting a lifestyle free from substance abuse to quality children’s story books which promote positive values.