Ministry Audio

Optimizing the impact of Ellen G. White’s writings

by Darryl Thompson

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Since Ellen G. White’s death on July 16, 1915, the Ellen G. White (EGW) Estate has shared her prophetic ministry and writings to support the Seventh-day Adventist Church and its members. The White Estate uses several methods to help achieve its goals:

  1. Maintain Ellen G. White’s letters, manuscripts, artifacts, and memorabilia in physical and digital custody.
  2. Ensure, as far as possible, the integrity of Ellen White’s writings.
  3. Distribute her books in print and digital formats.
  4. Promote translations of her books into major languages.
  5. Prepare new compilations and modern language adaptations from Ellen White’s writings to meet the ever-changing needs of the church and world.
  6. Promote Bible and Ellen White study by creating resources like EGW writings apps and websites, EGW audiobooks, study guides, and daily social media content.
  7. Provide a database of answers to frequently asked questions about Ellen White and her ministry.
  8. Maintain searchable articles and reference works to encourage the study of Scripture and the Spirit of Prophecy.

Our websites and applications

To facilitate this mission, the White Estate manages three major websites:

Whiteestate.org covers Ellen White’s life, ministry, and her estate. It illuminates her background, experiences, and writing impact.

Ellenwhite.org offers researchers, pastors, and teachers a treasure trove of resources from the White Estate vault. An extensive collection of Ellen White’s materials helps users learn about and research her ministry.

Egwwritings.org offers all of Ellen White’s major works in 138 languages for free. It provides spiritual nourishment with more than 100,000 pages of original letters, manuscripts, periodical articles, books, and pamphlets. More than 3,000 published books, Spirit of Prophecy reference works, Bible versions, Bible concordances, Ellen G. White and Seventh-day Adventist Bible com­mentaries, and Ellen G. White dictionaries are also freely available.

To complement these websites, we have released five apps, one each for Android, iOS, iPadOS, macOS, and Windows devices. These apps let users read, study, and listen to Ellen White’s writings for free. Search for “EGW Writings 2” in your device’s app store.

Our websites and apps reach an average of eight million monthly users from 192 countries and territories worldwide.

Tips to maximize the spiritual impact of Ellen G. White’s writings

  1. Regular personal study of Ellen White’s writings will help shape your faith and character. Our apps and websites offer daily Bible readings, Ellen White book reading plans, and devotional reading plans via email or in our apps.
  2. Language accessibility. Let people know Ellen White’s writings are available in many native languages.
  3. Witnessing through sharing our websites and apps can help encourage others. Especially share our 10 new “.pub” websites that have a single book website. For example, check out greatcontroversy.pub or stepstochrist.pub.
  4. Share daily quotes, insights, and White Estate resources with friends or members on social media.
  5. Local church engagement. Form Ellen White study groups or reading circles within your church. Allow people to discuss and ask questions at seminars.
  6. Personal testimonies. Share how Ellen White’s writings helped shape your life and faith. Your testimony may inspire others to study her counsels.

ChatGPT

ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence–powered chatbot, lets users ask multiple follow-up questions and instantly clarify nuanced answers.

ChatGPT 4 mostly answers Adventist doctrinal questions with well-written answers, though with similar wording. Unfortunately, it still cannot quote from Ellen White accurately. On average, 20 percent of quotes are correct, 20 percent reference the right book but the wrong page, 40 percent find an accurate quote but give the wrong reference, and 20 percent give a non-Ellen White quote.

The White Estate recognizes that while egwwritings.org will always provide accurate search results, users increasingly prefer AI responses due to their ease of use and intelligent answers to questions without the need to know Ellen White’s vocabulary. We are researching open-source AI models to help us create natural language chat-based responses to users’ queries. We do not know how long this will take to train and implement, but we must continue to expand ways to obtain our goal of sharing Ellen White’s writings with the world.