Luther Rice entered journalism not from a love of writing or a desire to be an editor, but from his complete devotion to Baptist missionary outreach. Having experienced the powerful effect of reading missionary sermons and reports from mission fields, he believed the printed page had incalculable value in promoting missions as well as other Baptist enterprises. Because he and others felt a strong need for a journal to awaken informed missionary concern, a committee of the Baptist Board to Foreign Missions for the United States began publishing the Latter Day Luminary in 1818, and Rice became its first editor. Originally issued quarterly, the magazine became a monthly in 1821. Rice later edited The Columbian Star, the first weekly Baptist family newspaper in America, begun in Washington in 1822, and from the start it devoted much space to missionary news. In response to the need for printed materials suitable for distribution by home missionaries and other workers, the Baptist General Tract Society was established in 1824, and Rice served as its first treasurer. He became a journalist because he saw publications as a way to educate the ministry, kindle missionary interest among Baptists, and above all carry the good news of Jesus Christ to those who had never heard.