Those two questions have always engendered controversy. Early critics labeled the magazine "Christianity Yesterday." More recent critics lament its perceived seduction by modernity. Others emphatically demand CT hit harder-at Clinton or Gingrich, at feminism or chauvinism, at homosexuals or homophobes. Yet most readers express strong appreciation for objective reporting, nuances, dialogue, theological bedrock.

I write this as we prepare for our June CTi board meeting. Russ Esty will not be with us-he was "promoted to glory" several weeks ago.

As I think about what CT ought to be, it strikes me that leaders like Russ personify its mission. They bring our mandate to life: establishing a biblical world-view, making the gospel credible, encouraging evangelism.

Russ was simply saturated with Scripture, and he would quote it—often with a twinkle in his eye—at the most opportune times. Integrated with his wide reading, it shaped all his thinking—and gave him resources to face crushing reversals in business and family health. It gave him the pluck in his last year, despite being nearly blind from an eye operation and weak from cancer surgery, to brave New York and Chicago airports to chair our executive committee and speak to our staff.

This summer completes my twentieth year with CT, and during that time, seven board members have joined "the great cloud of witnesses." Each embodied our mission in his own way.

Harold Ockenga, chairman of CTi for its first 25 years, embodied CT's intellectual and theological mission. The first president of Fuller Theological Seminary and later of Gordon-Conwell, he combined scholarship with ministry, serving also as pastor of Boston's historic Park Street Church. And his work as NAE's ...