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But Christianity Today has an even more important role than serving as the flagship of evangelicalism. It is to create an effective leadership for the church of Christ. The evangelical church today desperately needs good leaders. By contrast with the nonevangelical churches, our leadership is not educated. We have zeal and commitment, but we are not well trained with skills for effective leadership. We surrendered that in the early part of this century, and we're now living in the shadow of that defeat. No doubt, if we had to choose between spiritually committed leaders with zeal for Christ's kingdom and educated leaders well equipped for their tasks, we should without hesitation choose the former. But neither alone is adequate. Both are essential if the church of Christ is not to suffer.

In the decade ahead, I believe Christianity Today's major role is to help equip leadership for the evangelical churches. It must do this in many different ways. Most evangelicals, including its leadership, haven't really thought through their evangelicalism. The evangelical lay person can't define evangelical teaching with precision.

He certainly can't articulate biblical doctrines with clarity; sometimes he can't even list them. Therefore biblical and evangelical teaching do not really shape his ongoing lifestyle and daily thinking. They don't determine how he reacts when he reads the newspaper or carries on his daily business or pulls the lever in his polling booth or writes his monthly checks to spend his income. Christianity Today must provide Christian leaders with resources to enable him to shape his conscience. We have no right to play God. But we do have full warrant to explicate the Word of God and what it means to think Christianly according to the Scripture and what it means to live out the Christian life in our world in obedience to the Lord of the church.

Christianity Today is in an exceptional position to carry out this task. When it was launched, nobody knew what Christianity Today would amount to, and many were quite suspicious of it. Thorough-going evangelicals were grateful for it, but didn't realize how influential it was to become. Now we know that three times as many ministers read it and look to it for leadership as any other magazine. That's why I have reckoned it a great privilege to be its editor.

This article originally appeared in the November 26, 1982 issue of Christianity Today.

Copyright © 2002 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

Also appearing on our site today:

Influential Professor and Leader Kenneth Kantzer Dies | The Trinity Seminary dean and Christianity Today editor was "a genuine example of a Christian life."

Other CT articles by or about Kenneth Kantzer include:

Standing On The Promises | Former CT editors Carl Henry and Kenneth Kantzer evaluate evangelicalism in light of its twentieth-century developments. (Sept. 16, 1996)

Watching My Daughter 'Defect' | Part of being a good Christian is being a good citizen. (October 7, 1991)

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June (Web-only) 2002, Vol. 46