We hesitate to call too much attention to ourselves, but our readers have a legitimate interest in knowing how CHRISTIANITY TODAY fares in contests with other periodicals. The Associated Church Press, comprising some 100 periodicals that mostly serve the major Protestant denominations, honored us with its 1978 Award of Merit for “general excellence” in our category of nondenominational magazines (one of four in the competition). The other three winners were Canadian Churchman, A.D., and Journal of Current Social Issues. The Evangelical Press Association (230 members) conferred on CHRISTIANITY TODAY 11 awards out of 94, including a first place for John Lawing’s review of the Chuck Colson movie, that were presented for specific kinds of articles and graphics. We realize that we have a lot of room to improve; but as we try to put out a consistently better product for our readers, it is nice to have a few tokens of recognition along the route such as these provided by contest judges.
In this issue we present readers with a series of thought-provoking articles. A sociologist and a theologian each draw lessons from Jonestown. Ted Ward gives guidance for the church in the interim before the end times. Ronald Koteskey shows us that modern technological skills are not enough: we can learn much from old-fashioned remedies for mental illness. D. A. Carson brings a devotional message based on Revelation 2. And be sure to check the book reviews.
