One of the nicest things a board member can do is stand up and say, “Your plan sounds great and I’m all for it, but I don’t see how you can pull it off.” Said with a supportive shake of the head it can be non-threatening if he really is behind you and willing to back your plan anyway. The nice thing is that it provides a wonderful “See-we-did-it” speech later on.
As our board reviewed the plans for LEADERSHIP last June, one member said about our projections to break even the first year, “I’m all for starting this,: but I think your figures are too optimistic.” Actually, he was using horse sense-most magazines take at least three years to break into the black; Sports Illustrated took about a dozen. In fact, of any two hundred magazines started today, only about five last eighteen months. The only reason our staff was so optimistic was that they had test results in their hands. Pastors and lay leaders wanted and needed LEADERSHIP, and the tests indicated they would pay for it.
Well, we can now say “We told you so” to our board member, and he’s rejoicing with us. The results of the major mailings have done as well as the tests, and even compiled lists are working. We may even have to go back on press with our first issue despite its 50,000 press run. We’ve had calls from people so convinced of LEADERSHIP’s value they want to send it to all the pastors in their areas.
A Christian leader in California said to Paul Robbins, “Well, you’ve put out a whale of a product; now how are you going to pay for it?” The encouraging thing is, with 50,000 copies being sold, LEADERSHIP is already in the black. And, unless paper costs go out of sight, we believe we can hold the line on prices for the immediate future.
Paul and I and other staff members have been dragging bottom a bit in getting LEADERSHIP launched and carrying our regular responsibilities as well. Yet Paul said in my office yesterday, “My nose is barely above water, yet there’s an edge of exhilaration.” It is fulfilling to reach out through print, and touch felt needs.
At the same time, I feel slightly uncomfortable saying how wonderful everything is going and how God has shown himself in it. I firmly believe he has; yet as we see in David Mains’s article in this issue, God also works through failure, and in little ways as well as big successes. I’m reminded of Tolkien’s hobbits, those small rabbit-like creatures, who just went about their tasks in the great adventure they had embraced. There was much tedium in their adventure, and at the end of four thick books, there they are, rather insignificant against the massive forces of evil. Yet they continue their slogging, wearying journey day after day after day, and when they finally cast the rings into the pit, they strike to the core of evil and change everything. At LEADERSHIP we spend a lot of time reading galleys and polishing titles and triple-checking layouts, and many other ordinary, sometimes tedious duties. Yet, out of all the details by so many people, we sense God is at work.
Our dose of happy humility-and perhaps you can identify with this in your work as well-comes from Gandalf, the Christ figure in Lord of the Rings: “Then the prophecies have turned out to be true?” asked Bilbo. “Of course,” said Gandalf, “and why should they not prove true? Surely you don’t disbelieve the prophecies because you had a hand in bringing them about yourself? You don’t really suppose, do you, that all your adventures and escapes were managed by mere luck, just for our sole benefit? You are a very fine person, Mr. Baggins, and I am very fond of you: but you are only quite a little fellow in a wide world after all.”
Harold L. Myra President, Christianity Today, Inc.
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