CHRISTIANITY TODAY began as a literal dream of Billy Graham's that caused him to wake up and type out his vision: to be "a rallying point" of the evangelical movement, for "the clergy and lay leaders," "a new strong vigorous voice to call us together that will have the respect of all evangelicals of all stripes." For 43 years we have followed that dream. But the economics of postal rates, printing schedules, and paper costs have at times kept our dreams more earthbound than we had hoped. Soon the dream may be more fully realized.
Starting November 1, Christianity Today will become just that: Christianity today, as we launch a daily Web-based version of the magazine at www.ChristianityToday.com/ctmag/.
While we have been online since 1994, this new site will be much more than a monthly posting of our print articles. We will offer daily news, commentary from evangelical leaders around the world, original articles appearing only on our Web site, weekly reviews, and more. Imagine the magazine in your hands, daily.
We are not changing our mission: to report on what God is doing in the world and bring the best evangelical thought to bear on the issues facing the church. But we can now extend that mission into a new format. More than just an online magazine, it will include message boards, resource areas, and special-interest areas.
One aspect of Billy Graham's original dream was to keep readers abreast of the international church. Now it will be possible to keep the international church abreast of the evangelical movement as a whole. We will have regular reports from indigenous leaders both reporting on what God is doing and commenting on what controversies look like from their point of view. Our hope is that ChristianityToday.com will give new meaning to the idea of being a "rallying point" for evangelicals.
To usher us into this new venue we have hired Ted Olsen as opinion and online editor. Make that rehired. Because of Ted's incredibly wide interests, he has had trouble settling on one magazine. He began as an intern for the magazine in 1995, did a stint as an assistant editor for Christian History, and now returns to our hallway. We feel that the dailiness and the wiredness of Internet publishing might keep him occupied for a while.
Does this mean that we have any less commitment to our print publication? By no means! For all the buzz of the Web's signs and wonders, nothing has yet improved on the technology of print for portability and ease of reading. But our new dream is to provide even more services than we could before so as "to call us all together."
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