I will always remember the first year I traveled overseas as president and CEO of Christianity Today. Wherever we met believers, from the mountains of Papua to the streets of Bengaluru, they greeted CT as a friend. Most could name a recent article they had read. Their common request was that we do more to elevate the stories and ideas from their places in Christ’s global kingdom.
As we framed the One Kingdom Campaign to shape the future of Christianity Today, we prioritized its Global Initiative. When Billy Graham founded the magazine in 1956, he envisioned 100 correspondents around the world telling the stories of the church. This part of the original vision, we felt, had not yet been fully realized. If we could interconnect followers of Jesus around the planet and serve as a central nervous system, then the global body of Christ could more effectively communicate and coordinate. The Global Initiative would help Christianity Today better represent the breadth and beauty of the whole kingdom of God.
This initiative is for our brothers and sisters overseas—but also for us in the American church. We are in desperate need of a more capacious vision for following Jesus today. When we asked Christian author Ann Voskamp why she supports Christianity Today, she said that it’s easy to focus merely on the North American religious landscape and arrive at a kind of “flat-earth” Christianity. “We forget there’s a whole global church out there that is living out the words of Christ in rich, robust, orthodox ways that can inform and shape us,” she added. Or as Philip Yancey wrote in support of our global emphasis, “If you get discouraged about the church in America, go to the church in other countries and you will find life.”
To be sure, God is doing good and beautiful things through the American church. But our part of the church, like every other part, is broken and sinful. Maybe we are discouraged. Maybe we are too caught up in national struggles and strife. Maybe we have forgotten how powerfully God can move. We need the examples of other brothers and sisters, sometimes in faraway places, to explode our comfortable vision of what it means when Jesus bids us take up our crosses and follow him. We need each other.
You may have already noticed our increasing global coverage. We invite you to learn more about CT’s Global Initiative and to join us in seeking the kingdom wherever it’s found.
On a personal note, this month I will be concluding my service as president and CEO of Christianity Today. I have been appointed to serve as president of the John Templeton Foundation beginning July 31, 2025.
Serving Christianity Today for the past six years has been the honor of a lifetime. The mission is compelling, the team is exceptional, and the future is bright. While I’m excited to return to the kinds of questions that motivated my academic work, I could not be prouder of what the team has accomplished at Christianity Today.
I will remain connected to CT as a donor and friend. It was mine to serve CT for a time, but the ministry has a far grander story that began long before me and will endure long after me.
Timothy Dalrymple was president and CEO of Christianity Today from 2019 to 2025. He is leaving CT to serve as president of the John Templeton Foundation.
