In 2017, Brent Perry received a message from a friend with a link to a Christianity Today article, an open door welcoming Brent back to CT after several years away. Brent had ended his CT subscription, as well as all other subscriptions, around 2010. Online news had become more accessible, and he wanted to focus his time on reading more books. Now he found himself reading CT again online weekly.
“It was a thoughtful reflection on current events from a Christian perspective,” Brent recalled as he considered what had kept him reading CT after his friend’s message. “[It] would make some points or give me a perspective that I didn’t have.” The thoughtful reflection and different perspectives Brent found in CT became increasingly important to him as he—and the rest of the world—dealt with the COVID-19 pandemic and the deepening of political divides.
Many of the difficulties Brent faced at the beginning of the pandemic seemed to be taking place within the walls of the church his family was attending at the time. “The church wasn’t really much of a refuge at that point,” he said as he described helping a friend in a difficult position while the rest of his church seemed to complain and bicker and spread misleading information about the situation.
He found in CT examples of reasonable people dealing with similar things. “Having a place to read about what pastors were going through during that time and the stresses of it helped me understand what I was dealing with better,” he said. “To be outside of [my own church’s situation] a little bit was helpful. … CT became a reliable place to read about what’s happening in the Christian community.”
Outside the church walls, Brent dealt with divisive litigation as a lawyer and watched his law partner suffer from COVID-19 early in 2021, for weeks in the hospital on the brink of death. Not only was CT a hub of information and reflection on current events, it was also an encouragement. “You need some positive input in your life, some way to get away and think,” Brent added after explaining that CT was a place he could center himself.
Brent also found early in his consistent reading that CT was working to further God’s kingdom by sharing about the broader church. “The One Kingdom Campaign is really trying to enlighten us on what’s going on around the world and remind us that the Church is a lot bigger than what we perceive it,” he said. Because of this, Brent and his wife, Carole, decided to start supporting CT: “I thought I ought to contribute some to [CT] because [CT] was trying to further the kingdom.”
“Most of what we experience with the kingdom is through our local church,” he said. Having seen such divisiveness in the church in the past, it was helpful for Brent to read CT and get “a bigger picture than just what you’re dealing with on a weekly basis.” He said, “[Reading CT] helps keep you focused on the kingdom instead of on the turmoil. This is a global faith, and I’ve let the American lens kind of create turmoil for me.”
Brent was encouraged to read about the Church globally and see examples of good things happening elsewhere, like the growth of the Church in Africa. It was also helpful for him to read about the global Church for the sake of things closer to home.
Brent teaches a class at his church for parents of teenagers who represent different nationalities, many of whom are immigrants. In the group is a Hungarian chemistry professor, a couple from Mexico, a Russian–Ukrainian couple, an Ethiopian immigrant, an Indian couple, and a Nigerian nurse who’s a single mom to triplets. Because he works with this group, Brent intentionally reads broadly and pays attention to what’s happening in their home countries. “It’s really affecting them,” he said. “It’s affecting their families.” CT’s global reporting has helped Brent connect with the people in his church from different places.
Similarly, CT’s reporting has aided Brent in his work. In reference to Andy Olsen’s “An American Deportation” and his own work with a Latino congregation on a governance dispute, Brent said, “Articles like this one give me a real sensitivity to the issues these churches face. [The Latino congregation] want me to speak calmly about their members’ fears of a government that many of them voted for less than two years ago.”
CT’s content has also helped Brent and the parents he teaches connect with people from a different generation: their own kids. As a parent, Brent has been encouraged by the work of Jonathan Haidt, author of The Anxious Generation. Haidt has been a guest a few times on CT’s podcast The Russell Moore Show, and Brent has shared what he’s learned with the parents in his class. “Everybody is just so concerned about ‘What are we going to do so we don’t screw up with our kids?’” he said. But Brent added that what he’s learned from Haidt “has given [him] the courage to encourage [the parents] to loosen their reins and trust God a little bit more with their kids.”
“I really appreciate the broad range of people that [Russell Moore] interviews … the breadth of voices that he brings to speak to the Christian community,” Brent shared when discussing The Russell Moore Show. In so much of CT’s content—across podcasts and the magazine—Brent has found a place that broadens his perspective through a variety of high-quality contributors and content. He said, “CT encourages us, all of us, to think and participate and give more broadly than we otherwise would.”
“CT helps define [evangelicalism], but it also keeps us informed of all the currents within it and where God is acting around the world,” Brent said about CT’s role in the broader church. “Evangelical Christianity needs [a voice], and [CT] is becoming a more important voice by the work it’s doing now, at a time when it’s really needed.”
Almost ten years into his renewed subscription, Brent’s go-to reading materials for flights now include CT’s print magazine: “If I’m going on a trip where I don’t want to work on the plane, I pick up the magazine and read it almost from cover to cover.”
