At Christianity Today we are always delighted to learn that people read our magazine. In addition to being pleased, we learn a great deal from knowing how many of you read the magazine, what you read, and your reaction to various articles. We gather this information in several different ways.
One way is through letters to the editor. In each issue, we publish excerpts from a small portion of the mail we receive. Readers tell us they enjoy reading these condensations too.
The only problem with letters to the editor is that many people never write them. So we resort to other means to gauge your readership.
Several months ago a student attending a large eastern divinity school told me in conversation that the current issues of CHRISTIANITY TODAY were invariably the most dog-eared and badly worn magazines in the entire divinity school library. That was good news.
When I visit a library I always try to see if they take CHRISTIANITY TODAY and check for signs of its use. I have discovered that quite a number of libraries don’t place the current copy of CHRISTIANITY TODAY on the regular shelf with other magazines but keep it carefully guarded at the checkout desk. I once asked a librarian who had adopted this policy if readers of CHRISTIANITY TODAY were more dishonest than readers of other magazines.
“Oh, no,” she smiled, “they’re really more honest than the average. The trouble is, the demand for CHRISTIANITY TODAY is so heavy we try to keep an exact track of it to make sure it doesn’t get misplaced on the reference shelf. And by checking it out from this desk, it gets more careful use than it would otherwise.”
Last month I was scheduled for a series of messages at a Bible conference not too far from the Canadian border in rural North Dakota. The campsite was way out in the boonies. Paved roads stopped long before we got there, and the county commissioner for roads apparently had not bothered to put the route numbers on the by-paths we were traveling. Wandering around through the countryside on graveled roads, we managed to get lost several times. Finally, we observed a farmer with his truck parked alongside the road. We stopped and asked our way.
“No problem! Just take the next right-hand fork, cross a bridge, and turn left at the crossroads. If you cross another bridge, you’ve gone too far. You’ll soon be there.”
Then my informant looked at me quizzically: “Are you by any chance the editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY?” he asked.
“I used to be,” I admitted. “I still have a shirttail relationship to the magazine,” I said. And I marvelled that a North Dakota farmer would ever have heard of CHRISTIANITY TODAY, let alone recognize the former editor.
“I read CHRISTIANITY TODAY regularly,” he continued. “It’s my favorite magazine. It keeps me in touch with what’s going on in the religious world, and I appreciate the editorials.”
That made my day. I no longer noticed the blistering heat or felt the sting of the mosquitoes. This was a report straight from the grassroots.
The moral of all this is very simple: Please write us what you like and what you don’t like about CHRISTIANITY TODAY. I can’t make a trip after every issue into the far-off boonies of North Dakota, so your letters are the next best thing.
KENNETH S. KANTZER
