Consider this a reintroduction.
In our March issue, I explained that 2024 would be a transformative year for Christianity Today. This magazine is the first deposit on that promise. Everything from the wordmark to the colors, fonts, layout, and structure have been reimagined and remade. We hope you agree that this delivers a more compelling experience. We want each issue to be a jewel, a work of art, a feast of stories and ideas that conveys the richness of living and thinking with Christ and his church.
Over the remainder of the year, I will explain why we are charting this course. For now, I wish to explain the language you will often see alongside the wordmark.
Before I came to Christianity Today, I led a creative agency that helped hundreds of organizations refine their branding and messaging. Yet I have never thought about Christianity Today as a brand. It is an effort to illuminate what it means to follow Jesus faithfully in our time.
We have, however, a fundamental invitation. It’s not a tagline or a slogan but an invitation: Seek the kingdom.
I will say more about our calling to the kingdom of God in subsequent issues. For now, I want to say one simple thing.
The kingdom of God is elusive. Jesus likens it to a seed, a pearl, a treasure, a vineyard, and a banquet. He speaks of the “secrets of the kingdom of heaven” (Matt. 13:11) and calls us not to chase after the things of the world but to “seek first his kingdom and his righteousness” (6:33).
“Seek ye first” was the first song I remember singing. It was before my baptism, before I knew Jesus, before I knew how beautiful and broken the world and the church could be. But it was, in its simplicity, the invitation that summoned me to Christ and to serving the reign of Christ’s love in the world.
Perhaps we don’t always recognize the kingdom when we see it. But we should know what it is not. The world today is fractured by wars and hatred, oppression and abuse, and scorn for truth and virtue. Our cover image shows a church, like the garment of Jesus at the foot of the cross, divided up for power and profit. This is not it. This is not the kingdom of God.
But we invite you to seek it with us. In Scripture. In the work of God around the planet. In the lives of individuals and families, near and far, who bring Jesus into broken places. Seek hope, seek Jesus, seek the kingdom, and perhaps together we will find it.
Timothy Dalrymple is president and CEO of Christianity Today.
