From the Editor - Christianity Today

How many people read LEADERSHIP? Currently, about 75,000 subscribers, which makes it the largest paid-circulation periodical for clergy. You tell us on surveys that your colleagues, friends, and spouses swipe your copy when it comes, so an estimated 120,000 people read each issue. We view publishing for this many church leaders as a holy responsibility. Pray we’ll do our work well.

Why do you have so much advertising? Advertising is limited to 21 percent of the total pages (not counting an occasional special supplement). This is astonishingly low compared to most publications. Plus, we accept only full-page advertisements and place them carefully, so you’ll never find an ad obstructing the flow of an article as you read. The ads that do appear (a) inform you of worthwhile seminaries, conferences, and products that can help you in ministry, and (b) keep your LEADERSHIP subscription rate affordable.

Can I photocopy or download this article for my files or a church class? Probably yes. See the complete guidelines by clicking on “Readers’ Guide.” from the issue menu.

Why aren’t you more theological? Peter Drucker has identified three aspects of church ministry: the eternal; the cultural; and the tools. Most seminaries do a fine job covering the unchanging first category, the eternal verities, so there’s not as much need for our journal to address it. And since the last two categories–the culture and tools for ministry–are constantly changing, they befit a periodical.

Having said that, we deeply believe in the central importance of theology to all Christian ministry. That’s why our sister publications, Christianity Today and Books and Culture, are devoted to bringing theological insight to the issues of our age. It’s also why from the beginning we have published the theological reflections of Eugene Peterson, Helmut Thielicke, and others.

But in general you won’t find much explicit theological discussion in LEADERSHIP for the same reason fish don’t talk much about water–not because it isn’t important to them, but because it’s so important it’s constantly lived in and assumed.

How many people work on LEADERSHIP? Dozens. But in the sense most people ask this, about seven. The newest is assistant editor Edward Rowell. Ed has been a church-planter (twice!) and a small-church pastor, most recently serving First Baptist Church of Snowflake, Arizona. He’s also had ministry experience in a larger congregation. That varied background appealed to us, as did his creative and often humorous writing in LEADERSHIP, Home Life, and other national magazines.

When Ed and his family (Susan, Melody, and Meagan) moved to the Chicago area, he had to give up his lifetime hobby of team-roping, a rodeo event demanding a quick eye and wrist. Now he ropes stray sentences and corrals wayward paragraphs. As he puts it, “All the different experiences of my life seemed to align and point to LEADERSHIP.”

Why do you emphasize big-church people? The defendant pleads not guilty, your honor. We try to publish, in every issue, people from a variety of church sizes. (No doubt, some issues achieve a better balance than others.)

Aren’t you awfully young? I sometimes tell people I’m working at LEADERSHIP to raise money for my senior-class trip.

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Kevin A. Miller is editor of Leadership.

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