The Baptist Courier turns 144 this year. It is one of the oldest and largest of the Southern Baptist state news magazines. With this edition, I assume the role of editor and president.
Rudy GrayThere have only been 10 before me. Don Kirkland, our retiring editor and president, has been so gracious and helpful during these two months of transition. I am appreciative of his friendship over the last 40 years and thankful for his support and encouragement. He has been a faithful servant, and with deep gratitude, I say, thank you.
I am both humbled and grateful for this opportunity of service. The Baptist Courier has a rich heritage and a challenging, but potentially great, future in Christian journalism.
Our offices are located in the historic district of Greenville. The streets around us are named for the founding fathers of the Southern Baptist Convention and Southern Seminary: Boyce, Broadus, Manly, Toy, Whitsitt, Williams and Pettigru.
Southern Seminary, now located in Louisville, Ky., was founded in Greenville as Furman Theological Seminary in 1859. The oldest of the six SBC seminaries, it moved to Louisville in 1877 following the Civil War. The street where we are located was named after Basil Manly Jr. He was saved and baptized at the age of 14 after reading a biography of Jonathan Edwards. He went on to become one of the chief architects of the SBC.
Our location connects the Courier historically and geographically with our Baptist lineage. Our ministry has always been to the churches and people of the South Carolina Baptist Convention. C.R. Daley, former editor of Kentucky’s Western Recorder, once said, “I believe the state paper belongs ultimately to the people in the pews and not to the establishment.”
In the 125th anniversary edition of the Courier, editor John Roberts wrote that its role was not promotional. “It seeks to inform, to educate, to enlighten; and in so doing, to inspire. To withhold bad news or avoid controversial events would violate its reason for being.”
As we look toward the future, we do so with two specific verses of Scripture to motivate us: 1 Corinthians 10:31: “Whether, then, you eat or drink or whatever you do, do all to the glory of God” and Ephesians 2:10: “We are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” I have asked our staff to adopt these verses as banners over our ministry, and they have responded affirmatively.
This is a time when Baptist papers have been declining in subscriptions for many years, and we will be making changes with the hope of reversing that trend. Beginning with the June 2013 edition, following a redesign, we will become a monthly feature-driven publication. We are also making plans for a daily version of our online news site and will incorporate photo galleries, video devotions and interviews. We plan to develop an iPad edition of the Courier, and we are upgrading our applications for iPhone, Android and other mobile devices. We are also exploring options for creating a publishing division of the Courier where we would publish books and e-books by Baptist writers in our state.
Our aim is provide top-quality content, use the most effective communication systems available to us, and connect churches, ministries and individuals with each other as we work together in faithfully presenting the gospel of Jesus Christ.
Because of the adoption of the Great Commission Resurgence Task Force report in November 2011, we will be receiving significantly less funding from the state convention. This will be a challenge, but we are looking at ways to generate more revenue while keeping the costs to our churches and readers as low as possible. We will still need the convention’s support in order to accomplish our mission as the news magazine for South Carolina Baptists.
We need your prayers and help. As we partner together, we can work effectively and successfully at building this ministry of Christian journalism. Our challenge includes: being relevant for today, preparing for tomorrow, and bringing glory to God in all we do.
What do you think? Click here to send a letter to the editor addressing this or another subject.