New plans for Ministry are on the production line and beyond. The first and most obvious innovation is a new look for the magazine, inaugurated in this issue.
While we have attempted to retain a dignified and somewhat traditional look, we have also tried to create some thing fresh and contemporary. We see our new cover design and logo to be distinctive and inviting without being faddish. We are grateful to Bryan Gray of Boise, Idaho, for his fine design work on the cover, the logo, and the interior redesign.
A major motive in this design has been to make Ministry more "reader friendly." We genuinely identify with the demanding life of the average pas tor and realize that often enough significant portions of Ministry are not read because a given article looks too long, too "busy" or just plain too much. This design makes an effort to give the main body of the presented material a more open, less dense feel. The font, leading, and overall layout, we believe, creates a less threatening appearance that makes the physical act of reading a more pleasant experience.
We are retaining the First Glance feature on the masthead page. Every month, time and effort is spent succinctly summarizing each article. This gives a pastor the opportunity to glance through the contents of a given issue, article synopses included, and see which features he or she is likely to pass up, briefly peruse, carefully read, or file away.
One of the major issues discussed as we contemplated a redesign was the length of articles. All things considered,we are going to challenge both our writers and ourselves to produce short er articles. Although we will not always reach our ideal, we would like each issue to contain a preponderance of 1,500 to 2,000 word articles, accompanied by one or two in each issue that are longer.
We are still committed to Ministry writers being drawn from the rank and file of our readers. Along with this we are increasingly dedicating ourselves to intentionally raising the quality of the content of Ministry. For this reason we will be commissioning more articles. That is, we will seek out particular writers, asking them to write in the areas of their expertise. This is challenging, especially when it remains important to include writers from all over the world. We are determined above all to improve the relevance and caliber of the magazine, always being true to our mission: Enriching the overall effectiveness and general professional context from which ministers communicate the gospel, while being faithful to the essentials of the three angels messages of Revelation 14.
Consistent with these things it is important to say again that we are always looking for good articles on out reach and evangelism suggesting both innovative ways of evangelizing and ways of improving the tried and true. For the next year or two we would also like to emphasize the personal spiritual life of the pastor and the pastor's relationship or interaction with his or her members. Another issue that needs fresh material is the pastoral calling. It could be inspiring and encouraging to have well-written accounts of the journeys of some of us into ministry, which clarify and confirm for all of us the nature of the call to ministry.
Let me also briefly describe our definite plan to radically expand our Ministry Web site. Most significantly, this year we are aiming at making available on the Ministry Web site every article or significant piece of writing done in Ministry since its inception in 1928. This will be helpful to everyone as they do research, including sermon preparation. We hope the site will also be interactive; a place for submitting letters to the editor, and perhaps connecting to a chat room in which we can "meet" for scheduled chats over subjects of pastoral interest worldwide. Among other things such a "room" would simply give us opportunity to pool our thought, experience, and ideas. The continuing education possibilities for such a site are almost limitless.
We are heading into genuinely exciting times and we find ourselves deeply committed to making Ministry and all that associates with it, a broad er and wider resource of bona fide value for each and all of us, to the glory of God.
