At the recent annual meeting for Evangelicals Now I shared a little bit about the vision that lies behind this newspaper and website. It was suggested it might be helpful to share it more widely, and so I am pleased to do that now.
I started off by giving a bit of a glimpse behind the scenes at en. You might imagine a busy, buzzing newsroom with a dozen or so reporters just waiting to dash off to the latest event, conference or newsworthy happening. But in fact en is produced by a very small but wonderful, tight-knit, dedicated and hard-working group The fact en even appears each month is itself a minor miracle to be celebrated and a testimony to much hard work and the grace of God.
In terms of ‘feel,’ I was delighted when someone said to me not so long ago, ‘en is the closest thing to the Gospel Coalition we’ve got in Britain…’ That is indeed very much the sort of thing we have in mind – that and the Keswick Convention; in other words, places where evangelicals from otherwise separate tribes can gather together, exchange news and thoughts, and learn to work together. We want to foster communication and co-operation between different tribes of evangelicals for the sake of the gospel. Where else other than in en are members of the Evangelical Movement of Wales likely to read about Anglican evangelicals, for example? Ditto FIEC members and Presbyterians? Etc, etc ...
The blurb at the bottom of p.2 and on the website – just in case you have never noticed it! – also sets out our ethos a bit more: ‘Evangelicals Now is a reformed evangelical publication. We aim to be independent-minded, Christ-centred, gospel-hearted and generous-spirited. We seek to facilitate engagement between evangelicals with differing Biblical understanding over secondary matters while remaining firm on the primary truths of the gospel.’
We aim to provide news, comment, information and stimulation. News is not the same as comment: news is things that happen, whereas comment is people’s views about what has happened. We try and keep them separate, insofar as it is humanly possible to be objective. So just because something is reported, it does not mean it is necessarily supported. The only place you’ll read what en itself thinks as an organ is in this column. Columnists’ opinions are their own.
What counts as news? Ideally, what you would sit and talk about with a friend – in a coffee shop, in a pub, after church, on a car journey. What makes a good picture? Definitely not a photo consisting of serried rows of backs of heads at a conference with a distant figure at a lectern – nor rows of men in suits staring at a lens! We like (where possible) colour, movement, interest and the unexpected. How are we developing en? There is plenty of scope to develop and grow our digital offering and plans are in hand to make that happen in the future.
But underneath it all is prayer. We pray together as a staff team once a month – and we value your regular prayers too. And at its heart is Jesus, and the gospel of salvation. This is what brings us together and what drives us forward. So ‘let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,’ (Heb. 12:1) – and we hope you like the new logo at the top of this column which carries that verse.
