We can all only hope that economic pundits who say we are experiencing a recovery know what they are talking about. For the present, however, times are tough all over. In presenting a budget to the messengers gathered last week in Hampton at the annual Baptist General Association of Virginia meeting, the budget committee sought to be fiscally responsible. The budget adopted was only slightly more than the treasurer’s office expects to receive in Cooperative Missions giving from the churches.
While most of you reading this will not be impacted much by the budget vote, others will be affected directly because you will no longer receive your state paper after Jan. 1, unless you subscribe to the Religious Herald yourself.
Jim White
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For years, the BGAV and the Religious Herald have partnered in paying for some groups of people to receive the Herald without cost to them. Pastors, of course, were on this list, as were deacon chairs, WMU directors and mission leaders, directors of missions, retired pastors, pastors between churches, pastors’ widows, seminary students and executive directors of other state conventions.
As of the new year, only pastors will continue to receive the Herald gratis. Looking for every place to save, the budget committee initially even cut funding for pastors to receive the Herald. Their rationale was that those who receive the Herald free would subscribe on their own. Unfortunately, without the subsidy from the BGAV the Religious Herald cannot bear the full cost of printing and mailing to these groups.
To their credit, however, the committee reconsidered withholding the Herald from pastors because the very ones who need continued contact with the BGAV the most would have been the least likely to subscribe.
The other groups will now have the option of subscribing at the individual annual rate of $18, or of joining (or forming) a group in their church for a cost of $13.50 per year. If you have been included in one of these groups, you will receive a letter from us explaining your options in detail.
If you don’t mind my saying so, these have been tough days for your state paper. Like Baptist papers from other states, we have been impacted by a general decline of denominational loyalty and also by a general decline in newspaper readership.
When I became the editor, my belief was if we provided a paper with significant content in an attractive format at a reasonable price we would see subscriptions increase. I was wrong. In retrospect, I suppose that was a little like a blacksmith in 1912 thinking if he could only produce better horseshoes, he could turn around his declining business.
Well-meaning Virginia Baptists sometimes tell me, “You need to go online!” While I appreciate the unassailable logic of their suggestion, such a comment tells me they are unaware that we have been there for years. No doubt, the future appears to lie in digital delivery. The problem is, to this point, readers expect online news to be provided free.
All this leads me to ask hard questions. First, is the Religious Herald still needed? For 182 years the Religious Herald has provided to Virginia Baptists news of contemporary events, challenged readers to greater faithfulness and provided a forum for understanding our mission. But more, as any student of history will tell you, in doing these things the Herald has become the chief preserver of our history. As a primary source, authors and historians search past issues of the Religious Herald to understand the times.
But back to the question — do we still need the Herald? We can get denominational and national religious news from other sources. Do we need to know what is happening in Virginia? Do we even want to know what other churches are doing in ministry throughout the Commonwealth? Do we need to be encouraged by news of new church starts? Do we need to learn of challenges we face and how some churches are responding? Do we need to celebrate our successes?
I wholeheartedly believe we do. We live in a time when churches have become myopic. They have largely lost the peripheral perspective of what is happening in churches around them. Pastors are working heroically to create growth in their churches. Often every waking minute is consumed with some need of the church. While their efforts are noble, if they are not careful they will begin to act as though their churches were all that mattered.
They become apathetic about cooperative efforts — and why wouldn’t they? They are self-sufficient. Myopic churches think they don’t need a denomination. They consider a connection to other churches as largely irrelevant. They can meet their own needs. They can even journey to the world’s mission fields without consulting a denomination or board for guidance. In some cases, churches have become their own kingdoms, and pastors are busy building their churches.
The problem with this approach is that it doesn’t pass theological or biblical muster. There is a kingdom, but it is not the local church; it is Christ’s universal church. It is easy for pastors to get the two confused when so much of their own identity and even self-worth is bound to the success of the local church. Like football coaches, they are vulnerable to losses.
What does all this have to do with the Religious Herald? Through the years, the Herald has called repeatedly to church leaders, both lay and clergy, for a kingdom perspective. It has reminded them that from the very beginning the churches were bound together by a common commitment to the mission of Christ. When one prospered, it saw its abundance as a means of assisting those with less.
Is the Religious Herald still needed? Until the churches of Christ no longer need to be informed, encouraged or challenged, the answer is an emphatic, “Yes!”
A second penetrating question occurs. If the Religious Herald ceased publishing a newspaper and relied, instead on digital delivery through our website, emails and online social networking, would the BGAV continue to support the Herald at the current level? I can almost hear others respond as one person did, “Of course not. Everything online is free!”
This person had not taken into account, of course, the cost of developing and maintaining a website, the cost of equipment necessary to provide video and print materials or the cost of the people required to gather information, write stories and make it happen.
The alternatives to a free and unfettered press in a digital age is to become a network of bloggers where all news comes filtered through the opinions of the writers or to become part of the state organization’s public relations effort. No unbiased reporting, only opinions and promotion. Virginia Baptists expect more than that, I believe.
I am not trying to turn back the clock. Readership patterns are changing and we need to change with them. What I am trying to do is insure that Virginia Baptists can continue to rely on the Religious Herald to inspire them to faithful responses to God’s call, to inform them of issues that have a faith impact and to interpret issues as honestly possible both now and into the future.
Jim White is editor of the Religious Herald.