Letter From the Editor

At the end of a publication year, traditionally the editor hands off his red pen, dusts off his black, and fires off some pithy heartwarming anecdote to accompany the holiday issue. Here traditions can vary, but often he writes about 1) his early experience with writing/what inspired him to write, 2) how wonderful/endearing/enjoyable his staff is, 3) some vague, high minded bit about the importance and significance of written thought. Since I’ve been taken away from my own writing for quite some time, and don’t have myself as an editor telling me to “keep it short, no one cares that much”, I’ll attempt all three.

I’ve been writing since grade school. Story after story got scribbled down on wide ruled notebook paper in scratchy mechanical pencil, and my father, the Great Editor, would take them back to his desk and get out his red felt tip and mark up subject-verb disagreements, comma splices, and characters I had introduced only in my head. Fifteen years later I was still writing in mechanical pencil, still splicing commas, and still cranking out stories.

Somewhere along the way I picked up a severe inferiority complex about my work, and stories sat in/on/around my desk unread by anyone but myself and the Great Editor. So why did I start my first blog, and moreover, why am I managing a blog on a Christian campus ministry’s website? Because I saw the need of every believer’s voice, no matter how self-conscious the speaker (or scribbler) might be. The apostle Paul is quite explicit in 1 Corinthians: “…Each one has a psalm, has a teaching, has a revelation, has a tongue, has an interpretation. Let all things be done for building up… He who prophesies speaks building up… He who prophesies builds up the church.” (14:26, 3-4)

Paul was talking about a Christian gathering, a meeting. He wasn’t presupposing the internet, but let me draw this conclusion: much of our “gathering” in the present day, Christian or otherwise, happens online. There should be some voices there that are “having”—that are promulgating the gospel, and not just in the general sense of the good news of Christ’s death and resurrection, but our personal experience of those things. Somewhere along the way I “caught the vision”. I decided that if I believe the Bible (I do) and I am a Christian (I am), I must be experiencing something of the Lord, and I must in turn share that. I started as a senior in college, and since then I’ve been endeavoring to speak (and write) whatever is the fresh bread to me from the Word (1 Sam. 21:6).

In the beginning of this past summer, I had the following wild idea: why not incorporate some of the students I serve into this burden? I pitched it to two of my fellow staff members who also maintained blogs, who agreed. Thus began “Blog Team” (a name I wrote on my weekly to-do list to change 7 months ago). As of press date, we have five writers, whom I have been drilling with the vision for Christian blogging. It has been a real joy to help them brainstorm, to encourage them as they write, and to edit for them.

But much more than that, I’m really glad that 5 students so far realize the value of speaking and “telling out the virtues” of our Lord. Not to clutter cyberspace with yet more polemics on theology, but to write the Christ that they know, the real, familiar experience of a Person who lives in them. I’ve been greatly helped and edified just by reading them, because I can’t see God’s need for a house like Sarah Chen can. I can’t know Joseph’s dreams like Philip can, I don’t know Christ as my Guiding Star like Erin, and I need Johanna to tell me that God is available to me 24/7.

It’s been a truly excellent semester, in large due to this space. Thank you all for reading, thanks to Kyle and Katherine for helping me make this a reality, and thanks to my writers for letting me publish your experience of Christ.

And that’s a great conclusion, but unlike a magazine, our publication doesn’t end. Check back (and subscribe!) for our writers’ weekly updates on our winter break reading, and we’ll be back to kick off the new year/semester in style come mid-January. Have an excellent break!

By: David Fulton