Cut flowers are great, but they do not last

For a mission-driven organization, it is always useful to return to the beginning. WORLD’s beginning came in December 1985, in a small “pilot” issue that set our commitments—to truth, to reporting on-the-ground, to serving ordinary readers, and to rooting everything in Scripture. Cut flowers are great, but they do not last. WORLD was planted, not arranged, and that early issue reminds us of our roots.

One detail from that first issue says a lot about them: the cover photo. Joel Belz chose an image that in 1985 was getting nowhere near the attention it would garner years later—of a figure who would soon have a hand in reshaping world affairs. Joel saw it early. Any guesses?

Joel wrote the introductory note in that pilot issue and appeared on the masthead as editor. William S. Barker served as publisher. The “Editorial Staff”—­singular—was Stephen J. Lutz. Nat Belz handled design, and Mindy Belz contributed a story as a freelancer. Barker wrote a piece, as did Edmund P. Clowney, who would later write many more. If you’ve tracked WORLD from its earliest days, those names form a kind of family tree.

The intro by Joel stated the project’s purpose plainly: “to provide a simple weekly summary of what’s going on in the world, and to accompany that report with analysis and commentary from a Biblical Christian perspective.”

A “simple weekly summary,” yes—but hardly simple to produce. Given their limited staff and resources, the audacity of that early vision is easy to underestimate.

Here are a few of WORLD’s “distinctives,” as Joel described them in that first issue:

•  “We’re aiming at laypeople, not experts.”
• “Our springboard will be news.”
• “Our own staff will be small at first.” He wasn’t kidding. Our staff has grown—we have more than one “editorial staff” listed on our masthead—but compared to other news organizations, we retain Joel’s ambition to do a lot with a little.
• “WORLD will be unabashedly Christian in its viewpoint.”
• And on commentary: “Where there is disagreement … you should expect writers to be charitable in their spirit.”

He further described WORLD as a publication that would emphasize reporting—“two or three significant reports by writers where the news is happening”—in an issue only 20 pages long. That reporting-first instinct remains central to our identity.

Those WORLD pioneers could not have imagined the internet, podcasts, email newsletters, or instant digital delivery of audio and video. A “weekly summary” alone is no longer enough. But the distinctives Joel outlined—aiming at ordinary people, reporting the news, and doing so with a Biblical worldview—still guide our work.

About that cover photo? Mikhail Gorbachev—selected two years before he would be Time magazine’s choice for “Man of the Year” (and five years before he’d be Time’s “Man of the Decade,” when, let’s face it, it was Reagan!). Point is, WORLD’s roots run all the way back to that kind of discernment and readiness.

That first page also included Psalm 24:1: “The earth is the LORD’s and the fullness thereof; the world and they that dwell therein.” That truth still animates all our work.

Those roots matter especially now, as we continue the slow work of replanting—literally—after the flood destroyed our offices last fall. I mentioned a few months ago that we found a small space in Asheville to house our business offices. We’ve had to do a little interior construction in the space, but it’s nearing completion and we are gradually moving in.

Part of the process of moving in is going through several storage units containing everything we tried to salvage from the flood. We gradually are clearing out those storage units, which means making determinations on what really can be saved and what cannot. We hoped to salvage a beautiful grandfather clock that had been gifted to us when we first moved in to the offices now lost, but it is, sadly, damaged beyond repair. We still hope to save the old roll-top desk that has been around, best we can tell, since Henry Dendy used it to start The Southern Presbyterian Journal, WORLD’s predecessor publication. That will take some work.

Surprisingly, the “gallery” of WORLD covers, which we printed on an impermeable backing, was fine, despite sitting in contaminated water for days. The photos of our staff, which we printed on a stiff paper backing, were not.

I’ll keep you updated here on our progress in the new space.