When first presented a copy of THE PRESBYTERIAN OUTLOOK over 25 years ago, I didn’t contain my immediate impression.
“Looks boring.”
It was printed entirely in black and white. It showcased zero pictures. My older, wiser ministerial colleague had handed this young, newly ordained upstart a copy of the weekly newsletter with the words, “You have a lot to learn about being Presbyterian. This is where you start.” My reaction didn’t keep me from subscribing. Soon I was devouring it.
A similar first impression has stopped many others in their tracks.
Then-editor Robert Bullock found the way to add a highlight color to increase the eye-appeal. But the resulting black-and-blue combination carried the unintended connotation that ours is, indeed, a black-and-blue church.
Upon my arrival here four years ago, I set out to broaden the content and to spice up the look. Many a longstanding subscriber has affirmed our efforts. But representatives of the younger, sensory overloaded generation continue to blurt out their first impression in words that echo my own.
Even the venerable board members, when faced last March with the perfect publishing storm, directed us on staff not to retrench and retreat, but to develop an altogether new design for the magazine.
Having tested the full color printing market again and again, including the printing of a few sample editions, the prices persisted to be prohibitive. Still, one salesman arm-twisted me into giving him a chance to bid on our work. When I finally agreed, he added, “By the way, we don’t print two-color. We want to bid this in four-color.” I shrugged, anticipating yet another crazy high price.
A few days later I received an e-mail from Robert Bullock to say that he heard that the Ovid Bell Press was bidding on our work. He said that the owner, like the two previous owners (his father and grandfather), is a Session member of First Church in Fulton, Mo, where Robert recently completed a term as interim pastor.
“ … I warmly commend them to you.”
But what of the price? They submitted a bid to print at a price below what we’ve been paying for the printing of the two-color version. I checked references, and they glowed — an organization of the highest integrity.
Then we got to talking about the environment. They said that their inks are organic; that all scrap paper gets recycled into paper towels and tissue products; and that the aluminum printing plates get recycled as well. Then, to top it all off, they agreed to print on 100 percent recycled paper.
Yes, the black-and-blue OUTLOOK may look like full color, but at the heart of it, it’s gone green!
These printing changes serve as a metaphor for the hopes we at the OUTLOOK carry for the PC(USA) in the decade of the twenty-teens. The first hope is that we stop pelting each other, and allow our black-and-blue bruises to fade away, allowing the full range of colors to shine through the church.
Along with that hope, this newly designed, reorganized, paper-recycled, full-color edition of the OUTLOOK gathers together the hopes of many among us regarding the decade ahead.
We need not be quite as negative as TIME, which has dubbed the past 10 years the decade from hell, for us to decide with John Sawyer (pg. 14) that it’s time for us Presbyterians to bury the moniker “Frozen Chosen” and to pray with Byron Wade(pg. 21) for courage to face the opportunities that lie ahead.
Let’s turn the page together.
— JHH
Post-script: One other change for the OUTLOOK: In this issue, we say farewell to Laurie Wheeler, New Testament scholar whose dissertation writing is demanding too much time for her to continue preparing Uniform Lesson Series studies. We will miss her extraordinary work! We welcome in her place Sandy Irby, whose scholarship will enrich your church school classes well into this brand new decade. –JHH-
