Commission magazine remembered for influence_81103

Posted: 8/8/03

Commission magazine remembered for influence

By Craig Bird

Associated Baptist Press

RICHMOND, Va. (ABP)–The Commission no longer goes to the ends of the earth–at least not the printed Southern Baptist version. What that means for Southern Baptists' efforts to carry out the Great Commission remains to be seen.

Citing a $10 million budget shortfall, the SBC International Mission Board in June cut 37 jobs and suspended publication of its 250,000-circulation magazine, The Commission.

Projected annual savings include $800,000 in printing and postage costs, in addition to an undisclosed amount for the salaries and benefits of terminated staff members.

The IMB's communications staff, which was responsible for the 65-year-old magazine, bore the brunt of the layoffs. By one count, 14 employees from the department were terminated, including several with more than 30 years of IMB experience. An on-line edition of The Commission will continue. Research repeatedly showed The Commission played a significant role in raising money for the IMB, recruiting career missionaries and informing church leaders about missions.

The Commission “has as her most lasting legacy the untold thousands of Christians who found their concern for missions heightened by what they found in her pages,” said longtime Editor Leland Webb, now retired. “Because of TC, many advocates of missions bowed their heads in prayer and reached into pocket or purse to give extra dollars.”

The Commission also “earned a hearing for the gospel and missions in the editorial offices of some major publications whose staffs respected quality wherever they saw it,” Webb said.

Former IMB photographer Charles Ledford was a new Christian when he applied for a job with National Geographic. “They didn't have any openings but encouraged me to contact The Commission, since it was doing great things visually,” said Ledford, who last year was nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in photography for his work for USA Weekend.

The Commission was a training ground for many talented photographers, designers and writers, such as Pulitzer-nominated Joanna Pinneo, who left the mission board to become a photographer for U.S. News & World Report.

“These artisans, all the while maintaining professional quality in their work, kept as their primary goal to portray the rich and varied story of missions with honesty and passion,” said Webb, who retired in 1995 after 30 years with the publication, including the last 15 as editor.

The high cost of the glossy color publication always attracted the attention of budget cutters, Webb admitted, but until now the “value received” was judged to justify the expense.

According to Webb's research, 46 percent of career missionaries surveyed between 1986 and 1993 said the magazine played a part in their decision to seek missionary service. A 1993 report noted the IMB had received more than $10.5 million in trusts, wills or other types of gifts from contacts first made through The Commission.

Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, executive director of the Southern Baptist Convention Woman's Missionary Union from 1974 to 1989, was one of the regular readers.

“Losing The Commission is almost like losing a family member,” she said. “I remember reading it even as a young person in my home church. … The stories from the fields, along with the pictures, brought missions home to me.”

Several terminated employees declined to discuss the IMB's decision on the record. The severance agreements signed by the former employees reportedly limit what they can say about the IMB and the magazine's demise.

IMB spokesman Mark Kelly told Associated Press, “Nothing has been said about whether the (print) magazine might resume publication.” The final regular issue of the magazine will be distributed in August.

The November issue, which supports the SBC annual mission offering, also will be produced, though possibly in a new format, according to IMB sources.

The move does not affect the IMB's overseas correspondent system, which employs journalists and photographers as career missionaries stationed overseas, Kelly said. The correspondents were frequent writers for the magazine. But Kelly noted, “We still have the on-line version as well as many other channels of communicating with Southern Baptists.”

The Commission “was not afraid to compete with the big boys from the secular world of journalism,” Webb recalled. The magazine frequently garnered national awards alongside National Geographic, Newsweek and Life. Staffers credit graphic designer Dan Beatty's “phenomenal talent” as the creative force behind the accomplishments.

In the annual Pictures of the Year International competition, The Commission was awarded first place in the national magazine category in 1986. First-place honors were earned in 1988 for best use of photography by a magazine and best editing of a feature story. Other national awards for photography followed in 1989, 1990 and 2001.

Former career missionary Kathy Wade, whose position as managing editor was cut, expressed more concern for the fate of the magazine than for her job. The demise of The Commission gives her pause, Wade said, “because I know the impact (the magazine) has had on individual lives, individual ministries and individual decisions to be stronger believers in Christ.”

“It's not just 56 pages of stories and photographs winning all types of journalism awards,” added Wade. “It's been a testament of how God is continually working through his people.”