Perhaps most important of all, he emphasized that Christianity Today
should be positive, not divisive, in contrast to many other publica-
tions. “This magazine should take the responsibility of leading in
love,” he declared.
Roughly twenty years later, at a very difficult time in CT’s his-
tory, trustees met in the Airlie House center in Virginia to evalu-
ate the magazine’s future. Reaching deep into his battered, brown
briefcase, chairman Harold Ockenga searched for and finally sur-
faced his copy of Billy’s original speech. When he described it, oth-
ers urged him to read it aloud. Ockenga rose and read the entire
text, just as Billy had twenty years before.
As soon as he had finished, one trustee exclaimed, “That’s it!
That’s the mandate!” Said another, “Remarkably prescient. That’s
still the essential CT, and it should continue to be.” Agreement
rose from the other directors.
Harold Ockenga often said, as board chair, that CTwas “Billy’s
magazine,” and that he was essentially filling in for him. Billy was
not at the Airlie House meeting, but he had laid the foundations
so that the original vision continued.
He shared launch concepts with the staff. As editor Carl Henry was
preparing the first issues, Billy fed him insights and article ideas.
For instance, he was concerned that many assumed that because
evangelicals emphasized personal salvation, they ignored poverty.
He advocated an article that would show the facts—that evangel-
icals were very conscious of social needs. He wrote to Henry, “It’s
easy to sit in ivory towers and talk about social justice; it’s quite
another thing to get out and actually do it yourself. Dr. Nelson Bell
seems to me to be a case in point. While some talk about social jus-
tice, he actually went to China and gave twenty-five years of his
life to social service in the days before modern medicines, when
there was genuine danger for himself and his family.”
He celebrated, prodded, and praised.When the first issue of
Christianity Todaycame off the press in October 1956, Billy read
it thoroughly. He also went to a lot of work reviewing it with
others he respected. Then he wrote Carl Henry a lengthy syn-
opsis and evaluation.
The Leadership Secrets of Billy Graham