“I will lead the blind by a way they do not know, in paths they do not know I will guide them. I will make darkness into light before them and rugged places into plains. These are the things I will do, And I will not leave them undone.”  – Isaiah 42:16

Life was going well after I followed the advice I had been given by my father and my friend to rejoin the buying division at the grocery-store chain I had left to open my head shop. It wasn’t long before I was given a promotion and raise. And then something totally unexpected happened.

My friend called to tell me that he was leaving the publication where he worked. And he thought I might be able to do the job. Like many people, I had never heard of Christianity Today magazine. But when I learned more about it — especially the fact that it had been started by Billy Graham and his father-in-law, L. Nelson Bell, I got excited. But there was one big problem. The opening was in management, and I didn’t have a college degree. And most of the CT staff had graduate degrees.

I was interviewed by Editor Harold Lindsell, Managing Editor Eugene Kucharksy, News Editor Edward E. Plowman and several others. I was offered a position in advertising sales. As a result, I had the opportunity to travel around the country and meet mid- and top-level managers at Christian organizations. I learned about hundreds of religious organizations, denominations, and educational institutions. And every morning when I was in the DC offices, I learned from the brilliant men at CT during staff devotions.

In the mid-1970s, CT was in a terrible financial crisis. Its circulation had grown dramatically in the early 70s, however, it was a “thought journal” with content targeted to pastors and theologians, so it had a very low renewal rate. When it was almost out-of-business, Eugene Kacharsky suggested I take over as business manager. And soon afterward the board hired the former head of Campus Life magazine, Harold Myra, as publisher.

We studied the publication’s production costs, overhead, and promotional efforts. We tested new subscription offers, evaluated every department, cut where necessary, and developed a plan for growth. When we presented our projections to the board of directors, they almost laughed at us. They couldn’t believe that we could be cash-flow positive in just a few short months, after almost two decades of losing hundreds of thousands of dollars each year.

It truly seemed like an insurmountable task. Few believed it would happen. But like the blind mentioned in the scripture passage above, the Lord lead us down paths we had never walked before. And just as He promised, He guided us through the darkness and got us through all the rugged places, and never left us alone.

In the late 1970s Christianity Today moved from Washington, DC, to the Chicago suburbs, where management launched or purchased several additional publications, newsletters and online services.