The War Cry
How about it? Is the War Cry making a difference? What do you see as its purpose? Do you use it to introduce people to Christ or to help folks grow in their faith? Who do you think it reaches?
Now while I'm looking for honest answers, I am not as interested in negative responses. The hard working people who publish the magazine are doing so as an offering to the Lord, so cheap shots of any sort would not be appreciated here.
How do you see it? Read one lately? What do you think?
Romans 2:1 (MSG)
1 "Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors."
Now while I'm looking for honest answers, I am not as interested in negative responses. The hard working people who publish the magazine are doing so as an offering to the Lord, so cheap shots of any sort would not be appreciated here.
How do you see it? Read one lately? What do you think?
Romans 2:1 (MSG)
1 "Those people are on a dark spiral downward. But if you think that leaves you on the high ground where you can point your finger at others, think again. Every time you criticize someone, you condemn yourself. It takes one to know one. Judgmental criticism of others is a well-known way of escaping detection in your own crimes and misdemeanors."
posted by Jim Knaggs | 8:19 PM
7 Comments:
Interesting timing on your post. Fow awhile I hadn't read a War Cry, because, I guess I just wasn't interested. Maybe I had too much going on in my life and it just didn't seem relevant to me. But I recently read the Hurricane Katrina Update issue from cover to cover and was pleased and impressed. I loved all the pictures of the kids and the description of the Army doing the work that we are famous for.
Thanks for bringing up this topic.
In His Grip,
Dave
salarmyofficership.org
As a Corps that still has "War Cry Stands" all year round, I agree there is an audience who read (and request it) from our folks. I too read it, have used some of the material in sermons and devotions. We are currently looking at ways to reach out to the greater community in the Corps area, one of the areas we are thinking about is going into the shopping centers and placing evangelistic material on the windows of cars and handing out to those in the area to introduce them to the Army. I am thankful to those who produce our War Cry, not something that I have a talent for, so I thank God for them sharing their talents with us and the world!
PS. I agree with Susan "Another idea may be to look into adding more of a modern, evangelistic magazine aimed at evangelism while continuing to produce The War Cry as it is."
I have seen some good articles in the War Cry. I have seen it less as an inspirational or evangelical (whatever your definition of those two words are), but have seen it as a pretty effective way of telling the story of the Army.
I do like Susan's ideas. I think they have great merit. I would also think the War Cry should have some interviews with some of the leaders of our time. I would love to see people like Jim Wallis, Bill Hybels, Bono, or authors like Donald Miller either interviewed or writing a series of articles.
These are valid and valuable comments. Thank you for your appropriate approaches. The editorial team at the WC want the same thing that is being mentioned here. Let's see what happens.
I'd love to see some really neat graphic changes happend with the Young Salvationist as well. I love the Editor personally, but that magazine seems to have just taken the format of the War Cry, made the font larger and dumbed down the content.
The War Cry seems to appeal to a pretty limited audience. I did not notice anyone at the corps take a War Cry. Most took the Priorty and the Good News and YS, but not the War Cry. It seems antiquated. When I was doing social work at the corps I always put one in the bags of the clients, but they never took that particular magazine on their own.
I also look at it from a finacial standpoint (Being in accounting) - and its disappointing that a case of 100 War Cry mags come to the corps and sit on the shelf. There's no outlet for them right now. I'm sure there are some corps that still use them in some way, but it doesn't seem cost effective when we have other mags that appeal to a specific audience.
HOWEVER, in saying all of that, I've enjoyed many an article in the War Cry and I'm not suggesting that the whole thing be scrapped. I'm putting my weight behind the comments made to reevaluate the audience, modernize the graphics and tweek the content a bit to fit a more general audience (which I think is what the WC is going for to begin with).
Just a thought or two.
And as a side note: we will miss you terribly when you leave. USA East is synonymous with "the Knaggs"
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