May 21 2002

ARTICLE TOOLS

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In the beginning, this issue's cover story had nothing to do with Dallas. Now it has everything to do with the Big D.

Among CT's most popular (and most labor-intensive) covers from the past decade were such "list" articles as "100 Things the Church Is Doing Right" (Nov. 17, 1997) and "Up & Comers: 50 Evangelical Leaders under 40" (Nov. 11, 1996).

Last year I urged associate editor Ed Gilbreath to create a top-25 list of groundbreaking urban ministries. As Ed mulled over that project, he paid several visits to Dallas. There he discovered many fascinating urban ministries. Neurons fired and synapses crackled in Ed's brain. Why not create a cover package on the wide variety of ministry going on in Dallas?

"The New Capital of Evangelicalism" is a fitting finish for Ed's current tour of duty at Christianity Today. As he put the final touches on this issue, Ed took a new assignment with two of CT's sister magazines: Christian Reader and Christian Parenting Today. Both periodicals will benefit from the magazine savvy Ed brings them as their new managing editor. We congratulate Ed on his new responsibilities and with the next issue we will list Ed as an editor at large.

Christianity Today has a long connection with Dallas through Clayton Bell, who served on CTI's board of directors from 1974 until his death in 2000. For much of that time, he functioned as vice chairman and executive chairman. But Clayton was also pastor of Dallas's Highland Park Presbyterian Church and a key force for evangelical renewal in the mainline.

One difficult time for Highland Park occurred in the late '80s and early '90s as church members debated whether to stay in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) or to join a more theologically conservative denomination. ...