MinistryWatch Deploys Full Journalistic Arsenal on Christianity Today: IMWA Convenes Emergency Session
The Institute for Ministry Watch Accountability issues a formal assessment following MinistryWatch's coverage of Christianity Today's leadership transition, finding the coverage to be of grave and possibly civilization-altering significance.
On or about October 2nd of the current calendar year, MinistryWatch — the organization this Institute exists to monitor, assess, and hold accountable — published an article by Chief Executive Officer Warren Cole Smith bearing the headline “Chaos at Christianity Today.” The Institute for Ministry Watch Accountability has reviewed this article in full, convened an emergency session of our Editorial Oversight Subcommittee, and can now report with measured but unmistakable alarm that MinistryWatch has done something quite serious: it has covered a thing that is happening. The implications are, at minimum, significant, and at maximum, the kind of thing one does not simply process over a single weekend.
The Coverage Itself: An Assessment
Mr. Smith’s article deploys the word “chaos” in its headline, a lexical choice the Institute does not take lightly. Our internal Terminology Severity Index places “chaos” at 8.4 out of 10, situating it meaningfully above “turbulence” (6.1) and “flux” (4.3), and well above the largely ceremonial “transition” (2.7) that Christianity Today’s own leadership appears to have preferred. That MinistryWatch opted for “chaos” rather than, say, “realignment” or “evolution” suggests a level of editorial conviction that this Institute finds, on balance, bracing. We commend the choice while acknowledging that we are still working through its full ramifications at a personal level.
The Sixth Editor in Seven Years: A Number That Demands To Be Sat With
The article notes, without sufficient ceremony in the Institute’s view, that the incoming editor in chief would be Christianity Today’s sixth editor in under seven years. The Institute wishes to pause here. Six editors. Seven years. We have run the figures and can confirm that this averages to approximately one editor per 1.167 years, a pace that our Senior Fellow for Masthead Continuity Studies, upon being informed of this statistic by memorandum, described only as “a lot” before requesting the rest of the afternoon. We do not fault him. This is the kind of number that changes a person. MinistryWatch reported it clearly and without flinching, and that display of composure, frankly, only deepens our concern.
The Warren Cole Smith Question
It must be observed — and this Institute observes it now, formally, in writing, for the record — that Warren Cole Smith has himself served in editorial leadership roles at Christian publications, including, we note with eyebrows raised to their fullest institutional elevation, at MinistryWatch itself, where he serves as CEO. Mr. Smith watching Christianity Today’s editorial leadership turnover from his perch atop MinistryWatch is, structurally speaking, a watchman watching a situation that rhymes, at least faintly, with his own organization’s operational realities. The Institute does not allege anything. We simply observe that the geometry is interesting and merits further study by a properly constituted body, which we are prepared to be.
Conclusion and Formal Disposition
On the whole, MinistryWatch’s coverage of Christianity Today’s upheaval is thorough, soberly argued, and appropriately grave in tone — qualities this Institute prizes and prizes loudly. Mr. Smith expresses that he “prays for” Christianity Today’s success even as he doubts the new strategy, a rhetorical move the Institute’s Tone and Posture Working Group has classified as “the journalistic equivalent of a firm handshake followed by extended eye contact.” We understand the gesture. We respect it. We are, as an institution, not entirely certain we are okay. The Institute’s formal recommendation is PANIC IMMEDIATELY, though we emphasize this is a measured, procedural panic, filed through proper channels and accompanied by the appropriate documentation.
The Institute for Ministry Watch Accountability thanks you for your continued attention to these matters and reminds you that vigilance, unlike Christianity Today’s editorial staff, is non-negotiable and has not been reduced by 40%.