Our Goals
- To glorify the Lord God (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and His holiness, grace, wisdom and power.
- To declare and apply the whole counsel of God in His Word, remembering to stress faith, hope and especially love.
- To emphasize our dependence on Him (and therefore prayer), and loving unity-amid-diversity, and our need to be led by and filled with the Holy Spirit.
- To stay centered on the Great Commandment (love God and others) and the Great Commission (make the Gospel known World-wide).
Our History
It began over 100 years ago. In a Church of Christ in New Orleans several members became deeply burdened by the Lord. They were on fire to train believers to live holy lives, evangelize the lost, and establish strong congregations which would worship the Lord and carry on those same ministries in many other places.
To help them reach those goals, in 1908 they started to publish a magazine, first called The Christian Word and Work. Two so-called laymen led the way. D. L. Watson, a pediatrician, was main editor for the first five years. He wrote in the opening editorial, “Our new enterprise has sprung from a desire to build up the Cause of our dear Redeemer… We shall urge the churches to support the preaching of the Gospel in the regions around them, that the people may know the will of the Lord, be saved, and added to the body of Christ’s workers…”
Stanford Chambers was a co-editor in those years, as well as being teacher and principal in a Christian school which that church began. Then he became the leading editor from 1913-15, shortening the name to Word and Work. He added some new regular columns — regarding first principles, work and worship, soul-winning, Bible school, prophecy, etc.
By 1916 Chambers asked R. H. Boll. to become editor and move the magazine to Louisville, Ky. Boll was an outstanding Bible teacher and preacher, and wrote many books. Some critics said he taught too much about prophecy, but he taught a great deal about numerous topics in the Bible! One of the main goals of the magazine has been “to declare the whole counsel of God” (Acts 20:27). Boll also strongly emphasized God’s grace – in contrast to the legalism which was very widespread in those days. That is, he stressed that our faith must be in Christ and what He has done for us, rather than in what we do for Him. He edited W&W for forty years (1916-1956)!
Other editors have followed: E. L. Jorgenson, J. R. Clark, Gordon Linscott, W. Robert Heid, and Alex Wilson. But by and large the goals and emphases have remained the same.