🗒️ Does Old-Fashioned Reporting Still Matter To Christianity Today? Some Say No 🔌
Weekend Plug-in 🔌
Editor’s note: Every Friday, “Weekend Plug-in” meets readers at the intersection of faith and news. Click to join nearly 10,000 subscribers who get this column delivered straight to their inbox. Got feedback or ideas? Email Bobby Ross Jr.
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Peers in both the faith-based and mainstream press recognized Andy Olsen’s journalistic excellence earlier this year.
The Evangelical Press Association awarded first place for reporting to Olsen, a nearly 10-year veteran of Christianity Today, for his 2025 story on “An American Deportation.”
That honor came not long after Olsen captured second place in the Religion News Association’s Supple Award for Excellence in Feature Reporting contest — behind only Elizabeth Dias, the New York Times’ national religion correspondent.
How did Christianity Today, the prominent evangelical magazine founded by the late Rev. Billy Graham in 1956, celebrate Olsen’s accolades?
That’s unclear, but it does not appear the powers that be were overly impressed: The magazine recently laid off Olsen and multiple other outstanding journalists.
Olsen announced the personal news on LinkedIn:
This week I wrapped up nearly 10 years at Christianity Today. No one in journalism thinks themselves immune to layoffs. But because we humans are always a little bit in denial, it still catches you off guard — and then just like that CT loses half of its staff writers and editors.
What a gift this decade has been! To get to report so deeply on some of the most important stories of our time: immigration, Haiti, and the pandemic. To edit truly some of the best magazine writers of faith covering just about every imaginable subject. To cheer as many of those writers won awards and secured book deals and, in some small way, changed the world.
Journalists really are the best coworkers you could ask for. A huge thank you to the many, many folks who invested in me and allowed me to invest in them. We made so much great stuff together — and I suspect, in time, we’ll continue to do so.
Meanwhile, the publication itself sent out a news release earlier this month headlined “Christianity Today Announces New Editorial Leadership Team as the Ministry Celebrates Its 70th Year.
That release noted:
CT president and chief executive officer Nicole Martin announced the appointment of Erik Petrik as chief content officer and incoming editor in chief. Petrik, who previously served as chief creative officer at CT since 2020, is the founder of CT Media, where he executive produced CT’s acclaimed podcast series The Rise and Fall of Mars Hill. Petrik’s stint at CT has also included developing other popular podcast programs, including The Bulletin, Be Afraid, Wonderology, Being Human, and more; leading CT’s award-winning visual rebrand; and expanding the organization’s work across print, digital, audio, and video.
Petrik’s background spans journalism, film, pastoral ministry, and entrepreneurship. Study at Dallas Theological Seminary under evangelical stalwarts like Howard Hendricks and Darrell Bock informed his time as an ordained clergyman. Later at DTS, he helped pioneer spiritual formation as a field of study. Petrik has written, produced, and directed thousands of creative projects and is one of the founders of bulb Digital Portfolios, providing multimedia digital portfolios for the education market. He and his wife, Kelli, live in Colorado and have five adult children.
“With a media landscape dramatically changed over the last decade and promising more changes ahead, it was hard to imagine that we could find a leader with expertise in print, film, podcasts, church engagement, and art direction. But that’s what God has given us in Erik Petrik,” Martin said.
This transition follows the leadership of Marvin Olasky as editor in chief. Olasky, who stepped out of a previous retirement to serve the ministry at a crucial season of transition, will retire from CT in mid-October.
“When we asked Marvin to help as editor in chief last year, I was hoping he would give us at least six months of his one-of-a-kind expertise,” Martin said. “I was overjoyed that he instead gave us eighteen and that he accomplished so much in that time.”
While the release touted a “new editorial leadership team,” Petrik was the only person mentioned by name. The magazine’s positive spin on the changes failed to mention the layoffs of key journalists such as Olsen and the talented Harvest Prude, Christianity Today’s national political correspondent for the past three years.
Daniel Silliman, Christianity Today’s former senior news editor, left the magazine late last year, publicly voicing “both practical and philosophical” disagreements with its leadership.
About the same time, Kate Shellnutt, editorial director for news, resigned from the magazine after nearly 13 years to become managing editor at Praxis.
Other prominent, longtime Christianity Today journalists who have departed in recent years include Jeremy Weber, the former global editorial director, and Ted Olsen, the former executive editor. (Andy Olsen and Ted Olsen are not related.)
In a Sept. 27 post on his “Transient Ground” Substack, Silliman made note of the recent reduction in force:
Christianity Today laid off another 14 people this week. At least one more quit. That’s on top of dozens in the last year who have quit (like me, last November) or been fired. The recent cuts include people who’ve given years to the institution and two news reporters who were just hired a few months ago.
You don’t have to have any inside information to deduce that doesn’t sound like the execution of a plan.
A year ago, when Russell Moore stepped down as editor-in-chief, he described the magazine’s new leadership as “titanic.” I thought at the time it was concerning that no one found that word choice concerning.
Now all I can say is, it’s a hell of a way to celebrate 70 years.
In a text message exchange this week, Silliman — now senior reporter/editor at The Roys Report — told me, “CT has an amazing legacy of journalism, going back to David Kucharsky, the United Press International reporter hired in January 1958 to report on denominational debates and Billy Graham crusades.”
But that legacy has taken a hit since last year, Silliman said, indicating “that the leadership no longer sees reporting as an important part of the CT mission.”
Warren Cole Smith, president of MinistryWatch.com, published a piece this week titled “Chaos at Christianity Today.”
Arguing that the magazine’s Petrik announcement “glosses over the chaos in the organization,” Smith wrote:
Even from the outside, the chaos is not hard to see. Petrik’s appointment is in some ways a symbol of the chaos. It means that CT — in less than a seven-year span — has had six editors in chief: Mark Galli, Daniel Harrell, Tim Dalrymple, Russell Moore, Marvin Olasky and Erik Petrik.
The Oct. 2 announcement also did not say that simultaneous to Petrik’s appointment, the magazine was laying off 20% of its staff and 40% of the editorial team. Among those hit by the layoffs was Andy Olsen, an award-winning journalist and the editorial director for news at CT. Further, in the wake of these layoffs, Deputy Editor Bonnie Kristian announced her resignation. This recent round of layoffs followed two rounds of staff reductions in 2025 (in March and September), which shed another 20 people.
These disruptions at Christianity Today should be of interest to all those who care about evangelicalism in this country. The magazine was, after all, founded by evangelical icon Billy Graham and (arguably) the 20th century’s foremost evangelical theologian, Carl Henry. CT has been both a leader of and a chronicler of the post-World War II evangelical movement since the beginning.
Smith said he reached out to Martin for answers.
More from his piece:
To put the matter bluntly, do they know what they are doing, or are they just trying things to see if something sticks?
Martin said, “The recent changes bring our projected expenses in line with our projected income going into FY 2027 and beyond. This also gave us an opportunity to accomplish a strategic shift sooner than anticipated.” She then said something worth pausing on: “Historically CT has hired staff editors, which then allowed us to source great writers from the wider evangelical community. We are returning to that model.”
That’s a strange comment, since it means rejecting and undoing Olasky’s vision for a team of journalistically trained staff writers. The magazine will in the future depend on writers that may or may not have reporting experience. Again, there is nothing inherently wrong with that strategy. Other publications use freelancers that include academics and theologians. But it is a reversal of the strategy that brought Olasky to the magazine in the first place, less than two years ago.
I would also add that opinion writing is not a scarce commodity in today’s media economy. Hard-hitting, boots-on-the-ground journalism is. It is odd in the extreme that CT is jettisoning the very capability that differentiated it from virtually all other Christian publications.
I can’t say it any better than Smith did.
Old-fashioned journalism still matters, even if it costs more than hot takes from theologians and has fewer bells and whistles than podcasts.
I’m praying that Andy Olsen, Prude and other CT alums looking for work land in places where they can use their journalistic talents to their full potential.
Inside The Godbeat
Speaking of the Evangelical Press Association (which I mentioned earlier), its members recently approved the Christian Communicators Network as the organization’s new name.
Of 244 ballots cast, 57% supported the change, 42% opposed it, and 1% abstained.
Why the change?
As noted in a previous Plug-in column, EPA’s directors cited an expanded mission beyond the longstanding name. They also voiced concerns about “political, cultural, and sociological meanings that often obscure” the “theological intent” of the term evangelical.
The Final Plug
Years ago, a South Dakota church broke in two. A reunion seemed highly unlikely.
But then leaders started talking — and praying.
I traveled to Sioux Falls to delve into the details of the unexpected merger. Check out my recent story.
Happy Friday, everyone! Enjoy the weekend.
Bobby Ross Jr. writes the Weekend Plug-in column for Religion Unplugged and serves as editor-in-chief of The Christian Chronicle. A former religion writer for The Associated Press and The Oklahoman, Ross has reported from all 50 states and 20 nations. He has covered religion since 1999.