Over the last five months I’ve been thinking about leadership in new ways. Last September, I began leading Cru^®’s team of writers and editors.

This job is different from leading the team that produced Worldwide Challenge^® magazine. The magazine team shared a goal: to produce and distribute an issue every two months. People held nine different roles—most filled by just one person—but we all understood our goal.

Leading the writers and editors team flips that model. Most team members share one role, writer. But the team is responsible for a wide variety of goals. A priority is to write and edit stories for Cru^® Storylines, the digital publication that replaced the magazine. We also prepare stories for Cru.org, our website, which focuses on a different audience. We’re launching a plan to help the different branches of Cru collect stories that they can use. Our team also produces Cru’s annual report.

An important part of my role is training the next generation of editors. In the office, I work with the new leaders of Cru^® Storylines. Beyond Cru, I’ve been asked to train editors from around the world through the organization Magazine Training International this summer.

That fits into part of what we are trying to do within Cru. We’re working to make our outreaches, publications and the organization as a whole more welcoming to a wider range of people around the world. We want to work better with everyone, no matter where we grew up, our ages, ethnicities or anything else that makes us different from one another.

To help us prepare for that, three of us—Rachel (above, center) editor in chief of Cru^® Storylines, Melody, it’s managing editor (above, right), and I—attended The Lenses Institute late last year. This Cru training invites us to put on the “lenses” others see through in order to understand their perspectives.

Would you pray for two things for us this month?

• Please continue to pray for the Writing for Life training Anne Marie is hosting at Cru’s headquarters. She’s teaching two classes each Thursday afternoon.
• Pray for my adjustment to this new leadership role as I continue to adjust. Pray that I’d serve the writers and editors well in preparing them for the mix of work each one is responsible for.

Thank you for your generosity and prayers for us.