Teddy James
AFA Journal staff writer
October 2014 – Part of the mission of AFA is to be a resource for supporters. That purpose leads us to find great ministries that can encourage, educate or engage readers in their daily pursuit of Jesus. ChristianHistory magazine is one such resource.
Unique history of Christian History
Bill Curtis, executive editor of CHM and president of its parent organization, Christian History Institute, said, “My dad, Ken Curtis, saw the church making the same kinds of mistakes that were made in the past. He wanted to educate people by creating materials that would make church history engaging and hopefully prevent some mistakes from being repeated.”
That desire began to produce fruit when Ken got involved with the movie The Cross and the Switchblade in 1970. The film was successful but fell into legal trouble that led the senior Curtis to create Gateway Films. The ministry distributed the movie and other 16mm films to churches. In 1981, after widespread consumer adoption of the home video tape, Ken created Vision Video and sent Christian programming of all genres to churches, libraries, prisons and hospitals. The first church history video focused on John Huss, an early church reformer, whose work led to his being burned at the stake for heresy. Huss heavily influenced Martin Luther.
After the Huss project was finished, Ken wanted to tell more of this hero’s story. He created a study guide to compliment the video. His vision grew into CHM.
Curtis said, “We published the magazine until 1987 when Christianity Today wanted to bring it under its banner. We agreed, and they published it for the next three decades. After the 2008 economic collapse, CT made the magazine a digital property. After that, it continued to diminish until CT stopped creating content for it, and the title came back to CHI. My dad was in the last stages of cancer but with his last energies, he started working to publish the 100th issue on the 200th anniversary of the King James Bible. He passed away before it went to print, but the stage was set. The response was so strong we decided to publish another issue. And we will continue our history for the foreseeable future.”
Unique features of Christian History
CHM has many unique facets. Chief among them is that each issue focuses on a single topic. Curtis said reader input is highly coveted in the decision making process. He said, “Every year we send subscribers a survey telling them what we are considering, and we ask them to rank those ideas.”
Once the surveys are in, managing editor Jennifer Tate, senior editor Chris Armstrong and Curtis prayerfully decide what direction to take. Once a topic is selected, the team begins praying over an editorial advisor, a specialist in the chosen field CHM is covering. Curtis said, “The editorial advisor will write an article or two and refer other experts to write. They also make sure everything we print is historically accurate.”
While having leaders in a specific field of study is great, it is a potential two-edged sword as academia has a style that is stereotypically dry and does not always lend itself to smooth reading. Curtis said, “We work very hard on getting a balance between scholarship and readability. Our editors both have Ph.D.s in church history, and we have a constant tug of war between those two components. To make it easier on everyone, and to keep it interesting, we implement a story-driven focus instead of just repeating facts and timelines.”
With so much work going into a project, it is surprising CHI makes the magazine available for a donation of any amount. Curtis said, “We see this as a resource. So we do take donations, but we will send the magazine to anyone. We also make our entire archive available for free in digital form on our website.”
Unique ministry of Christian History
Christian History magazine is only a part of what CHI does. It still follows the lead of Ken Curtis in making historical documentaries and dramas for adult audiences, but it also creates and distributes the animated series Torchlighters.
Curtis said, “We started making Torchlighters about 10 years ago for children 8-12. We focus on heroes of the faith whose lives have impacted their cultures and made huge impacts for the kingdom.”
Torchlighter subjects have included William Tyndale, John Bunyan, Eric Liddell, Corrie ten Boom and many others. (See reviews in AFA Journal, 9/12.)
Curtis said, “These were made to captivate the hyperactive young person who will not sit down to read a history magazine. Hopefully they will plant a seed of appreciation for church history and the heroes found in the overarching drama of the kingdom of God.”
CHI plans to continue making Christian history relevant to today’s world. Curtis said CHI is producing a three-hour television special titled This Changes Everything, to be released in early 2015. This special will mark the 500th anniversary of the beginning of the Protestant Reformation when Martin Luther nailed his 95 Theses on the door of All Saints’ Church in Wittenberg, Germany.
“In this special project, we will examine the Reformation, explaining the initial event and the ripple effects it has had through the last several hundred years,” Curtis said. “We ask if the Reformation went too far or if it went far enough. We are also coordinating four issues of the magazine to commemorate the anniversary.”
Whether looking behind or looking ahead, Christian History Institute and Christian History magazine deserve a special place in the library of every church and the home of every believer. 
In college I took two semesters of church history. As a course requirement, I read and summarized an article a week from a source outside my textbook. I learned to head straight for Christian History magazine. While I did not appreciate church history then, CHM planted seeds that have led me to read the works of early church fathers and other heroes of the faith. CHM taught me that we stand on the shoulders of giants and reap the benefits of their work and devotion to Christ.
– Teddy James, AFA Journal staff writer
“The ‘Shrimp’ Who Stopped Slavery” – I can still remember the title that was just quirky enough to capture the attention of a 13-year-old. I read that whole 1997 issue of Christian History magazine, devoted to “William Wilberforce and the Century of Reform,” as the cover proclaimed. Inspired by Christian History magazine’s engaging and informative presentation of the subject, I checked out other biographies and movies on Wilberforce, making him the topic of a required research paper.
That was not the only issue of Christian History I read, for it had been and continued to be a standby resource in my family’s homeschool curriculum. My brothers, my sister and I thumbed through countless issues of the magazine, and even now a stack of them are stored in my mother’s house. Clearly, it’s a resource that isn’t quickly outgrown or forgotten, even as years pass.
– Stacy Long, AFA Journal staff writer
christianhistoryinstitute.org/magazine
PO Box 540
Worcester, PA 19490
800-468-0458
