As readers of the Western Recorder, hopefully you are pleased with the transition to a magazine format. That is just one of a number of changes you will see as our team works to inform, educate and motivate Kentucky Baptists in kingdom work.

While this is the second magazine issue, it is the first I have been involved in as managing editor. I am excited about the expertise of people on the KBC Communications team that will have a role in the magazine development and production. It is truly a work in progress as we seek to honor God in our work.

Our goal is to provide unique content for the magazine—with no duplication of stories that you may have read on Kentucky Today or from Baptist Press. Our stories will not be breaking news, but stories that explain and amplify the news of the day. We’ll need your ideas—if you have an idea for a story that you think would encourage Kentucky Baptists, please call or email me or anyone the communications team. We’d love to hear from you.

Because of the time required from designing the magazine to having it printed and then mailed, it will result in us needing plenty of advance notice if you have an event or activity to promote.

We are hopeful that Kentucky Baptists across the state subscribe to the Western Recorder—it is not just a magazine for pastors and church staff members. No, we want to relate to the person in the pew as well.

The content of the magazine will include articles from people you are accustomed to seeing in the previous tabloid newspaper. However, there will also be more articles from KBC team leaders explaining how God is moving in certain areas and how you can be involved. We’re interested in your photos, which will be used either in the magazine and our website, or perhaps in both places.

Our plans are to have a different theme for each month’s magazine. For instance, the theme for this issue is Better Together, and hopefully you will see how that theme reverberates through the magazine. Next month the theme will be “The Value of God’s Word,” which is certainly a message that we must proclaim to a lost and dying world.

There is a goal to greatly enhance the “Mountains to the Mississippi” feature. We want the entire state to be represented in that effort, so if you know of a staff change, an ordination or a special event in a church, please let us know so we can include it there.

Thank you for your readership and support of the Western Recorder. I am honored and humbled to serve as the editor and ask that you pray for me and the entire communications team as we seek to honor the Lord in all that we do.

Chip Hutcheson is interim managing editor of the Western Recorder, a monthly magazine of the Kentucky Baptist Convention. You can email him at chip.hutcheson@kybaptist.org.