One of our writers and sometime board member John Stackhouse often made the point that ChristianWeek is a publication of record for the evangelical community in Canada. That role cannot be minimized. We may not go about our work thinking that this or that story or feature should be run because it will become part of the record of Christianity in this country, nonetheless, the stories we carry do become part of a permanent record of what is happening in and through this stream in Canadian Christianity. That’s an important role to play.

Anyone who has done any sort of research knows how important such records are. Recently, I’ve been reading a book by a Ukrainian author, Sergei Zhuk, who writes about the emergence of evangelical groups in that country during the 19th century, many of them influenced by revivalist and reform groups from western Europe. He calls what happened Russia’s Lost Reformation, because so much of what was budding was harshly suppressed by the Soviet system which followed, abetted, one has to say, even before the Soviets got to it, by Orthodox church leadership too.

Every record that remains from that time has become part of the exciting story of what happened then, but more importantly, becomes part of the story of what God is doing now to build on that long suppressed foundation.

We have no idea how stories that appear in these pages will be used. Some simply form part of an ongoing record. For almost twenty years these pages have gathered such accounts and comment. Some will be lodged in readers’ minds and stimulate plans and actions we can only guess at. Some are creating new connections between readers. Some have triggered dissent and others generated unity.

Whatever the impact—most of which we are only vaguely aware—we believe that a publication such as this becomes an important record of God at work among his people and within his creation. It’s a privileged role to have.