As Preach magazine turns five, its first editor, Jo Swinney, looks back on how it began
In December 2013 I came across a job ad for an editor of a Christian publication. It was home-based and part-time and I had the requisite experience and qualifications listed, so I made enquiries. The agency wouldn’t divulge which publication or organisation was recruiting and they had already shortlisted, so it seemed our short conversation was over. However, they suggested I email over my CV on the off chance no one was hired in the first round. Twenty minutes later I was asked to attend for interview and two weeks after that I found myself an employee of The Leaders of Worship and Preachers Trust, along with a new Head of Marketing, Louise Skeates.
LWPT was established as an ecumenical charity with the purpose of resourcing and supporting preachers. To that end, it had been producing Ichthus Magazine on a bi-annual basis and holding an annual fellowship weekend. While Ichthus contained some preaching-related articles, most of the content related to the goings on of charity supporters and trustees. And although LWPT was officially ecumenical, to non-Methodists like me and Louise, much of the language and several of the articles were impenetrably Methodist.
Louise and I proposed that we maintain Ichthus as a charity newsletter and create a new magazine with a clear focus on preaching
