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Editorial

By Paul Beasley-Murray.

We were very grateful to those many readers who kindly took the time to complete a questionnaire with a view to making Ministry Today and RBIM activities as relevant as possible to the needs of those involved in Christian ministry.

We were delighted with the good response - and even more so when we discovered that almost without exception, the comments were highly favourable. To mention just a few:

'Super journal that addressed many of the issues facing me and speaks with a sensible voice. It's jargon free and invariably "rings true"'

'I look forward to receiving Ministry Today. Thank you for a most informative and valuable journal'

'I have found many of the articles absolutely fascinating and very relevant'

'Keep up the good work'

Perhaps one of the best read:

'I am very satisfied with RBIM. The conference I attended was very helpful and stimulating and I find the articles in Ministry Today stimulating, challenging and encouraging... Please send thirty recruitment leaflets for me to take to Fraternals'.

Needless to say, we would be more than happy to send RBIM flyers to all our readers Ð the more members we have, the more we can keep the subscription down!

With regard to some of the details, almost everybody felt Ministry Today to be the right length - only one reader felt it to be too long, while three felt it to be too short. 62% of those responding thought the balance of articles and reviews is about right - on the other hand, 27% thought there are too many reviews. Nobody thought there were too many articles! Almost everybody said the articles were 'at the right level', 'interesting', and 'helpful'.

Comments on the reviews section were somewhat mixed: 75% thought the reviews helpful; 27% thought them sufficiently detailed, but 18% thought them insufficiently detailed. So where do we go from here? It certainly is true that some reviews are very brief - but we have felt that for readers who lack easy access to a decent bookshop, even a brief mention may be helpful. The Board of Management will give more thought to this issue.

As editor, I particularly appreciated the comment that 'it would be good to have a lively correspondence column, inviting comments on the articles from readers'. Agreed! The more the better. So over to you!