April 2019 will mark Charisma magazine’s 500th issue. The magazine officially launched in August 1975, with Thurlow Spurr gracing the cover of the inaugural issue. This April, Hillsong’s Brian Houston will smile back at readers. Stories in between have covered everyone from Kathryn Kuhlman to Oral Roberts, Mother Angelica to Donald Trump.
“I had a desire to write articles … about what the Lord was doing,” Stephen Strang, Charisma‘s founder and CEO shares in a new interview with publisher Dr. Steve Greene.
In 1975, Strang, a cub reporter at the Orlando Sentinel, knew he wanted more than what the newspaper could offer, so he spoke to his church leaders at Calvary Assembly of God in Orlando.
“Back in that day, that was the Jesus Movement Days, and the Jesus Movement people in different cities would have what we called ‘Jesus newspapers.’ Those were large black-and-white tabloids with testimonies and pictures, kind of the hippie style, which was in vogue at the time. I started publishing it for the church. Somebody else had started it, but it didn’t amount to a whole lot, and I took it over and published a couple issues, and in the process, I got to know the printer and thought, ‘Hey, I could do this [in a] magazine format!'” Strang says.
Thus Charisma was born.
“In the early days, I didn’t have as much desire to succeed as I had a desire not to fail,” Strang says.
What started as a bimonthly magazine is now a multimedia brand with printed magazines, websites, books, podcasts and more, all geared to Spirit-filled believers.
“Most people in the Spirit-filled church are sincere people trying to follow God, trying to hear from the Holy Spirit, trying to follow the Bible, trying to do good in their communities, trying to raise their families and vote the right way, and all those kinds of things,” Strang says. “Are they perfect? No, but many of them are on fire for God. They take their Christianity seriously. They are givers. And you know, the media kind of portrays all of us like a bunch of buffoons and Elmer Gantry-type people. That’s not true at all. So we serve that community.”
How did Charisma grow? What were some of the biggest challenges the company faced? How did the Strangs pursue God through it all? Strang answers these questions and more in the podcast. Check it out.
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