PHOENIX — Barely two years after replacing their newspaper with a feature-oriented magazine, Arizona Southern Baptists are once again reading news in the state-convention publication. For the first time since it replaced the 65-year-old Baptist Beacon in November 1997, the current issue of Portraits contains four pages of news.
“When Portraits was created in late 1997, it was with the intention of helping you learn how God is working through our Southern Baptist family and how you can get involved,” Portraits Editor Elizabeth Young wrote in the magazine’s March issue. “The method chosen to accomplish this was feature stories. We wanted to educate and motivate, while also engendering a warm, family feeling.”
Recent tumultuous events, however, caused convention leaders to rethink that policy. The collapse of the Baptist Foundation of Arizona and Grand Canyon University’s voting to sever ties with the convention were reported in secular media but not in the Baptist publication.
“We’ve heard you,” Young told readers. “Arizona Southern Baptists have been in the news lately. And you want to know what’s going on — from a Southern Baptist perspective.”
The four-page news section, titled “Snapshots,” will be a regular feature in future issues, Young said. In addition to local news, it will include briefs compiled from the Southern Baptist Convention news service, Baptist Press.
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