1993-1996

Yeah, I know…the paper. Last issue it was slick and shiny, now it's, it's…not.

Can we talk?

I started New Attitude when I was seventeen. Four years seems like an eternity. Our premiere issue was sixteen pages of blotchy photos and bad writing. It was printed on paper like this. Dust to dust.

We've come a long way since then. I have so many memories. I wish you could have been there for some of them. When we first started, my trip to the mailbox was the highlight of my day. I practically knew all of our subscribers by name. I poured over every letter and rejoiced over every subscription.

I'd love to have had you sit in on one of New Attitude's "official" editorial meetings at my house — after breakfast, my mom nursing the baby, siblings climbing the walls — when I'd have my family critique articles. Has a magazine every had a better staff?

The favorite part of my job is sharing the new Jiffy & Lou with my family and with Janet and Andrew. Watching their faces light up is my paycheck. Then I share it with you.

Now that 1 think about it, that's the common ingredient of everything I've ever done — creating something for the joy of watching someone else enjoy it.

But today I have news that I don't want to share. Not because it's bad, but because it means saying goodbye. All good things come to an end; every chapter has a conclusion; every play has a final act…every magazine a last issue.

I guess I might as well say it: with the winter 1996 issue, New Attitude will cease publication. New Attitude isn't ending because anything has gone wrong. I'm happy to say we're ending in our prime — that's the way I always wanted it to be,

But God has, for the past year, been leading me in a new direction. He's been drawing my heart to the local church. I've also realized the need in my own life for more training. At the same time God has graciously opened the door for me to move into a season of discipleship and study under godly men that I highly respect. Next spring I'll be making a cross-country move to the east coast. Around that time the book I've been working on (will it really ever happen?) "I Kissed Dating Goodbye" will be released by Questar Publishers. From there I'll be setting out on our most intense schedule of New Attitude conferences ever. All this has led me, after much prayer, and not a few late-night conversations with my family, to the conclusion that the time has come to close the chapter on magazine publishing.

I'll be filling you in on the details of all this and answering the many questions I'm sure you'll have in the upcoming two issues. For now it's enough to say that you deserve the best. And as God leads me down a new path, I can't give you that,

My biggest concern now is to fulfill my obligation to you as subscribers. The majority of your subscriptions will expire before our final issue. (For those who go beyond the winter issue we'll be mailing you a letter explaining how to use your credit.) If your subscription is running out before the final two issues, I'd like to invite you to extend it. We're going to "go out with a bang" and I'd love to have you along.

That is, of course, if you don't mind the crummy paper too much. Because our priority is fulfilling subscriptions, and because our income is being cut off as we come to an end (and don't want to get into debt), we're having to tighten our budget. The shiny paper nearly doubled our production cost and had to go. I'm sorry it's not as pretty.

Please be patient with us and try to be understanding. I know many of you love this magazine as much as I do. I wish it could go on forever, but it can't.

New Attitude magazine is ending, but the God it has done it's best to serve has no end. With Him in control the best is yet to come.