Prof K. Runia. Trowel & Sword. March 1958
Preamble: We begin this week’s edition with recent feedback received from readers of both “Trowel & Sword – Special Edition” and “Trowel & Sword Revisited“. Our reason for doing this will become evident when you read this week’s short post written way back in March 1958 by the then managing editor of Trowel & Sword, Prof. K. Runia (one of our favourite authors). At that time T&S had been published for a mere 3 1/2 years compared with TSR’s 2 1/2 years. (Has it been that long?) It occurred to us that in nearly 70 years very little has changed. What has changed for us is that we are both septuagenarians so it may well be that unless younger men or women are prepared to step up to the plate in the not too distant future T&S may once again slip into oblivion.
The level of support and/or enthusiasm from official sources within the denomination is, to say the least, paltry – as the following excerpt from the CRCA website indicates:
“Some members of the denomination have taken it upon themselves to rework some of the excellent content of the original Trowel and Sword for the internet. You can access that here: Trowel and Sword Revisited
Please note that this is not a denominational publication, but it may be of interest to some within the denomination.”
In reality “some members” is actually one member and one former member, (the two septuagenarians mentioned earlier), who have recognised the value, not only of republishing the wisdom of past authors, but also the value of publishing the thoughts and wisdom of today’s generation.
Feedback
*To the editor
Thank you so much for the latest trowel & sword, I really enjoyed reading it.
You asked the question should the trowel & sword be rebooted my answer would be a resounding YES PLEASE.
In the bygone years I enjoyed the articles in the magazine and currently I am subscribed to ts revisited.
Sincere regards
*Hi Bert and Pieter
Good to read this special edition. Hope it gets some legs and keeps running.
Rich blessings
*Thank you for republishing this. These are very helpful comments and remind us all, but especially “readers” who present and preach sermons they have not written themselves.
*I have put these questions in our last newsletter of the year in hopes that as a small – mainly elderly church we continue to strive for growth, not just in numbers but in all aspects of our church services and community involvement. Thank you for your work in posting these gems, they are a wonderful resource and are deeply appreciated.
*Since you mentioned appreciating feedback on the articles, I thought I’d mention that while I appreciated this article you shared from John Westendorp, I thought your preamble detracted from it. Write your own article, if you must, with your (very different) perspective on sheep, but don’t attach it to these wonderful thoughts of John’s in criticism of what he writes.
*Thank you brothers for your work in “Revisiting T&S”. I appreciate your selections and have enjoyed reading them.
Editorial Paragraphs – March 1958
Recently I have heard many comments on our magazine from various sides. For an editor it is a funny thing to hear all these remarks. Some people tell you that they are quite satisfied with things as they are going on. Others, as emphatically, say, that “Trowel and Sword” is nothing – a worthless paper. A young member of our Churches even wrote me a letter to inform me, that if things did not change, he would start a new magazine! You understand, I was quite scared!
Nevertheless, it is very good to hear all these voices. It is very important for the editors of a magazine to know the reactions of the readers. Therefore I would propose to all the readers to send us their comments and to inform us of their ideas and desires.
One of the most frequent complaints was that our magazine was too Dutch.
I quite agree with this. I am even glad to hear it. It is an evidence that our readers are aware of the necessity of a development towards a complete English magazine. I personally (and I know this is also the opinion of my co-editors) am strongly in favour of this development.
But, we should not forget that a development never starts with the end! The word development means that one has to work in a certain direction in order to achieve a certain end. No doubt, in this particular case we can attain that end only in the way of a gradual process. We are facing here a problem similar to that which the churches have to solve with regard to the English sermons.It is not an easy problem, but one thing is certain: any exaggeration will do harm instead of being profitable.
The only thing we can do, and also have to do, is: to keep the end firmly in mind. And I promise you: we are doing this.
K. Runia
We look forward to receiving feedback about any of our posts. We also encourage you to share our posts with family, friends and acquaintances; in fact anyone you think may appreciate and/or benefit from the knowledge and wisdom handed down to us from the past. To view previous posts visit our website at www.tsrevisited.com
T&S Revisited 
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