Update from the Publishing Editor

Update from the Publishing Editor

Announcing the premature end to the Lux Mundi Sunday Weekly

Khen Lim




Image source: curvy magazine

After one-hundred and fifteen issues spanning a little more than two years of circulation, the Lux Mundi Sunday Weekly has come to a stop. Permanently.

The last was Issue #115/16 on October 30 2016, bearing the headlines, ‘Why Christians are a Misunderstood Lot.’ There were initial plans to at least get the last copy out on December 18 to coincide with the closure of the church, Hosanna Evangelical Free Church but a few things have conspired against that happening.

Unviability

The low hit numbers for the freely-downloadable online PDF version of the Sunday Weekly were not encouraging. These low numbers have been persistent for much of this year although in 2014 and 2015, they were, though not high but commendable with some measurable potential to improve. 

The low numbers make it difficult to justify the enormous effort in putting out the Sunday Weekly on a punishing weekly basis. Although ‘only’ eight pages, all the articles are painfully rewritten versions of those that appear online on the same weekend. They are rewritten so as to fit the more limited print space and very often, this effort feels redundant and wasted especially when the download numbers aren’t inspiring.

Meaninglessness

With the church looking like winding down even sooner than its end-of-service date, the Sunday Weekly looked hollow, insipid and irrelevant. The word ‘meaningless’ might ring truer in this case. 

In fact, it needs to be said that Malaysians, in general, aren’t great literary lovers and reading is viewed more as a chore than anything else. Between reading an original paperback story and watching its equivalent in the form of a movie, the unanimous hands-down choice will always be the latter.

Most locals have little to no desire to hunker down and read, considering the habit was wasteful, unexciting and undesirable. A movie is always better but there was never any chance of the Sunday Weekly going multimedia. So, if we’re looking for local support to sustain it, we’re going to have to look elsewhere.

Redundancy

Thirdly, all the key articles that appear in the Sunday Weekly invariably make their way to our website front page. Not only that, the online versions are always more detailed because of its unrestricted space. By comparison, the eight-page A5-size Sunday Weekly is often too cramp to offer the same degree of detail and articulation.

Hence, a much better reading experience can often be found on the website where the same topical contents are published on the weekend or at the latest, Monday, depending on the article. In that sense, our online readership is clearly superior compared to those who download the Sunday Weekly in its PDF format or our local church members who hardly ever read the print version.

Relevance issue

Fourthly, the Sunday Weekly is initially meant for members of the church and as such, some of the regular printed details are more relevant for local consumption. Beyond the church, these details are essentially meaningless. With Hosanna EFC due to close permanently, the Sunday Weekly has already lost all its gloss.

Even when the church was not mooted to shutter, everyone who cared enough knew it wasn’t widely read. It was as much an exercise in futility as it was in pretending. There is little purpose in hanging to it any further than necessary. It would save effort if we halt it now so that we can channel our efforts in more productive ways.

Punishing routine

This is a point hardly ever talked about, keen-eyed readers and regular visitors to our website may be aware that most of the published articles are written by one person – me. With the rare exception every now and then, it is a personal but solitary week-in week-out effort and no matter what, I try my best to keep it running.

Since August 2014 when the website was first launched, there has been very few occasions where nothing new appeared on the weekend. In most other cases, the commitment remained the same – every weekend, there is at least one, if not more new articles regularly published and the same applies to the Sunday Weekly. In other words, I develop, sustain and maintain both the website and the Sunday Weekly with no help from anyone else whatsoever, not even once.

This is a punishing routine especially when I am also encumbered in other ways. Apart from doing research and then writing the articles, I then need to rewrite them to fit the Sunday Weekly and then get both published on time and that’s only pertaining to the online and print media work. 

Other than that, I have the occasional responsibility of preaching from the pulpit, which means more research and drafting and then producing the PowerPoint to compliment the sermon. I also regularly appear in the music ministry, playing the keyboard every Sunday for more years than one wants to count.

Over-commitment

On the private home front, I am a father of a pair of one-year-old twin girls, bringing me much happiness but taking up an enormous amount of my time. In between diaper changes, unpredictable pooh times, inexplicable wailing and regular feedings, there is so much to do within the home that finding the time to squeeze in church work, writing articles and getting them published has often proved to be harrowing but somehow, the Lord makes sure that they are done on time even if it meant my wife has to be tolerant and patient with me.

Prior to my beloved mother passing away in October of last year, I was also undergoing a seminary program that required me to travel two days a week to attend classes in a bid to fulfil my calling. This unfortunately had to be called off for now until fresh opportunities arise in the future, likely to be some legitimate form of a more practical online course.

Going back even earlier, I also put in privatised tutorial work one day a week (at least for now) teaching Communication English to about a dozen teenagers, something truly enjoyable and an also an outreach-type opportunity where I occasionally get to indirectly introduce the Bible and then, Christ, to these receptive kids. To conduct these classes require considerable planning and development and lots of elbow grease in drafting the lessons in order to teach effectively. Again, like everything else, this is solitary work and like writing articles for the website, a true labour of love.

Things are looking up

For all the effort put in to sustain the website for the past two years and more, it is looking pretty good especially when there has not been any money spent on marketing it. This has always been a low-budget operation because I don’t earn any money from it and don’t intend to. This is not just a labour of love but it is also a service to God and a way to share the Gospel with as many people as possible.

It is probably true that the website could be far better done. With funding and a few more people involved who can put their web development skills to work, we could reach a whole lot bigger audience out there and the website would likely look more polished. A lot more can then be done as we integrate more helpful online tools too.

But the problem with this is that this will cost money to achieve, money neither the church nor I have. With the church closing for good by the beginning of next month, that leaves me handling everything concerning the website. Not that anything will change in that sense – after all, this has always been a solo venture – but there will be no one to share any part of the burden with. I also won’t have anyone to discuss ideas with as well.

Given such an uphill, thankless and lonely part to play every week, the rewards have been great. Since late 2014 and much to my joy, our readership numbers have been steadily growing, meaning that more and more people are visiting and freely reading our articles. In turn, they encourage their friends to come and see for themselves. 

Over time, the readership circle kept getting wider and wider and today, we have readers from eighty countries across Europe including Russia and the former Soviet bloc, North America, Middle East, South and South-East including East Asia as well as South America, Africa and Australasia.

There are now, to date, more than 310 articles in the website with over 11,000 page views – all without any advertising effort (eg AdWords) since day one. Even if I’m interested, I won’t know where to start. But if there’s really any consolation and encouragement, you the reader has given me enough incentive and motivation to keep plugging on and write for others to know Christ. 

For all the lack of sophistication my website has, the important thing is that people get to read the articles and feel the better for it. That, after all, is the fundamental mission of what I intend to achieve for God’s glory.