Interview with Cyrus N. White
Cyrus N. “Russ” White lives and works primarily in St. Louis, Missouri, and shares life with his wife, daughter, stepdaughter, a German Shepherd, and a Corgi. To balance his passion for really good ice cream, he began running in his thirties and has completed four marathons so far. Other loves include kayaking, hiking, and Coen Brothers movies. He completed a BA in Theatre from Mars Hill (NC) College and an MBA from Vanderbilt University. Russ is the President and Publisher of the Christian Board of Publication in St. Louis, Missouri.

Janine: Russ, tell us about the Christian Board of Publication. Can you share something of its faith connection and history as well as CBP’s present focus and function?

Russ: CBP’s purpose as a not-for-profit Christian publisher is to offer resources that support the ministries of healthy congregations within and beyond the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) for bringing the unchurched to awareness, seekers to belief, and believers to deeper faith and commitment to God through Jesus Christ. Founded in St. Louis nearly a century ago, we began as publisher of a newspaper for the Disciples “Brotherhood”, and then quickly moved to provide Sunday school curriculum and church supplies for the burgeoning church of the time. Curricula and supplies were the mainstays of our ministry until recently, when we moved aggressively into publishing books for congregational leaders and the seminary community under our Chalice Press imprint. For most of our organizational life, our efforts have focused inward on the denomination, and we are recognized as a general ministry of the church. Today, though, we understand our call to be to give voice to Christian teaching from a Disciples perspective outward to the larger church and the world. Our audience includes people in mainline Protestant traditions across North America and, through our website (www.cbp21.org), around the world.

For most of our existence, we operated in a model that emerged in the early 20th-century and worked well for the church of that time. As was true for most denominational institutions of that time, we were designed as a “center of expertise.” We hired experts in Christian education to develop curriculum for the congregations to use. There was a perceived homogeneity to the church that made it possible for the institutions like publishing houses to maintain an intimacy with the needs and workings of the local congregations. As we have since learned, than seeming sameness across the church was an illusion, and in the last thirty years, we have seen it all but dissolve. The material that congregations used in their ministries, the methods, and the challenges they faced all changed dramatically. So, if we are to continue to be faithful to our calling, if we are to have any reason to exist, we publishers have had to change, too. At CBP we think of this in terms of three major shifts.

The first shift has been one from being a provider of resources to being a broker. This gets back to the basic function of the publisher – to bring together the creators of content with the users, and enhance the process for both writer and reader/learner through selectivity, quality control, packaging, and distribution. This means that we offer some kinds of content and not others (e.g., yes to preaching, church planting, and social justice, but no to poetry and fiction), that the material is readable and reliable, that we present the content in a form that is easy to acquire and use (either in print or digital form), and that it is readily available to the intended audience.

The second shift has been one from informing member to equipping disciples. For much of the 20th-century, the church “enjoyed” a Christendom era -- a safe and unchallenged presence in US culture one could assume you were a member of a church unless you said you weren’t. Unfortunately, since the general and apparent assumption in many mainline traditions was that everyone is already in a church, we effectively abandoned evangelism or planting new churches for the last thirty years or so. Empty pews and failing finances finally have our attention enough for us to realize that we are back in an apostolic era – great news, really, since these have been the healthiest and most vibrant periods for the church. As we serve congregations, we understand that the idea is to help people mature spiritually and prepare them to live faithfully in the community. The ministry of congregations happens as much or more beyond the church property, with people who are not necessarily “church members.”

The third major shift has been away from focusing inward on our home denomination toward speaking to the larger church and the world. Everything we do embraces the core values of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) but very little of it is only for Disciples. We are called to encourage vigorous discussion and discernment of what it means to live faithfully as followers of Jesus, and so we are able to give voice to a wide range of authors – not just those within our own tradition.

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is one of the few Christian movements indigenous to North America. Our early founders include Thomas and Alexander Campbell, Barton Stone, and Walter Scott, emerging from the Scottish Presbyterian and Baptist traditions in the early nineteenth century. We were part of the Restoration Movement, seeking to reclaim the New Testament church. The Campbells, in particular, were seeking a relinquishment of teachings, structures, and practices of the church institution that they felt had become barriers to people being in right relationship with God. The following excerpt from the Disciples of Christ website (www.disciples.org) give a good summary of what matters most in the Disciples tradition:

Like most Christians, Disciples affirm: Jesus Christ is the son of the Living God, and offers saving grace to all. All persons are God’s children.

Beliefs and practices usually associated with Disciples include:

Open Communion: The Lord’s Supper, or Communion, is celebrated in weekly worship. It is open to all who believe in Jesus Christ.

Freedom of belief: Disciples are called together around one essential of faith: belief in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. Persons are free to follow their consciences guided by the Bible, the Holy Spirit study and prayer, and are expected to extend that freedom to others.

Baptism by immersion: In baptism the old self-centered life is set aside, and a new life of trust in God begins. Although Disciples practice baptism by immersion, other baptism traditions are honored.

Belief in the oneness of the church: All Christians are called to be one in Christ and to seek opportunities for common witness and service.

The ministry of believers: Both ministers and laypersons lead in worship, service and spiritual growth.

Janine: What is your role as President and Publisher?

Russ: To preside and publish? But seriously, it is a dual title with dual roles. The first relates to who and how we are (the strategy and performance management of staffing, organizational design, and customer care), the second to what we do and how we do it (the strategy and performance management of product/resource development).

The “president” part has to do with the overall operations of the organization. We are simultaneously a business and a ministry, so I have primary accountability to ensure that CBP is missionally effective and financially sustainable. My task becomes setting the strategic course for pursuing our purpose, and seeing to it that we have the right people in place to carry it out. And thanks be to God, I have an outstanding team of people around me making it happen.

The “publisher” part has to do with ultimate responsibility for the content we publish. Again, my role has to do with ensuring that the overall process is working. In our house, it is the editor who acquires publishing projects, and the editorial and marketing staff who decides what comes to the table for approval. Our process is set up so that if editorial and marketing support a project, I am very unlikely to decline it. But if they do not agree on the project, it is probably dead right there. There are occasions when they do not agree and will bring the project to the table for further discussion – usually because there is a broader issue involved that has to do with an interpretation or extension of our strategy. These become cases for learning, where we can test our assumptions or discern new opportunities. The whole process can be volatile, but it works for us because we have people in editorial and marketing who understand the vision and purpose of the house, who understand each other’s roles and accountabilities, and who each have the interests of the audience at heart. We may have fireworks, but we don’t have artillery.

Janine: Can you share with us how this leadership position has changed your understanding of Christianity and your perspective as a Christian?

Russ: Standing on a nearly deserted beach one moonless night at the age of fourteen, I had the existential experience of looking out to the sea and up to the stars, enveloped in blackness. I could not tell where the sky ended and the sea began. In the unity of that vision, I had the deep realization not that I was an inconsequential speck in the whole of the universe, but that I was an integral part of something huge and magnificent.

My life in leadership recalls that sensation. Our little publishing house and its people are not insignificant – we are part of the amazing sweep of God’s hand in Creation. In ways that we know and will never know, God is able to use who we are and what we do to further the Kingdom, to build up the Body, and to invite people into “a transforming encounter with Jesus Christ.” Not a bad way to spend the day.

Janine: Tell us about your involvement within your local church as well as your participation in the larger faith community/governing body.

Russ: I am one of those who grew up in the church and never really left, although I have traveled around it quite a bit. My life in the church has depended on finding a great congregation, not remaining in a given denomination. I was born in Connecticut and baptized as a Congregationalist. When my parents moved to Atlanta, there were no Congregational churches, so we became Presbyterians. I went to a Baptist college, where I became an Episcopalian. During graduate school, I joined a Disciples congregation. Following a foray into the United Methodist Church during my time at the United Methodist Publishing House, I returned to the Disciples. I have to agree with the Campbells in their belief that denominational boundaries perhaps hurt more than they help. They tend to magnify and even accentuate our differences, and conceal the reality that "the church of Christ upon earth is essentially, intentionally, and constitutionally one."

I have served in many roles in my local congregations – youth group president, Sunday school teacher, youth group sponsor, deacon, elder, committee chair, and the like. I have avoided taking leadership roles in my local congregation, because the persona of “president of CBP” is always there. I know this is not a problem for some in similar positions, but for me it didn’t work. To my delight and gratitude, God called me into a ministry with three or four others of intercessory prayer for our pastor and his ministry. We pray regularly, and meet together for a mini-retreat three or four times a year to pray together.

Janine: Outside of your church, ministry and business life, what brings you the greatest joy? Where do you receive energy that supports and sustains your work?

Russ: Well, I suppose my answer changes over time, but right now, the top three are being a dad to my teen-age daughter, spending time with my wife at our cabin in way-northern Minnesota, and doing long runs with my best friend early on Saturday mornings. Great coffee is pretty high up there, too.

I am a distance runner (slow but persistent) and I do centering prayer. The longer I do each, the more unity I find in them. Both are easy to do, if you do them consistently. Centering prayer is a listening prayer, distinct from the “speaking” prayers of confession, intercession, or petition. It is becoming still in the presence of God and waiting on God. It involves a quieting of the stream of thoughts and images that fill our minds. It is a way of letting go of all the things that occupy us, of surrendering them to God, and of allowing space for God to enter. It can be as refreshing and invigorating for me as a great run, or it can be as bruising and frustrating as those off days out on the road. The point of prayer is not centered in the self, but there are physical, mental, and spiritual benefits. Running offers similar benefits over time, and I notice a difference if I miss a day or two of prayer, just as if I miss a day or two of running.

Janine: (In light of the changing climate of church and denominational structures/institutions), from your experience as a Christian, how do you understand and interpret the message of Pentecost? What do you see as our (as Christians) direction? Has that understanding influenced your leadership in business/ministry? If so, what difference has that made?

Russ: I understand Pentecost as the historical action of God described in Acts, but also as the ongoing action of God in the life of the church today. It is the gift, the reception, the indwelling of the Holy Spirit within us and among us. The Holy Spirit is the active, vital presence of God that unifies Creation, and unifies us as children of God. And since, as C.S. Lewis reminds us, God cannot coerce us, “He can only woo,” we must exercise our will to receive the Spirit, to relinquish ourselves to God’s power and presence in us. But that is not a simple thing, and it is not painless, because the Spirit breaks down all that we are and changes us. It changes us. Don Schutt, a good friend, recently pointed out that no one wants to change. It is too difficult for welcome, even if for the best. None of us would change if we could help it. Change is death. Death means a loss of the self, and for whatever reason, we resist with all we have anything that threatens the self.

This is true for institutions, as well as individuals. Institutions resist change perhaps more persistently than do individuals – perhaps because the wills and self-images of so many individuals are connected through and dependent on them. Someone I cannot recall observed, “The nature of institutions is self-promotion and self-preservation, but that is not the nature of the Holy Spirit.” So, I find that institutions have a tendency to become rigid, self-directed, and even demonic over time, turned inward on themselves and treating “as Ultimate that which is not Ultimate.” There is hope, I think for these. The institutions of the church are not destructive in and of themselves, and they may be useful to God. In his book The Powers That Be, Walter Wink makes a beautiful assessment for the state and hope of institutions: “The Powers are good. The Powers have fallen. The Powers must be redeemed.”

The most powerful forces I have found in leading the transformation of retrenched institutions are prayer and surrender. And it begins with me. I cannot lead the transformation of the institution entrusted to my leadership unless I am being transformed. To surrender to God the institution in my care, I must become surrendered. For me, that surrender happens through the discipline of centering prayer. Out of that prayer, and the grace that pours forth from it, move the practices of service, of tithing, of hospitality, and of witness.

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