When giant corporations or major industries downsize, what better newspaper to report the news than The Wall Street Journal?
But cutbacks at the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board?
OK, I was a little surprised — pleasantly — to see the Journal delve into that important religion story.
The byline on the story belongs to Tamara Audi, who describes herself this way on her Twitter profile:
L.A.-based reporter for The Wall Street Journal, covering news in the West, and religion all over the place.
Audi does a nice job with this relatively concise — at about 825 words — report. I'm going to need to pay more attention to her byline.
Three keys that make this story work:
1. Real people.
Starting at the very top, the Journal puts a face on the news by focusing on a real missionary couple:
Peter and Jennie Stillman felt a divine calling to preach the gospel abroad. So the Southern Baptist couple left Texas with their three young daughters 25 years ago and became missionaries in Southeast Asia.
Now, the Stillmans are responding to a new call: early retirement. They are among hundreds of Southern Baptist missionaries working abroad who are being summoned home in a move to slash costs, after years of spending to support missionary work around the world led to budget problems.
“There’s definitely a sense of this being premature, but definitely a sense, too, of sovereign direction from God,” said Mr. Stillman, 59 years old.