The Front Page

By Warren E. Berkley

In 1993 I was happy to be reunited (electronically) with an old friend, Jon Quinn. We became acquainted in the 1970's when both of us were preaching in Kansas. We moved away from Kansas, and while we continued some limited contact, distance hindered our former closeness. All of this changed when we started using computers and signed up for AOL. Not long after we established online contact we started Expository Files. The first issue was published in January of 1994. Thus with this issue we begin our 8th year of publication.

Changes come quickly in cyberspace. In '94 we distributed EF through the AOL and CompuServe religious forums, and through a few BBS networks. We monitored downloads on AOL and witnessed a surprising monthly increase in our circulation. When the world wide web opened for public use, we started getting requests from several religious/educational institutions who maintained web sites and FTP sites. By 1996 we had a website devoted to Expository Files, and many listing us as a link. Today, there are at least four EF websites (two offering the full monthly issue in HTML). We witness hits and responses from all over the world.

I looked back at the editorial I wrote for the first issue and I can honestly say our intent has not changed. The format, methods of distribution and circulation has changed. We offer topical articles along with four expository articles. We have both readers and writers we didn't have in 1994. But the intent of the editors is the same. As stated in '94 - "Our intent is to upload articles with emphasis on the exposition of Scripture … We want to offer articles which are simple, true to the Scriptures, and easy to read… Our motive is to provide Biblical teaching for on-line computer users…" All of this is current.

We are proud of our record of timely publication. We have often been tempted to delay, when various unexpected things happened. I've had four surgeries since 1994; I now have five grandchildren; I was out of town nearly a total of two months in 2000; Jon is about to start "marrying" his kids into their own families; I believe he has had at least one computer crash per year - so we've faced a variety of temptations to delay publication. Each time we have resisted, and we've been a day or so late only three or four times since '94 (sometimes due to server interruptions). Maintaining the publication schedule will continue to be important. Readers expect the magazine the first of each month. Their expectation becomes our obligation.

We appreciate the work of writers and the comments of readers. And, we are so thankful to Alan LaRue for his work maintaining an attractive and easy-to-navigate website at http://www.geocities.com/Athens/4051/. Alan not only has special proficiency in HTML, he has a very special devotion to the spread of the gospel. We commend all "to God, and to the word of His grace…," (Acts 20:32).

Publisher's Note:  I'd like to thank Warren and Jon for working so hard for so long to edit and distribute this fine magazine. They are certainly committed to this work and it is indeed a great one.  I intended to hand off the publishing of this version to someone else last year and Warren offered to take it up, but if you've ever worked on something like this you can understand how difficult it is to take over what someone else has been doing.  My methods are certainly not clear to other people!  As a result, a couple of months of the 2000 volume never made it to this website.

My reason for wanting to pass it on was simple:  I am usually late in publishing, sometimes a few days, usually a week or two, and once (in 1999) even four weeks.  Although I spend all of my time at work on the computer (I'm a programmer, not a preacher), I seldom use it at home.  However, it only takes about an hour to turn all of Warren and Jon's work into a new issue on this site, so I certainly should be able to commit to spending one hour before the first of each month to turn my issue out on time.  I did better in 2000, but still was two weeks late several times, and now I'm publishing the January, 2001 issue on January 6th.

And so, also, I thank Warren for his kind words about me in this editorial and promise to be more timely this year than before.

And you, the readers, who are currently visiting in at a rate of about 150 per week, thank you for your support; I trust that your visit has helped you.

-Alan LaRue