About Openings

The quarterly magazine-journal Openings was founded in 1998 by author and editor Charles Strohmer to offer interested readers an alternative way of thinking about timely and important issues, events, and people from an independent Christian point of view. It is both national and international in scope, carrying columns, articles, and features on a wide variety of subjects. Almost every issue includes an in-depth conversation with a prominent person, often a non-American, whose passion has motivated him or her to create a practical and timely initiative for engaging life in uncommon ways. These inspiring interviews have covered topics such as the performing arts, the visual arts, education, worldview, Christian-Muslim relations, surgery to the world’s poor, Christian missions, counseling, relationships, human rights & religious freedom, Christianity in Romania, and racial reconciliation.

Openings is not online yet and is available only in print (in any nation) via snail mail. Several of the Openings interviews, however, are currently available on this website, with others being made available in due course and noted as “new to this site" next to the title when they appear. Click Interviews.

Numerous columns and articles from past issues of Openings are also accessible on this site, with others becoming available in due course and noted as “new to this site" when they appear. Click All Other Writings.

“Christians often sound like broken records stuck cursing the darkness,” writes Charles Strohmer. “This doesn’t follow the example of Jesus. It merely entrenches us more deeply into our own positions, making us feel good about ourselves at the expense of the other. It diminishes us. It stops creativity, newness, and the unity-in-diversity of which Jesus spoke dead in their tracks.” Openings seeks to light a few candles, to open the world up to a timely and believable gospel-shaped wisdom for all of life’s pressing issues. It recognizes the amazing, usually behind-the-scenes, initiatives begun by individuals and groups with diverse interests and passions who are working outside of and across traditional boundaries and ways of thinking. “We need to get past being cornered by what our peer group thinks in order to be able to take new risks,” Strohmer writes.

Readers' Comment 

“Thank you for Openings. At last something in print to provoke thought rather than guilt, reflection rather than the latest experience, and challenge convention rather than simply cherish it or trash it.” Mike Thomas, author, South Wales

“The interview with Romanian theologian Alexandru Nadaban was a profound revelation of the reality of faith trying to cope with frightful tyranny. His honesty touched me deeply.” Chris Bourne, designer, England

“The latest issue of Openings is excellent. In the business group I run with another person, we have taken up some of your ideas.” Paul Lambert, consultant, England

“Thanks for the gutsy column ‘Darkness & Ambiguity’. It really spoke to me. I think many of us live here but are afraid to talk about it.” Jim Deanda, computer specialist, Tennessee

“The latest issue of Openings arrived yesterday, and just today in the paper I read about two large food companies here in the UK who have been embroiled in controversy about genetically modified foods, so I sent them copies of your article on the subject.” Anne Sanderson, author, Scotland

“I enjoyed the Openings interview with Elaine Storkey. Keep up the good work.” Dr. Mark Noll, Wheaton College, Illinois

“It was with a mixture of unbridled delight and mild irritation that I accepted six back issues of Openings from a friend—gleeful to find such a stimulating publication and a little miffed because I had not know about it before.” John Clarke, Communications Specialist, Georgia

“I really appreciate the intellectual dimension of Openings and the realism with which issues of church-world-culture are dealt with.” Pastor Cornel Unc, Romania

“If I could keep only two artifacts of 9/11, they would be that photo of United Flight 175 just before it hit the South Tower and the September 11 ‘Special Edition’ of Openings.” Dr. Paul Patton, Communication and Theater, Spring Arbor University, Michigan

“The 9/11 edition of Openings has just come, and I found myself saying Amen again and again. It deserves to be widely read.” Dr John Shortt, educator, England

“Thank you for helping to tell the story of injustice to the Palestinian people, for adding a voice of sanity in the mash of war mongering.” Calvin Seerveld, author, Canada

“I was challenged in my thinking by your article about the Palestinian plight. Thank you for pulling my thoughts along a little further.” Harold Edington, educator, Missouri

“Amidst the usual diet of readings that arrives, Openings is a blessing indeed, with its thoughtful and stimulating material.” Arthur Jones, Education Consultant, England

“Openings is great reading material for me here in the Philippines. It’s relevancy is what I really like. I file it in my library for others to read.” Pastor Ramon Plaza, Philippines

“I always have a stack of periodicals to read. Many of them I never read, but Openings always makes it to the top of the stack. Your articles provide viewpoints that are not readily available.” Jeff Galley, President of Nexlead, Texas