Doug Van Pelt

Mark Needs A Chick

I'm reading and blogging through the book of Mark.
I have some needs that I pray and trust God will take care of.
Mark and Needs go together, but not well ... until you ad some object. Thus "a chick." I think there was an indie band with that name a decade or so ago...

We go from Mark 11, which finds Jesus entering Jerusalem for the beginning of "Passion Week," and goes right in to some of His teachings and activity there. The first parable in chapter 12 is "The Parable of the Tenants," where a man planted a vineyard, rents it out and then sends a messenger to check in on it. They beat or kill several of these messengers. Finally, the owner has one last person to send -- his son, whom he loved. The tenants kill him, too. Jesus ends the parable by asking a question that He will answer Himself:

"What then will the owner of the vineyard do?
He will come and kill those tenants and give the vineyard to others."

Then He immediately references an Old Testament Scripture,

"The stone the builders rejected
has become the capstone;
the Lord has done this,
and it is marvelous in our eyes."

(Psalm 118:22,23)

Jesus was most likely talking about His kingdom, His Father, and Himself (the Son the Owner sent). Those religious leaders listening sure interpreted it that way, because they understood that the parable was against them. They were afraid of the pro-Jesus crowd, so they left Him to go plot His demise.

One can only imagine, sometimes, what God thinks of us, His people. It's not impossible to know (I believe), because I think He's willing to tell us in prayer, and the Scriptures and creation itself shout out how He feels toward us. He loves us, but we can sure make Him feel sad when we reject Him and His love. Imagine how mad He must have gotten when "we" (humanity) killed His Son. I wonder how Jesus felt while telling this story. Was He mad, thinking about how He was being treated? Or was He already in "I feel sorry for them" mode (if He went there at all)? I guess it was good that He had a big picture perspective by this time, as being arrested, falsely charged, tortured and crucified are pretty crazy and unjust things to go through -- especially if they were thrust upon you in one big surprise. He must've spent lots of time meditating on this stuff. I bet Moses and Elijah kind of reminded Him and/or helped prepare Him for this on the "Mount of Transfiguration." I wouldn't doubt that many angels probably ministered to Him during His many all-night prayer vigils, too.

Magazine editors don't usually talk to "the public" about advertising sales, but most everyone knows that ad sales are a magazine's bread and butter, right? When I first started Heaven's Metal Magazine back in 1985, it wasn't until 1986 that record labels and other companies started running ads and this thing kind of became a "real" magazine. It's hard work selling ads, but we've been able to be successful at it since then.

Back in November of 2003 we went to press with the Jan/Feb 2004 issue with not enough ad sales and so I made the magazine smaller. It was only 56 pages and, ever since we went with web offset printing back in 1991, we have haven't been that small since. Those 56 pages of Issue #105 seemed too few -- kinda like a comic book. I've been as small as 64 a couple or a few times since then, and that's about as low as I want to go.

I think magazine publishers don't talk to the public about this kind of stuff because it shows "weakness" and people can take things the wrong way. It's true how some people panic and assume the worst when they hear something. If there's a theme to the blogs as of late, it's unintentionally been honesty and transparency.

We had a "short" issue for the latest one (Jan/Feb's #135) and we "sucked it up" and went to press, hoping to recover and do better with this next one. Last issue's ad totals were lower than they'd been anytime in the last ten years. We are basically at less than half of where we need to be. This is a good time to be a follower of Jesus, because we have someone to go to in prayer. Not that He'll magically make everything alright, but He is a counselor, an advocate, a sympathetic ear, a savior, a friend, a provider, and He fulfills many other roles completely and sufficiently.

Not sure what I'll do. One of our major features hasn't been turned in. Seems the band and/or manager has given the publicist the "run around," so bumping that story might be a good savings of space at this time. Our plans for a cool poster of a big band that's working on a new album have been dashed as well, as they have no new pictures available. These will help me to think. But one thing I do know that I will do is pray. In fact, until I leave in awhile to get a haircut (something I didn't do too often back in the early 90s), I will be praying.

Addendum:
When we've had a similar situation like this happen in the past, we prayed, I rolled up my sleeves and got more involved in "sales," we brainstormed, we prayed, and we watched our totals jump to a good level. It helps to remember how God has been faithful in the past.

Posted by Doug Van Pelt at January 15, 2009 11:12 AM