Letter from the Editor: A Reset for The Trailhead

Early on May 1, 2020, I hit the “publish” button on The Trailhead’s first essay and we were off. Josh Engbretson and I, both backwoods scribblers, wanted something that could be fun and serious. We wanted a spectrum of writers across Anabaptism. Josh scraped up a disparate selection of contributors from where I did not know, and I did the technical work. We have made an honest effort, have learned a lot, and you have indulged us. For this we thank you.

A few people have been blessed, several outraged, many nonplussed. And while it’s hard for me to imagine that the world will miss The Trailhead, it still pains me a bit to make this announcement. We have devoted not a little time over the course of three years to this project, and it seems a bit hasty to ditch it completely in a moment of disenchantment.

Three years after our first essay, life has changed for many of the staff. All of the writers and editors of The Trailhead, with the exception of perhaps a guest author or two, are fathers who hold day jobs and are in the busiest seasons of their lives. The only way these men write anything at all is because writing matters to them.

But even when something matters to a father a great deal, their busiest seasons call for fluid priorities. Thus, some of the staff would like to quit or take a lesser role. Also, the Trailhead needs a reset in its vision. Personally, I would like to take a break while we decide on a future for The Trailhead.

We will continue to publish on our usual schedule until we run out our material, so we should be going into middle to late summer. After that, we will discontinue publishing until we know what the future holds for The Trailhead. The website and its mailing list will stay up, however, so our back issues will be available, and any announcements we make will still come to you. I hope to have a better answer and clarified vision by mid- to late summer 2024, which puts it on ice for about a year. A lack of vision will mean its demise.

(An aside: A vision is valuable only as a guide for the working person. Without visionary contributors putting their fingertips to the keyboard or pen to paper, a noble vision for The Trailhead will be useless. So we need both a vision and writers. I’ll make a deal with you. You write, and we can get together on a vision.)

Thank you for your readership, loyal or otherwise. While we are thankful for the monetary support you have given to help support publishing costs, we ask that you do not donate more until or if we pick up again. If anyone has donated recently and feels shortchanged, please contact us.

We love reader input. If you have comments, criticism, or encouragement for us, please email them to thetrailhead20@gmail.com. We will consider your input when we decide on The Trailhead’s future.