An Interview with Cameron Strang

Catalyst recently sat down with RELEVANT Magazine President Cameron Strang. Cameron is a young genius who is basically taking over the Christian 18-34 demographic. Though he’s a conscientious businessman, his passion is to have eternal, spiritual impact on the 18-34 crowd both inside and outside of the Church. 

CATALYST: So what do you think of our offices?

CAMERON: I like the waterfall. Feels a little like the Jaws ride at Universal Studios – the moat … it’s amazing. 

CAT: Why did you start Relevant, and what was your motivation?

CAM: I grew up in a Christian family, my parents are in Christian publishing, I was 19 years old going to a Christian college, trying to figure out “what am I supposed to do with my life?” At the same time, my world view was expanding, I was asking questions – “why do I believe what I believe,” “why am I here.” And nobody was answering those questions – not in the local church, no one was writing about it – nothing. In the Church and in the Christian industry there’s a fifteen-year gap – they have programs for you when you’re in high school and for when you have kids, but nothing for in between. 

At 19 years old I realized that that’s what I was called to do – I knew the power of the media, and I just knew we had to make a magazine that gave voice to what God was doing in our generation.

Finally started when I was 24, had no money. I got the magazine off the ground when I was 26. Been doing the company since 2000. 

We’ve established our platform – we want to know what is God saying now, where is He going. We need to challenge our audience and ourselves again. Last year we felt like we’d plateaued, but in the last twelve months the Lord’s kinda shaken us up again. And it’s almost like we’re starting over. The passion and excitement of those early years are back. We’re going to take more risks, take advantage of our freedom, be places we’ve never been.

CAT: What does that look like? 

CAM: In the last six months we’ve had a real passion for outward, sacrificial Christian living. In the early years it was about seeing how God is moving in culture. But now social justice is part of it, global movements. We want to tell peoples’ stories.

Shane Claiborne is writing for us. It’s not just social justice but sacrificial revolutionary Christianity. This is what our culture is looking for – they’re looking for something that’s worth giving their life for, and that’s the kind of Christianity that we want to talk about – that’s what Jesus was about. If it’s not worth giving our life for, what’s the point of doing it at all? 

I want to surprise people, challenge people, stir controversy – because the gospel is revolutionary.

CAT: Talk a little bit about your leadership style and what lessons you’ve learned. 

CAM: What I’ve learned regarding leadership: share the load. So I have all these stressful things I’m dealing with. In the past, the entrepreneur in me has said “what do we need, I’ll get it done” – 15-hour days, 18-hour days, whatever, I’ll get it done. But I’ve realized that’s not going to work for us, my family, my health, not to mention my team. So, I’ve surrounded myself with very talented people and I’ve empowered them to make decisions and lead and run; where in the past I wouldn’t have given them the opportunity – not consciously, but, that’s just the way it was. You can’t do it alone. Surround yourself with people you trust and share the load.

Also, I’m a visionary and I’m always looking down the road. I see unlimited opportunities. I wasn’t always the best at maintaining a strong foundation. This year was a year of scaling back. Literally we had this house which was big, and we kept adding to it. But the additions were really rickety, with pieces falling off everywhere. So we bull-dozed it and rebuilt the house. 

Pruning a tree that you planted is so difficult, it’s like sacrificing your kids. When you want to increase speed, you shift into higher gears. But, sometimes, to get traction, you have to down-shift. And that’s where we were – we had to ask, “are we holding it back because of all these things we’re doing?”

We had to make a lot of hard decisions with our staff – I’m very loyal and it was very hard to change the staff around. But we’ve restructured and we’ve seen marked growth in revenue and efficiency. 

And one more thing to young leaders: If you feel like a square peg in a round hole – “this just isn’t me” – get out of that space and get to a place where you and your unique expression of what God has called you to do can be expressed.

CAT: Talk about ten years from now. What’s the vision?

CAM: I really see innovative media in my DNA. What does that look like? I want to be on the front edge of where technology is going with content. We want to rethink the wheel. We feel that the convergence of media is not going to look anything like it has before. I want to not just talk about something, but take you there and you can hear it and touch it and smell it.

I just spent some time with the Hillsong guys. They really have a global perspective. They’re involved in things all around the world. I want to be involved in what God’s doing globally – the media component of what God’s gonna do. 

The view of God and Christianity outside of the US is so different. It’s about connecting with a real living God, having a living and breathing relationship with Him, and having that change your life and the world you’re in. Our stuff is well received globally, people love our products. The place we actually have the most trouble is the US.

Our challenge is, what are we going to do to reach the most people, and in a sound business context? We are a business first and we use the business for eternal, spiritual impact. We have to be efficient and good stewards. Stewardship is a huge deal to me. God has given us X number of resources, X amount of time and days, etc. We have a moment in time to use those resources for the most impact eternally. Are we gonna squander our platform – are we gonna use it for impact, or not? This is a big thing that’s changed this year, changing everything for us. 

CAT: There is this constant tension for you. You’re very kingdom-minded, but you have to operate in a for profit environment, which forces you to think about efficiency and margins and revenue.

CAM: Well, profit’s gotten a bad rap. Profit is resources you have in the bank at the end of the year, right? Next year we have all these ideas for greater impact – we want to do a social justice tour, and meet college students and x, y, z. It’ll cost $75,000. Well, we can probably sell magazines there and … maybe it’ll break even, but lives will be impacted. 

If I’m a bad steward and I disdain profit, I don’t have the resources to go do that. There’s a missed opportunity for impact. If I’m a good steward and we run a wise business, I don’t have to ask for donations. We can use this funded, profitable thing to go have more impact than we would otherwise.

People tell us “Why do you have so many ads in your magazine? You should have fewer ads.” Well, great, but ads are paying for that magazine. If I have to scale that back, then I have to charge more for the magazine, which means I’ll have a lot fewer subscribers. We’re called to impact, so we have to go with the model that will have the biggest impact. Praise God for advertisers! But we’re selective. We turn down about $30,000 worth of advertising every month. 

Profit is not a bad thing, because profit = opportunity = impact, if we’re wise. That’s a new mindset for me: business can be used for impact. Every dime we make goes back into this thing. It’s all about growth and impact.

CAT: Indeed.

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