You’re holding this in your hands, reading it on your laptop, or checking it on your phone. The Chimes shows up on your lobby table and outside the Caf once a week. You flip through it, find your favorite section or that story your friend wrote, and then leave it for the next person to check out. Online, we pop up on your Facebook or Twitter feed and you click over for a glance.

Our print edition touches thousands of hands each week. People from many different countries check The Chimes Online. It’s easy for us as a new staff to sit in our office in the SUB and try to imagine what will happen when you get your hands on these stories. But this year, we want to go a step further. Instead of just imagining how you’ll react, we want to reach out and hear from you.

We tell stories at The Chimes. Our purpose is not just to contribute words to campus conversation. Instead, we tell stories in order that you may be heard and that you may better understand issues that affect you.

The Chimes is here to serve the Biola community. We live alongside you as students and our hope is that the publication is aligned with your life as well. Our desire is to serve you by providing articles about both what you need and want to know. As members of this community, it is important that you be given information that benefits you. We want to represent the many beautiful and different facets of our community well.

The Chimes is a place where those who do not have a voice can be heard. These pages are only doing their job if they create and contribute to thoughtful conversations around campus. We want to present stories you may not already know and present familiar ones with a Biola focus.

The staff here is made of people who love the thrill of calling the police department at midnight, exploring hunches and providing you with information quickly. But, we do all this to communicate the truth, not just to expose sensational stories or get it out there first.

We want to answer your questions, represent your opinions, and tell these small stories — all of which make up one great story. We want to find where your story weaves in with the greatest story of all time. Our main goal for our stories is to push you closer to the cross and closer to each other. By exposing these little bits of truth, we want to point to the glory of the Truth.

We want to communicate all truth clearly, consistently, and creatively. As we enter this year, we endeavor to present articles that are easy to understand and that are complete. From week to week, we want to publish stories that are consistent with both the truth of the matter and the Truth himself. These goals may seem boring, but they don’t have to be. The best stories are beautiful stories. We want to be creative with our language, our content, and our use of the Internet and social media.

As we do this, please hold us accountable. Let us know what stories you want to see. Let us know what we need to work on. Get plugged in by following us on Twitter or connecting with us on Facebook. We’re here to serve you, so don’t forget us. You can participate by shooting us an email, stopping by the office, commenting on a story or sharing one with your friends.

I am beyond grateful to be a part of this amazing community, and to have the privilege of serving you.

In His grip,
Elizabeth Sallie
Editor-in-Chief, 2011-2012