THE NIGHT ED SPIVEY JR. first came to our Sojourners community house in Chicago, he made me laugh. He still does, more than anybody else I have ever known. But it was also evident how serious he was about his faith and its meaning for his life. Ed was raised as a Southern Baptist, and he told us a funny story of how his Baptist pastor in Chicago wanted his congregants to wear a button to work that said, “I’m Excited!” When people ask why, you were supposed to say, “I’m excited about Jesus.” But Ed was in his first job after college — as art director of the Chicago Sun-Times Sunday magazine, where he was the youngest hire in the newsroom — and he was reluctant, to say the least. While he found the button idea tacky, it was clear that he was excited about following Jesus wherever that road would lead.
That’s what we talked about at our first dinner together. Some of us were still seminary students at Trinity Evangelical Divinity School, and we had just started a new publication called The Post-American, forerunner to Sojourners. None of us had ever done a publication before, or much writing beyond leaflets and school papers. Our art director was both temporary and part-time, and we would often wait weeks before our articles were laid out for printing. It took us by surprise when, at that first dinner, Ed said that he felt a strong calling from God to join us. “I am ready to quit my job at the Sun-Times, move in with all of you, and give my life to this.” Ed’s announcement called to mind the scripture we were then reading about how the earliest disciples acted when they heard a call from Jesus.
Ed’s departure from the Sun-Times was not without resistance. His parents were shocked he would leave behind a great job, and the Sun-Times editor warned him against risking a promising journalism career on a marginal alternative publication that nobody had heard of, and which surely wouldn’t last. Ed moved into our apartment in the Uptown neighborhood of Chicago. (I still remember with a wince that, to reduce his material possessions before joining us, Ed gave away his great record collection. We forgot to tell him that community living still needed rock ’n’ roll!) That was in October 1974, and Ed has been our art director ever since.
Under Ed, Sojourners has won many awards for design — and also for his humor columns — in religious and secular categories of publishing. Ed’s work has helped shape our vision and mission — both in convicting words and compelling art. I will always consider Ed to be a co-founder of Sojourners and a lifelong friend. But Ed has been best known among the staff as the humble servant who always does what needs to be done — from cleaning the staff refrigerator and taking out the recycling to checking in on how people are doing.
Ed is also a musician, and he has been Sojourners’ principal guitar-playing worship leader. There were many tears when Ed played at our Zoom chapel service in February, his final month at Sojourners before his retirement. But, as many said in the virtual chat, Ed’s presence will always be with us. And thinking of Ed Spivey will always make me smile.
Jim Wallis is the founder and former president of Sojourners. He is the inaugural holder of the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Chair in Faith and Justice at Georgetown University’s McCourt School of Public Policy and director of its new Center on Faith and Justice. His latest book is The False White Gospel: Rejecting Christian Nationalism, Reclaiming True Faith, and Refounding Democracy.
Got something to say about what you're reading? We value your feedback!
