There are moments in this new “job” that remind me why we fight so hard to preserve the legacy of CCM Magazine. This was one of those days.
The Archers were in our studio; a group whose name carries weight amongst the original CCM Magazine readers. They first graced the cover back in August of 1979 and were involved in the magazine before it ever existed. I asked Steve Archer about their connection to CCM, and he didn’t hesitate.
“Well, I go all the way back to one of my best friends who was a man by the name of John Styll, who told me that he was starting a magazine,” Steve said. “And I was like, that’s awesome. How do you do that? And he said, I’m learning!”
Thankfully, I had done my homework, and Steve Archer took the bait immediately. I had already interviewed The Archers earlier this year, so when I found out they were coming back into the studio I knew I wanted to give readers—and viewers—something different. As a self-prescribed Christian music historian, I’d long known about the bond between The Archers and the Stylls. So, I came prepared.
Unbeknownst to Steve, Janice, and Tim, I had a surprise waiting in the wings. This was my cue. I love interviewing musicians, but this time I did the unthinkable. I tagged myself out.
Hidden in the shadows, backstage was none other than the founder of CCM Magazine, John Styll, alongside his wife Linda. As they rounded the corner, the entire atmosphere shifted. The Archers turned and suddenly came face-to-face with their childhood friends and longtime Christian music colleagues. It was pure history colliding in real time, and for me, it was worth every second of the work that went into making it happen.
The look on The Archers’ faces when they walked into the studio said everything. “Hey, stranger,” John said casually, while Steve’s jaw dropped. “Oh my gosh. You’re going to give an old man a heart attack?” he laughed. Janice covered her mouth and shook her head. “Oh my goodness. You are so sneaky.” I’ll take sneaky if it means I could play a part in creating this family reunion. And I got to watch it unfold.
John settled in like he’d never left. He picked up an old photo we had placed on the side table, reminding everyone of where they had been. “It has been a minute. This picture was from…” Steve quickly filled in the year. “’79.”
That’s the kind of history we were sitting in—the Archers singing for a nation, CCM documenting it, friendships woven into the very fabric of it all.
Then John turned the conversation forward: “You’re back with the new live album. Long gap between album releases. What have you been up to?”
Janice answered without hesitation. “Life? Yes. Kids. Grandkids? Yes. Ministry.” Tim, never one to shy away from the truth, added quietly, “Cancer surgeries? Yeah. Lots of things.”
He didn’t stop there. He told John and the room what he had lived through in 2013. “I was diagnosed with oral cancer. Only 30% of the people that have that cancer survive it. … I didn’t tell my wife for three weeks because I was so shocked. … Eight-hour surgery. And he got it all. Thank God. … So, when we did this concert, that was the first time I sung live after my surgery.”
Janice leaned in, her voice breaking with both gratitude and awe. “And he’s cancer free today.”
Proof that God still heals, restores, and writes new chapters even when the script looks finished.
John pressed them on the role faith had played in all of it. Steve answered first: “Just learning to trust. Not letting go of God’s word, not letting go of prayer, and not letting go of the passion to share the gift that God’s blessed you with.”
Janice added her own layer: “People would come forward, maybe at the end of a concert and cry, and we’d get a chance to pray with them. I said, now they come forward, I cry with them, and then we pray together. Because now we’ve lived so much more life and had so many more opportunities to understand in fresh, new ways what the lyrics of these songs mean.”
That’s what makes their new live album so special. It isn’t just nostalgia. Songs like Make Me an Instrument are richer now, seasoned with years of faith, loss, healing, and joy. “The very bridge of that song says help me see the good side and the bad side of all my days,” Janice said. “Even rehearsing and preparing, I would stop and weep, thinking about so many bad days that because I knew Jesus, like Steve said, because I didn’t let go… he did help me see the good side and the bad side.”
That’s legacy music. That’s why we do this.
Of course, you can’t talk to The Archers without talking about the music itself. John asked them about the legendary roster of players they had worked with, some of whom later became part of Toto. Steve remembered walking into studios full of session musicians who had just finished working on secular hits. “For me it was like, well, our goal was to make music for young people that was competitive with what they were already hearing on the radio.”
Janice agreed: “When you’re singing about the creator of the universe and it changed all of our lives, we just always wanted to do everything, give it up with excellence and give him our best. And then, you know, let him breathe on it.”
That was the heartbeat at the founding of Contemporary Christian Music. Songs made with excellence, carrying truth, to stand shoulder to shoulder with anything else on the radio.
At one point John leaned back and asked, “So from 1975, it’s now 2025, 50 years later. Music has taken a long and winding road. … How are you on that road? How do you stay relevant?”
Steve answered by talking about his grandchildren. “After they finish listening to their song that they love to sing at the top of their lungs, I go now, let me play you where that little sound came from. And I play them the original and they just go, what? That’s from when you were making music?!”
John eventually asked if there were regrets. Steve didn’t flinch. “Life happens regardless of whether you’re a Christian or not a Christian. I recommend that you go through those things as a Christian. Eventually God heals and God restores. He’s not just a God of redemption. He’s a God of restoration too.”
Janice added: “Christians do not get to bypass life’s tragedies, and… you don’t get to bypass your humanity, but you get to remember that if you know Jesus, he said, but take heart. I’ve overcome the world.”
So, what’s next? John asked if there would be a studio album. Steve and Janice answered in unison: “I would love that.”
For now, though, it’s enough to celebrate this live record, born out of a concert that Tim’s wife Cynthia encouraged them to do. Janice said, “The whole project has really given us a chance to go back and honor you as the God who gave us these gifts, gave us the songs, and then now giving us an opportunity to also honor all the fans and all the people out there that supported us.”
Fifty years on, the music is still changing lives. The Archers are still standing. And CCM Magazine—through people like John, and hopefully through work like ours—still gets to tell these stories.
Watching John Styll interview The Archers again felt like a circle closing. A reminder that what was built in the 1970s wasn’t just a magazine, it was a community. And it’s one we’re protecting every single day.
Watch the full conversation now on the CCM Magazine YouTube channel.