What we speak into the world matters deeply—and echoes long after.
Studio days for The High Calling were always my favorite. Howard Butt Jr. would arrive with a smile and a kind word for everyone. When Silicon Valley was shifting to black turtlenecks and hoodies, Mr. Butt wore a suit and tie—as did his entire team, including me. A vocal coach sat with him inside the recording booth. The rest of us watched through a glass window as he brought each story to life with his signature Texas twang.
You may remember these one-minute radio spots that aired across the country in the early 2000s. The whole team workshopped scripts together. The whole team negotiated airtime. As the youngest on the team, I was just excited to be in the room.
I’ll never forget what those years working with him taught me about the power of story. Mr. Butt’s parables reminded everyone that our work matters. God cares about us—and God also cares about our day-to-day stuff.
The Velvet Covered Brick (1973)
“I am too conservative for the liberals, too liberal for the conservatives… I am in the religious world but not of it… Our true citizenship is in heaven; our Lord had most of his trouble with the world of religion.”
— Howard Butt Jr.
One part of the project continued to give me trouble, though. When I experienced the work of the H. E. Butt Foundation at conferences around the United States, people were confused. H. E. Butt Foundation Camps, Laity Lodge, LLYC… and radio spots?
Texans were even more confused. What did all this have to do with a certain grocery store?
We told good stories through The High Calling, but we didn’t have a good story about how everything fit together at the Foundation.
Ten years ago, Echoes magazine began to change that. In the earliest issues, we told parables of our own work. How does LLYC hire good counselors? Did LLYC really bury someone alive for a skit? (They did.) What is Outdoor School? Why did we renovate Laity Lodge?
Those stories inherited the feeling of a newsletter because Echoes grew out of our former newsletter, Laity Connections. Before that, Newsbriefs had reported the Foundation’s work for forty years, as far back as 1976.
Laity Connections (1999)
“We are called to be co-creators with God: to create beauty, to enjoy beauty, affirm and present beauty. [The Cody Center] gives artists spaces where they can work and inspire others.”
— Howard Butt Jr.
What’s in a Name?
But Echoes was going to be different. We named it after Echo Valley, where Foundation Camp and LLYC gather for Roundup, facing the limestone cliffs of Echo Bluff. When 180 campers sing together, their voices bounce off the cliff and echo back to them. If they sing loud enough, their voices can even be heard in the Hill Country Youth Ranch down river.
An echo is a kind of sound mirror. Whatever you sing, that song returns to you. Whatever you pray, that prayer returns to you. Whatever you speak aloud, those words return to you. In this sense, an echo reminds us to consider the stories we tell. Anger returns anger. Love returns love.
Many years ago, Mr. Butt wrote, “When Jesus told his stories, he was also telling the world what he was accomplishing in his own life through his mediation of his Father’s love. Telling the story was part and parcel of bringing the story into being. His stories showed forth his purposes and invited all to adopt his story as their own.”
Echoes
“We will be listening for the echoes of our work in people’s lives, including both old friends and people who have yet to set foot in the Frio River.”
— David Rogers
Today, our best stories show forth the Foundation’s purpose and carry our mission beyond the limitations of the Frio Canyon. You, the reader, might find yourself inspired. You might wonder how you can honor God in your community. You might ask what areas of your community are most broken and how you might help bring some small bit of wholeness to your neighbors.
You might adopt a story as your own.
We hope our stories inspire you, whether you live in Texas or beyond. We hope our stories reflect God’s work in the world today through individuals and institutions. And we will continue to tell stories in every issue of Echoes magazine that point people directly to the gospel—the greatest story ever told.
