- Starting price
- $25/year
- Free tier
- Yes
- Platforms
- Print · Web · Email newsletters
- Developer
- Made to Flourish, Inc.
- Launched
- 2019
- Updated
- Aug 9, 2026
The verdict
Common Good is an excellent low-cost magazine for Christians who want thoughtful writing about work and ordinary public life rather than another stream of church-industry advice. The current July/August 2026 issue and 24-issue archive show a living editorial project, while $25 for six print issues plus digital access is unusually generous. Read it as a curated Made to Flourish publication with identifiable theological and economic commitments, not as comprehensive news or a substitute for primary sources, local expertise, or perspectives outside its contributor network.
Try Common Good Magazine ↗Opens commongoodmag.com
Common Good is the print and digital magazine of Made to Flourish, a U.S. nonprofit founded in 2015 to help pastors and churches connect Christian faith with work and economic wisdom for the flourishing of communities. The magazine describes itself as a place for thoughtful commentary and stories about the diverse people and ideas shaping faith, work, and the economy—more broadly, “all of life.” Its departments move through theology, vocation, economy, arts and culture, sports, analysis, dialogue, reviews, crosswords, and occasional sponsored material.
The publication is current. Issue 24 is dated July/August 2026 and includes work on Christian citizenship, church buildings and megachurch history, American history, medicine, inventions, golf, film and literature, along with essays, interviews, recommendations, and lighter cultural material. The online magazine page reaches back through the numbered archive to the first 2019 issue. Articles can often be discovered individually on the web, while a subscription removes the paywall, opens web exclusives and back issues, and delivers print.
The subscription value is unusually strong: one year costs $25 and promises six print issues, full site access, archive access, and weekly and monthly newsletters. Two years costs $40 for 12 issues, a $10 saving against two one-year terms. The FAQ says new subscribers usually receive a first issue within a month and can manage status or address through a profile. Group and bulk questions are routed to the publisher. Because delivery, taxes, geographic availability, automatic renewal, and cancellation can depend on checkout, readers should review the final subscription terms rather than assuming a $25 print offer works identically outside the United States.
We reviewed the current site, issue archive, subscription and FAQ copy, July/August 2026 issue, publisher mission, privacy policy, and terms. We sampled the structure and range but did not read every article, buy a subscription, verify print fulfillment, test the paywall, score factual accuracy, or audit sponsorship decisions. Editorial quality judgments are based on the breadth, transparency, current publishing evidence, and practical reader fit visible in the archive—not agreement with every contributor or thesis.
✓ The good
- Distinct editorial territory - faith, work, economic life, culture, arts, sports, and public responsibility meet in one publication
- Remarkable print value - $25 includes six physical issues and full digital/archive access
- Current publishing - Issue 24 is dated July/August 2026 rather than an abandoned archive
- Deep back catalog - numbered issues from 2019 onward make the subscription useful immediately
- Thoughtful long-form format - the magazine intentionally resists notification-driven noise and short reactive takes
- Varied departments - essays, dialogue, analysis, profiles, books, entertainment, sports, poetry, and crosswords widen appeal
- Named publisher and mission - readers can understand the institutional perspective shaping selection
- Affordable two-year option - $40 for 12 issues lowers the effective print cost further
✗ Watch out
- Curated viewpoint - Made to Flourish’s faith-and-work and economic-wisdom commitments shape topics and contributors
- Not comprehensive news - publication cadence cannot cover breaking events or every side of a public debate
- Paywall and account - complete digital/archive use requires a subscription relationship
- Print logistics vary - delivery timing, international availability, address changes, and replacement issues need checkout or support confirmation
- Sponsored articles appear - readers must notice labels and distinguish editorial work from paid material
- Privacy policy is network-wide - it also covers Made to Flourish and Scatter, making some collection language broader than a magazine reader expects
- No doctrinal reference standard - diverse essays should not be mistaken for official church teaching or a consensus Christian position
- Reading takes time - the reflective format is a feature, but it does not serve readers seeking only quick summaries
Best for
- Pastors teaching a fuller theology of work, vocation, stewardship, and public life
- Christians seeking serious cultural reading beyond church programs and political outrage
- Small groups, leadership teams, and classrooms using articles for discussion
- Readers who value a physical magazine and a browsable digital archive
- Gift buyers wanting an inexpensive continuing Christian publication
Avoid if
- You need daily breaking news, market data, investigative reporting, or comprehensive policy coverage
- You want a publication representing your denomination’s official positions
- You prefer only devotional Bible exposition and have little interest in economics, work, arts, or culture
- You are unwilling to distinguish commentary, reporting, sponsored work, and book or entertainment recommendations
- Print delivery or digital access in your country has not been confirmed at checkout
What Common Good Magazine is
Common Good is an editorial magazine, not a Bible-study app, career board, academic journal, or ordinary newswire. Its subject is the integrated Christian life: how theology and faith relate to paid and unpaid work, institutions, markets, local communities, technology, art, sports, family, citizenship, and cultural habits. Made to Flourish supplies the institutional home.
The print object is part of the proposition. Issues curate a finite sequence rather than an endless feed, while the website makes individual articles, issues, authors, and the archive discoverable. Newsletters keep a reader connected between issues. The result is best approached slowly, with disagreement and discussion allowed, rather than skimmed as a list of approved opinions.
Why readers choose Common Good: it treats Monday work and public life as serious Christian subjects
Many Christian publications focus on church news, apologetics, devotion, denominational debate, family advice, or partisan politics. Secular business publications discuss work and economics without theological commitments. Common Good occupies the middle: vocation, markets, hospitality, medicine, architecture, art, history, technology, sports, and neighbor love can all be examined as parts of faithful life.
That editorial synthesis is valuable precisely because it is an argument, not neutral coverage. Readers should ask what assumptions about work, capitalism, institutions, power, class, race, family, and flourishing shape a piece; whose experience is present; what evidence supports the claim; and which voices are absent. Use an article to open inquiry, then follow citations, primary sources, local practitioners, and thoughtful disagreement.
Issues and archive: a durable curriculum hiding inside a magazine subscription
Numbered issue pages group work across recurring departments and give a reader a coherent snapshot rather than a random article feed. Twenty-four issues at review time create a substantial library of theology, vocation, economics, culture, sports, interviews, reviews, and practical reflection. Search and category browsing can turn the archive into material for sermons, classes, staff formation, or a faith-and-work ministry.
Create a reading path by question rather than assigning an entire issue indiscriminately: dignity at work, technology and attention, local economy, hospitality, medicine, art, or Christian citizenship. Pair two contrasting essays and a primary source. Confirm quotations, statistics, publication dates, sponsorship labels, and external claims before teaching them. A magazine essay is a conversation partner, not a peer-reviewed consensus or biblical commentary.
Print, digital, and newsletters: generous access with ordinary subscription responsibilities
The one- and two-year plans combine six issues per year with paywall-free web access, exclusives, back issues, and weekly or monthly email. This makes the print edition a curated centerpiece rather than the only way to receive content. Address and subscription management are available through a profile, and support handles delivery problems. New subscribers are told to expect a first issue within about a month in most cases.
At checkout, record the first issue, term, renewal mode, total tax and shipping, digital-seat rules, refund or cancellation terms, and what happens to archive access after expiration. Use a durable email address and password manager, opt out of unwanted newsletters, and update an address well before the mailing cutoff. Churches sharing print copies should not share one personal digital login unless the plan explicitly permits it.
Editorial independence, sponsorship, and privacy: read labels and understand the institution
Common Good names Made to Flourish throughout the experience and marks sponsored items on issue pages. That transparency helps readers interpret the publication, but an institutional magazine will naturally select work compatible with its mission and funder ecosystem. Sponsored does not mean false; it means the commercial or partner relationship is material context. Editorial standards, correction practices, author conflicts, and sponsor influence could be documented more explicitly.
Made to Flourish’s August 2024 privacy policy explicitly covers commongoodmag.com. It lists contact, demographic, church, browsing, device, payment, survey, and contribution data; uses service providers, analytics and marketing; says it does not sell personally identifiable information; and provides access, correction, deletion, unsubscribe, and cookie choices. It also contains Scatter-specific sharing and broad network language. Magazine subscribers should provide only needed data, review Pelcro or payment notices at checkout, and use publisher contacts for deletion or access requests.
Pricing
Selected public reading
Free
The site exposes issue pages and some article material publicly. Availability can vary by article and session; full web exclusives and back issues are subscription benefits.
One year
$25
Includes six print issues, paywall-free website access, web exclusives, the back-issue archive, and weekly and monthly newsletters. Confirm delivery geography, tax, renewal, cancellation, and start issue.
Two years
$40
Includes 12 print issues and the same digital/newsletter benefits. The displayed offer saves $10 compared with buying two one-year terms at $25 each.
Gift subscription
Checkout price
A dedicated gift path is available. Verify recipient start date, renewal responsibility, gift notice, address, duplicate subscription handling, and whether the purchaser or recipient controls the account.
Bulk or group orders
Contact publisher
Churches, schools, cohorts, and organizations should ask about quantity pricing, shipping, facilitator rights, article reprints, digital seats, invoices, and renewal.
At $25 for six issues, the nominal cost is about $4.17 per print issue before valuing digital access and newsletters. The two-year $40 plan drops that to about $3.33 per issue across 12 deliveries.
The two-year plan is the clear monetary value for a reader already confident in the publication. A new reader should sample current articles and perhaps begin with one year rather than optimizing five dollars annually at the cost of an unwanted term.
The website says “starting at $25” and checkout can add location-dependent details. International shipping, taxes, currency, renewal, missed-issue replacement, and digital access need confirmation. Do not promise a congregation the U.S. headline price in every country.
Group use may need a bulk quote. Six print copies and individual digital accounts are different from passing one issue around a staff table. Ask for lawful reprint or PDF permissions if a church wants to distribute an article widely.
Time is part of value. A publication becomes expensive when it piles unread. Choose a recurring use: one article at a monthly staff meeting, one issue per small-group cycle, a quarterly reading discussion, or personal Sabbath reading. The low price should invite attention, not accumulation.
Where Common Good Magazine falls behind
Editorial policies. A visible standards page should explain fact-checking, corrections, AI use, contributor conflicts, sponsorship boundaries, reprints, and complaint handling.
Subscription detail. Renewal, cancellation, refunds, start issue, international delivery, replacement copies, account sharing, digital access after expiry, and accessibility should be available before the final checkout.
Digital experience. Faster archive search, topic paths, author pages, citations, accessible issue formats, audio, reading lists, and saved progress could make 24 issues easier to use.
Perspective mapping. More explicit contributor biographies and structured viewpoint diversity would help readers understand how theological, geographic, vocational, class, and cultural experiences shape the conversation.
Privacy focus. A short Common Good-specific notice could separate ordinary magazine data from the much broader Made to Flourish and Scatter ecosystem policy.
Common Good vs. Christianity Today vs. Comment vs. Plough
Christianity Today covers a much broader evangelical news and ideas agenda with faster reporting, reviews, ministry analysis, and global church stories. Common Good is narrower, more object-like, and especially attentive to work and economic life. A reader may reasonably subscribe to both for different purposes.
Comment magazine shares interest in institutions, public life, work, culture, and Christian social thought, often with a more formal ideas-journal posture. Plough brings community, peace, justice, literature, and radical discipleship from an Anabaptist-rooted perspective. Common Good is more closely connected to the evangelical faith-and-work movement and Made to Flourish’s pastoral mission.
Harvard Business Review, local business journals, labor reporting, and economic research offer deeper professional or empirical detail without Common Good’s theological synthesis. The strongest reading practice pairs the magazine’s integrative questions with domain experts, worker voices, primary data, and traditions that challenge its assumptions.
The bottom line
Common Good is a rare Christian magazine that takes the places people spend Monday through Saturday seriously. Its lively mix of theology, vocation, economics, art, sports, public culture, interviews, reviews, and humane oddities makes “faith and work” broader than career advice. The July/August 2026 issue confirms current publication, and $25 for six print issues plus full digital/archive access is exceptional value. Subscribe if the editorial territory fits, then give the issues a recurring place in personal or group reading. Notice sponsorship and institutional perspective, verify claims before teaching, and seek voices beyond the magazine. Used as a thoughtful conversation partner rather than an authority or comprehensive news source, Common Good is easy to recommend.
Alternatives to Common Good Magazine
Christianity TodayBroader evangelical news, ideas, ministry, reviews, and global church coverage with a faster publishing cadence.Comment MagazineA serious Christian journal of public theology, institutions, work, and cultural renewal.Plough QuarterlyPrint and digital essays on community, peace, justice, literature, and discipleship from an Anabaptist-rooted perspective.Faith & Work JourneyA more directly educational or practical direction for integrating Christian faith with vocation.Made to Flourish resourcesThe publisher’s broader pastoral network, books, studies, programs, and church faith-and-work material.Frequently asked questions
What is Common Good Magazine?
It is a print and digital magazine from Made to Flourish covering the intersections of Christian faith, work, economics, theology, vocation, arts, culture, sports, and public life.
How much is a subscription?
The current page lists one year at $25 for six print issues and two years at $40 for 12 issues. Both include paywall-free digital access, web exclusives, back issues, and newsletters. Confirm checkout details for your location.
Is Common Good still publishing?
Yes. The latest issue reviewed is No. 24, dated July/August 2026, and the website published current material in July 2026.
Can I read it for free?
Issue pages and some articles are publicly accessible, while a subscription unlocks full paywall-free access, web exclusives, the archive, newsletters, and print delivery.
Who publishes Common Good?
Made to Flourish, Inc., a nonprofit founded to help pastors and churches integrate faith, work, and economic wisdom for community flourishing.
Is it a news magazine?
It includes analysis and current subjects, but it is primarily a curated ideas, culture, and faith-and-work magazine. It does not replace daily reporting, primary sources, or specialized economic and policy journalism.
Can a church copy articles for a class?
The site terms permit limited personal noncommercial printing but restrict broader reproduction and distribution without permission. Ask the publisher for group, reprint, or digital-seat rights before distributing copies.
Sources & further reading
More Christian News Websites
The Pour OverThe thrice-weekly Christian news email that summarizes major stories without picking a political team, then closes each one with a paragraph pointing readers back to Christ - and it has quietly become the default news source for a generation of Christians sick of tribal outrage.
CBN NewsCBN’s free news app combines breaking alerts, articles, full shows, a 24/7 channel, and a “Pray the News” response—useful for evangelical perspective, but strongest when read beside ideologically different and primary sources.Christianity TodayChristianity Today has quietly become the closest thing global evangelicalism has to a paper of record - and the podcast network it built on top of it is doing more cultural work than the magazine itself.
WORLD News GroupA 45-year-old Christian newsroom with a flagship daily podcast and a family-wide news ecosystem - and an editorial stance it states out loud rather than hides.
Religion News ServiceThe largest non-sectarian religion newswire in America, founded in 1934 and quietly cited by Reuters, AP, and The New York Times - and a different kind of resource than almost everything else on this site.
First ThingsThe intellectual heavyweight of religion-and-public-life journalism in America - ecumenical in contributors, conservative in editorial sensibility, and unembarrassed about taking ideas seriously.