Dr. Teresa Hairston-Jackson

Gospel Music Scholar/Publishing Trailblazer

30+ Years of Kingdom Service

Dr. Teresa Hairston is the founder and publisher emeritus of Gospel Today Magazine; which she started in 1989 as a four-page newsletter. At the time, she was a divorced mother of three young children,

working two jobs and was only able to scrape together $300 to invest in her “dream” of becoming a publisher. That’s it. She had $300, three young children, no husband and a dream.

The miracle of Gospel Today and all that transpired is the story of ‘daring to dream and doing what you dreamed about!’ Hairston had no experience in the area of publishing; neither did she have any financial backing; but she had faith.

With no investors, no background and no plan B, within six months Hairston was struggling to pay her personal and professional bills and was unable to move forward. She wanted to quit and simply acknowledge failure, but somehow, she held on and believed and didn’t give up. In fact, she decided to leap forward—turning the newsletter into a glossy magazine.

In that act of faith God proved Himself. Hairston says, “God made a way out of no way. People begin to call and find me to buy advertising. In one month, I was able to raise the capital to pay my past bills and move forward.”

GT became a fixture among progressive ministries and Christians who wanted inspiring reading material. The magazine became the official publication for a host of leading Christian organizations, and published “special issues” and souvenir journals for organizations: Full Gospel Baptist Fellowship, Woman! Thou Art Loosed, Gospel Music Workshop of America and several top grossing Gospel music tours.