2017 sees the establishment of a 'Christian Today New Zealand' for the Kiwi young writer program and the excitement is palatable.
There is a story to this and it goes back to 2015 when Kiwi young writer and Press Service International chief editor Sophia Sinclair visited Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch speaking with those Kiwi young writer groups.
These groups saw as their long term goal an on-line Christian publication to compete with other New Zealand Christian publications, but there was a snag. There was no fund raising strategy to cover public liability, insurance, administration, legal necessities, government and the like.
Since then I for one, had been pondering a feasible mechanism whereby the New Zealanders with their 18 young writers might engage in their own ministry in a model whereby those necessities could be circumnavigated.
Initial option
After an initial start in 2012 with Kiwi young writers, by 2015 we had placed the New Zealanders within Press Service International program as Week 4 of the 5 week schedule. The way the young writer program works is that there are 5 weeks in a Cycle, there are 10 Cycles from January to December.
The New Zealand week coordinator and editor is Irenie How of Christchurch – and it seemed to me, as a first step, the Kiwi's could take charge of their own week.
To this end Kara Greening from Taranaki agreeably taken on the role of sending the introductory email to new Kiwi young writers – a role Michael Dahlenburg in Adelaide has enjoyed whether Australian, International or New Zealander.
Michele Ong from Auckland is now sending a Monday Week 4 email to all the Kiwi young writers to check the Press Service International site for their publishing day. Former Kiwi Panellist and Salvation Army Media Unit head Christina Tyson has come on board as the New Zealand young writer statistician for the annual awards.
Plus there are others coming on board for these key roles.
Irenie How as now, would send all the edited Kiwi articles on to Press Service International for them to have a final check and then sent on Christian Today for publishing the following week. This is a well oiled process.
Fresh Option
Tuesday 11 October 2016 at the Tweed Heads Chamber of Commerce breakfast (I'm a member) and pondering this situation, the speaker was John Hale a strategic advisor and part of his presentation was focusing on looking at things from a different angle.
The idea came to me adopting something within IT which is old hat - but with a new application. Mirror imaging web sites has been around for years, what if we could mirror image the Christian Today Australia web site for a Christian Today New Zealand edition - replacing Australian young writer articles with New Zealand young writer articles.
It would double the advertisers scope, identical, except it would host New Zealand young writers. This would mean having someone in New Zealand to upload Kiwi articles onto the Christian Today platform. The model has the Kiwi's remaining under PSI and avoiding those additional separate expenses.
I sent an Email to Christian Today spelling this out in some detail, with the editor and the Christian Today IT guy saying this would work. It needed CMCi approval in New York (Christian Media Corporation International), the largest provider of Christian news around the world.
Approvals given
Earlier this month approvals were given and this has meant a flurry of activity to get the Kiwi's engaged in the various roles to initiate Christian Today New Zealand in 2017.
NZ Editorial team
Irenie How, Sophia Sinclair, Bishop Brian Carrell, Liz Hay
New Young Writer co-ordinator
Kara Greening
Notification Email
Michele Ong
Christian Today Platform
Tim Newman
Statistician
Christina Tyson
Panellists – all Kiwi's
Brian Carrell, Liz Hay, Tash McGill, Peter Rope, Sophia Sinclair, Brent Costley
Fellowship
Sophia Sinclair
2017 will be a big year. There is rarely such a wonderful opportunity to see a nation gain an established international based daily Christian news on-line publication. The Kiwi's are at the forefront of a remarkable adventure.
Dr Mark Tronson is a Baptist minister (retired) who served as the Australian cricket team chaplain for 17 years (2000 ret) and established Life After Cricket in 2001. He was recognised by the Olympic Ministry Medal in 2009 presented by Carl Lewis Olympian of the Century. He mentors young writers and has written 24 books, and enjoys writing. He is married to Delma, with four adult children and grand-children. Dr Tronson writes a daily article for Christian Today Australia (since 2008) and in November 2016 established Christian Today New Zealand.
Mark Tronson's archive of articles can be viewed at http://www.pressserviceinternational.org/mark-tronson.html