WJI is the future of WORLD Magazine

It’s spring, and here at WORLD our imagination turns to thoughts of the World Journalism Institute (WJI). As I write, we’re making final preparations for our WJI mid-career course here in Asheville. We’ve just closed applications for our main college-level course which, as always, will be held at Dordt College in May. We’ll begin accepting students for that course shortly.

For the many WORLD staff who invest time and effort working with the students, WJI is as rewarding as it is exhausting. It’s easily the most anticipated time of the year and, in all seriousness, it’s just plain fun. Also in all seriousness, it’s an opportunity to help aspiring Christian journalists understand how to produce Biblically sound journalism for the benefit of their brothers and sisters in Christ.

Over WJI’s 23 years, the program has staffed WORLD and dozens of other journalism outlets. WJI’s hundreds of alumni now work in almost too many newsrooms to track, and almost all of WORLD’s reporters and contributors have received WJI training.

This year we launch what we’ve planned to be a dramatic expansion of the programs of WJI. A key word there is “planned,” because we may make our plans, but it’s God who establishes our steps. With that in mind, our planned first step is our first-ever European course in Krakow, Poland, later this summer.

Understandably, we’re waiting to see what God will establish regarding that course, but we’re moving forward unless He shuts the door. Equally understandably, we are feeling a special urgency to train more Christian journalists in Europe. When we began planning, we had no idea what a hot spot Poland would become. All we knew was we needed more reporters bringing Biblical objectivity to bear in Europe.

Our goal everywhere is to produce more thoughtful Christian journalists for WORLD and the many other organizations that employ WJI-trained journalists.

WJI already has expanded its programs to include serious training beyond journalism for magazines, newspapers, and websites to journalism for podcasts, radio, and video. Lord willing, that expansion will continue.

WORLD readers have been the primary supporters of WJI since Joel Belz and Bob Case launched it in 1999. It’s true that the magazine you’re holding in your hands would be a lot thinner were it not for WJI alumni. But the whole world—not just WORLD—has benefited from the work of WJI. With your help, the world will see more of that work this year and in the future.