Joel Belz: WORLD in 2020

MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Monday, December 30th. Good morning! This is The World and Everything in It from listener-supported WORLD Radio. I’m Mary Reichard.

NICK EICHER, HOST: And I’m Nick Eicher. As you no doubt have heard, this is our December Giving Drive. We are in the neighborhood of 90 percent of our goal, but we’re down to the final two days, today and tomorrow, to reach that goal—and so we turn now to our founder Joel Belz, to make the case.

JOEL BELZ, FOUNDER: If I’ve heard the question once, I’ve heard it a hundred times: “Joel, of all the projects you’ve got going at WORLD, which one most deserves my financial help?” It’s almost like hearing: “Of your five daughters, which has given you your favorite grandchildren?”

The truth is that—just as I delight in all my grandchildren—all three of our divisions are undertaking major projects that will need member-support. If it weren’t for your support along the way, we couldn’t even consider these projects, let alone start them. 

Now, we need you to help us get them completed. 

God’s World News, our news division for students, has helped millions of elementary and secondary students relate the truth of the Bible to world news. But today, young people are exposed and accustomed to so much more media than ever before.

That’s why in the new year we are launching WORLDWatch(2020), a daily 10-minute video newscast designed expressly for middle-and-high-schoolers in traditional Christian schools and home schools. Students are more than ever soaking up life-shaping information through video. WORLD­Watch aims to use that powerful medium to foster the same skills and habits of discernment and Biblical critical thinking that have always applied to reading.

WORLDWatch is scheduled to go into full production at the beginning of the next school year in August, and we’ve got a lot of work to do before then.

Our WORLD division publishes the paper and ink magazine you probably already know about. WORLD also publishes daily news for your digital consumption, and produces The World and Everything in It, The Olasky Interview, a seasonal program of interviews conducted by Marvin Olasky; and Listening In, a weekly interview program.

We plan to launch a new 12-episode season of an all-new podcast, Effective Compassion, that will tell the stories of organizations fighting poverty in a way that is challenging, personal, and spiritual. Later in the year we hope to roll out an additional podcast or two—stay tuned to see what shape those take.

You should also be looking for a newly redesigned WORLD Magazine hitting your mailbox next year. I’ve heard that it will be bigger (in terms of pages), brighter, and more readable. Sounds great!

Finally, there’s World Journalism Institute, which offers intensive training for aspiring journalists, for work at WORLD, and, importantly, at mainstream news organizations, where our alumni are often the only Christian presence in their newsrooms.

We’ve been able to train domestically, we have just completed our second year of training journalists in China, thanks to your support. This small-scale effort barely scratches the surface of the need there, but it’s a start.              

Perhaps you’ll have one of these specific projects in mind as you consider giving to WORLD this year. Perhaps you will say, “Just do more of what you’re doing.” 

May I strongly urge you to make a gift in support of our work? Gifts of $25, $50, and $100 will help lay a solid foundation. And, as I do every year, I’m also looking for a handful of folks who will commit to $5,000 each year for the next three years. WORLD’s mission is that important! I hope you’ll share our urgency.

For WORLD Radio, I’m Joel Belz.

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