The Australian young writers program was initiated way back in 2009 when Christian Today editor David Chang and Australian cricket chaplain Dr Mark Tronson put their heads together.
In 2008 Mark Tronson was invited by then editor Szelang Chan to commence a daily column and a year later new editor David Chang suggested adding a daily sport article. Too much, but five young people writing sport was adopted.
This worked so well, that by the end of 2009 other young people had joined the Christian Today young writer team writing on a broad spectrum of subjects. Today there are 110 young writers.
This year 2021, after three years of ‘stand alone’ the Kiwi young writers and the International writers have separated and running their own programs.
The young writer program is run by Press Service International – one of the ministries of Well-Being Australia. Christian Today is the publisher.
Australians a fresh era
2021 sees the Australian young writers thrusting excitedly through a fresh encounter in their publishing in Christian Today.
There are a number of categories for your interest. There are 5 Weeks in each Cycle.
Week 1 - Australian 18-30s
Week 2 - Australians 18-30s
Week 3 - Australian senior writers
Week 4- - NZ /. Internationals
Week 5 - Australian Over 31s
How it all works
Christian Today publishes all these articles as there are teams of backroom people for each week to make it all work.
Each week has the following functionary roles
Coordinator - sends reminders for young writers due dates
Editor - edits the Week’s articles
Photo selector - when no photo is sent with the article, a photo is selected
Late article chaser - self explanatory
Facebook and Instagram - uploads articles
Stand Alone - connects with Christian Today with each week’s articles
New young writer - any new young writer is connected via this person
Panellists - they mark the articles for the annual awards
Statisticians - collate the Panellist’s points
Annual young writer conferences - Young Writer Brain’s Trust
Each year a change over
Each new year there is the inevitable groups who move on and another group of young writers join the team of young writers.
Some return to the young writers and other opt for the 2 articles a year option.
New young writers 2021
Dr Brian Yip
Justin Sayson
Kelly Thompson - Sport
Pepper Jane
Ash Menelaws - returned
Natasha Rider
Travis Barnes - to Senior Writers
Nick Lee - to Senior Writers
There are 20 former young writers over these 12 years who have sought to be part old the 2 article a year group.
Interested in having an international column published in Christian Today – connect with Dr Mark Tronson timeout@bushorchestra.com 0419 917 713
Dr Mark Tronson - a 4 min video
Chairman – Well-Being Australia
Baptist Minister 45 years
- 1984 - Australian cricket team chaplain 17 years (Ret)
- 2001 - Life After Cricket (18 years Ret)
- 2009 - Olympic Ministry Medal – presented by Carl Lewis
- 2019 - The Gutenberg - (ARPA Christian Media premier award)
Gutenberg video - 2min 14sec
Married to Delma for 45 years with 4 children and 6 grand children