The model of ‘Evangelical Focus’, as seen from Italy

When we think of European evangelical information, what are the reference newspapers? Where can we find news, commentary, analysis from the evangelical world on European and global reality?

“Building bridges between church and society, giving presence and influence to Christian thought” is one of the guiding principles of Evangelical Focus (EF), the English-language news website offering an evangelical perspective on current issues in Europe.

At the Giornate Teologiche (Theological Days) 2024 on the topic of ‘Evangelicals and Media’, held in Padua on 6-7 September 2024, EF’s director Joel Forster was interviewed and gave a testimony of this important service in the field of information.

The news website was born in 2015 as an extension of Protestant Digital (PD). Based on the same principles, PD has been offering Spanish-language content for 20 years and reaches not only the Iberian country but also a wide audience in Latin America.

Through in-depth articles, interviews, commentary and analysis, EF is a now voice that gives visibility to the evangelical reality in countries where evangelicals are a minority (like Southern and Eastern Europe), seeking to promote a deeper understanding of the challenges and opportunities evangelicals face today.

One of the objectives is to make visible the contribution that evangelicals make in various countries and at local and national levels, starting with their commitment to Gospel values and their faith in Jesus. While EF is an evangelical media aimed at evangelicals, it strives to inform the general public about the initiatives, projects and inspired stories that arise in the evangelical world and that often go unnoticed in public social media.

 Today, readers are not only looking for news but expect interpretations and analyses that reflect a solid identity and a consistent perspective

“In the past”, said Forster in Padova, “the ideal of journalism was to maintain a certain equidistance from events and opinions, trying to provide as neutral a view of reality as possible. However, with the advent of new media and the explosion of news agencies, the information landscape has changed dramatically. Today, readers are not only looking for news but expect interpretations and analyses that reflect a solid identity and a consistent perspective. As evangelicals, our Christian perspective must be our identity and we must be honest in sharing it”.

“On the one hand”, the journalist continued, “we want to tell society about the church, making it visible and drawing attention to the contributions it has made wherever it is present. On the other hand, we seek to tell society about the church, informing European evangelicals so that they can better understand what is happening around them”.

Asked what could be done in Italy to promote a similar initiative in the field of information, Forster said that it is essential to have a named person who becomes the pivot of the project and who is able to bring together a team of volunteers or collaborators in the various fields (graphic design, programming, editorial contents, sponsor, etc.); to have an adequate budget; contributors and columnists who come from across the evangelical spectrum; and to be closely connected with evangelical cooperation movements such as the Evangelical Alliances and the Lausanne Movement.

The experience of PD and EF shows that even in a country where evangelicals are in the minority and have limited resources, it is possible to think big and deliver a media service that is credible and attractive.

Notoriously, evangelical Italy lacks press agencies and evangelical news websites. Can EF’s experience inspire something new here too? Joel Forster hoped so, and so did the participants of the Theological Days.

Isabella Savino, English teacher and IFED theology graduate in Modena, Italy. This article was first published in Loci Communes and translated into English with permission.