Joel Forster will share at the European Leadership Forum's Media Communicators Network on how to report on current affairs while maintaining journalistic standards and a solid Christian worldview.
A session of a previous European Leadership Forum conference in Wisla, Poland. / Photo: [link]ELF[/link].
The May 2026 edition of the European Leadership Forum expects to bring together a thousand Christian leaders from across Europe for an event that seeks to connect, train and encourage churches and evangelical organisations in their mission.
The conference, for which registration has been open since September, will feature among its many speakers this year Joel Forster, director of Evangelical Focus, the daily news and opinion website from a Christian worldview launched 10 years ago.
Joel Forster leads this news websire from Spain, as part of Areópago Protestante (a communication platform linked to the Spanish Evangelical Alliance). He is a journalist with a degree from the Autonomous University of Barcelona (2008), but he also worked with Christian university students with GBU (IFES in Spain) and UCCF (United Kingdom) for five years. Co-author of the books 'Esencia y Resistencia' (Essence and Resistance, 2012) and 'Evangélicos en la nueva era de la comunicación' (Evangelicals in the New Era of Communication, 2019), he has been on the board of directors of the Spanish Evangelical Alliance for five years and is since 2008 a member of the editorial team of Spanish news website Protestante Digital.
Forster has participated for years in the annual forums of the European Leadership Forum (ELF), which has led to many connections with leaders across Europe, including thoughtful thinkers and other media communicators. ‘All the media and communication training and gospel encouragement I have received has made a big difference,’ says Forster of previous participations in ELF. And now he will join other speakers in the 2026 programme to help share best practices and vision.
[photo_footer] Journalism seminars on the 2026 programme of the ELF conference. / Photo: euroleadership.org [/photo_footer] Joel Forster will conduct two seminars at the ELF 2026 meeting (15-21 May 2026) together with Evert van Vlastuin, an experienced Dutch journalist and director of Christian Network Europe.
The first is entitled ‘How to address current news events from a Christian perspective’. The ELF 2025 website describes it as: "The news cycle moves quickly, often marked by troubling events and shaped by bias intended to influence readers and viewers. This session explores how Christians can respond with wisdom and faithfulness. Drawing on the experience of two Christian journalists, it introduces biblical principles for discerning the news, engaging in thoughtful conversation, and living faithfully in response".
This will be followed by a second block, in which a learning community will address the practical application of what has been presented to two cases presented by the speakers, in which participants will practise processing current events from a Christian perspective. They will also have the opportunity to share ideas from their own experience and apply the lessons to their specific contexts.
Applicants wishing to participate in these workshops should be current or potential leaders who are media communicators (in creative fields such as journalism, film, television, or social media), media commentators, media critics, media teachers, or media scholars. Whatever the role, the common vision should be a desire to relate biblical Christian faith to contemporary media in a way that is authentic, appropriate, and relevant.
The European Leadership Forum (ELF) Media Communicators Network draws upon the strategies and resources developed within the Lausanne Global Media Engagement Network and seeks to build meaningful personal relationships by creating networks among evangelical media communicators in Europe and beyond.
"I If Christians wish to continue making a meaningful impact upon the world, gifted communicators who want to relate biblical Christian faith to contemporary culture through these media platforms will be greatly needed", explains the ELF website.
To this end, the leaders of the Media network (Lars Dahle, Margunn Serigstad Dahle, and Bjørn Hinderaker) are seeking to equip communicators to relate biblical faith to today's world. This is essential, as journalism, films, television and social media dominate the way in which an increasingly global community understands the reality around it, and therefore also faith.
Other speakers on media at this 2206 conference will be Efrem Buckle, John Dickson, Simon Diercks, and Ahrum Yoo.
The meeting will focus on biblical foundations and models, analysis of the worldview of the media and culture, and critical reflections on creative communication in contemporary media contexts.
Among the goals of the European Leadership Forum's annual conference in Wisla (Poland) is to encourage and equip existing or emerging leaders to speak with authenticity, relevance, and evangelical integrity in the different areas of influence of the church and society.
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[title]Join us to make EF sustainable[/title]
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[text]At Evangelical Focus, we have a sustainability challenge ahead. We invite you to join those across Europe and beyond who are committed with our mission. Together, we will ensure the continuity of Evangelical Focus and our Spanish partner Protestante Digital in 2025.
Learn all about our #TogetherInThisMission initiative here (English).
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