YouthFocus is the brand name for all published youth and catechism products of Bible Media. Rev Willie Botha from Outjo, Namibia, was appointed in a newly established position as head of Youth Courses at Bybelkor in July 1976. The brand name YouthFocus was created in collaboration with the then General Youth Commission of the Dutch Reformed Church and rev Botha. His first course series, Bekwaam om the leer, has been widely used for many years in the Dutch Reformed Church, with great success.

Through the years, a wide variety of products has been developed by YouthFocus. These products aim to support congregations in their children’s and youth ministry, sharing the Good News with the youth and providing them with an understanding of the church.

YouthFocus works closely with the catechism task teams of the General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church and the URCSA. These teams do research, give guidance and develop materials, tools and aids within the framework of reformed theology and confessions.

In 2021 Bible Media, for the first time, made the YouthFocus catechism material available on an online platform for faith development on the Missio website.

The Christelike Afrikaanse Rolprent en Fotografiese Organisasie (Carfo) was established in 1947 by Rudolf Raath to use film as a vehicle to proclaim the gospel. Later, in July 1959, MEMA was established as a church action in Malawi, under the leadership of Attie Labuschagne and other missionaries, with the aim of using radio for evangelism.

In 1970 Carfo was transferred to the General Synod of the Dutch Reformed Church and in 1979 it became the film department of MEMA.

MEMA is a Chewa word which means “invite”.

Over the years, MEMA used various electronic aids to proclaim the gospel, such as a mechanical finger gramophone, slide shows, audio cassettes, CDs, DVDs and video clips. Several films were produced and distributed in the 1980s, also in isiXhosa, isiZulu, Sesotho and Setswana.

In 1992, MEMA became a subdivision of Bible Media and is known as MEMA Media. The focus is now on developing electronic products to assist people in growing their faith and expand ministries.

MEMA Media has produced a wide variety of radio and TV programs for churches and service groups, including dramas, music programs, journal programs, music, training and equipment programs.

Today, MEMA Media mainly focusses on video communications and digital platforms as part of Bible Media’s larger digital strategy.

Bible Media and Bybelkor as we know it today, evolved from the shared vision of Dr Johan van der Merwe and Rev Jan Lange during the Cape Synod of 1969. They dreamed of establishing Bible correspondence courses in the Dutch Reformed Church.

In 1971, Dr Frits Gaum became the first director of Bybelkor. The first course was released in the following year named Só glo ek – on the Twelve Articles.

God en die tiener was another big success which was specially developed for the youth, and released in 1974 during Jeug-tot-Jeug-Aksie gatherings were more than 50 000 books were distributed.

When Bybelkor reached the million mark with the distribution of course books in 1983, the then ceremonial state president, Mr Marais Viljoen, unveiled a work of art in the Bybelkor building. This artwork was specially created by artist Ilana Slomowitz.

Bybelkor, was transformed into a non-profit organisation in 1980 with the help of the General Synod’s Commission for Church Magazines. The ideal of bringing all media activities of the Dutch Reformed Church under one roof was largely fulfilled in 2002 when the Magazine Company (the publisher of Kerkbode, LiG and the Yearbook of the Dutch Reformed Churches) was relocated to Wellington under the wings of Bible Media.

Bybel-Media/Bybelkor has had several CEOs leading the organisation after Frits Gaum: Hans Linde (from 1986), Pieter Fourie (from 2006), Leon Venter (from 2017) and since 2020 Nico Simpson.

A new digital era with unprecedented possibilities has now arrived for Bible Media and Bybelkor. However, our purpose will always remain the same: to be a traveling companion in service of the good news of Jesus Christ and to inspire people to follow Jesus and grow as disciples on the path of Jesus.

Good News Media (GNM) started as a member of Global Recordings Network, an international and interdenominational fellowship that coordinates their ministry worldwide, with products available in thousands of languages.

Gospel Recordings Network was founded in 1937 in Los Angeles by Joy Ridderhof as she was lying on her sickbed. She started dreaming of sending recorded gospel messages to her beloved converts in Honduras in their native language, Spanish. The first gospel recording in Spanish was made on the last day of 1938. Different tailor-made players were developed so that people in remote areas could listen to the gospel without the necessity of electricity or a constant supply of batteries.

In later years Good News Media became a division of Bible Media. Today it is an evangelical ministry helping Christian workers, evangelical churches and missionaries to reach the non-reading community with the gospel of Jesus Christ through audio-visual material.

The focus of GNM is especially on the unreached and those who cannot read, with the aim to share the gospel of Christ with them in their mother tongue. Presently GNM is moving more and more towards developing digital resources for children.

The Nehemiah Bible Institute (NBI) was founded by Bible Media in 1988. NBI provides grassroots theological training to church leaders, mostly from African Independent Churches, who never had the opportunity to enrol for formal theological education. The NBI courses provide a strong theological basis and focus on the development of practical skills for ministry leaders in congregations throughout Southern Africa. The theological education takes the African context strongly into consideration.

NBI makes a meaningful difference on the most basic level in the education of African church leaders across the total spectrum of the independent churches. The courses are accredited with the official education authorities in South Africa.

Over the years NBI has built partnerships to provide this theological training in most countries in Southern Africa. The NBI course material has been translated into many languages that are used across Southern Africa. Some of the course material are also used in India and Pakistan.

NBI, as part of the Bible Media Group, seeks to empower living churches with spiritually competent leaders serving the coming of God’s Kingdom in their communities and the world.

Attie Burger, pastor of the then Dutch Reformed Church of the Transvaal’s congregation in Paulpietersburg, asked the Transvaal Synod in 1937 that a general monthly magazine for the church in the (then) Transvaal be established. This new magazine had to bring the work and life of the church to the attention of all the members and families and supplement the official church magazine, Die Kerkbode. It had to be a well-illustrated, popular monthly magazine that would be carried into every household with the help of the relevant church councils.

On 1 December 1937, the first issue of Die Voorligter appeared. PJ Viljoen, pastor of Heidelberg, Transvaal, was the editor of Die Voorligter on a part-time basis for nine years. Attie Burger succeeded him in 1948 and from 1957 held the position of editor full-time. In 1947, Sporie van Rensburg became the “technical editor”. This legendary later member of parliament and senator remained involved with Die Voorligter for decades. In 1967, Willie Maree became the full-time assistant editor, and from 1970 to 1989 he was the editor of Die Voorligter, the first non-minister to hold this position.

Burger’s plan for a monthly magazine worked well for many years, especially when deacons still collected monthly contributions in their wards and delivered Die Voorligter from house to house. During Maree’s time, Die Voorligter’s monthly print run rose to 188 000. Maree was succeeded in 1989 by FM (Frits) Gaum, who was also editor of Die Kerkbode at the time. Die Voorligter gradually became a general Christian magazine and later, with a more “contemporary” name, LiG, began to compete with other magazines in the open market. This trend continued when Johann Symington succeeded Gaum in 2004. Adri-Louise van Reenen (Van Reenen-Fourie), who had then been the magazine’s deputy editor for many years, became the editor in 2005. After her untimely death in 2014, Francine van Niekerk (now Prince) became the editor.

LiG focuses strongly on “human” stories, as well as on the lives of celebrities. In columns with an emphasis on the family, good advice is given for a healthy, Christian lifestyle.

Kerkbode, the official magazine of the Dutch Reformed Church, was founded in 1849 by Abraham Faure as De Gereformeerde Kerkbode. Later this magazine’s name was changed to De Kerkbode, and even later to Die Kerkbode. Since 2003, the magazine has only been known as Kerkbode, with the motto: “Today’s church newspaper for today’s church people”.

Kerkbode is the oldest Afrikaans magazine in South Africa that still exists today. Its history can be divided into six phases. The first phase, with Abraham Faure as editor, had its conception in the struggle against liberalism of the 19th century and represents a conservative-evangelical connection to Scripture. The second phase, with PGJ Meiring as editor, was a time of intense debate on Scriptural authority during the case against Johannes du Plessis. The third phase coincided with the rise of Afrikaner nationalism and, in the time of MJ van der Westhuizen and AP Treurnicht, attempts to substantiate apartheid Scripturally. The fourth phase is connected with the Dutch Reformed Church’s testimony on Scripture and Scriptural authority and on church and society (both in 1986), the rejection of apartheid, the search for unity in the Dutch Reformed Church family and the transition to a new state order. In the fifth phase, the church and its page reveal a more accommodating, tolerant approach, and greater hesitation to make strong and “final” statements about anything and everything.

The sixth phase is particularly associated with emerging technology and the drastic shifts in the way news is read and distributed and, in the first place, produced in a financially sustainable way. It is still about church news and the analysis of currents within the Dutch Reformed Church, but Kerkbode now fully joins the news media’s greater struggle for attention and relevance in the midst of the era of the so-called “digital disruption”. However, the newspaper retains its strong voice and vision to be a mirror and a window for the Dutch Reformed Church.