Zerubbabel Focus: Z-News
by Allison Laffin

Z-News, the daughter magazine of The Intercessor, has had quite a history. Started in 1989, the goal of Z-News was to reach out to young people with the truth of Jesus Christ in you, as you. Although founded by an adult, Dottie Tupper, older members of the Zerubbabel youth group progressively became more and more involved in the making of the magazine. Beginning with contributions to the writing of the articles, they then worked their way into the design, layout, and publication of the magazine. Soon, Z-News was published completely “for and by youth”! Their aim was to reach young people in a creative way, through the use of articles that dealt with issues pertinent to youth.

From the start of Z-News, up until recently, the magazine catered to a very wide age span, ranging from children to young adults in their teen-aged years. Although God was able to use the magazine for several years in this way, the ZNews crew recently had to reevaluate the target age range for which they were aiming. Readers began requesting articles about topics directed more towards young adults. It seemed as though the ZNews readership was getting older and the main constituency was in their high school years. Although we can never be too old to hear the Biblical basics and “Bible stories,” Z-News felt that there were more mature issues that needed to be addressed to these older readers.

Consequently, Z-News changed its image and content. Taken from the first issue of the “Exciting and New Z-News,” the inside cover reads: “Our focus on topics from the Bible has remained the same, but the content is aimed more toward an older audience. We hope you’ll jump right in with us and check out our current topics for today’s Christian youth.” The magazine featured segments such as “On Campus,” which focused on student issues, and “Tune In/Tune Out,” which gave Christian perspectives on the popular music of the day.

The magazine was successful and looked fantastic, but…one problem needed to be addressed. There was still a group of children that had once enjoyed receiving Z-News and who now were not getting the message sent to them. So, how could Z-News provide the older readers with more sophisticated and mature articles while still providing Biblical basics to lay a foundation for the youngest readers? As always, God had it all figured out.

The young adult readers of Z-News are now the newest subscribers to The Intercessor! You may or may not have noticed some of the articles in our Spring 2001 issue that cater to our now youngest readers. Articles such as “A Movie Classic,” a movie review by Fowler Cooper, “Garbage In…Garbage Out” by Scott Prewitt, and “God’s Sovereignty in Success and in Failure,” Elliot Coatney’s interview with Dr. Tommy Prewitt have all incorporated information on issues pertinent to maturing young Christians.

So, where does that leave Z-News? Under the leadership of Dacia Trethewey, the magazine is now completely dedicated to laying a Biblical foundation for children in a fun, creative way! And Dacia, an aspiring elementary school teacher (and always brimming with creative ideas), is God’s perfect person for the job. The issues are jam packed with easy to read Bible story articles, word search puzzles, color-bynumber, etc.

So, even throughout all the changes Z-News has seen, the initial goal has been continually strived for. The goal being…to spread God’s Word to young people.

Allison is a senior majoring in Computer Information Systems at Appalachian State University in Boone, NC. She is a youth leader and helps with production of Z-News.