~ Nashville Media Outlet Christian Activities celebrates 30th anniversary of publishing the latest Christian music and entertainment news ~
Nashville Media Outlet Christian Activities Celebrates 30 Year Anniversary
The webzine Christian Activities is celebrating its 30th year of offering breaking news, event information, and new music releases to the public. Nashville entrepreneur Kathryn Darden launched the original one-page publication in 1992 while working at the historic Koinonia Coffeehouse on Music Row. It later grew to a 24-page publication which was distributed across Tennessee, Alabama, and Kentucky. Since 1995, the webzine has been read by people in almost every country in the world.
“My love for Christian music began in the 80s. I was a young woman going through a very difficult season in my personal life, and felt adrift and isolated,” Darden shares.
“One day a friend put a cassette in the player in her car, and suddenly a young girl was singing my struggles, my pain and my hope. Her name was Amy Grant. The only Christian music I had ever heard before was in church and the old-timey southern gospel songs on Christian radio programs. To say Amy’s music changed my life is an understatement. Hungry for more, I discovered Keith Green, then others,” she continues.
“A decade later when both my parents were terminally ill, I played Amy Grant’s ‘Lead Me On’ over and over for weeks to keep myself from falling into a deep depression. Since first discovering Christian music, I have kept my radio tuned to contemporary Christian music channels. It has helped mold, shape, encourage and direct me for most of my life.”
Christian Activities has covered Christian entertainers and personalities ranging from Michael W. Smith, Skillet and Billy Graham, to Kirk Cameron, Whitney Houston and Randy Travis and, of course, Amy Grant. Darden says the genesis of her vision was about bringing a lot of moving parts together.
“During my time working at Koinonia, I noticed that there were several major church denominations which had publications listing their individual events, but there was nothing in circulation crossing denominational lines,” says Darden. “The whole goal for Christian Activities was to let people know about the variety of events going on in Music City and it just kept growing from there.”
Over the years, the magazine/webzine has been given various honors including a Certificate of Appreciation from former Nashville Mayor Phil Bredesen. Christian Activities served as the official church liaison publication for Tennessee 200 during Tennessee’s Bicentennial, and hosted Sunday nights at Bellevue Station as well as sponsored various Christian concerts, events, and festivals.
“Christian Activities has a place in the history books with Christian Music,” states Charles Dorris, a leader in the Christian music industry. “With Nashville being the hub of CCM and with Christian Activities being based here, I was always anxious to see the latest updates and stories and news. When there were ‘hard copies’ we would distribute them around the office for our own reading and so that our friends and visitors could read the issues as well. Many times in the ‘pre-internet’ era, Christian Activities would be the first to break a story or provide an update. Congratulations to Kathryn for her vision and for the place she holds in the history of CCM music!”
Nashville media outlet Christian Activities has published Christian music news and information since 1992.
