About

What is World Next Door?

World Next Door, Inc. is a not-for-profit organization based in Indianapolis, Indiana.

More than just a statistic.

Our mission is to use compelling journalism, hands-on mentoring and influential leadership to change ordinary people into wild-eyed revolutionaries for God’s kingdom and to unleash them on local and global issues of social injustice.

Take a look below to see what this looks like!

Compelling Journalism

To accomplish our mission, our team of journalists travels around the country and around the world, “embedding” ourselves in organizations and Christ-centered ministries that are actually doing stuff in the struggle for social justice.

We spend time among these ministries learning, listening and observing, then write about what we experience. Our articles reflect what the world is like away from the well-worn grooves of tourism. Our photographs and videos capture the faces, lives and emotions you don’t see when looking at statistics on a page.

Some of the girls we wrote about when WND visited Cambodia.

This website is part investigative newspaper, part travel magazine, part web journal. It’s like National Geographic meets Bizarre Foods meets an online blog, all with a social justice focus (issues like poverty, hunger, AIDS, etc.).

Through our unique style of communication, we attempt to awaken the adventurous spirit in uninvolved church-goers, to get them connected to their true calling and in so doing, to multiply the impact of the organizations we write about.

It all comes down to this… We want to give you the chance to leave the cul-de-sacs and coffee shops behind, to explore the outside world, to discover the hope that lies just around the corner.

If you want to stay up to date with our articles, we recommend subscribing to our weekly email digest!

Hands-On Mentoring

As much as we love sharing stories via our online magazine, we also love to develop leaders through our year-long fellowship program, our summer internships and our short term trips.

The 2012 Summer Internship team in South Africa.

Our year-long fellowships are not for the faint of heart! We are looking for amazingly gifted writers to join us in traveling the world, writing for our online magazine and growing in maturity and passion. Click here for more details.

Our summer internship program is a blast. For two months, we take 3-5 young writers deep into the heart of the developing world to embed with our partner ministries. Living with a host family, exploring a new culture, eating weird foods… It’s always an adventure! Click here to learn more.

Short-term trips are a brand new aspect of our ministry. About once a year, we will guide a small group of people in a 1-2 week trip to visit one of our partner ministries (read about one of these trips here). This is a fantastic first-step for those looking to get engaged in social justice for the first time. To request more information, please email info@worldnextdoor.org.

Influential Leadership

Finally, our ministry involves three practices that help us accomplish our mission.

WND’s director, Barry Rodriguez, teaching at a fundraising event.

Teaching the Church: Our journalists and staff members have been all over the world and have many
incredible stories to share. We love visiting churches to teach, preach and share in an effort to multiply the work already being done by these ministries. To inquire about our availability and teaching calendars, please email info@worldnextdoor.org.

Empowering Small Groups: We love meeting small groups, Bible studies, businesses and other small groups looking to take the next steps to get involved with social justice. Because of our many global connections, we have the tools to get individual small groups plugged in and engaged, and we also just love sharing our stories! If you would like a World Next Door journalist to visit your group, please email info@worldnextdoor.org.

Advising Individuals: A lot of people would love to get involved, but have no idea where to start. That’s where we come in. Our team loves to meet with individuals, business leaders, pastors and families to advise and consult about next steps. Email or give us a call (317.602.8851) if you’d like more information!