Chris Goswami

Blogger of the Year 2015

Chris Goswami, training for the ministry here at Northern Baptist College began blogging two years ago on www.7minutes.net, a magazine-style Christian blog that discusses faith, news and Christian living. 
He was a finalist with 7minutes in the Premier Digital Awards in 2014, but this year went one better by winning the overall first place title “Blogger of the Year” at the award dinner and ceremony in London on November 14th.


Chris has worked for 25 years in the telecoms industry and is currently Director of Marketing and Communications at Openwave Mobility. This background and a call to the ministry led to the formation of the blog in 2013 as he explains:

"When I entered the process of ministerial training we know as 'Formation Training' a question that occurred to me was '… what has God formed already..?' I don't believe he has been sitting by waiting for me to reach middle age before he could say 'Start training now Chris'. When I thought about this the obvious answer that hit me was my current role in MARCOMS (Marketing and Communications). This, coupled with the fact that I was now being hit at the speed of a runaway train with a mass of theology I was previously ignorant of, was the equation from which 7minutes emerged.  And in fact a surprisingly large number of blogs have come out of subject matter we have studied here at college. College provides a rich and vast source of thinking and reading. Taking some of this and working out how to form it into 'theology lite' blogging that is relevant to a wider audience has certainly been a challenge but one I have enjoyed. I guess it’s one way of doing what we call 'Contextual Theology.' ”

Re Premier Digital Chris commented: “The awards dinner followed a full day of conference presentations dealing with the creativity, technicalities, practicalities and, yes, even the Theology of so-called 'online sacred spaces'. Premier Digital provide a great focal point for UK based bloggers and tweeters who want to do something more with their online presence”.  There were more than 800 entries in the Premier Digital Awards, now in their ninth year, across various categories of blogs, apps, social media, websites, videos and other creative uses of media.

Commenting on the winning entries, Premier’s Chief Operating Officer Kevin Bennett said: "We’ve been totally amazed and utterly delighted with the quality and originality of all the entries. This year’s winners have set a new benchmark for pushing boundaries in sharing the message of Christ online with the aid of cutting edge technology.’  For a list of winners visit http://www.premierdigital.org.uk/Premier-Digital-Awards/Winners-2015.

Interested in starting a blog? Contact me if you think I can help @chrisgoswami