Recent staffing decisions at Adventist Media (AM) have strategically focused on expanding the Seventh-day Adventist Church’s reach in the digital space through digital marketing.
James Lombart joined the AM team as the new digital marketing assistant, alongside departmental and donor relations assistant Nicholas Honeyands, and digital discipleship strategist Rachel Lemons Aitken.
“We look forward to the contribution by these new team members,” said sales and marketing manager Tim McTernan. “Their marketing skills will help us reach people with the good news about Jesus in new ways.”
Before joining Adventist Media, Mr Lombart worked for Apple and a Berkshire Hathaway subsidiary in Sydney. Originally from England, he moved to Australia in 2008 and married his wife Jana in July 2019 in Sorrento, Italy. The Lombarts attend both Fox Valley and Wahroonga churches.
“I really like the team I get to work with and the mission of AM,” said Mr Lombart. “It’s really rewarding applying evidence-based business principles in order to further the work of the Church.”
While Mr Lombart works in AM’s marketing and sales department, Mr Honeyands works with the communications, news and editorial team who produce Adventist Record, Signs of the Times and Mums At The Table magazines.
“It’s a really supportive environment,” he said. “It’s great to be able to put into practice what I’ve learned for such an important purpose. It’s a new role being in donor relations, so it’s both rewarding and challenging to delve into a position that hasn’t previously existed at AM.”
Prior to joining AM, Mr Honeyands studied a Bachelor of Business (majoring in marketing) at Avondale University College, graduating in December last year. He is to be married to his fiancé Emily, a Year 1 teacher at Hills Adventist College, in October.
Both Mr Lombart and Mr Honeyands are based full-time at the AM office in Wahroonga (NSW).
Mrs Lemons Aitken has joined the AM team part-time to coordinate digital discipleship at a South Pacific Division level. Formerly working for the Australian Union Conference (AUC), the decision to join AM was made following the expansion of the Digital Discipleship Conference (DDC) to New Zealand last year, which took the ministry beyond AUC’s reach.
“It was a natural fit,” said Mrs Lemons Aitken. “It allows the ministry to expand organically, as it has been doing with people from the islands coming to DDC, as well as the New Zealand DDC that happened last year.”
With extensive experience working in digital communications with the AUC and Greater Sydney Conference, Mrs Lemons Aitken is looking forward to the opportunities her new part-time position will bring to the future of digital ministry. She lives in Sydney with her husband Peter and three-year-old son Jax.
