Media and the church.
Reed Dickens said something very interesting he said.
The internet and cable TV have created a speed of information that demands transparency.
One thing in my opinion the church does not do is leverage new media and manage their brand.
1. Not realizing that what unintentionally do and say they are actually branding their church on accident.
2. When crisis hits most churches our first response is to say nothing. Big mistake in the information age. There is a great post on church crunch that covers this.
Reed explained that every church should do two things.
Message prep –
- One sentence rule – Say what you want to say want in one sentence. Start with it end with it and use it thematically.
- Message box – Boundary between what you don’t know and you can’t discuss – You need to stay on message.
- make sure you prepare
- You can’t be an expert on everything if you try you do you will get into trouble
- Best thing you can say is “I don’t know” followed up by “What I do know is”
How about you what is your churches relationship to the media?
As a church, we send out press briefs weekly to local and regional newspapers. 4 years ago, when our senior pastor resigned, we broke the story to the local papers and we were able to frame the language used throughout the transition.
The “one sentence rule” is great to see in writing. There are some of us on staff who follow that rule… but more by accident than being intentional.
Great post, Sam.
Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
Pretty good I would say Sam. We just had a local news station write an article with a TV spot on how we were proactive with the Swine Flue stuff. We were on top of it and it was nice to be able to leverage the media to assure parents and families that we knew the risks and cared about their safety.
But I think the local stuff is much easier to do how about the media that is free. Blogs, twitter, facebook. How is the relationship between your church and the media that is quickly becoming more and more mainstream?
Great post and once again super article in K! Magazine
You rock!
Anthony, Thanks for your comment. Love it when churches are proactive.
JC – I think our church like most churches can be much more proactive at shaping the direction of the media in ways that builds the kingdom and interests the consumer.
Thanks for your kind words about my article. I appreciate it.
BTW it was great meeting both of you at Orange I hope it won’t be the last time.