wfn.org | United Methodist agency will launch TV campaign in 2001

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

July 10, 2000 News media contact: Linda Green·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-71B{324}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - "Igniting Ministry," the United Methodist Church's
most ambitious attempt to use television and other media to evangelize the
masses, will be launched nationally in September 2001. 

The recent General Conference approved a campaign authorizing United
Methodist Communications (UMCom) to create national television commercials
about the United Methodist Church for cable television. 

The $20 million national campaign is designed to increase the awareness of
the United Methodist Church and its ministries and to invite people into a
relationship with Christ through the local churches. 

The campaign will be kicked off with a proposed "United Methodist Open House
Month," in which local churches will be urged to hold a monthlong open
house. The churches will be encouraged "to get ready for company, not just
by opening the doors of the church and waiting until a 30-second commercial
motivates someone to walk in," said the Rev. Steve Horswill-Johnston, a
staff executive and the newly named director of Igniting Ministry. 

Rather, he said, churches will see a positive effect from the TV ads if they
make a concentrated effort to sharpen their hospitality and marketing
skills, and if members personally invite people into their houses of
worship.

Horswill-Johnston, who formerly led the communication agency's Conference
Resourcing Team (CRT), will assemble a team to lead the campaign with help
from leadership across the church. CRT connects conference communicators
with resources and with each other, provides communications training and
consultation, and provides other related services.

"Perhaps it is time to cease allowing only the secular media to declare what
divides us as a denomination and use those same media to declare what unites
us and makes us the denomination of choice," Horswill-Johnston said. "Most
importantly, by doing this across the connection, we can declare to those we
are inviting and to each other that our connectionalism is our competitive
advantage."

In an effort to move the campaign forward, the Rev. Larry Hollon, UMCom's
top staff executive, has made some changes to incorporate Igniting Ministry
into the work of the agency. Barbara Nissen, a CRT resource consultant, has
been named director of information and consulting services, which includes
CRT and InfoServ, the denomination's toll-free telephone general information
service. She also will be involved in developing training materials for
Igniting Ministry. Steve Downey, a staff executive in charge of production
and distribution, also will assume responsibilities as director of Internet
Services. 

"The 2000 General Conference entrusted to UMCom the responsibility of
launching a new evangelism never tried by this denomination," Hollon said.
"Television is the language of the people, the kind of people we are looking
to bring into relationship with Christ and into our United Methodist
congregations."

The ad campaign will provide the denomination with the opportunity "to
address persons we might never have the opportunity to communicate with in
any other way," Hollon said. "That is exciting."

So far, nine television ads and six radio spots have been shown in various
parts of the United States. Nearly 40 percent of the viewers polled
indicated an interest in visiting a United Methodist church after seeing the
ads.

The television ads are one element in a five-part coordinated effort. The
broader campaign will support and encourage local churches to become active
partners in reaching out to "unchurched" people and creating renewed
enthusiasm among members. 

A planning kit and training sessions will be developed this fall to assist
congregations in honing their inviting and welcoming skills and to provide
guidance in conducting media campaigns based on Igniting Ministry. Newspaper
ads, radio spots and artwork for supporting media will be included in the
planning kit and on a Web site. In addition, matching grants will be offered
to help conferences and local churches with media buys. On the Internet, the
campaign will provide information about the United Methodist Church and a
locator service to find local congregations.

UMCom will use the funding voted by General Conference only to purchase time
on national cable systems. From its own separate budget, the general agency
will develop the spots, the planning kit, training and Web site, as well as
provide funds for matching grants. Local and regional matching grants will
begin early next spring. The grants will enable recipients to purchase local
and regional broadcast television time to supplement the nationwide cable TV
buy. Applications will be available through UMCom's Igniting Ministry office
(800-476-7766). 
"I regard the training of congregations to be welcoming communities to be
virtually as important as the public media campaign because it provides us
the occasion to examine the quality of our lives as communities and how we
make people feel welcome and wanted," Hollon said. "So the campaign really
can make a difference to us as a church in many very important ways."
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United Methodist News Service
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