wfn.org | UMCom must change to tell church's story, executive says

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Oct. 1, 2002 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-71BP{442}

NOTE: A sidebar, UMNS story #443, is available. A head-and-shoulders
photograph of the Rev. Larry Hollon can be found at
http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html.

By Linda Green*

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - United Methodist Communications must take a fresh
look at how the church's story is told in order to reach more people in
today's electronic culture.

The agency's governing members, meeting Sept. 26-28, listened as the Rev.
Larry Hollon, top staff executive, outlined the challenges of communications
in a global society and the role that UMCom must play in the church's global
ministry. They were told that the agency must reshape the way it
communicates to minister to a techno-savvy, Web-based culture.

As communications changes, so must UMCom and the role it plays in the
church, Hollon said.  The agency must move beyond product development to
become a steward and interpreter of the church's stories.
 
"Those who tell the story, shape the culture, he said. "When we are not
present in the culture and when this church is not telling its story in the
culture, we are not shaping a culture that reflects the values we hold
vital. Those values are a society that is just and humane and globally
inclusive."

The communications-driven world and society of today is important for UMCom
because "what we say and how we say it are critical forms of ministry and
acts of faith," he said. "Strengthening communications is strengthening the
church's ministry throughout the world."

UMCom's task is to bring focus and innovation to communications ministry for
greater impact. "We are working to enhance the church's voice in today's
world," Hollon said.

The Internet has shifted the way society lives and works, he said. Society
is "wired," and people expect immediacy, personalization and access to vast
amounts of information. 

The average person in the United States receives 822 messages a day from
radio, television and "pop-up" items on the Internet, he said. "This makes
it particularly challenging for us to get people's attention."

The trend in journalism and mass communications has become "one of framing
the stories at the extremes," filling them with controversy or
"polar-conflict" to gain an audience, he said.

This type of competition fails in reporting the middle ground where many
live, making it "corrosive" to public dialogue and turning off an enormous
segment of the population whose moderate views are not addressed, he said.
"This is a huge issue for our church and its voice because this approach
short-circuits the voices of the people, who by engaging in dialogue, might
be able to come together to find solutions."

Today's communications trends compel UMCom to take communications to a new
level of performance, he said.	He outlined four goals for the agency.

UMCom, he said, must achieve greater focus and effectiveness in
communicating the stories of the United Methodist Church. "Never before have
we as an agency and church been in such a frenzied and competitive
marketplace where everyone is fighting for a share of attention," he said.
The agency can meet the challenge for a meaningful share of attention if it
keeps its communication focused and strategic and its voice clear,
meaningful and sharp, he said.	Fragmented communications muddles the
message, he said.  

"Consistency and innovation in communications will help us break through the
tremendous noise level of the marketplace and ensure that our communications
are not only received, but that they strongly resonate with audiences."

Hollon reflected on the Sept. 11 experience and the agency's placement of a
billboard at Ground Zero, which offered a message of comfort from the United
Methodist Church. "That is the essence of what we strive for in our agency
today - to speak stories of hope delivered in the most meaningful ways so
that lives are changed."

UMCom's second goal is to refine its mix of communications to improve story
delivery. Hollon said that trends of the electronic culture through the
convergence of technology provide opportunities for tailoring stories to
reach people in new and innovative ways, as well as through the established
channels of print news and other media.

The agency has created an Internet television site that has become another
avenue for telling the church's story. The service packages and disseminates
video features to news stations, which can receive the content from the
Internet and immediately broadcast it.	

Hollon anticipates using radio to help tailor commercial messages for
listeners of country music.  "People in this audience are, generally
speaking, not folks we talk with in the United Methodist Church. We believe
we have a message of hope and strength that could benefit them." The
audience is broad but consists primarily of women who earn slightly above
minimum wage or live in or close to poverty level, and are single-parent
heads of households. 

"Our goal is to deliver inspirational, positive, uplifting messages that
speak of the concern for each person who struggles to find meaning and
purpose," Hollon said. Future radio plans involve using hip-hop to extend
the church's reach. UMCom, he said, recognizes that people are on the move,
and the agency is developing new and creative ways to help the church keep
pace with them.

The third goal is to strengthen and unify the United Methodist Church's
voice in public dialogue.  The reality of today's news is presented from the
"extreme point of view of a few interests," which prohibits most people from
understanding what is happening in the world, Hollon said.  

UMCom must do its part to present "compelling viewpoints that represent the
far more populated territory of the middle ground," he said. The church
understands the "gospel of Jesus Christ as a reconciling and healing and
just word that may be delivered in the polar conflict environment," he said.

The agency's fourth goal is to enhance partnerships with churchwide boards
and agencies to take communications to another level. Collaborative
partnerships are essential to strengthening communications and more
effective programming, he said.

Collaboration entails working together so that UMCom may interpret work of
the boards and agencies and enable them to carry out their ministry in the
world. "UMCom is deeply committed to partnership with other agencies and
boards because we know that channeling our resources to work together is one
of the best ways we can strengthen the church's communication's ministry,"
Hollon said.

The challenge UMCom faces is not in creating and delivering materials, but
in determining the best ways to connect with divergent communities - those
mired in violence, people in Africa, Asia and Europe, senior citizens, poor
and ethnic populations, aging baby boomers, millennials, those in other
countries fighting for human rights, justice and democracy - to tell their
stories and convey a message that is relevant to their lives.  

"We bear a responsibility to serve the whole church," Hollon said. "... We
must continue to focus on effective and innovative storytelling, channels
and partnerships to help people grow in faith and in trust."

# # #

*Green is news director in United Methodist News Service's Nashville, Tenn.,
office.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
Photos and stories also available at:
http://umns.umc.org