The Media

Dear Pastors

The Media

It’s no secret we are under the media spotlight right now. When I say ‘we’, I particularly mean the Evangelical, Charismatic and Pentecostal Churches in NZ (ECP). This is as The Royal Commission has heard over 900 stories of ‘Abuse in Care’ mostly in the traditional churches in NZ and their work isn’t finished yet. We must be honest. Not all is well in The Church (Capital ‘C’ Church) in New Zealand.

Some Christian Leaders are still upset that the media is saying bad stuff about us. Can I urge for some careful thought about this please. Basically the church is no different to any other industry as far as the media is concerned. When a company in a given industry goes rogue, it’s natural for the media – after they cover the initial story ad nauseum – to turn to other major players in that same industry and investigate what others are doing around the same issue.

For instance, think about the bobby calf issue a few years ago in the dairy industry. One farmer was found to be doing terrible things with bobby calves, but that ended up breaking the whole issue wide open and the media was asking farmers, dairy industry groups, dairy companies, fed farmers etc what was going on and what were they going to do about this? There were protests by animal rights groups. Every organisation that was involved had to quickly develop some key messages. And individual farmers were on edge as the community spotlight was on them all. That’s led to huge change just because of one media expose.

At times like that we applaud the media for the good work they do. Is this not exactly the same thing we now face as a ‘sector’ within our society?

How then should we respond to the media?

Talk to them.

In this respect I want to commend Dean Rush, Senior Pastor of C3 in Auckland for doing exactly that a few weeks ago.

The media advice I have had is to talk to the media if they knock on your door. By not talking to them you aggravate the situation. By not talking to them you are in effect talking to them and your message is, ‘we have something to hide’.

That said you are entitled to ask for fairness and honesty. To that end you can:-

• Ask for a time to prepare (and pray)
  • Ask the journalist when their deadline is and negotiate a time to talk that suits you both; remember the journalist has a boss asking for them to complete something on a deadline, so try to help them meet it if at all possible. If you don’t come back to them before their deadline, they’ll run the story anyway and you’ll miss your opportunity to get your message out.
• Ask for the questions ahead of time
  • If you are on the phone, ask them during the call. If they contact you via email, reply back and ask if they can supply you with questions so that you can think about it before you talk. Sometimes journalists will be okay with you replying via a return email only – that’s great as you can provide a considered, well-written statement. But sometimes they will want to interview you over the phone, so ask what they prefer.
• Write out your key points for a phone interview
  • The vast majority of interviews are conducted over the phone, whether that be for print, online or radio stories. Therefore, write down some notes and have those in front of you. Two weeks ago I did two media interviews and having some notes in front of me ensured I was able to make a couple of very important points.
• Determine what YOU want to get out of the interview
  • What’s your overall objective for the interview and what are your three key points (if they get nothing else, what do you want the journalist and their readers/listeners to understand). Again, write these down so you can refer to them while in your interview
• Practise ahead of a phone interview
  • Even if it’s in your car, in front of your dog or a friend, say your answers out loud. It’s very different to think about your answers vs hearing yourself voice them out loud. When you hear yourself say some things, you might end up changing.
• Run your answers by a trusted church colleague
  • Two heads are better than one, as they say!

You may also like to consider this. Front-foot this issue with your own people. Your elders, staff and your congregation should never hear something from you first in the media without hearing it from you beforehand. If you know you are going to be in the media, send out an email to your church community talking about the interview, why you did it, and the key messages you hoped to get across.
Some Christians, perhaps many are wondering if the church they are currently attending is ‘safe’? OR they may be wondering who will be next?

I would strongly recommend that because The Arise story is in the public domain that as Pastors and Elders you discuss this issue with your congregation. You can do this in a careful manner so as not to ‘shoot the wounded’.

You may consider convening a ‘Church Family Forum’ evening and share with your church family your reflections, the accountability structures your church or ministry has and how you protect yourself and all leaders in your church/organisation from the misuse of power. Again, this is ‘water cooler chatter’ right now so why not be pro-active?

Hope this may be some help.

Blessings
Alan