It’s time to lower the moat

The media is in charge and the church is absent

A mainland literary writer friend once explained to me why he tried to write TV drama scripts: "Because in ancient China, it was Tang poetry, Song lyrics, and Yuan opera. In the 21st century, it should be time for TV series to take over."

This is very interesting. It points out a phenomenon:Postmodernity is indeed an era in which mass media takes over. Looking around, a lot of information and even values are transmitted, infected or shaped by the media. Not only does the scope of transmission reach far and wide, but the results of transmission often cause a cultural "butterfly effect."

And no matter what is popular, fearful, contagious, or subversive in modern times, it often originates from the media, penetrates the crowd, and is established in the world. Most people who are indiscernible learn language and reactions to worldly affairs from the media, and even more unconsciously imitate how celebrities in the media live, grow old, get sick, and die.

It can be seen that the power of the media is huge, its influence is deep, and its dissemination is wide. However, why do we rarely see the shadow of Christians in various secular media? Don’t you hear much from the church? Are the church and society two parallel worlds that have no overlap?

I think on the one hand, the media often has a hostile and closed attitude towards the church. Because Christianity has always been radical in preaching the gospel, it is afraid that once it is opened to the church, it will be used uncontrollably and blindly preach. On the other hand, the church does not know how to deal with the media. Sometimes pastors are interviewed and make eloquent remarks on certain issues, but when published they are quoted out of context. Or you may spend a lot of precious time preparing for evangelism or pastoral care, but when you finally log it out, you only get a short two-sentence excerpt. It feels like you can't exert much power, and may even be misunderstood, so it's better to stay away from the media.

Therefore, the church and society have always been on guard against each other in the media, maintaining a balance between the sacred and the secular. Christianity gives the impression of "outsiders" and is self-sufficient, with its own magazines, newspapers, bookstores, radio stations, and video channels. In some ways, these Christian media have become the moat of the church, which can convey faith messages and block inappropriate dissemination that is not in line with the doctrine.

The church appears in the media just because of scandal? !

But inevitably, there are times when these two worlds overlap. Occasionally, we will come across some reports from the Christian community in the media. Unfortunately, "good things don't go out, and bad things spread thousands of miles." When the secular media exposes the church, it is often scandals that have just happened in the church world.

For example, in early 2006, Mary Winkler, a teacher’s wife in Tennessee, shot and killed Pastor Matthew Winkler, and then fled in a car with her daughter. After news reports, the public began to wonder whether Christianity would lead pastors to use overly strict legal methods to manage marriages, leading to this?

Another example is that in mid-2006, Ted. Pastor Ted Haggard secretly visited male prostitutes, but told his grandfather that he was firmly opposed to gay marriage. It also makes people wonder why a famous leader in the Christian world says one thing and does another?

There are also such examples in Taiwan. In 2002, the founding pastor of the "Looking to the Gospel Home" in Miaoli County, a home for runaway girls, transformed from a gatekeeper into a werewolf and was sentenced for sexually assaulting the girls he took in. One can imagine how shameful the report was to the Christian community!

Such a phenomenon should really make people think deeply.When scandal is the only reason Christianity finds its way into the media, what do we tell the world about our faith?

When Christianity steps into the flashlight and becomes the focus of the image, it is not for evangelism and witnessing, nor for dialectical defense from a philosophical or theological perspective, but solely for explaining scandals and crisis control. Not only do we fail to do our best in the world, Salt serves as light, but instead the reporter’s flashbulb shines on the wound repeatedly, constantly sprinkling salt. Are we in any way prepared or equipped to face the media at this time?

In this era where the media defines culture, many churches do not understand the power of the media, and many Christians are not prepared to use the media to perform the drama of our faith in front of the world. However, due to the scandal, the Christian community was forced to put down its moat and state its position in front of reporters: "The church is still strong and will forgive those who have committed crimes with love, and believers are also human beings..." No matter how positive the answers are, the Christian Church They all became "defendants" and constantly defended themselves against accusations. Is this the impression we want to leave on the world?

Can we afford to be ignorant and useless in the face of media power?When the situation calls for it, can the church really send out "public relations" people who can speak eloquently to the media? Or should we let irrelevant people interpret it? If this is the case, the church will often end up being misunderstood, criticized or attacked by the world.

Make good use of media to build a positive church image

In addition to negative responses, can the Christian church operate attentively and establish a long-term friendly relationship with the media?Releasing some positive news about the church in a timely manner and letting the world know about the church's participation in the community or society is an important step in establishing a positive social image. These are areas that have been neglected by the Christian community for a long time and have never been cultivated or explored.

To be honest, if the church can be deeply involved in the local community, its actions can be connected with local needs, maintain positive interactions with the community or society, and even have a social influence, how can there be no church at all when you open a newspaper or TV? Where is the figure?

Is it because we don’t want others to know about our good deeds?

Or are we obsessed with only focusing on evangelism and discipleship training in the church, leaving social welfare to be managed by worldly governments or charitable institutions, and letting "give to Caesar what is Caesar's"?

Modern Chinese people often say: "Wherever there is disaster or distress, there is Tzu Chi." Newspapers never hesitate to report on this. Is the Christian community not sufficiently involved in social care in this regard? Or did the left hand do it without letting the right hand know? So that we can’t say, “Wherever there is disaster, there are Christians”?

If the church does not participate enough in society, we must return to Jesus’ teachings of the Good Samaritan to reflect. The story of the Good Samaritan begins with an intellectual theological argument, but ends with an actual act of reaching out to save a person in distress. To live out our faith, a large part of it must be realized by our care and love for people. Jesus taught that each of us should reach out to a neighbor in need.

But if we don’t want others to know about our good deeds, we can also use a method that does not highlight the individual and does not leave room for the devil in our words.The church as a whole speaks out to society, which is sometimes a necessary communication for social participation. After being exposed by the media, it can be shown that Christians also care about this society and are willing to participate. Christians are connected with some social needs.

What’s more, a large part of our faith is passed on through “testimonies.” What is a testimony? After seeing it, he denounces it to the world. It proves that Christianity relies on the name of Christ to go out of the church walls and enter the crowd to bind wounds, feed people, quench thirst, and provide disaster relief and cure diseases.

And in this post-modern 21st century, the scope of witnessing is not just to neighbors, colleagues, or relatives and friends. We should also try our best to use various print and three-dimensional media or the Internet to spread Christianity's participation and concern for society.

So in modern times, what you do is important, but what you say after you do it is even more important!

Media is an extension of service

I really like Dean, a Christian journalism professor. Dean Nelson told the media. "The media is an extension of ministry," he said.

We do everything first, but in this age where the media has great influence, service does not stop at doing it. The passing of testimonies afterward is an extension of service.

Therefore, if you can learn to make good use of media, it is also an important way to light the lamp on the menorah!

Although many evangelical organizations or churches have taken advantage of this and begun to use the media to spread the gospel, they are walking on thin ice while taking a clear stand in front of others. Another method is "penetration", in which the secular media speaks for Christians and appears naturally without the audience being alert. The latter, sometimes have a greater impact on culture.

However, using secular media also has its own rules. Journalists are definitely not gospel ambassadors; they want news. If the church wants to leverage its power, it must first respect the special needs of the media and provide newsworthy stories.

What is newsiness? Certainly not sensational gossip. But it is more or less inseparable from stories or events that have a wide impact, are timely, conflicting, fresh, closely related to the reporting target, and have a strong human touch. These are the reporting targets that journalists are interested in collecting and publishing.

The Taiwan Cosmic Light Agency has been promoting charity donation campaigns in society for many years, and each time it was jointly promoted through the exposure of Taiwan's major media.

There are a particularly large number of immigrants from Wenzhou in North America, and it is hard to make a living in a foreign land. The unique spiritual and material needs of new immigrants are cared for and counseled by some church organizations in the eastern United States. Some even cross state lines to contact or follow up by phone or online. This was also disclosed by the North American Chinese-language World Journal.

In 2007, thirty-two teachers and students at Victoria University of Technology were massacred by a mentally disturbed Korean student. The Korean church in Victoria immediately held a memorial service within two days to pray for the deceased teachers, students and broken families, and declared that the United States and South Korea are actually not separated from each other, but are connected as one. The incident immediately appeared on Fox’s evening TV news in the United States; some Chinese churches on the West Coast also held joint prayer meetings to pray for the incident, and it was also reported on the local edition of the Chinese-language World Journal.

There are many organizations in Southern California that serve single parents, the True Love Association, which often organizes various family seminars, and the Good News Society, which holds online lectures on loving mothers' hands to celebrate Mother's Day every year, will release event information through the media, hold press conferences, or simply work with the media. Co-organized.

These are Christian organizations that know how to use the media, leveraging their power to achieve twice the result with half the effort, becoming an extension of their services. Sometimes a church builds a church or expands, which affects the neighboring community to some extent. You can also publish news on this matter, share your vision for the community and possible community services, and gain consensus and communication with the community to avoid being protested afterwards and having to speak in the dock where you can't defend yourself.

All in all, most people don’t know what we believe, but they all have some “opinions” on Christianity. This opinion comes not only from modern Chinese history, but also from the image they learned from life or society. To subvert the negative image of the church, in addition to personal testimony, it also needs to repeatedly "manage" through the media.

Various community activities, free clinics, charity sales, blood donations, family medicine lectures, or services for new immigrants, as well as touching reports, will be powerful fuel for the news media.

In addition, if the church can get to know some journalists, it can take the time to understand the nature of the media, its length, publishing standards and distribution targets. Then look for opportunities to establish a healthy relationship with the media, respect the influence of the media and their special news needs. In the media, you can easily develop a gospel preparatory workshop.

in other words,When facing the media, we should plan and invest according to the equipment thinking of "cross-cultural" missions.

Of course, we cannot put the cart before the horse. We do not use the media to put on a show for our beliefs, nor do we rely on sensationalism to gain attention. Like televangelist Pat. Pat Robertson called on everyone on television to murder Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, which has the effect of destroying the image of Christianity rather than building it.

In short,It’s time for the church to lower its moat. However, do not act hastily or hastily.Carefully discover life stories worth hearing, and engage in long-term charitable deeds that inspire people. There is never too much in the church and in the media.

Author profile

Chen Huiwan, the pen name is Mo Fei. Came to the United States from Taiwan at the age of eighteen. He worked as a computer engineer for Hughes Aircraft Company in California for six years, and then specialized in writing. Now lives in Los Angeles. He has written the prose "Accidentally, I Picked Up Paradise" and the novels "Portraits of Six Women", "Remnant Faces", "Love in the Place of Suddenly Looking Back" and other books. He is a standard bookworm and lives in his head. This article is based on her speech.