GAiN EUROPE for ADVENTIST COMMUNICATORS

What can a news editor teach a bunch of media professionals?  Quite a daunting task for Mark Kellner, news editor for Adventist Review and Adventist World.  However, Mark is never afraid of a challenge.  From his background he shared how when he became an Adventist he was greatly attracted by the world picture of Adventism he discovered.

What did I learn?
News is something people don't know.
News has a sell-by date.  Old is not new.  It may be interesting but it is not new!
News has to affect/have an impact on more than one or two people.
News should be interesting.  (informative, a call to action, means I will do something differently now, or gives me hope, something to pray about.

Remember the Who, what, when, where, why and how? 

Remember: News story starts with the climax - the most important thing. (This is anti-intuitive so you have to work at it.)

USA Today:  Keept it tight, light bright.

Ineffective headlines:  "Conference president speaks on Sabbath afternoon" ... "visits our church".    Instead - report on the contents of his speech.

This was an animated presentation with humour to keep us awake, and lots of information.

I know it may sound trite, but Victor's comments about checking batteries and other equipment are very valuable. Too many of us have been embarrased during or before interviews because of a flat or weak battery. I did an interview with him once before checking just how my new digital recorder worked - he ended up showing me how it worked and that didn't feel too professional! Not a good start, even though he was gracious while he did it.

He made an interesting point about not giving the interviewee a chance to look over the interview before you publish or broadcast it. At first I did not agree with him. But upon reflection, I think he is right. The interview is the interviewee's opportunity to tell it as it is - straight from the hip and the heart. Giving them the right to revise or refine their comments would be a bit of 'pre-emptive 'spin doctoring'! 

Today a dream I have had for several years seems much closer to become a reality.

- Wouldn’t it be great if we could do some programming together, suggested Jörg Varnhold from the Adventist Media Center in Germany, Stimme der Hoffnung as we talked together this morning. During lunch several of his colleagues from Germany and some of my colleagues from the Norwegian Union media department had a chance to explore this concept in greater depth.

Between mouthfuls of salad Jörg Varnhold explained that Stimme der Hoffnung planned on doing a brand new series on the book of Revelation and wanted to invite other countries to take part in the production with their own programe hosts. That way we would be able to do bi-lingual or tri-lingual productions.

I have been dreaming about this for many years. The fact is that developing the script, finding suitable locations and securing the necessary permissions for each site are three tasks that comprise a very large part of any large TV production. By doing a TV series with two or three presenters, we would use available resources in the most effective way.

I am excited about this possibility. It is also nice to have more cooperation with Adventist communicators across the division borders. Conversations like the one Germans and Norwegians had over lunch are certainly important facets of the Media Conference here in Slovenia.

"Public relations is the art and science of building relationships between my organisation and key public audiences."

As a Communication Director we have 3 audiences:

The church workers
The church member
The community

Generally we only hit the first two!  It is important to hit the third one, but if I do not hit the first two then the third will be wasted.  If I say to the community that 'every Seventh-day Adventist' has a smile on ther face'  but I meet REALLY solemn church members - then I am giving a wrong message.

"If we don't communicate at all people will think we are just weird"  

Reputation:  You can't create it but you can influence it by
1. What you do
2. By how well you do it
3. By how well you communicate what you do.

PR manuals will shortly be available on the resources page of this website.

Two workshops this morning focused on the technology of the web.  Manfred Lemke gave a very insightful presentation on designing a local church website.  As always with technology, content is king!  You can build a fantastic website and looks beautiful but if it not updated with content then it is wasted.  Keep it simple by using an already designed package - otherwise when you leave, or get to busy, nobody else will know how to update it.  Getting hold of his hand-out is a must for anybody who wants to host a good website for their local church or conference.

The second workshop with Sascha Schuster focused on mobile technology, particularly noticing the vast increase of people using smart phones.  He also showed a number of 'adventist apps' currently available, many for both iphone and android platforms.  Great news for those who want to have the Adventist hymnal, the Sabbath School Lesson, the writings of Ellen White - or directions to your local Adventist church on your phone - or to listen to Adventist World Radio or watch the Hope Channel.   Stimme-der-Hoffnung will be releasing a website shortly called www.adventist-app.org that will list all Adventist apps.  He is also looking at ebooks and how this can be used better in the future.

I am a ‘dummy’ when it comes to this subject, but Manfred Lemke’s presentation on Web Content Development certainly helped to switch on some lights for me. It is something worth downloading for use in the local church – or even a conference or church school. Even if you have an up and running website his presentation will still be of benefit.

I found Victor Hulbert’s presentation on doing a ‘Church Audit’ 100% relevant. If your congregation is in the UK, don’t hesitate to invite him to present it in your church as soon as possible. If you are in another union, please download his audit instrument from this website and use it in your local context.

He got me thinking about how necessary it is to stand back and see my church as a visiting non-member does. His comments ranged across the whole spectrum of issues – from signage and notice boards; to toilet hygiene and visitor greeting and induction.

Sadly, a number of churches I have visited in the past year would fail his audit, but some have obviously taken him seriously – and it shows!

Miroslav Pujic led the first morning session on knowing the audience in the market.  "We have a truth, let us share it."  As you would expect with Miroslav, the presentation was full of video clips, pictures and charts demonstrating that we have to connect with people, using the language they understand - but even more - getting close to the people by mingling with them. 

First principle for success:  Be one of them.  'Swim with the fish' rather than 'fish from the bank'. 

Second principle: Show personal interest.  When you go in the shop they ask, 'how are you?, would you like a drink?  The focus is on 'us' as customer.  In the church it is often the opposite.  'You are LOST - we will save you!'   We must listen to their views.

That is more challenging in a world of pluralism, picking and choosing, and changes in society.  Of course... for the full story you need to hear the lecture, interact with Miroslav, pick and choose the parts the fit you.... or take a look at the book, 'Experienceing the joy'

Dr Ben Schoun, General Conference Vice President reflected on the theology of Communication based on Romans 10:13-15.  There is a gap that must be bridged between us and God.  How do we cross the communicaiton gap? 

Babel slowed down the communication of evil but also caused a greater need for a bridge - which came in it most complete nature by the incarnation of Jesus Christ.  We now have an end-time message where it is again imperative for us to build those Gospel bridges.  This includes preaching (Romans 10), and story telling (as with Jesus parables).  The background to the word 'preach' in Romans karuso refers to the 'town cryer', the 'herald', who makes proclamations.  It includes preaching but includes dialogue and even one to one contact.  Therefore better translate, "Go ye into all the world and communicate the Gospel".

We must not make the method our mission - our methods must change and adapt for the current circumstances.  The mission is the same but always choose the method that communicates with people.

Following introductions and sharing the hymn 'To God be the Glory' communicators from across the TED and EUD now feel they are getting to know each other and are looking forward to 5 days of learning and fellowship together.  Interactive worship and media flowed through the evening.  Communication is already growing - and despite the beauty of the countryside around the hotel people are looking at the programme and saying, "I need to be there!"