140428 ALR Script, PR Workshop, “Stepping off the Curb into Media Traffic”

Bucharest Pentecostal Seminary, Romania

Larry Ross, President, A. Larry Ross Communications

Synopsis

If navigated properly, getting into a news media vehicle can take a ministry much farther down the road of public awareness than it can travel on its own. But without proper orientation, it is just as easy to get hit by a car – or even a bus!

Led by two seasoned professionals – one a journalist, the other a public relations counselor -- this session will cover related strategy and tactics on this important topic from both perspectives.

It will also address the foundational questions regarding whether, or when, a ministry should engage in media/public relations by anticipating in advance corresponding risk/reward, reward/redemption and pain/gain ratios.

A. Larry Ross Communications

· As was mentioned in the introduction, I am president of an eponymous PR firm founded in 1994 to help restore “faith in the media,” by helping churches and parachurch ministries tell their story in context of traditional news values that reporters need to communicate with their audiences.

· In the process, hopefully we have been able to give Christian messages relevance and meaning in mainstream media.

· The Agency regularly operates at the intersection of faith and culture, through crossover communications efforts emanating from or targeted to the Christian market.

· For more than 26 years, I have had the opportunity and privilege to handle media and public relations for evangelist Billy Graham.

· Because of that relationship, we have represented numerous other individual organizations in the Christian arena.

· But, we have also operated in the reverse direction, representing individuals and organizations with a vital message targeting the Christian community.

· Our job is to extend the influence of Mr. Graham, Pastor Rick Warren (and other Christian leaders) and the impact of their ministries to a broadened group of target audiences, with minimal demands on the principle’s time.

· Whenever possible, we try to speak to reporters as well, to let them know the reality of the Gospel in our own lives.

· Some of you may not understand exactly what PR is, so let me explain in lay terms:

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, "I am very rich. Marry me!"

That's Direct Marketing.

You're at a party with a bunch of friends and see a gorgeous girl. One of your friends goes up to her and pointing at you says, "He's very rich. Marry him."

That's Advertising.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and get her telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm very rich. Marry me."

That's Telemarketing.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. You get up and straighten your tie; you walk up to her and compliment her hair. You open the door for her, pick up her bag after she drops it, offer her a ride, and then say, "By the way, I'm very rich. Will you marry me?"

That's Public Relations.

You're at a party and see a gorgeous girl. She walks up to you and says, "You are very rich..."

That's Brand Recognition.

You see a gorgeous girl at a party. You go up to her and say, "I'm rich. Marry me." She gives you a nice hard slap on your face.

That's Customer Feedback.

In some respects, our agency is a metaphor for the integration of faith in the marketplace. We have a foot in both the ministry world and the secular, mainstream media and regularly interpret and transpose one to the other.

WHO’S NAMING YOU?

· Several years ago I heard a former Dallas Cowboy give his testimony at ministry gathering, where he challenged the posed the challenge, “Who Names You?”

· Like that NFL veteran, many ministries default to media or others to name them in absence of strategic communication of their mission and message.

· A growing discipline in my line of work is called “Reputation Management” which says that a person’s reputation is one of their most valuable possessions, which needs to be managed and maintained.

· All of us have read news reports over the last year or two about the Senate Finance Committee investigations of six ministries, two based in the DFW Metroplex?

· Whether or not there is smoke or actually fire, those ministries are being named, defined and defiled by media. Some say that could be a good thing, as periodically we have seen this sort of thing help get the household of faith in order.

· But conversely, there are many good ministries that will become suspect as a result.

· The Bible says in Proverbs 22:1, that “a good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold.”

· And throughout Scripture God revealed the importance of names.

(Italics below are mine, not in the original verse)

Genesis 35:18

(Rachel) As she breathed her last—for she was dying—she named her son Ben-Oni. (means son of my trouble) But his father named him Benjamin (meaning son of my right hand)

This is an important reminder for us as fathers. Imagine living life with the burden of a name that reminds you every day you killed your mother coming through the birth canal. But his father blessed him with a name that gave him value and worth.

Matthew 1:23

"The virgin will be with child and will give birth to a son, and they will call him Immanuel"—which means, "God with us." (That gives Christmas carols a whole new meaning.)

· Building on that initial question, I want to challenge you with four other questions:

WHAT DO YOU KNOW FOR SURE?

· Becky, the wife of a colleague of mine, recently told me that for several months earlier this year, talk show host Oprah Winfrey has been asking all of her guests the same question, “What do you know for sure?”

· I reflected on the many timeless Truths outlined for us in God’s Word, and I quickly tried to distill them into a sound bite if that question were posed to me.

· When I asked Becky how she would respond, she replied, “What I know for sure is that God is never going to send you where He can’t use you.”

· As I pondered that statement in the days following, I realized how much that was true of my life and career that has unfolded over the more than 36 years since I graduated from high school.

· Early on, I was clueless about what I wanted to do with my life. I had been accepted to Wheaton College, but I couldn’t even figure out what I wanted to major in until my senior year.

· When asked, “How do you know God’s will for your life?” Elizabeth Elliot replied, “Just do the next thing.” And that is what I did.

· Without a long-range plan, my mantra became, “Suit up and Show up,” and God took care of the rest.

WHO DO YOU TRUST?

But the Bible has a lot to say about trust, and in Whom we are to place our trust:

· Psalm 37: 3, 5 – “Trust in the Lord, and do good. Dwell in the land, and lean on His faithfulness…

Commit your way to the Lord. Trust also in Him, and He shall bring it to pass.

NOTE: Dwell in the land – shows that righteous people of faith have their future secure

· Psalm 71: 1, 5, 6 – In you, oh God, I put my trust. Let me never be put to shame…

You are my trust from my youth…By you, I have been upheld from my birth

NOTE: This Psalm is the personal testimony of an old man looking back on his life and God’s faithfulness

· And finally, Proverbs 28: 25, 26 – He who trusts in the Lord will be prospered… He who trusts in his own heart is a fool.

· Unlike our wives, many of us guys struggle with issues of trust – not just with God, but with other men. That is why a group like this is so important.

WHAT MATTERS MOST?

Several years ago “Time” magazine had a back page essay by Roger Rosenblatt entitled, “What Should We Lead With?” He wrote:

“Journalists put the question in practical terms: What should we lead with? The rest of the population asks more generally: What matters most? They come to the same puzzle: Survey events in a given period of time and try to come up with the single moment, the headline, by which the world may be characterized, stopped in its spin. What should we lead with? What matters most?

What we confront in making such choices is not the events alone, but ourselves; and it is ourselves we are not able to place in order. The question is not what the press decrees is this week’s news. The question is us. What should we lead with, what matters most?”

· WHATEVER HAPPENED TO WHAT HAPPENED TO YOU?