In June, RCC was able to hear from Larry Hollon, the
General Secretary of United Methodist Communications who spoke in detail about
the topic covered in his book "We Must Speak."
He began by showing everyone a video produced by United
Methodist Communications about how communications work in the church began and
how far the techniques of communication have come along. The video had an
encouraging message for faith communities to speak out and get the message out
to the world, reaching people where they are at through media such as Facebook,
Twitter, Pinterest, Reddit, Tumblr and so on.
Mr. Hollon made it clear that if we don't communicate
about our faith - someone else will, and the chances are, it will be inaccurate
somehow. He said, "Be energetic and aggressive in attempting to
communicate in this way, because when we don't, we don't use the power and
strength of the organizations and churches that are behind us."
He stressed his point that the conversation about
religion occurs whether we communicate about it or not, which makes it vital
for us to communicate about our faith to get the accurate information out to
the general public. "We must speak, because God has challenged us to
speak."
In response to a question about how to reach both the
older generation at the same time as the younger, Mr. Hollon said to look at
the whole range of media platforms and tailor your message to each individual
audience. He spoke about using various media together, such as including links
in articles sent out in magazines and allowing people to subscribe online to
hard copy print information.
