October Meeting: Storytelling in Digital Media

The October meeting of RCC was held at the Tennessee Conference of the United Methodist Church in South Nashville. We had a lunch and learn with Sophia Agtarap, Director of Communications for Vanderbilt Divinity School. 

Sophia shared how to get your message across to the vastly different audiences we are trying to communicate to in today's fast-paced digital world. She also discussed her position with Vanderbilt Divinity School, including sharing a PowerPointon this which included a 4x4 model for knowledge content. This was an excellent visual to see how an idea can spread, be discussed and grow.  

Sophia is happy to connect with any communicators who want to engage further, and shared her contact info: 

sophia.agtarap@vanderbilt.edu
615.322.2442 [office]

September Meeting: Communicating Your Message

The September meeting of RCC was held at the Islamic Center of Nashville on 12th Ave South. We had a lunch and learn with Kalinda Fisher, President of Advocate Market Research. 

Kalinda shared what she does and how she works with panels to discover what people think about certain topics, and how she gives this to her clients so they can use this to achieve better communication with their intended audience. She also shared a recent passion she has been engaged in to bring diverse people to the same table to discuss deep issues. It's been dubbed "The Great Reset," and has the purpose of uniting people together in a time when it feels like news media is pitting us against those who have different views. 

August Meeting: Holly Meyer on Religion Reporting

The August meeting of RCC was held at United Methodist Communications on 12th Ave South. We had a lunch and learn with Holly Meyer, Religion Reporter for the Tennessean. Holly spoke about the changing landscape of religious reporting and the challenges of communicating faith issues through mainstream media.

She gave many personal examples of her experiences in religious reporting including how she came to be a religion reporter -- in fact, she is the only religion reporter in the entire USA Today Network. She said there are other reporters who do write religious stories, but she is the only one with that sole focus. You might think this makes sense as Nashville is termed the "Buckle of the Bible Belt." However, Holly reported that Nashville has practically tied with New York in the percentage of the population that reports "no religious affiliation" with New York's being 22% in 2016, and Nashville at 21%.  (source: The American Values Atlas)

It was incredibly interesting to hear directly from Holly about the challenges of religion reporting today, as well as the best ways to get religious stories into mainstream media. Her suggestion: tying them into other hot topics such as politics, health or climate change.

November Meeting: Election Results

During the November RCC meeting, the group met for its series “Building Bridges Over Bagels.” These meetings are all about strengthening ties between people of different faiths and breaking bread together.

The meeting took place at United Methodist Communications on 12th Avenue South. They discussed the recent presidential election results and how to bring people together following such a tumultuous election season which left many people reeling. RCC members agreed that it will take time for many people to adjust, and that one way to help those who are very torn up about the results is to listen to them.

A very big thank you to Royya James who hosted at UM Com, and to all who came out for breakfast! The next meeting will be in January of 2017. Have a wonderful holiday season. 

July Meeting: Violence, Faith and Hope

The recent news of violence in the United States began the conversation for the Nashville Chapter of the Religion Communicators Council, but as each person put their deep-seated beliefs on the table, hope became the keyword during this bi-monthly meeting in the series: “Building Bridges Over Bagels."

Baha'i, Muslim, Remnant Fellowship member and Scientologist each engaged about how individual religious practices shape our lives, and how we can change the world by starting right in our own homes. Candace Anger, with Remnant Fellowship church, pointed out how they believe that it starts with oneself and being good to one's own family. This was echoed by every other person at the table, across religious lines.

The meeting took place at the Islamic Center of Tennessee. The next meeting location will be announced on the Nashville RCC website, and takes place on September 13th at 8:30am.  

Attending the meeting were: Tedd and Candace Anger of Remnant Fellowship Church, Miley Barcus of Remnant Fellowship Church, Carol Mansour with Baha'is of Middle Tennessee, Aisha Lbhalla with Muslim Women's Council, and Julie Brinker with the Church of Scientology. 

Nashville Religion Communicators Council Discusses Roles of Women

The Nashville Chapter of the Religion Communicators Council holds bi-monthly meetings to discuss hot topics and have deep discussions on what is happening in the world today.

What role do women play in religion? This was the topic of discussion as the Religion Communicators Council met on International Women’s Day for its bi-monthly meeting, “Building Bridges Over Bagels,” in Nashville, Tenn.

The Religion Communicators Council (RCC) is the longest running interfaith communications organization in the United States, and has chapters across the country that meet regularly to promote “excellence in the communication of religious faith and values in the public arena and encourage understanding among religious and faith groups,” according to the RCC website.  

When the Nashville RCC chapter met recently, its president, Rev. Brian Fesler, had the group look at various news items and asked the attendees to vote on which they would take up to discuss at the meeting. The topic chosen: International Women’s Day, and the role of women in religion.

Each person discussed how their faith tradition has honored women or spoke of the women of great influence on their faith, then went further into discussing women of influence in other faith traditions that were not represented, such as women founders of more modern religions.

The meeting took place at the Baha’i Faith Community Center on Bell Road. Recent past meetings have been at the Church of Scientology, Islamic Center of Nashville and United Methodist Communications. The next meeting location will be announced on the Nashville RCC website, and takes place on May 10^th at 8:30am. For more information about the RCC or their next meeting, visit www.religioncommunicators.org.

January Meeting: Building Bridges over Bagels

RCC held its first meeting for the year in January at the Nashville Church of Scientology in a warm environment with hot coffee & tea and plenty of bagels for all. Chapter president, Rev. Brian Fesler, opened the meeting by welcoming everyone, getting introductions, then diving right into the hot news discussion of the day: in the 1970s, Southern Baptist leaders supported women's right to choice. Today, the SBC leaders are seeking an end to legal abortion. How can it be that a denomination can turn 180 degrees on such a basic issue? 

The group talked about various political issues and how they have impact, as well as if it is or isn't right to make government policy that is based in religious beliefs, and most importantly how to reach those who do make policy to try and get it all right. 

This meeting series is called “Building Bridges over Bagels,” drawing attention to making strong and lasting ties between people of faith while breaking bread together. According to Fesler, the concept for these meetings is “to bring diverse people together to dialogue about hot topics and how we can unite to bring more inspiration and good news to the world.”

Attending the January meeting were: Julie Brinker with the Church of Scientology, Drew Pope with the LDS Church, Carol Mansour with Baha'is of Middle Tennessee, Prem Singh Kahlon with the Sikh Temple, Royya James with United Methodist Communications, Rev. Brian Fesler with the Church of Scientology, Teresa Suarez with United Methodist Development Center, Brooke Baker with Faith and Culture Center, and Amy Hurd with the Tennessee Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church.