Media Communicators

2013 European Media Communicators Network

In today's world, journalism, film, television, and the Internet dominate the way we, as an increasingly global community, understand and relate to the world and each other. If Christians wish to continue making a meaningful impact upon the world, gifted communicators who want to relate biblical Christian faith to contemporary culture through these media platforms will be greatly needed.

This Network seeks to encourage and equip such existing or emerging leaders who can speak with authenticity and relevance from within these influential cultural arenas. It will also focus on biblical foundations and models, worldview analysis of media and popular culture, and critical reflections on creative communication in contemporary media contexts.

Applicants should be current or potential leaders who are gifted communicators in the media (in such creative fields as journalism, film, TV or Internet), media commentators, media critics, media teachers or media scholars. Whatever the role, the common missional vision should be the wish to relate biblical Christian faith to contemporary media in a way that is authentic, appropriate, and relevant.

This Network will be co-led by Lars Dahle and Margunn Serigstad Dahle. Also speaking in the 2013 Network will be Os Guinness, Nola Leach, Stephen Meyer, David Robertson, Glenn Sunshine, Sandra Sykes, and Ádám Szabados. A number of the sessions will be interactive with open discussions where participants will be encouraged to share perspectives and experiences. Prior preparation will be set for all applicants.

NETWORK LEADERS

Lars Dahle is a theologian, educator, preacher and apologist. He works as Principal and Associate Professor at Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication in Kristiansand, Norway, where he has lectured in worldviews, ethics and apologetics since 1991. Lars wrote his PhD on Acts 17:16-34. It is titled: An Apologetic Model Then and Now? (Open University, UK). He is Chairman of Damaris Norway Steering Committee, a member of the European Leadership Forum Steering Committee and has previously served as Vice-Chairman of NKSS (the Norwegian student movement within IFES). In addition, Lars co-leads the European Leadership Forum Media Communicators Network.

Margunn Dahle, the co-leader of the European Media Communicators Network, is Lecturer at Gimlekollen School of Journalism and Communication, Kristiansand, Norway, where she has taught in the fields of communication, media and worldviews since 1991. She is Programme Director of the Communication and Worldviews Bachelor Programme, which is designed to equip evangelical communicators and apologists in various fields for the contemporary Western cultural context. Especially connected to her Damaris involvement, she is a regular lecturer, speaker, and writer in various contexts in Norway. She formerly served as Chairperson of Lunde Publishing House.

NETWORK SPEAKERS

Os Guinness is an author and social critic. He was educated in England, receiving his undergraduate degree from the University of London and a DPhil from Oriel College, Oxford. He was a Guest Scholar at the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Studies and a Visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution. From 1986-1989 he was the Executive Director of the Williamsburg Charter Foundation, one of the drafters of the Williamsburg Charter. He is the founder and was the Senior Fellow of the Trinity Forum and most recently was Senior Fellow of the East West Institute in New York. Some of his influential books include The Dust of Death; In Two Minds; The Gravedigger File; The American Hour; Dining with the Devil: The Megachurch Movement Flirts with Modernity; Fit Bodies, Fat Minds: Why Evangelicals Don't Think; The Call; and Time for Truth: Living Free in a World of Lies.

Nola Leach is the Chief Executive Officer of CARE,(Christian Action Research and Education) one of Europe’s leading Christian Charities which provides resources and helps bring Christian insight and experience to matters of public policy and practical caring initiatives. CARE undertakes a variety of social caring and educational programmes as well as research. It is represented in the UK Parliaments and Assemblies, at the EU in Brussels and at the UN at Geneva and New York. As Head of the Public Affairs team Nola leads campaigns on topics such as human trafficking, internet pornography and the value of life from its beginning to its natural end. Nola is in increasing demand as a writer public speaker and broadcaster.

Steve Lowisz is a widely renowned and trusted entrepreneurial business expert. A highly-rated speaker, author and educator, Steve has served as a consultant across the globe for many Fortune 500 organizations. Having started and led multiple businesses in the field of Human Resources, in 1999 Steve founded Qualigence International, a recruitment research and professional search firm headquartered in Livonia, Michigan, of which continues to serve as CEO.   In addition, Steve is also the principal consultant for Lowisz Consulting, which provides both group and individual leadership development consulting and individualized goal planning .  Steve’s business philosophy has always been to put the best interests of his clients first. His continual goal is to spread the word of successful business practices to fellow partners, associates and colleagues.

Stephen Meyer is director of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science and Culture and a founder both of the intelligent design movement and of the Discovery Institute’s Center for Science & Culture, intelligent design’s primary intellectual and scientific headquarters. He earned his PhD in the History and Philosophy of Science from Cambridge University for a dissertation on the history of origin of life biology and the methodology of the historical sciences. Previously he worked as a geophysicist with the Atlantic Richfield Company after earning his undergraduate degrees in Physics and Geology. He has co-written or edited two books: Darwinism, Design, and Public Education  (Michigan State University Press) and Science and Evidence of Design in the Universe (Ignatius). He has also authored numerous technical articles, as well as editorials in magazines and newspapers such as The Wall Street Journal, The Los Angeles Times, The Houston Chronicle, The Chicago Tribune, First Things, and National Review.

David Robertson is the minister of St Peter's Free Church in Dundee, Scotland (a church that is best known for being the church of Robert Murray McCheyne). He is the author of Awakening (a contemporary account of McCheyne's life) and The Dawkins Letters. The latter has resulted in him being invited to debate and discuss all over the UK and elsewhere in Europe. This has been done in cafes, bars, libraries, universities, pubs, restaurants, village halls, and even occasionally in churches! David is a chaplain at the University of Dundee and Chairman of the Solas Centre for Public Christianity. He is married to Annabel, and they have three children: Andrew, Becky, and Emma Jane.

Glenn Sunshine (PhD University of Wisconsin, Madison) is professor of history at the Central Connecticut State University, a Research Fellow of the Acton Institute for the Study of Religion and Liberty, and a faculty member of the Centurions Program at Breakpoint, the worldview training ministry of PFM. An award winning author, Glenn has published several books and numerous articles on history, theology, and culture online and on both sides of the Atlantic, and is a regular columnist for the Worldview Journal of the Colson Center for Christian Worldview. Glenn has taught a variety of Bible, history, and worldview seminars and courses to churches around the U.S. and in Europe, as well as leading church retreats, seminars, and renewal weekends. He was the content consultant for Wide Angle and for Walk the Talk, worldview training curricula featuring Chuck Colson, Rick Warren, and Gerard Long. He is featured with Chuck Colson on Worldview and Why It Matters: An Introduction to Christian Worldview, a leadership training course produced by the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, and appears on Acton Media’s The Birth of Freedom, a documentary released on DVD in 2008, and on Doing the Right Thing, an ethics curriculum released in 2011.

Sandra Sykes, after a decade at the BBC Natural History Unit as a Radio 4 producer and presenter, is currently the Director of Changing Views Ltd, a production house providing promotional films which enhance the marketing or fund-raising potential of businesses and  organisations throughout the UK.  Previously she spent over twenty five years in the media, in her Natural History Unit days devising the very popular strand Changing Places, moving on to BBC Birmingham where she worked on BBC TV’s Countryfile and produced Radio 4 classics such as Open Country, Ramblings and Farming Today, winning the 2006 British Environment and Media Award for the best radio news/current affairs programme for Costing the Earth. She won three national Andrew Cross Awards for religious broadcasting while a presenter of live current affairs programmes on BBC local radio. She is a highly experienced media trainer for TV and radio, coaching household names from several central government departments, including the Cabinet Office. She is a B.Sc. Honours Zoology graduate of St Aidan’s College, Durham and holds a  Post Graduate Certificate in Education from Hughes Hall, Cambridge.

Ádám Szabados has been the Pastor at Evangelical Christian Church, Veszprém, since 1999. He is married to Dóra, and has two boys. He studied English literature and linguistics at the University of Veszprém (MA equivalent, with honours), and theology at Schloss Mittersill Study Center (Diploma in Biblical Studies and Culture) and at Covenant Theological Seminary (ThM in Exegetical Theology). He helped start the Hungarian Evangelical Forum and is a member of its Steering Committee. He often lectures at MEKDSZ (Hungarian IFES) conferences. He is also involved in the work of the Hungarian Evangelical (Free) Church. He has published many articles in various magazines and journals in the area of culture, theology, and spirituality. His study on the Reformational understanding of sin has been published by the Hungarian Academy of Sciences and by ProPhilosophia. He wrote a book on Eros (Erosz nyomában, Harmat Publishing House, 2008), which aims to address both Christians and non-Christians in their search for the good, the true, and the beautiful. Ádám also has a popular theological-apologetic website (divinity.szabadosadam.hu).

 

NETWORK PROGRAMME

Day 1

How to Interact with Media Stereotypes: The Case Study of Intelligent Design
Stephen Meyer

In this session, Dr. Meyer will examine media coverage of intelligent design and the widespread use of stereotypes to frame the issue in the public mind. Using examples from his own interactions with the media, Dr. Meyer will discuss how Christians can counteract the stereotypes they commonly face when it comes to science and how they can reframe the debate over science and faith in a positive manner.
 

Presenting Christianity in the Non-Christian Media
David Robertson

In this seminar we will look at how we can take, create and use opportunities in the secular media to present the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  Most secular media are frightened of any form of proselytisation (unless it is for their default position of secularism), but this need not prevent Christians having an opportunity to share our faith in an intelligent, winsome and culturally coherent manner.  We will look at how to discuss, debate, answer questions and deal with misunderstandings about the Christian faith.  Every Christian leader should be ready to give a reason for the hope we have, especially when we are called to do so in the secular mass media.

Day 2

Blogging the Gospel
Ádám Szabados

Today, people rarely read books, and they’re reading newspapers less and less—but people read blogs. Writing on the internet in blogs is a cutting-edge form of communication. Christians using this medium can present their worldview relevantly, winsomely, and creatively. In effect, writing a blog can be a form of apologetics. How can we write on the internet in a way that our voice is heard and we communicate the gospel effectively?

Making it in the Market Place
Sandra Sykes

We read in Acts 17 v16-17  (NIV) ‘While Paul was waiting for them in Athens, he was greatly distressed to see that the city was full of idols. So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and God-fearing Greeks, as well as in the market place day by day with those who happened to be there.” 

The media, whether it be radio, TV, newspapers or the internet (in all its various guises) is our market place. The audience is as always,  those who happen to be there. The challenge for today’s Media Communicators is how to create an imaginative framework for  differing ideas to be aired, and then to enable contributors with opposing viewpoints to put their messages across effectively. The end goal is that those listening in or watching on are actively drawn into the debate and understand the options presented to them so that they can form their own opinions.  The entire process must be underpinned by a total commitment to truth, fairness, independence and human dignity. To do this is to make it in the market place.

Day 3

The Global Charter of Conscience
Os Guinness

The Global Charter of Conscience was published at the EU Parliament in Brussels in June, 2012, with the support of a coalition of groups led by the European Evangelical Alliance and with the endorsement of the UN Rapporteur for Religious Freedom. It is a reaffirmation and expansion of Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

At a time when religious freedom is the most contested and embattled of the human rights, and worldwide religious restrictions are growing, the Global Charter has some simple objectives:

1)To reaffirm the foundational importance of religious freedom, 2) to launch a new discussion on the significance of building a new civil public square in each of our nations, and 3) to encourage Christians to reposition themselves in public life, and overcome the prejudices raised by past or present Christian positions.

Strategic Leadership and Communication Lessons from the Reformers
Glenn Sunshine

The Reformation succeeded because of a combination of effective communication strategies and leadership development. This session will explore several examples of each of these and look at their implications for today. In terms of communications, we will look at the impact of the printing press for both literate and illiterate culture, including vernacular literature, broadsides, and theological and polemical treatises. The leadership development section will look at the importance of a well-educated clergy, and particularly the training program for missionary pastors established by Calvin in Geneva. Some contemporary examples of Christians in media drawn from the Centurions program will be included.

Day 4

Lessons Learned from Someone Who Seeks to Engage with the Media
Nola Leach

The Media influences culture, how as Christians should we relate to it? Nola Leach has been engaging with the media over many years, firstly as a Media and Public Relations Officer in the UK Health Service and then as the Chief Executive and Head of Public Affairs at CARE (Christian Action Research and Education) a  major  Christian organisation working in the Parliaments and Assemblies of the UK and at the EU. Using her experience she will share from practical examples the lessons CARE has learned about the opportunities and challenges of working with the Media for Christian organisations so that we can use it more effectively to further our ministries and work.

Session TBA

 

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