Christians Need Good PR to Avoid Media Misunderstandings

Christian leaders often fault the liberal media for misrepresenting their voices, but Christians are to blame when they do not communicate clearly to reporters who don't know the gospel.

NEW YORK – Christian leaders often fault the liberal media for misrepresenting their voices, but Christians are to blame when they do not communicate clearly to reporters who don't know the gospel, says the head of a public relations firm.

If we're not spending a lot of time being patient, acting like Christ, to educate non-Christian reporters about the love of Christ, then we're in the wrong business, says Mike Paul, president of MGP & Associates PR – a New York-based public relations firm that specializes in reputation management.

"More importantly, we have little faith," he adds.

According to David Neff, editor of Christianity Today, the recent stories in the Chicago Tribune and other news agencies criticizing the few megachurches that decided to close their doors on Christmas resulted in damage that didn't have to happen.

"Having a good media professional working with the churches could have averted that," says Neff.

Christians must understand how important public relations are, says Paul, not only just for their own sake but for the reporters – 90 percent of whom are non-believers.

"The mainstream media is the conduit to reaching multiple millions of people with one article or one media opportunity on cable TV. That's an extremely powerful tool for Christ," he adds. "And if we don't use it, then our faith is not strong."

Communicating the gospel to the people is what a Christian ought to do, but Christians are not doing a good job, says Paul.

"We get very comfortable talking to ourselves and feel very difficult talking to those who don't know Christ," he notes. "If we don't do that, then we're not being good Christians."

Not only do good public relations help Christians communicate better with mainstream media, but it would also benefit Christian ministries by increasing transparency, says Neff.

"Often they're so nervous about any kind of controversy that they tend to shut down communications rather then open it up," he says. "And a good media relations firm can help them to open up."

Neff also points out that ministries many times develop and their core mission shifts. A media professional can help them tell their story to the public, says Neff, and then they begin to realize that's what we're about.

"Often a ministry can keep you busy, but then they don't think, ‘Well, what is our story?’"

Lastly, public relations are important so that one knows how to communicate with reporters in the mainstream media, he says.

According to Paul, Christians need to talk to the secular media more often.

"What I usually hear from Christian organizations is, ‘They’re too liberal. They won't write on us,’" he says. But Paul points out the potential that newspapers like The New York Times and USA Today have. They are read by millions of people every day online and in hard copy.

"We need to reach the world who doesn't know us as Christians," says Paul.