Working with Your Local Media
Comments from Grant Recipients featured in Media Coverage

These Worship Renewal Grant recipients who were featured in news media coverage offered their thoughts on working with the media, in preparation for a presentation at the Calvin Symposium on Worship 2007.

Samantha Quesenberry, Luther Memorial Lutheran Church, Blacksburg, Virginia

• I sent Jared an initial e-mail saying, I have a story you might be interested in. … He said yes, that would be a great story. … He asked to meet with three people.

• One of the things that he said during our meeting was that he was glad to meet with us face to face; it gave him an opportunity to establish some relationships so that when he was doing a piece on something else, he had some contacts for people to call. And he’s done that since then—he’s called them up and quoted them.

• It lent some credibility to our project, and gave it some exposure. Even in our own congregation, as much as we talk about when they see an article in the newspaper, it’s more credible, and they know they can ask some questions about it. It starts a conversation.

• It's good to establish those relationships [with reporters], because they're going to trust you and you're going to trust them more, if you have the relationship already established before you want an article. They do get a lot of pitches, and [they trust you] if they know you’re not going to pitch them something every week, but save it for the really [important] stuff.

Marc Nelesen, former pastor, Third Christian Reformed Church, Zeeland, Michigan

• One of my habits at Third Church was, whenever there was anything I thought was in the public interest, special events I wanted a wider audience to know about—whether it was food distribution out of the parking lot, or our Holy Week services downtown in the community center, or our grant project—I would always send the local papers a press release that gave the basic details of whatever was going on. I would say 9 times out of 10 I would get a phone call back.

• Whenever my congregation has made the newspaper, there’s a bit of a mixed reaction. There’s a great sense of pride, but there’s also a little bit of apprehension: ‘we don’t want to stand out,’ ‘we’re not a megachurch’!

• There can be a mutually beneficial relationship between the church (in its broadest sense) and the media, where the media isn’t spoken of disrespectfully, and the church is put in a good light. The church has something to offer the broader community that is beyond scandal and beyond preaching at them. … Relationships—that’s what ministry is all about.

• It’s very important that the church has an understanding that the church has one spokesperson—sometimes it’s the pastor, sometimes not.

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