Journalism and The Heart of Evangelism
The Christian is called to make the truth of the Gospel known with clarity and boldness; the journalist, according to Kovach and Rosenstiel, is called to make known the truth of events in the same way.[1] Combine the two vocations and the Christian journalist is created: an individual carrying out a double-pronged mission whose success depends entirely on his ability to communicate with his audience.
It is one thing to speak the truth; it is another to communicate, to speak and be heard. Jerram Barrs cites the examples of Jesus Christ and the apostle Paul when he develops principles for Christian communication: “their fundamental motivation was love for their hearers… a love that led them to regard other people more highly than themselves.” [2] This love is apparent through Paul’s respect for his audience as, “faced with such rampant paganism, he never lost sight of the true humanity of these people, nor of his own shared identity with them.”[3] Paul treated other philosophies with respect by representing them fairly and engaging with them in order to explain his own.[4] Through such regard for his audience, Paul won the ears of his listeners, if not their hearts.
Paul’s story inspires me as I endeavor to witness as a journalist. Communication is the mission of the journalist and the evangelist, and communication is essentially an act of love: it is the fitting work of a Christian.
[1] Bill Kovach and Tom Rosenstiel, The Elements of Journalism: What Newspeople Should Know and the Public Should Expect (New York: Crown Pub., 2001), 14.
[2] Jerram Barrs, The Heart of Evangelism (Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Books, 2001), 187.
[3] Ibid., 189.
[4] Ibid., 205.
violetskye
I wish more Christians would train as journalists because journalistic principles are in fact Christian communication principles. Nowhere is this more important than in communicting on the web. Internet Evangelism Day offer a wide range of resource pages on web evangelism including church website design. And we stress that the gifts needed in web evangelism are those of a journalist rather than a preacher.
Blessings
Tony
i need to be train as a christian journalist
if some one can help me to do it
blessings. franca
Hi Franca,
So encouraging to hear that you are interested! I just came back from the Summer Convergence Course at the World Journalism Institute, a Christian organization whose mission is to train Christians to be mainstream journalists. It was life-changing, challenging, and a beautiful experience. Look it up now!
~molly m.