“We want to make the gospel transparent

 to the whole world and in doing that to

 provide information to people that makes

 life better that brings peace where there is

                                                 division, healing where there is brokenness

                             and community where people feel cut off and isolated.”

Larry Hollon – General Secretary of United Methodist Communications

Opening Remarks at the African

 Communicators Training

“District Superintendent, faculty, members of the staff of Africa University, colleague communicators, as I look at your faces I feel a sense tonight that we are participating in making history.  This meeting was a dream that began almost five years ago when we in United Methodist Communications began to talk with African colleagues about the struggles of communicating on this continent and within the church and we asked ourselves how do we do this.

How do we make this happen? 

“The delegates to general conference in 2004, under the leadership of many of our bishops who are the leaders of your annual conferences, honored us with a gift of $1 million dollars to begin to develop partnerships for communication in Africa.  When we received that gift we were both pleased and unsure about what we would do because the needs of the continent are so great.  The challenges that you face are so many and the resources that we make available to you are so few. 

 Where do we begin? 

“Well tonight, brothers and sisters, we are beginning.  We are not only making history, we are beginning a relationship with one other that will create a network of communicators in the United Methodist Church to tell the whole story of the church to the whole church and to the whole world.  And so my heart is filled with joy as I look at your faces and see the future network of communicators in the United Methodist Church. I know that you will share with us your skills, your knowledge, your professionalism, and we will learn from you.  We will share similarly with you that which we know, and through our interactions with one other we will share our skill, knowledge and professional confidence. 

“This is a great night and I am delighted to be here.  We say at United Methodist Communications that our first goal is to inform.    We want to make the gospel transparent to the whole world and in doing that to provide information to people that makes life better, that brings peace where there is division, healing where there is brokenness and community where people feel cut off and isolated. 

“Our next mission, because we are communicators in church, is to inspire.  We are not merely reporters who offer information that is apart from values.  We are communicators who are rooted in the values of the gospel and in rooting in the values of the gospel we are inspired by the love of God in Jesus Christ that causes us to communicate with more urgency and more fervency than we would otherwise.  But we don’t communicate only to inspire and stop with inspiration.  Inspiration is wonderful, but it’s not enough. 

We communicate to engage.  If we are not engaging—that is engaging in the communities in which we work, engaging to bring about change, engaging to make life different and better—then our communication has not achieved the full circle that it must achieve.  When Jesus talked he not only reached out to people to tell them stories, he not only pointed to the presence of God in their lives, he called them to change.  To change their lives and to change lives and so what we will be doing as meet here this week to learn these skills comes under this charge to

 inform, to inspire and to engage.

“Tonight I’m going to stop by just being inspired.  When I see your faces that’s inspiration enough for me for tonight and we will engage and we will change tomorrow but tonight I want you to know I’m inspired and I’m glad you’re here.  Thank you.”     

Larry Hollon – General Secretary of United Methodist Communications

Opening Remarks at the African Communicators Training