reinventing. regularity.

The most important thing you need to know about communicating publicly is that everything has changed while the important matters are entirely the same.
Let me explain.

The ways people receive news and information and the ways they interact have changed substantially, with blinding speed. Fewer and fewer people are reading newspapers and magazines, and not as many are tuning into television and radio. Internet based media are an increasingly popular source, although even those offerings had better be quick. Mail campaigns are emailed. Followers are twitterers and it’s hard to distinguish the leaders. We’re connecting with far more people than we ever have through social networks, and there has never been less community or socialbility.

This impacts many aspects of the work of public relations and communications—what we say and how we say it. Certainly we need to feel the heartbeat of rising generations and learn and use the communications vehicles of the digital age, whether we personally like them or not.

Yet at the same time, timeless communication principles are still at work, and we have to master them and practice them with regularity. The core of a mission is its identity-- who you are, your brand. When it comes to branding, we have to hit mark and communicate it with such clarity that we cannot possibly be misunderstood. We still need to write and speak and project in concise and compelling ways. Content still counts. It’s not as important that you say something everyday—through posts, tweets, status updates, links, and texts—as it is that what you say is important.

For a cause to be widely praised and supported over a long period, you must be known for regularity of your core principles, including:

--Integrity of your program and the veracity of your assertions

--Passion of your people toward the work at hand and the resulting deep, even sacrificial, commitment

--Authentic human drama that captures hearts and minds

At Rooftop, we are prepared to help you with these challenges. We are reinventing all we do to maximize the tools of the day, and we believe this will complement skills and lessons we’ve learned through more than 30 years of public relations service in the Christian community.

Jim Jewell

Organization President Leads ChildVoice with Bicycle Ride to Benefit Rescued Child Soldiers

One of the great horrors of the modern era is the exploitation of children as pawns of war, and specifically the abduction of children to serve as soldiers and to participate in unspeakable savagery. Child Voice International is a great outreach to former child soldiers in Uganda; kids who have been rescued from or escaped the horror, only to face uncertain lives in the shadow of childhood brutality.

Check out ChildVoice. But first consider supporting the founder of the organization, who is leading with his legs! For the second year, ChildVoice president Conrad Mandsager will be riding in the Kancamagus Bicycle Challenge to benefit war affected children on September 12th. The ride is organized and produced by ChildVoice

Although the White Mountains are gorgeous in September with dramatic views, waterfalls and wildlife, this ride is certainly not a one for the faint of heart. Climbing 4300 feet in 64 miles, riders summit the infamous Kancamagus Pass twice on the ride. The difficulty of the ride symbolizes the struggle of children in war-torn Africa and the courage of the former child-soldiers to escape that horror.

Conrad has set a personal goal to raise $10,000 for ChildVoice on this ride. The proceeds from this charity event will go to support the Lukodi Center in northern Uganda, where ChildVoice is operating a residential program for formerly abducted girls and their children.

Conrad recently returned from a trip to the Center. He writes: “I was absolutely amazed by the transformation in the girls during their stay. Their smiles and laughter, their confidence, and the skills they are learning are remarkable evidence of how far they have come in healing from the horrors of their past. While I am excited about our early results, there is so much more to do. There are thousands of girls who desperately need the services that we are providing. Our staff was overwhelmed with the number of girls who applied for the 15 slots that were available in June. Your financial support will help us to reach many more girls and their children who have been traumatized by this long, protracted war.”

If you can help Conrad reach his ride goal of $10,000, go to this web page to make a donation.

By the way, if you are interested in riding on September 12th, it is not too late to sign up for the ride. Register here.

emerge. thrive. create. impact.

Rooftop Linkage

A New Campaign

As we complete summer 2009, we are launching a new campaign to present the spirit and vision of Rooftop, based on the values and passions of many terrific clients we've been privileged to serve over three decades. The central themes:



Emerge

These are tough times for many people. This presents opportunities for the followers of Christ to demonstrate the timeless values and world-changing impact of the Gospel. Rooftop provides communications counsel and service to Christians who are serving where there is great need and defining the nature of comprehensive evangelical witness. Over the years, it has been our pleasure to provide communications services to hundreds of Christian organizations, leaders, events, and causes that are on the front lines of Christian ministry and advocacy. It is our goal to help today’s ministries to emerge from difficulties and obscurity to lead with confidence in the years ahead.



Thrive

Nobody wants to just get by. We make plans and lay foundations not to survive, but to thrive. That’s why we base our counsel not on getting attention today at the expense of fundamental values but on building brands and program integrity that you can sustain in the long term. We’ve been working in the Christian community for more than 30 years and we understand the need to put first things first and to honor the One through whom all things will indeed thrive.



Create

We are committed to a partnership with leaders, causes, and organizations who seek not to change culture, but to create new culture. We have never been known for accepting the status quo or seeking the easy solution. As public relations professionals who have created powerful campaigns for some of the most successful ministries of our time, we are equipped to help you create the next initiative that will project Christian truth and authentic faithfulness in the midst of cultural morass.



Impact

Our clients don’t live to get on television or to multiply Facebook friends. They don’t strive for invitations to the next VIP conference or a nice review in Christianity Today. For them, any of those achievements would be means to an end. Their goal is to transform lives and to impact the world around them. And if media want to talk with them they are most likely to find them nurturing orphans in the huts of northern Mongolia, teaching life skills to the former child soldiers of Uganda, or planting trees to protect Haitian watershed. It gives us pleasure to serve these partners who care more about impact than impression, and more about life-change than lights and action.

MINISTRY VETERANS PROVIDE A GREEN OUTREACH

Environmental Expert and Evangelical Communications Veteran
Team-Up to Launch FLOURISH, A New Creation Care Ministry

ATLANTA, July 24, 2009 — Two veterans of environmental work who also know their way around the church are making progress in the challenge to provide projects and products that are both authentically green and theologically accessible to most evangelical churches and families.

Dr. Rusty Pritchard, former faculty member and co-founder of the Environmental Studies Department at Emory University, and former editor of Creation Care magazine; and Jim Jewell, 30-year management and communications veteran and former chief of staff for Charles Colson, have begun a new organization called FLOURISH to bridge the gap between green concerns and the Christian faith they believe both informs and undergirds these matters.

“We want to provide services, products, and projects that will focus the attention of our churches and Christians in the pews on creation care-- primarily in the context of local ministry and outreach, in the midst of teaching ourselves to love God and love our neighbors,” Pritchard said.

“Many Christians aren’t ready to jump into the arguments about cap-and-trade climate legislation but are reasonably convinced about the need to be involved in the celebration and preservation of God’s creation and the people that depend on it,” Jewell added. “We want to help them.”

Barrett Duke, vice president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, said Pritchard and Jewell “are to be congratulated for their vision of a way to bring all of God's people together in an effort that really does matter, and that finds common ground for us that unites us rather than divides us." [Associated Baptist Press, May 18, 2009]

Already, FLOURISH has conducted a trend-setting symposium on creation care in May. Flourish 2009 surprised many because of its tone, the speaker list, and the connections drawn between environmental stewardship and existing ministries of compassion, outreach, and advocacy. (http://flourishonline.org/flourish-2009-conference/).

Christianity Today editor David Neff wrote that at the 2009 conference “creation care entered a new phase with key pastors, scientists, and thought leaders . . . talking to pastors about how to promote environmental concern in their congregations without creating factions.” [Christianity Today Liveblog, May 17, 2009] This may be a turning point in the shape of evangelical engagement with environmental action,” Neff said.

Among projects planned for FLOURISH are materials that will provide inspiration and ideas for Christians looking to dig deeper on Christian environmental stewardship. The first FLOURISH church curriculum will be published online on August 25 and will be available at www.flourishonline.org at no cost for a limited time.

In addition, the inaugural Flourish magazine is now available at the FLOURISH website, and features articles on “greening the hood” (urban ministry, international missions, evangelism, church-sponsored farms, movie and book reviews, and tips for graceful green living. The Fall issue (out Sept 1) will feature a rare reprint of the article “The Gift of Good Land” by Wendell Berry.

Next month, the organization will announce the location and line-up for its 2010 creation care conference.

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Senior Leadership Bios

Dr. Lowell Pritchard, Jr., president & co-founder, is a resource economist, and since 2006 he has been the National Director of Outreach for the Evangelical Environmental Network. Prior to his role at EEN, he was a full-time faculty member at Emory University in Environmental Studies, a program he helped create in 1999, where he maintains an adjunct affiliation. He has taught courses in natural resource economics, environmental institutions, public health, resource use and management, environmental justice, ecological economics, and environmental decision-making under uncertainty. Dr. Pritchard holds degrees from Duke University (B.S., zoology) and University of Florida (Ph.D., resource economics; M.S., environmental engineering sciences). He serves FLOURISH as the senior policy and program officer and editor of Flourish magazine, overseeing product content and program quality, and speaking and writing on behalf of the organization. rusty@flourishonline.org

James W. Jewell, chief executive officer & co-founder, served as campaign director of the Evangelical Climate Initiative and chief operating officer of the Evangelical Environmental Network. He has been involved in the communications and management of Christian organizations and causes for more than 30 years and he remains the managing partner of Rooftop MediaWorks, a public relations firm serving the Christian community. Jewell was a senior executive with three respected nonprofit organizations – World Vision, Prison Fellowship, and The Trinity Forum – and also has provided public relations direction for dozens of client organizations. He was the chief-of-staff for Charles Colson for more than a decade, and the director of communications for Promise Keepers’ Stand in the Gap in 1997 and Billy Graham’s Amsterdam 2000. He has a B.A. in communications from Biola University and a M.A. in Mass Communications from California State University, Fullerton. He is an adjunct professor of communications at Kennesaw State University (Georgia). He serves Flourish as the senior executive, overseeing fund development, strategic planning, associations and memberships, communications and brand protection. jim@flourishonline.org.

To interview Rusty Pritchard or Jim Jewell, contact Debbie Payton at (404) 245-8500 or dpayton@rooftopmediaworks.com. For more information see www.flourishonline.org.

A Great Resource for Those Preaching about the One Who is Before Gutenberg and After Google.

I just finished a new book on communications by longtime preacher and uber-organizer of Christian meetings, James O. Davis, now president of Second Billion Ministries. Gutenberg to Google, 20 Indispensible Laws of Communication is a lively and interesting discussion of preaching--the calling and craft. From the first page it is clear that Davis is intent on equipping his fellow preachers to avoid a truly dreadful sin: boring the audience.

If you are a preacher or a teacher; or if you just speak publicly (or know or love someone who does), here’s a book you need to pick up. It is a valuable guide with the information of a comprehensive text book, the international sweep of a travelogue, and the personal touch of a biography.

James Davis has titled his new book Gutenberg to Google to illustrate the changes in communication technologies from the mass use of the printing press to the dominance of the computer search engine. He could have call it from Peter to Present or Jerusalem to Jakes or Galatians to Graham or any alliterative reference to the span of time that required good preaching.

This is a book of principles that can be applied to any speech-making , and there are principles here for many disciplines in which people rely on communicating well to be successful.

Davis tells great stories to make his points, and he uses humor where it is helpful. For instance, in bringing to life a particularly bad speaking performance, he writes:

“By the time the presentation ended, I surveyed the crowd and estimated that [of an original crowd of 12,000] perhaps one thousand of us remained. We were scattered so sparsely throughout that great auditorium that a shotgun blast may not have hit two people.”

The pages are full of examples of excellence and the author tastefully decries great speaking blunders. Those of us who have been in the church a long time have heard and seen plenty of both.

For several years I traveled with a great speaker, Chuck Colson, and Chuck applied many of these good principles. He brought them from the political realm, where the consequences of poor speech making are seen at the ballot box. He put them to good effect in bringing many otherwise-resistant people to faith in Christ, and to stab the conscience of many otherwise-comfortable pew sitters.

Clearly James Davis loves good preaching and his enthusiasm for the calling is infectious. He closes with a charge to come to preaching in tune with the Lord and to be clear about your purpose: He writes:

“The best preachers are not “thunder from an empty cloud” but are part of the noblest calling on earth, to draw others into communion with Jesus, the Christ, the Savior of the world.”

You can read a free chapter at www.JamesODavis.org. The book is available for purchase online.


--Jim Jewell

Evangelicals are Alive and Well

Don’t believe what you hear about the decline of the evangelicals.

There isn’t a more potent force in American life and society than active, believing evangelical Christians, marked by their vibrant faith, clear expression of their beliefs, biblically informed habits, and selfless and life-altering ministries. Where can you find these believers? They’re everywhere–in every town; nearly on every block. Their numbers are increasing and their involvement in all aspects of national life and policy is growing and morphing and infiltrating like a viral storm.

Are evangelicals in decline, as posited by Rodney Clapp in Christian Century? He writes:

[Evangelicalism is in] deep trouble because it faces a significant cultural and generational shift. Identifying itself with the wedge tactics of the political right, which is now falling (at least for a time) out of power, the movement cannot easily shake the image of being primarily negative and destructive. Indicators show that it is losing attractiveness not only among unconverted fellow Americans, but among its own young.

More significantly, evangelicalism is in deep trouble because the gospel really is good news, and reactionaries are animated by bad news, by that which they stand against. Undoubtedly Jesus Christ faced and even provoked conflict. But he embraced conflict as a path or means to the health and liberation—the salvation—of the world. And he hoped for salvation even, perhaps especially, for his enemies. If evangelicalism is innately reactionary, then it can follow Christ only by being born again.

Clapp pretends that the evangelical church is the same as the vocal evangelical politic whose public voice has been dominated by its most conservative leaders. As a former senior writer at Christianity Today, he knows better; but the feigned confusion serves his purposes here.

The faithful and vibrant American Christian church that is evangelical in its beliefs, either as defined by Barna or by Gallup is very different from the evangelical politic. While the two configurations align theologically and indeed in some key areas of public concern [Clapp calls them wedge issues], they are very different and the thriving church at worship, at life, and in service transcends and routinely ignores the residents in the White House and on Capitol Hill.

I have learned in 31 years consulting with Christian ministries and causes that while many activists wish that local evangelical churches and their members would be politically active, the vast majority of them are not. Although they vote in high numbers, evangelical Christians are not particularly political and their churches rarely use facilities and services to advance any political positions.

I know this is extremely difficult to believe for people whose understanding of evangelicals comes only from mainstream media, which portray evangelicals as heavily involved in partisan and issue politics.

There are evangelicals who are very active in politics. My wife, Debbie, and I have been quite active in partisan and cause-related political action. But we are the exception, and friends and family often turn to us for readings on the political environment. Our level of political involvement is extremely rare among our church friends and our strongly evangelical families.

The levers of institutional power and notably the microphones and gateways of communication of the evangelical politic have been controlled by politically oriented conservative evangelicals for some time (often to good effect, in my opinion, but certainly not always).

The power of these leaders is waning as they age—many are in the 70s and 80s–and as the next two generations begin to be heard. These new generations are open to many new areas of public concern, and yes they are generally more open to at least a new tone on issues such as gay rights. I agree that if the NAE board was dominated by one generation removed from the present leadership, Rich Cizik would still be working the halls of power for the association.

But to suggest that young evangelicals are politically and socially to the left of their forebears on most issues is wishful thinking by those who would benefit from that shift. It’s much more complex than that, and on abortion, polls show that young evangelicals are more pro-life than their parents.

While young evangelicals are more concerned about the environment than the previous generation, this is hardly a swing to the left. As I have said previously, a green evangelical does not a liberal make.

For a number of years the public relations firm I was with represented Jerry Falwell as public relations counsel. We saw over and over how Falwell was featured and interviewed by mainstream media about topics on which he clearly was not the most qualified evangelical spokesman. Jerry never met a microphone he didn’t love, and media loved to portray him as the face and voice of American evangelicals.

Of course he wasn’t, nor are many of the current common voices of the evangelical politic. But they are presented as such, even as writers such as Clapp portray their declining influence as evangelical decline.

In the recent national survey that found a decline in the number of people who call themselves Christian, the reach of evangelical belief spread. One in three people in the country now consider themselves to be evangelical Christians. But note the following from the study itself (I couldn’t find this in any media reports)–

[The study] “reveals the dimensions of a significant trend in “belief” among the 76 percent of contemporary Americans who identify as Christians. These respondents were specifically asked “Do you identify as a Born Again or Evangelical Christian?” No definition was offered of the terms, which are usually associated with a “personal relationship” with Jesus Christ together with a certain view of salvation, scripture, and missionary work. As the table shows, 45 percent of all American Christians now self-identify in this manner and they account for 34 percent of the total national adult population. What is significant is the recent spread of Evangelicalism well beyond Christians affiliated with those groups that are members of the National Evangelical Association so that millions of Mainliners and Catholics now identify with this trend.”

The CNN story on the study said:

The survey also found that “born-again” or “evangelical” Christianity is on the rise, while the percentage who belong to “mainline” congregations such as the Episcopal or Lutheran churches has fallen. One in three Americans consider themselves evangelical, and the number of people associated with mega-churches has skyrocketed from less than 200,000 in 1990 to more than 8 million in the latest survey.

If there is national evangelical leadership, it has shifted to the megachurches, but it is largely pastoral, not political

Certainly, all is not well. There is work to do on the image of evangelical Christians, as explored by Gabe Lyons and Dave Kinnamen in UnChristian. Their introduction:

Christians are supposed to represent Christ to the world. But according to the latest report card, something has gone terribly wrong. Using descriptions like “hypocritical,” “insensitive,” and “judgmental,” young Americans share an impression of Christians that’s nothing short of . . . unChristian.

Groundbreaking research into the perceptions of sixteen- to twenty-nine-year-olds reveals that Christians have taken several giant steps backward in one of their most important assignments. The surprising details of the study, commissioned by Fermi Project and conducted by The Barna Group, are presented with uncompromising honesty in unChristian.

But those who follow Christianity closely know that the true heartbeat of evangelicalism isn’t behind microphones or plying the halls of Congress. If you pay attention, you hear the heartbeat of evangelicalism:

In the villages of Angola, where Christians involved with Living Waters International have provided clean water to thousands of people in recent years in a country where 56 percent of the people don’t have clear water.

In an abandoned building that now serves as a school and clinic for rescued child soldier girls just north of Gulu, northern Africa, where young woman and their babies born in captivity are given the basic building blocks of new lives they never thought they’d see by a group of Christians operating under the name ChildVoice International.
In a series of gers—round teepee-like structures—in northern Mongolia, where Christians in a group called LifeQwest houses hundreds of orphans that they swept off the brutally frigid streets of Mongolian cities to literally save their lives and give a future vision to children of an ancient people.

In the homes of staggering Atlanta neighborhoods, where Christians in the Charis Community Housing group help families purchase and care for homes in ways that will help them recover from the foreclosure crisis that has hit the inner cities far worse than the cushy suburbs.

In a large churchyard garden in Boise, Idaho, where a retired Christian farmer helps dozens of church volunteers grow fruits and vegetables, “producing and giving away over 20,000 lbs. of produce, feeding approximately 1281 families, representing around 4108 individuals.”

At an unimpressive building on New York Avenue in Washington, D.C., Christians at The Salvation Army’s Harbor Light Center take in down-and-out drug addicts and rather than just getting them off drugs, they get them into a new relationship with Jesus Christ—and the recidivism rates are dramatically better than run of the mill recovery centers.

The heart of American evangelicalism beats in places and ministries such as these, and hundreds and hundreds of thousands of other places in this country and around the world.

We see faithfulness in small group meetings in the homes of millions of Americans that are opening their Bibles and searching together for the way God wants them to live their lives. Yes, the heart beats in worship in churches blanketing the country—most small, 75-200 members, and in some very large. People eschewing an extra hours sleep on Sunday morning to point to their Creator and give praise and to listen to a minister trying to help them in their walk with God.

Don’t believe that evangelicalism is fading. It’s changing to be more relevant to the problems of a new time, just as it has for millennia. And its political power rises and falls and stagnates. But bellicose commentators and lobbyists are not the church, and they never have been. Prescient observers know that. Many just won’t tell you.

--Jim Jewell

News: Conference May be Evangelical Environmental Turning Point

News Release

SURPRISING CAST OF CHRISTIAN SPEAKERS AT FLOURISH
CONFERENCE ON THE CHURCH AND THE ENVIRONMENT

FLOURISH will emphasize biblical teaching, stewardship,
and ministry integration; transcending divisive political issues


ATLANTA, March 22, 2009 – A national gathering of church leaders will focus on the unique opportunities for Christian churches to embrace environmental stewardship.

The Flourish National Church Leaders Conference on Creation Care , will be held at CrossPointe church near Atlanta, May 13-15, 2009.

The conference features a collection of well-known evangelical speakers, most of whom are not associated with the creation care movement, with some speaking on the subject for the first time. Speakers include Southern Baptist leaders Ah Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Seminary, Lifeway’s Ed Stetzer, and former SBC president James Merritt, pastor of the host church. Other speakers: Leroy Barber, Andy Crouch, Margaret Feinberg, Joel Hunter, Jo Anne Lyon, Matthew Sleeth, Chris Seay, Rick McKinley, Gabe Lyons, Tri Robinson, and Ken Wilson (speaker information)

"A new kind of evangelical conversation about God's creation is beginning, and Flourish will be one of the milestones. Those who attend will be on the leading edge of a significant new movement that I believe will, and must, shape the church and our culture for generations to come," said Christianity Today International vice president Andy Crouch, author of Culture Making.

A recent Barna poll indicates that 90 percent of evangelicals in America would like to see Christians do more to care for God’s creation. At the same time, 74 percent are skeptical about the causes of global warming and suspect media exaggeration. The poll showed that most don’t know what to do next to advance responsible environmental stewardship. The FLOURISH conference will include workshops and resources that focus on helping churches with programs and materials for the teaching and demonstration of biblically balanced care for the environment, and help on saving energy costs.

The first national gathering of its kind, the Flourish conference will include three major areas of concentration that organizers believe are necessary for the church to have a robust Gospel-witness in the 21st century: 1. Creation care in theology, worship, and evangelism; 2. The greening of church operations, and 3. Personal discipleship.

Media Note: For more information, or to interview any of the conference speakers or Flourish leaders, contact Debbie Payton at (404) 245-8500; email: dpayton@rooftopmediaworks.com.

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