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Has the Church lost its prophetic
voice?
These were some of the issues raised and discussed at the recent
Association of Christian Media conference in Johannesburg, which drew together 121
delegates from sixty different organisations.
Seasoned South African newspaper editor, Mondli Makhanya told the
delegates how he saw the situation – that since 1994, Christians had retreated
from influence. He challenged Christians to present a biblical
response to
issues such as poverty and inequality, race and racism, morality, crime, social
cohesion,gender issues etc. He encouraged delegates to rise to the challenge
of being salt and light in our society.
Patrick Kuwana, Zimbabwean businessman and founder of Crossover
Transformation spoke of the 3 to 15% required to shift culture. The content of
our message just needs to line up with what God is saying.
The main conference speaker was internationally known writer and
speaker, Phil Cooke (www.philcooke.com).
Phil is an amazing guy – a working producer from Hollywood
Digital media have opened exciting new windows to tell what God is
doing and Christians are doing amazing, creative things in the media. We were
inspired by short videos produced by Philcooke Pictures.
The ACM, representing all the main Christian radio stations, TV
stations, magazines, internet and content-providers, certainly has a 3 to 15%
reach in South Africa.
The challenge is to grow that reach, and to make it more effective. A key
component is to support and encourage Christians who are working in main-stream
media.(If you know any, please encourage them to link up with the ACM.)
The conference encouraged us to ditch our Christian ghetto mindset.
Let’s be like Jesus by doing unexpected, amazing things, as seen in the
gospels. For more information on the conference content, go to www.acm.org.za .
