Ads help tell our stories
There is no doubt that we live in a hyper-connected digital age. For many, Twitter, Facebook, and blogs have replaced newspapers and phone calls. We consume and share information in these spaces at an astounding rate. In the minute you just spent reading the first part of this article, 100 hours of video were uploaded to YouTube. Every day, 250 million photos are uploaded to Facebook. As people of faith, we know the powerful messages of God’s love, of salvation, hope, forgiveness, and other messages that God communicates to us through Scripture, the teachings of Jesus, and the day-to-day testimonials of our lives and witnesses. But how do we communicate these messages in this media-saturated world, with high-tech gadgets and sound bites flooding the Internet, to people with little time to pay attention to our claims of faith, hope, and love? Tell compelling stories. Jesus understood how to speak in fresh and innovative ways. Jesus let his audiences know that he understood their world, their hopes, their failings, and their fears by infusing his stories with characters, landscapes, and situations familiar to them. What does this mean for us today? We are called to share compelling accounts of what our faith means to us through accounts of our spiritual experiences, descriptions of our church communities as places where people are committed to working for justice and peace, and stories about the ways God has changed our lives and the lives of people we know. Tell the stories of what God is doing in your life. Tell the stories of what God is doing in your community. The United Methodist Church has a long history of walking alongside churches, individuals, and local partners to restore normalcy and offer hope in the wake of disaster. In the coming weeks, look for television ads in Oklahoma City and Tulsa, starting in the week of July 22. Keep an eye out for billboards communicating this message of hope in the midst of recovery. Share this video www.okumc.org/ThatsChurch with your friends and family via Facebook, Twitter, email, and blogs. Costs for this awareness campaign are covered by the denomination’s media agency, United Methodist Communications. Hope is contagious. You can help spread this message about what God is doing in Oklahoma through the people of The United Methodist Church, as we respond with help and love for as long as it takes. That’s making a difference. That’s church. — Contributed by United Methodist Communications |
