From the Interviewee's Perspective

Here's an interesting commentary from a representative of the Evangelical Christian Credit Union in Brea, California, who must occasionally decide whether or not to respond to interview requests in this difficult economy. Interesting to hear the reasoning from the "other side" of the reporter.

Boy, won’t Mom be proud of her boy?

by Mark Johnson, ECCU Executive Vice President

A call from a reporter with the Wall Street Journal or Associated Press or a television station should be a pretty exciting thing, right?

In these challenging economic times, when even churches and ministries are often negatively impacted, it is not uncommon for ECCU to receive requests for interviews from major news sources. So, what factors play in to our decision to say “yes” or “no” to these opportunities?

There is, of course, that first personal thought that says, “Boy, won’t Mom be proud of her boy being quoted in the national media?” Then pretty quickly comes the recognition that she won’t be so proud if her boy sounds less than intelligent or is associated with news that readers or viewers might consider to be bad.

From ECCU’s perspective, we also recognize that our own best interests may not always be well-served by answering these calls and the questions that follow. We can be misquoted or quoted out of context. Reporters can sometimes seem to bring personal agendas to their stories, which may not present us in the best light. How do we know this? That’s easy. We have experienced it a time or two over the years. And yet, we generally continue to say “yes” when reporters call.

Why not play it safe and “just say no” to these requests? Because we actually believe we have something to say that supports the work of evangelical ministries and ministry leaders across the country.

We have spoken more than once with a reporter who seems to have already decided to write about the financial mismanagement or instability of ministries in general. And we have been able to positively influence the stories they write by talking about our experience with the overwhelming majority of our ministry members that are well-run and display integrity as they pursue their respective missions.

Yes, we also have to talk about the negative effects of the current economy and the handful of foreclosures that have occurred in the last couple of years. But we do get to point out, even though it’s not always included in the story, that these numbers are very small compared to the thousands of ministries we have served in our nearly 45 years of existence. We also get to talk about the faithfulness of ministry donors and the wisdom that so many ministry leaders demonstrate as they lead their organizations through these challenging times.

So, will we continue to say “yes” to most interview requests? Yes. ECCU is a not-for-profit cooperative of ministries and people who are passionate about ministry. We remain convinced that we best serve our member ministries by speaking forcefully and positively on behalf of ministry in the public square, even at the risk of being misunderstood or misquoted.

And usually it works.

As an added bonus, Mom is usually proud!