But how can they call on him to save them unless they believe in him? And how can they believe in him if they have never heard about him? And how can they hear about him unless someone tells them? And how will anyone go and tell them without being sent? That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, “Lord, who has believed our message?

Every morning an SUV drives through our neighborhood, and – with the exception of Sundays – someone throws a rolled-up newspaper in the general direction of Maul-Hall. This – along with the NBC/ABC/CBS evening news – used to be the number-one way people got their daily dose of news.

This morning I want to talk about “media,” a subject I started to unpack yesterday for my latest Wake Forest Today weekly column.

Reading from the first paragraph, the article begins like this:

If you are reading this column, then you are engaging with news media. “The Media” – often criticized as a cynical political tool – more properly refers to the collective communication outlets or apparatus that are used to store and deliver information or data.

Media is actually the plural form of a word borrowed directly from Latin. The singular, “medium,” developed the meaning “an intervening agency, means, or instrument.” However, since the 1920’s, media – like the word data – has been used as a singular collective noun… (click to read more…)

The balance of the piece turns out to be – in my estimation – a fairly intelligent analysis of how we pass on information in this world. Check it out – News Media: it all boils down to us – I believe you will enjoy the read.

WE ARE MEDIA: Today I’m interested in thinking about us – that would be you and me – as media, and most especially as the idea pertains to faith. If media is communication outlets or apparatus that are used to store and deliver information, then it is incumbent on all of us to think about the quality of the information that we store inside ourselves, and that we deliver to our family, our faith community, our neighbors, our friends, our work colleagues, our geographic community, and the world at large.

You see, the point of contact where the most meaningful information is delivered is not the television, the Internet, the radio, the mail, the newspaper, or even our not-so-smart phones… the place where communication really counts is one-on-one.

It doesn’t matter if news reaches us via paper, mail, broadcast media, email, data-stream, Pony-Express, or town crier, the most critical media plug-in is the way our lives – both actions and words – parse the message to the people we engage on a day-to-day basis.

Are we good news people? or are we conduits of hypocrisy, inconsistency, inaccuracy, slant, judgment, gossip, trash, prejudice, intolerance, or cynicism?

That is why the Scriptures say, “How beautiful are the feet of messengers who bring good news!” But not everyone welcomes the Good News, for Isaiah the prophet said, “Lord, who has believed our message?”

Do we have beautiful feet? – DEREK