“I was losing my job while we were creating this organization,” Barth Hague recalled two years ago in Chicago at the 20^th anniversary of the Council on Church and Media’s creation. 

Barth had been working for the General Conference Mennonite Church as a media producer, working on projects with other Brethren and Mennonite agencies that formed the Inter-Mennonite Media Group (IMMG).  The elimination of his job was indicative of the changes facing Anabaptists producing electronic media in the early 1980s.  Broadcasters were becoming less accommodating and many denominations were finding radio and television production and distribution too costly to continue.

However, the people from these denominations (Brethren in Christ, Church of the Brethren, General Conference Mennonite Church, Mennonite Brethren, Mennonite Church) who cooperated on these projects still thought it would be useful to get together to talk shop.  Thus, the Council on Church and Media was born and Barth Hague became its first executive secretary.

“CCM was created in December 1984 with a new mission:  to function as a broad forum of issues and interests among a much wider range of communication professionals.” (See “About CCM”)

The organization steadily grew to nearly 150 members, with annual conference attendance averaging around 60.  A typical conference has included:

n      A combination of thought-provoking presentations from speakers such as Martin Marty, George Barna, Quentin Schultze, and Tex Sample.

n      Workshops for writers, editors, designers, marketers, etc.

n      Visits to media centers such as NPR, The Washington Post, Sojourners

n      Time to enjoy the surroundings of host cities and “let our hair down” with others who can relate to everyday stresses and passions that drive them to be involved in this work in the first place.

In the last few years, attendance and membership have declined.  With the exception of Mennonite Central Committee, attendees have largely been staff from Mennonite Church USA institutions.  This decline in the membership base has meant fewer available resources to fulfill CCM’s mission.  How do we overcome this challenge?

I did not join CCM through the usually traveled channels – a job with a church agency that already has a corporate membership.  Eleven years ago, I was working in Christian radio in west central Ohio .  But I longed for a connection with people in media who shared not only my Christian, but specifically Anabaptist convictions.  So it was a blessing to find CCM and attend my first conference in Chicago in 1995 as a personal member.  Eventually, I moved to northern Indiana , where I worked in public radio, then for Mennonite Mission Network. 

One of the reasons I joined CCM was to explore the possibility of producing Anabaptist-influenced radio programming that reached well-beyond the Brethren and Mennonite world.  I saw CCM as a group that could work toward such a common goal and have had a number of conversations within this network that have ranged from curious interest to further exploration and development. 

As I have engaged in these discussions over the years, radio has become very splintered, like other media.  In fact, you could probably call it “narrowcasting” instead of “broadcasting.” 

But the opportunities remain for collaboration among CCM members on a number of projects.  Some collaboration has happened through CCM, while other projects have developed outside these channels.

Recently, CCM focus has primarily been the annual conference.  But what can be done beyond that to energize us as a group?  While planning a successful conference is important, CCM needs to offer more value to its members than the annual conference.  We also need to increase membership by involving younger communicators with fresh perspectives, reconnecting with our counterparts in other Brethren and Mennonite denominations, and find ways to connect those in other regions to this network – including those who do not work for church institutions. 

We spent the majority of our time together in Cleveland discussing methods for doing just that and the new executive committee is at work implementing many of these suggestions.  I am grateful for the commitment of those who came to Cleveland to give their input and ideas, and especially the energy that Melodie Davis, Larry Guengerich and Fred Steiner are bringing to this challenging work.

Ironically, I stood before CCMers in Cleveland this year as someone who also lost his job.  While there is no direct correlation, I hope – nonetheless—that the needs of Anabaptist media, marketing and design professionals can be met in a new way through a revitalized organization as they were through the transformation of IMMG to CCM in 1984.