ANAHEIM, Calif. (NRB) – Christian communicators were encouraged to “pierce the darkness” and allow Jesus to direct them as leaders by speakers at the Media Leadership Dinner March 27 during Proclaim 19, the National Religious Broadcasters’ International Christian Media Convention.
Mike Huckabee – Republican presidential candidate in 2008 and 2016 and former Arkansas governor – told the dinner’s attendees they “can curse the darkness” or “choose to light the candle.”
“When we look at our culture and our country and say, ‘It’s darker than it’s ever been,’ we may be evaluating it properly,” said Huckabee, who spoke earlier in the day at the NRB TV & Film Summit. “But it’s all the more reason to say that with every radio signal, every television broadcast, every podcast, every newsletter, everything that we do, we can pierce the darkness and we have the capacity to change the world.
“And when things are really dark, there’s no such thing as a nobody because everybody’s light is going to matter. A little light is better than no light at all,” he added.
Huckabee began a career in radio at the age of 14 and now hosts a weekly program on the TBN Network. He also owns radio stations in Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas. Huckabee served as a Southern Baptist pastor before entering politics.
“Ultimately what I love the most is communicating – communicating a message in hopefully a way that makes sense” to others, he said.
He told the gathering of Christian media executives, “There’s an extraordinary power that those of us in this room represent where we take the technology that is brand new and developing every year or so into something completely different, but the message has not changed.
“The technology changes all the time, but the message is a simple message – that God loves us so much” that He didn’t just send human beings a book or teachers, Huckabee said. “He became one of us. He walked among us. He took all our sins upon Himself. He died, was buried, rose again, and said, ‘What you can never be on your own, you can be by believing in me.’ That message still transforms lives.”
Michael Klausman, president of Television City Studios in Los Angeles, told the Christian communicators, “Jesus has a plan for all of us. Let Him lead you; let Him guide you through it, and He’ll lead you to lead others.”
The former, longtime CBS TV executive described himself as “a missionary” among many active Christians in the entertainment industry. “Leadership to me is sacrifice; it’s doing the right thing, it’s sharing that with others …. And it’s important that in everything that we do we let people know about Jesus,” Klausman said.
He offered several insights on leadership, including:
• “Good leaders know how to delegate.
• “Good leaders set the tone of the organization.
• “Good leaders manage down as well as up.
• “Good leaders are ethical and have high work standards.
• “Good leaders know what they don’t know.
• “Good leaders know how to correct and to give praise and to say, ‘Thank you.’”
These are biblical traits, but “when you add the power of God, it makes that leadership all the better,” Klausman said.
After starting as a page with CBS in 1971, he moved up the corporate ladder, serving as president of CBS Studio Center for about 28 years until February.
“My story is that I have watched Christ open doors for me, and all I had to do is pay attention, be ready in His service to go through that door,” said Klausman, who said he became a Christian when he was 20. “The only times I have really got into trouble [are] when I didn’t pay attention – when I thought I was smart enough and wise enough to do my own thing.“
Trailers were shown for two soon-to-be-released movies – No Safe Spaces and Roe v. Wade – that served as sponsors of the Media Leadership Dinner, NRB’s annual invitation-only gathering of the “principals” of the association’s member organizations and specially-invited VIP guests. No Safe Spaces is a documentary about the repression of free speech on college campuses. Roe v. Wade is a dramatic account of the 1973 decision by the U.S. Supreme Court that legalized abortion nationwide.
Twin brothers and entrepreneurs David and Jason Benham emceed the dinner program.
By Tom Strode
