At the National Religious Broadcasters (NRB) 2026 Media Leadership Dinner, Christian media leaders were reminded that their work is both practical and deeply spiritual, as headline speaker Shannon Bream urged attendees toward the kind of spiritual surrender required to faithfully carry out their calling.
The program opened with a fireside chat with Troy A. Miller, president & CEO of NRB and featured Bill Abbott, president and CEO of Great American Media, who discussed his departure from Hallmark in 2020 to launch a new network.
“We had a tough first year, but then we came out of it with a focus on faith, family, and country, and those are the pillars that are our north star every single day,” Abbott said.
He addressed the cultural friction between his network’s values and the broader entertainment industry.
“We happen to believe the vast majority of Americans believe in faith, family, freedom, and are supportive of those things,” said Abbott, who is the former president and CEO of Crown Media Family Networks, the parent company of Hallmark Channel. “We know in Hollywood, generally, those things are demeaned more than anything. And so, we are there to uplift and be positive and do that all year long.”
Bill Abbott (Great American Media president and CEO), Troy A. Miller (NRB president & CEO)
Abbott reported strong business growth, noting their expansion onto platforms like YouTube TV and the acquisition of PureFlix.
“We are really the only true player that has a twenty-four-seven offering in streaming and in linear TV, and we have two fast channels,” he said. “So, we have the ability to promote all day long, every day, across multiple platforms.”
The evening’s focal point was Shannon Bream, the host of “Fox News Sunday” and chief legal correspondent for Fox News Channel, who shared an extended testimony of her unconventional career path and the hard-won spiritual lessons that sustained her.
Leaving a lucrative legal career at 29 for an unpaid local news internship, Bream faced severe early setbacks. She recounted the devastation of being fired, which ultimately became a foundational lesson in recognizing that a career is merely a platform provided by God.
Shannon Bream
“That taught me a lot of humility, and that we’re all replaceable in the professional world,” Bream said. “And it’s not supposed to be our identity, the work that we do. … What I learned in that season was that it’s just a platform. … He knows what is going to have the most impact for His kingdom and what he’s weaving together in each of us, in all of the jobs that we do and in the jobs that we lose.”
This grounding prepared her for a later test of faith when pursuing her dream job covering the Supreme Court for Fox News. Bound by a previous contract, she agonized as Fox prepared to hire someone else, until she realized she was making an idol of the position.
“This job has become my Isaac,” she remembers feeling. “I knew what the Lord was asking me to do, to just lay it down…to truly let go of it and say, ‘Lord, I have to trust you with whatever comes next.’”
The door ultimately opened, leading to her 18-year tenure at the network.
Bream challenged Christian broadcasters to ethically engage with emerging technologies while recognizing their spiritual limitations.
“We have to be honest with ourselves, too, in thinking about those tools,” she warned regarding artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies. “It can do good things like translate the Bible into obscure languages. … But it can never be the presence of the Holy Spirit guiding us through our own Bible study. … It’s never going to have that soul.”
She concluded by reminding the audience of the eternal weight of their work:
“The work that you’re doing and the places that you’re reaching are going to people that maybe never before would pick up a Bible or go to a church,” Bream said. “but they hear a snippet of something that the Holy Spirit has prepared their heart to hear. … Our methods, our trends—those things may change. But the thing that can never change is our mission.”
The NRB 2026 Media Leadership Dinner was sponsored by Christian Healthcare Ministries and Newsmax.
