NASHVILLE, Tennessee (NRB) – Super Bowl champion and NFL legend Ben Watson spoke about the role Christian media leaders need to play in the culture during the Media Leadership Dinner at the NRB 2020 Christian Media Convention in Nashville, Tennessee, on February 26.
Referring to Ezekiel 3, when God commanded the prophet Ezekiel to speak judgment to the people of Israel, Watson challenged media leaders to engage the culture in a way that is smart and solid with truth but also brings people to the Lord.
“We have to set the thermometer in the culture,” he said.
Like Ezekiel, Watson said Christ followers need to be watchmen and watchwomen who do the job God has called them to do.
“What has God given you to do? What’s your job?” he posed. “He’s placed you in a specific position of influence, of power, of recognition. He gives you talents that only you have. He expects you to do your job and do it well.”
Watson said we, as the Church, can’t have someone else do our job.
“We have to willfully step into the culture with truth,” he said. “There are people that are hungry. There are people that are searching for truth. We should be people that provide it.”
Watson said Christ followers need to ask themselves these questions:
- What are we trumpeting to the culture?
- Are we feeding into the fears of the culture?
- Are we standing firm on God’s Word?
- Are we speaking God’s promises into the culture?
“Your job … is to proclaim sins but also proclaim salvation,” he said. “It’s important for us to say what’s going on that’s wrong in our own lives, in the lives of the culture, but also we’re supposed to point to what’s right.
“Don’t just be the one that’s saying, ‘You shouldn’t do that,’ ‘We shouldn’t do that,’ ‘The Bible says, don’t do that.’ All that is well and good. But if you’re not giving people a way to do something right through the power of the Holy Spirit, you are simply making them guilty.”
Watson ended his message with encouragement from Jeremiah 9:23-24 to be people who stand for justice, righteousness, and kindness — and all with humility.
By Michael Smith
