Modeling the Ministry of Media And Communication

None of us come to our vocational work in a vacuum.  Working in ministerial formation, I believe that an important part of helping ministers enter more deeply into their vocation is through identifying what images or role models have inspired them along the way.  For seminarians, I ask them to name and describe priests who have been role models. For lay ministers, I raise the same question about ecclesial or community leaders.  I also often invite ministers to name the most evocative images for them from Scripture or the broader Tradition that convey something essential about what a minister is supposed to be.

The Christian tradition is deeply aware of the power of images and role models when it comes to compellingly conveying the faith. Whether it is the manifold titles of Jesus Christ (eg: the Word, the Teacher, the Great Physician) or the myriad of saints each with a unique and powerful story, we are a tradition steeped in impactful images and compelling role models for living the faith. When it comes to following our vocational path and doing our vocational work, we are held in the communion of these. Very often in our work, these images and role models give us life.

What images or role models inspire faithful, vocational work in the media and in communication? 

Over the years, I have begun to pay attention to the particular role models that members of the media community name:  religious founders whose charism focused on media, exemplary persons in broadcasting and journalism, compelling and creative thought-leaders now in digital spaces. If communication is indeed a pathway toward communion, here we see emerging a cloud of witnesses for the media community.  We can do good discernment around the particular gifts and charisms these witnesses exemplify for doing this work.

Because I am committed to the idea that media professionals do ministerial work, I also wonder about the Scriptural images we hold for ministry, and how these may speak to the profession.   There are many Scriptural images that come to mind when thinking about the ministry of media professionals. Most often, when I am preparing slides for a lecture, the Scriptural images I come across online for communication show preaching, like Christ’s Sermon on the Mount or the Apostle Paul before a crowd.   Indeed, these images of preaching represent a form of Christian communication, but they more so capture a moment rather than offer a theology.   Is there a more comprehensive theological image?  I find this in a model that roots the ministry of media professionals even more deeply in the ministry of Christ: Christ the Good Shepherd.   

Christ the Good Shepherd is an ancient and  archetypal image for Christian ministry, and among other places in Scripture (eg: Psalm 23), we find a beautiful reflection on this theme in the tenth chapter of the Gospel of John.  The Good Shepherd evokes trust, intimate knowledge of the Father, protection, guidance, sacrifice and commitment.   For those who work in media and communication, the Good Shepherd also raises the evocative theme of knowing and trusting the Shepherd’s  voice. As the Gospel of John states:

But whoever enters through the gate is the shepherd of the sheep.  The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his voice, as he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has driven out all his own, he walks ahead of them, and the sheep follow him, because they recognize his voice.  But they will not follow a stranger; they will run away from him, because they do not recognize the voice of strangers.  (John 10:2-5, NABRE)

With this emphasis on calling and voice, we see communication as integral to the close and trusting relationship the sheep have with the Shepherd.  The sheep know, trust and follow the Shepherd because of the way he has communicated with them.  

He has called them by name...

For those working in media and communication, the voice of the Shepherd and the way it builds relationships and gathers community is profound.  For this ministry, it is an iconic aspect of the image of the Good Shepherd.  In the Shepherd we see communication directed toward its ultimate end: to build relationships, to gather community, to orient one toward communion, with God and with one another.  Contemplating the voice of the Good Shepherd as iconic for media and communication, we are led in a direction that values persons over content,  encounter over processes, presence over productivity.  While of course retaining good content and professional standards, the Good Shepherd as an image of this ministry recalls how impactful and essential good communication is toward a greater goal: persons in communion.

Daniella Zsupan-Jerome Ph.D. is an assistant professor of pastoral theology and director of the Sustained Encuentro Program at Saint John's University School of Theology and Seminary in Collegeville, Minnesota. This column originally appeared in the March 2024 issue of The Catholic Journalist.