Book Title: Public Relations for Churches
Author: Marce Okey Anyanwu
Publishers: PR Impacts Limited, Lagos.
Pages: 140
Book Reviewer: Wole Olarinde
The world is dynamic. And it is high time churches aligned with the dynamism of the world. The world is plagued with crisis. Churches are no exceptions from crisis. And that is the reason churches must key into the mechanisms for crisis management. There is no church that is crisis-free. While the world has developed mechanisms for crisis management, many churches are still resorting to prayer & fasting to manage their crisis. Unfortunately, as good as prayer & fasting are they achieve little success in crisis management, control and solution in most churches.
Besides crisis management the world also craves for itself a good public image or reputation. And this crave does not exclude churches. All the world components including individuals, the academics, governments and corporate entity etc desire a positive image for themselves. Churches are not averse to a good reputation too. While the various components of the world have developed mechanisms for crisis management and for achieving a good reputation very few churches have. And the few churches that have aligned with such mechanisms stand out among the pack.
Public relations practice is one mechanism that various components of the world, including up-mobile churches are employing in crisis management and in building a positive reputation for themselves. Elder Marce Okey Anyanwu brings to fore the dire necessity for churches to align with the Public relations mechanism in their operations in order to live above boards in modern-day’s demands and challenges.
Elder Marce Okey Anyanwu, a Public Relations (PR) strategist, in his book Public Relations for Churches quotes Anthur Krock as saying “Churches have always been in need of Public Relations but have not recognized this.” Anyanwu notes that the role of Public relations is to build and enhance a good reputation, and to prevent or mitigate damage to that reputation. He points that Public Relations has its origin from the scripture when he revealed that it was a divine creation and pronouncement by God in about 1250 BC at the beginning of the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt. He said Aaron became the first spokesman and assistant of Moses in bringing Israel out of Egypt after the dialogue between God and Moses.
“When you put Public Relations to work for your church, you will be amazed to see how God uses it to help reach people for Christ in your community,” he adds.
The author opens the book with clear explanation of various concepts of Public Relations and relates the concepts in different chapters to the roles PR can play in Accountability Management and Leadership in the Church, Organizing Effective Church Programmes, Financing Church Programmes, Anger Management for Church Leaders, Managing Conflicts in Churches, Communication in Churches, Crisis Management in Churches, Church Corporate Image, Issues Management in Churches, Church-Community Relations and the Children church among others. The book can best be described as a very good manual for effective church management beyond the spirituals. The author carefully researched into some major problems that hinder effective church administration and offered various PR tools that can assist churches to overcome the modern-day challenges of churches.
Nigerian churches in recent decades have become the butt of public ridicule over the charlatan practices of the wolves in sheep’s clothing who commit abominable acts in their synagogues of iniquities they deceitfully call churches. These charlatans who mostly bear the title “Prophet” have created a bad reputation for the generality of Nigerian churches in the eyes of the public who are taken aback by what they hear and read about Nigerian churches and pastors in the news media.
Besides the sharp practices by fake prophets, even some upright Nigerian churches sometimes suffer bad image due to poor management of their church affairs. Most Nigerian churches contend with the challenges of how to handle their battered public image. Often most churches that suffer a bad press for instance resort to prayers, seeking God’s intervention to restore their battered public reputation. Many churches don’t know how to handle bad news, rumour and gossip when such arise against them. Until Nigerian churches look beyond the spirituals in managing their image they will continue to suffer public ridicule and condemnation.
Actually, no church prays to suffer a bad press or battered image. But where such unfortunately occurs to a church, Anyanwu’s Public Relations and Churches provides the way out of such circumstances through the instrumentality of Public Relations. The author dispels the impression that PR is a lying practice but rather a truthful practice of managing the reputations of an organization including churches. The book is very rich in content, easy to read and a delightful package.
Elder Marce Okey Anyanwu is the Chief strategist at PR Impacts Limited and CEO at Life Camp Security System Limited. He holds a BSC Degree in HRM from Houdegbe North American University, Benin, MBA from London School of Business and Finance, Msc in PR from University of Nigeria (Nsukka) as well as Chartered Institute of Public Relations (U.K). Professional Diploma and BEEC [Professional Diploma in PR, Anyanwu is a certified member of Nigeria Institute of Public Relations (NIPR) among other professional bodies both local and international.
For a copy of the book, please contact PR impacts, 50 Market Street, Opp Access Bank Plc, Shomolu, Lagos or call: 07066174024