Why Some Pioneering Christian Media Ministries Survived

1. They weren’t afraid to change. When Joyce Meyer called me into our first meeting, she had frankly hit a wall. Her fundraising, donor development, TV and mail response—all
of it was pretty flat. It took some time, but I had to make her
understand how critical it was to change, and that there was no going
back. It took a few months of give and take, but when she finally “got
it,” a light went on and she never looked back. About that time, her
youngest son, Dan, came onboard as ministry COO and helped me take it to
another level entirely. He took her to the Hillsong
Conference in Australia, and when she saw that, she came back a changed
woman. She let us make employee changes, redesign the TV department,
lose the dress codes, make some structural changes in the organization,
and in a very short time, things dramatically turned around. Now today, Joyce Meyer lives for change both personally and professionally, and her response from donors and her audience is incredible.

2. The right way to pass the baton: After TV evangelist Jerry Falwell’s
death, things looked pretty bleak for Liberty University. But with
well-placed life insurance benefits to provide some breathing room, his
two sons—Jerry Jr. and Jonathan—have turned that place around. Jonathan
preaches at the flagship church, Thomas Road Baptist, and has
dramatically grown that church, written books and is making a mark
across the country. Jerry Jr. is now chancellor of the university, and
with his remarkable business sense he has built up donor development,
held people accountable and presented a new vision for the future. Some
thought they could never fill their dad’s shoes, but they didn’t even
try. They stepped out in their own way and marched to their own drum.
And now, Liberty University is the largest Christian universities in America.

3. Fighting tooth and nail for the job doesn’t work. Joel Osteen
actively refused leading Lakewood Church, but as his father lay dying,
he finally relented and preached his first sermon as a favor to his dad.
I remember the guys wiring up his dad’s hospital bed so he could hear
Joel’s sermon live. Turned out—the first sermon Joel ever preached was the last sermon his father John Osteen ever heard. Even
then we discussed shutting it down, but Joel felt a small voice saying
to go on. We actually pulled the plug on the show on Friday, but he
called me over the weekend and said, “I feel like God wants me to move
on with it,” so we went back on the air. The story since then is simply
history.

So what is it? These were all traditional, pioneering media ministries
who never got distracted, never got stuck and were always willing to
change in order to engage a changing culture. While some successions
were family members, they weren’t obsessed about it, and in some cases,
considered handing it off to someone better qualified. But these guys
had it. They had the confidence to not copy their famous father, and
step out into their new vision. They were willing to prove themselves on their own turf if necessary first.

After all, the world doesn’t need a copy of someone else. It needs the original version of you.

Any other reasons you think these and other ministries transitioned well?