Noelle Huizenga

National Religious Broadcasters Convention 2024

Transcription completed by AI software, please excuse any misspellings or typos present.

Leray Heyne  0:23  

Hello, I'm Leray Heyne. And I want to introduce you to the first Christian television network consecrated to tell the world what Jesus is doing the business. You may be thinking to yourself, What in the world are you talking about? Jesus is not involved in business. Business is one of the greatest problems this world has. And I get how that might be your Christian worldview. But for those of us who love the Lord with all of our heart, mind, soul and strength, and who had been called and gifted and sent by Holy Spirit to oversee companies in the public squares of business, we have a different Christian worldview. On Jesus Christ’s CEOs TV, you will hear from Jesus's perspective what He is doing in business. You will hear from the perspective of Christian CEOs what Jesus is doing in business. You will learn how Holy Spirit is manifesting Christ in the mortal flesh of the Body of Christ in business. And for you CEOs, you will be equipped on how to operate an authentic Kingdom company consecrated through Jesus Christ through you and your team's participation with God Holy Spirit's governance. Welcome to Jesus Christ’s CEOs TV, the first Christian television network consecrated and raised up by God Holy Spirit to tell the world what Jesus is doing and business.

Leray Heyne  1:49  

Welcome back to Jesus Christ's CEOs TV we are filming live from the exhibit floor of the National Religious Broadcasters convention and exhibit in Nashville, Tennessee. And we have been Jesus Christ's CEOs TV's mandate is to tell the world what Jesus Christ is doing in business. In this interview, we're going to connect you with the importance of religious freedom, freedom of speech, and how National Religious Broadcasters Association is taking care of that on the hill. And we have Noelle with us who is in charge of policy and communication, correct? 

Noelle Huizenga  2:25  

That's right. 

Leray Heyne  2:25  

Well, thank you for taking some time to talk to us and tell us another aspect of NRB. So tell us what is policy and communications with NRB.

Noelle Huizenga  2:36  

Yeah, so I'm the Director of Public Policy and Communications at NRB. And so I lead a team that's based on in Washington DC on Capitol Hill full time. So we we have found that it works very well to kind of fuse together public policy and communications operations. It's so important to have strong communicators doing public policy, as well as that ability to research and form advocacy strategies and things of that nature. So I lead and NRB's lawmaker engagement strategies, kind of our public policy engagement in different areas. That includes legislative regulatory work, general advocacy work, and I also oversee, and NRB's digital platforms, email communication, things of that nature. And in fact, we have one publication called we have two email publications, but one called Washington next week, that kind of perfectly represents that crossover between those two operations.

Leray Heyne  3:24  

So for the average Christian business owner, let them inside your world a little bit. What's, what's all this policy and legislation, stuff look like on the hill? So if we were doing a video following you around, what would that look like?

Noelle Huizenga  3:39  

So on your typical day, we would be in our office kind of tracking some of the issues using various research tools to track issues that are of importance to broadcasters and Christian communicators. We do a lot of reading and keeping up with the news and kind of evaluating whether things would be an important engagement area for NRB. In the run up to convention, we did a lot of preparation for public policy related content. So that zone that we've been in for a little while developing those programming aspects, after NRB convention will kind of go back to developing advocacy strategies, doing direct lawmaker engagement and getting ready for the Capitol Hill Media Summit in the Fall. That's our flagship public policy event. 

Leray Heyne  4:14  

Oh, wow.

Noelle Huizenga  4:15  

We also do quite a bit of writing in general for our email publication. 

Leray Heyne  4:18  

Okay. And then when you engage with the policymakers, what did that look? What does that look like? What are those meetings look like?

Noelle Huizenga  4:24  

Yeah, so that could that could take a few different forms. So some of our communications are via email, letters. In formal communications with staff, there's a lot of work that you get done on that level. But there will also be times where it's important to really spend maybe a targeted week meeting with members on a certain committee or subcommittee. We did that we did a spin up kind of a dedicated advocacy week in Washington DC with our president and CEO Troy Miller, talking with members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, subcommittee for Communications and Technology, about with the state of the video marketplace for Christian programmers. That's an example of an issue that an IRB is advocating on. So when we do that we'll come to the lawmaker, sometimes we'll meet with staff, sometimes we'll meet with the members themselves. And we might bring them a fact sheet about a certain issue, we might answer questions that they have about that issue, kind of trying to evaluate whether this is a position or a solution that could potentially work for them with their constituents and their interests, and hopefully answer any questions or resolve any concerns they might have about coming closer to that position of the NRB.

Leray Heyne  5:26  

So how are lawmakers? How perceptive are they with the issues that are important to NRB and Christians?

Noelle Huizenga  5:36  

That's a great question. So there, I would say that there are certain top line issues that they're very in tune with, they're certainly in tune with the fact that there are challenges to Christian communications that are there are challenges that are limiting free speech, things of that nature, I find that as we drill down a little bit into specific, more granular aspects of broadcasting policy are the situation for Christian broadcasters, we do find that we play a very important educational and informative role there, they may so what would be typical in a congressional office, for example, is that you might have multiple legislative aides, legislative staffers, and in one of those staff members portfolio might be telecommunications. So that might be the person that we would talk to first to kind of talk about what's going on there. And they may have a certain certain degree of awareness of what's going on, and sometimes sometimes a lot of awareness and a lot of knowledge of what's going on in that field. But we try and bring more perspective that they might not be getting already, you know, each association or each lobbyist or each group doing advocacy is going to come to them with a slightly different perspective on the issues. And we have found that that the NRB does tend to come with a fairly unique perspective on broadcasting issues, in particular, because our association membership is a bit different than other broadcasting associations.

Leray Heyne  6:47  

Right. So, as I told you, before, we're talking to Christian business owners, right, and letting them get an idea that, you know, NRB is advocating not just for broadcasters, but for religious rights into specially Christian rights. 

Noelle Huizenga  7:03  

Yeah. 

Leray Heyne  7:05  

What is your experience on you know, when I came here a couple years ago, and met you and part of some other things that were part of, I was shocked how many Christians were in lawmakers. Right. And on the hill and Senate in Congress, that were I was quite surprised that there were a lot more here battling, if you just watch the news, you say, oh, man, it's a lost cause. Right? Is can you encourage the Christian business owner that there are people like you fighting for our faith? 

Noelle Huizenga  7:36  

Absolutely. You know, I think that anyone in business who spends time in Washington, you're gonna get to know a lot of committed Christians, you're gonna find lawmakers who are committed Christians, folks in advocacy, who are committed Christians, congressional staff who are committed Christians, there's no reason to be discouraged there. And you know, the media is always manipulating and redefining what it means to be a Christian and, and characterizing Christians in negative ways and may not give visibility to those who are strong in their faith, or they may give them negative visibility. But the truth is that there are there are many committed Christians in Washington who are working on these issues. 

Leray Heyne  8:09  

Yeah, that's what I discovered. I was quite surprised. 

Noelle Huizenga  8:11  

Yes. 

Leray Heyne  8:12  

So for the Christian business owner, that is, we're trying to encourage to be bold, we're trying to encourage to be unapologetic. We're trying to get them to use their voice and proclaim Christ. Just encourage them and let them know that, you know, NRB is here trying to protect that voice, right, connect the dots for them so they can see how it fits for them.

Noelle Huizenga  8:34  

Absolutely. Well, I think that there are a lot of people out there who would love to do advocacy, who may have never come to Capitol Hill to do that they may have never met with lawmakers. And that is one reason why NRB exists, we understand that business owners or business owners are busy operating their businesses, and they don't always have time to do that, just as many Christian broadcasters don't always have time to do that. So we welcome can be communication with our advocacy shop, not only to you know, let us know about the things that matter to you. But you know, it to help you form an advocacy strategy or, for example, to help you find information about whether your represent who your representatives are, who their staff members are, whether they have supported legislation that's important to you, we you know, as the public policy team at NRB, we exist to help create those opportunities and provide those services. And we found that we've had a lot of success when we've distributed among our members, you know, advocacy scripts that they might use to call someone's office and advocate about a particular issue. And I would encourage, you know, anyone if you have a heart to come to Washington, DC, and talk about your lawmaker talk, talk to your lawmakers about things that are affecting you. It is always worth the outreach to at least ask for that meeting. You might take a few tries, it might happen at the home office, rather than at the Washington DC office or you know, you might have to work those contacts a little bit. But again, that's something that NRB always you know, is really happy to assist our members with and it is always worth making that contact.

Leray Heyne  9:59  

Right now. Well, thank you for educating and informing us and encouraging us. NRB is a 501 c3, right? So Can people give to NRB?

Noelle Huizenga  10:08  

Yes. We encourage you to check out membership in the NRB on our advocacy work that we're doing.

Leray Heyne  10:13  

Where do they find that out at?

Noelle Huizenga  10:14  

Checkout nrb.org 

Leray Heyne  10:15  

Okay, great. Thank you, Noel for educating and informing and encouraging us. I'm encouraged. Thank you. 

Noelle Huizenga  10:20  

Thank you. 

Leray Heyne  10:21  

All right. God bless you.