SMALL-CHURCH RADIO MINISTRY

People are getting laid off and moving out of the area. Why should we take what little resources we have and use them for a radio show? This wasn’t the end of a speech by a disgruntled board member, but rather my own misgivings as pastor even as I planned the very deed.

I had recently been appointed pastor of the Ashley-Gilead United Methodist Charge in rural southern Illinois. The Ashley church (average Sunday attendance of 56) had suffered, like the rest of Ashley, when first the railroad died, then the bus terminal closed, and finally the large candy factory left.

The Gilead church (average attendance 12) was afflicted with “Rural-Church Syndrome”: first the people moved from the country into town taking their membership with them. Then people, oh so slowly, began to move out to the church’s location again but left their membership in town.

Our finances were, and are, strained to the limit and often beyond. Why put our Sunday morning worship services on the local radio with all these factors working against the idea?

We did, anyway.

We were moved to take our message of God’s love outside our four walls. And frankly, I was also working to reestablish the self-respect of the two churches. I hoped such a program might help get them out of the “We don’t have a future; it’s all we can do to keep the doors open” doldrums.

It has worked much better than I had hoped.

Selecting a station

Some churches have only one station in their listening area, but we had a number to choose from I chose WMIX in Mt. Vernon, the secular station with the most powerful FM broadcast in our area. The FM signal is far superior to its fuzzy AM cousin, and a secular station offered a couple of advantages:

Most folks listening to Christian radio are already going to church or at least listening to a lot of sermons. I wanted an audience that hadn’t been as exposed to the gospel.

Most secular stations have more powerful signals than their Christian counterparts. The signal of WMIX carries through all of southern Illinois.

And in the past, I received the greatest response when my program aired on a secular station. Also, I had had a bad experience with a Christian station. The problem wasn’t the station’s management or policies but the preacher whose program aired directly before mine. He was boring. People began to switch off their radios while he was on the air, so my potential audience dwindled before I even had a chance! With the secular station, my program would more likely follow solid popular music.

I called the station manager at WMIX and was told, “All our time slots for religious purposes are filled.”

“What about the FM side of your station?” I pressed. “It’s only music in the morning.”

“We’re not interested in having religious programming there.”

I quoted statistics indicating the large number of listeners to religious programming but got nowhere.

I called other stations and got various answers, all of which meant “not interested” or “no time available right now; put your name on the list.” One station held a lottery: all the preachers interested put their name in the hopper and those drawn out received half an hour of air time for one month during that year. That was no way to build a ministry.

I put the project on hold for a few weeks and then contacted WMIX, my first choice, again. This time the response was different.

“We’ve decided to open a few slots on the FM side. Since you’ve already contacted us and been persistent, we’ll give you first choice.” I chose 7:30 A.M., a slot that would immediately follow popular music.

“Will you be trying to raise money on the air?” the person asked. (This conversation took place the week after the PTL scandal broke in the news.) Fortunately, I wasn’t.

The final question asked was whether I would be recording my services live or be needing studio time, which they would provide. This was an important question. Too many churches record on inferior equipment and make the station sound bad. (Though I chose to record our services live, after the station heard my first recording, they commented on how good the sound was and raised no more questions about sound quality.)

Choosing a format

I chose to have the program on Sunday morning. Yes, it’s traditional, but therein lies great strength. People are still conditioned to listen to sermons and sacred music on Sunday morning. Those who might turn away during the week still, amazingly, will listen to a preacher while they have their coffee and get ready for a day at the beach or a ball game. Perhaps this is a tribute to a church upbringing or a slightly guilty conscience, but for whatever reason, many people listen on Sunday.

In fact, I once experimented with nontraditional times for a Christian radio program-Tuesday and Thursday nights, drive time, and so on. I never was able to generate a loyal audience. A second reason for broadcasting Sunday morning is that the other portion of your audience, people who do attend church, often have their radios on while getting ready to go.

In an earlier radio venture, I tried a short program, 15 minutes. The program was less expensive than a half-hour slot, and writing scripts for that length was less difficult. People in radio now tell me what I learned the hard way: Half-hour programs build bigger audiences. The sign-on and sign-off times are easier to remember than for a 15-minute program, and if listeners tune in late, they don’t feel they’ve missed as much.

I also chose to stick with the standard sermon. Years earlier I tried interviewing people to add variety, but found it usually wasn’t effective, at least for a small church. There are all the problems of finding “experts” and conducting the interviews. In addition, listeners had all the interviews they wanted from syndicated Christian TV and radio programs. Local people wanted to know what our church had to say even more than they wanted to hear some expert.

At different times in the past I had used music in and around my sermon. This time I decided to forgo it. Recording the choir and soloist without the benefit of a studio is difficult, at best, to get right.

Buying the equipment

I needed to purchase a tape recorder and a lapel mike. I chose Radio Shack because there would be no problem with service: they have stores everywhere, and the company is going to be around for a while. As a pastor, I have seen too many committees find the lowest-priced item, only to find when it’s service time that the bargain shop has closed its doors.

The total cost was under $110 (prices are comparable for other brands). If you can afford to, it’s wise to spend more on the radio mike; many of the inexpensive ones pick up CB and other signals.

We already had an amplifier, as many churches do, but if one is needed, a satisfactory one can be picked up for about $100. So with an amplifier, total start-up costs would be just over $200.

I buy high-quality tapes (Maxell High-CrO2 metal) and use a new one each week. I consider it a small price to insure the right sound quality.

Raising the money

The program costs $60 per week. I chose the old and faithful method of raising pledges to pay for it. People still said, “We can’t afford it,” but since it didn’t come directly from the church treasury or their pocket, they didn’t complain as much. I kept two considerations in mind when I raised the pledges:

1. I put in a “sunset.” The pledges were for six months only, and at the end of that time, those who wished to pledge again could, while those who wished to stop had a graceful exit.

2. I raised pledges for more than the estimated cost. Past experience told me only about 80 percent of the pledges would come in (and that proved true again). Also, no matter how careful the plans, there will always be unexpected expenses.

Until this year, expenses have been covered solely by pledges outside the normal church budget. For 1988, however, the program has been written into the budget; it represents less than 4 percent of our annual expenses.

Getting feedback

I’ve found a good radio program is the best advertising a church can buy. It’s a nonthreatening way of stepping into people’s homes and saying, “Hi! Here’s what we’re about. Come and see us.”

I often make kind, personal references to members on the air. Recently a listener who is not a member of either church nor even a resident of the communities they are located in told a friend of mine, “I’d like to go to that church and meet the people.”

The attendance at little Gilead in the country went from 12 to 15 the Sunday after the show began and has since grown to almost 20. It’s hard to determine how much of the growth is connected to the program, but one new family specifically told me, “We heard you on the radio today.”

People who have not attended in years, for a variety of reasons, have started to tune in to their church. One member, who had not attended for 12 years, came to worship and commented on hearing the radio show. Another recently sent a donation for “our radio program.”

But the best result has been the new self-respect some of the members are experiencing. One lady told me, “People are talking about our church everywhere. They had never heard about our little church, and now they know where we are!”

R. Michael Sanders is pastor of the Ashley-Gilead United Methodist Charge in southern Illinois.

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More Ideas

Sex Education That Includes Parents

Like many Christian educators, the pastor, day school director, and teachers at Maranatha Baptist Church in Greenville, South Carolina, recognized that today’s children are being exposed to sexual information and activity at ever-earlier ages. They felt the need to teach their children a Christian perspective on the proper use of sexuality.

The question is, How? Many churches cover such material during a senior high retreat, but the information often comes too late, and parents, who should have the leading role as teachers, are usually excluded.

Yet Jean Peters, the church’s day school director, and Donna Carter, the Sunday school teacher for teenagers, also recognized that many parents might feel uncomfortable tackling sex education alone. The parents wanted to be part of the process but also wanted support and help.

So Maranatha Baptist sponsored a Saturday seminar, “Getting to Know You from A to Z,” for first-graders through adults. The day began at 10 A.M. with a potluck brunch. Teacher Donna Carter introduced the subject of sexuality, and then the entire group viewed a video that showed the beauty of a baby’s development in the womb. Said a second-grader, “I didn’t know God planned us so special.”

The group was then divided into age groups-primary, junior, and teen-with parents accompanying their children. Each group viewed the appropriate graded filmstrip from the Concordia Sex Education Series. Following the filmstrip, questions were invited; providing the answers were Pastor Jack Peters, a doctor (a former missionary and friend of the congregation), a nurse (a member), a teacher, and the parents as well. The event concluded at two o’clock.

Parents appreciated being included and knowing what their children were hearing. They also learned as they heard what kinds of questions the children were asking and how to respond. One mom said, “This was as much a learning day for us as it was for the children.”

Maranatha’s kids likewise enjoyed the day. They were quite open about asking questions, and one 12-year-old said afterward, “Thanks for showing that you love us.”

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Long-Distance Prayer Partners

Many church members agree they should pray more for missionaries, but often the reality lags behind the desire. The problem is usually that the mission work is out of sight and thus out of mind.

Cranleigh Baptist Church in Cranleigh, Surrey, in the United Kingdom, has found an effective way to motivate people to pray for the work of missionaries they support.

For many years the church has supported two members who were translating the Bible in the small town of Tataltepec, Mexico. As the two missionaries neared completion of their translation of the New Testament, they knew they would be moving on soon, but they didn’t want their home church to lose contact with the Tataltepec people.

So the missionaries took photos of the people in Tataltepec-some Christians, some not-who had helped with the translation. These photos were sent to the Cranleigh church and matched with members there: a photo of a single man in Tataltepec to a single man in the Cranleigh congregation, a photo of a Mexican church leader to one of the English church leaders, a photo of a family with teenagers to a family with teenagers, and so on.

People were encouraged to not only pray for their long-distance partners but to write them. Letters were sent to the missionaries, who translated them; the missionaries also translated return letters from the Tataltepec people. Periodically the Cranleigh people would meet together for supper, exchange news about their partners, and pray as a group for them. One evening the group rejoiced to hear that in answer to prayer, a member’s Tataltepec partner had become a Christian.

The ongoing prayer partnerships led to an increasing desire in the Cranleigh people to meet their partners in person. A number of people from the church traveled to Mexico when celebrations for the completed New Testament were held. On another trip, Pastor John Ross met with Tataltepec church leaders to discuss a pressing pastoral problem they faced. And one Cranleigh member who visited her Mexican prayer partner is now applying to become a Bible translator herself.

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Good-by Gifts

It’s painful when long-time members of a church have to move away to another city or state. First Baptist Church of Ewa Beach, Hawaii, has found a way to lessen the pain and to make such a leaving a meaningful occasion.

During the Sunday morning worship service, one member of the departing family is given the opportunity to say good-by to the congregation. “Both the family members and the congregation often cry a few tears,” says pastor Bill Godwin. Then each member of the family is given a lei, and the family also receives a plaque with either the Twenty-third Psalm or the Lord’s Prayer inscribed.

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