Television Airwaves—Evangelism’s Frontier

Television can be a beaming Buddha or a one-eyed ogre. It has become the most dominating and controversial servant of society in modern life, the most gluttonous consumer of attention ever to sit at civilization’s table. It is the popular educator of millions in and out of classrooms, the handy family counselor giving gratuitous guidance on moral values and social standards. It is the energetic and boisterous salesman to the nation’s households, now earning a three-billion-dollar salary from the public. In politics no image-maker shapes public opinion more forcefully than the TV screen.

TV is also the most expensive of the mass media. If time costs were not so absurdly high, perhaps television would be playing a much greater role as evangelist and missionary to the nation and the world. Yet, strangely enough, in overseas church endeavor, where ordinarily there is the least money, TV is doing a splendid job as proclaimer of the Gospel. Some Christian leaders commend television not only as one of the most outstanding achievements of modern science but also as God’s communications gift to his Church of the twentieth century, a gift making it possible to fulfill the goal of world-wide evangelization in this generation.

A notable demonstration of how the Church can use television came during the 1967 All-Britain Crusade of Billy Graham. In a bold and unprecedented move to reach multiplied masses of people outside London and Earl’s Court, the hub of the crusade, twenty-five other cities were linked together in a gigantic TV and landline network. Special projectors and giant screens brought Graham’s face and voice to thousands gathered in such places as theaters, converted tram-sheds, and city-hall auditoriums, all rented and prepared by volunteer local committeemen. Across the nation, viewers felt themselves a part of the crusade.

The entire technical services and facilities of the British Post Office system, which controls TV and radio outlets in that country, plus all the Eidophore cameras available in Europe, were utilized in the nine-day experiment in “evangelism-in-width,” and results far surpassed the most optimistic hopes. Two and one-half times as many people “attended” the crusade through these TV relay services outside London (543,000) as came to Earl’s Court itself (199,000). Of the total crusade attendance of one million for all meetings conducted, over one-half came to the TV relay points. Under the blessing of God, inquirers coming forward at TV meetings numbered 24,163, compared to 9,830 at Earl’s Court.

After a year-long evaluation of the All-Britain Crusade, staff members concluded that the evangelist’s message was as forceful in the relay centers as it was in the auditorium in which he spoke. Reporting on one of the relay centers, a writer said: “One of Plymouth’s most memorable services was the youth night on which Billy Graham spoke about the problems of sex. The standing-room-only audience of toughs, college students, and beatniks spent the first half hour in hissing, laughing, and clapping. Uninhibited and rowdy, they heckled the great screen as fiercely as if the figure before them were alive. But, as the evangelist continued, a new mood seemed to grip them. The turn came when a gang leader shouted, ‘Shut up, mates! I want to hear some of this.’ And silence fell. At the invitation, 248 inquirers went forward. It was the biggest response—about 12 per cent—of any audience at a Graham meeting.”

This use of television for a gospel witness to an entire nation is thrilling. The influence upon individuals and communities was immediate and immense. Young people in particular seemed responsive to this electronic evangelism.

Nothing comparable has yet been attempted in the United States, although single programs or series over TV networks have reached millions of viewers. Of the denominations, the Missouri Synod Lutherans and the Southern Baptists have the most ambitious programs and the largest array of outlets, numbering in the hundreds. Stephen Olford and Jack Wyrtzen are among the preachers who are greatly extending their local ministries using TV programming, the former to a great metropolis (New York) and the latter to youth across the nation. These efforts, which are drawing increasing audiences, are exploring TV frontiers for the Church as a whole. And yet the task has scarcely begun.

In Japan there is an effective, if spasmodic, gospel exposure by television. It is estimated that from 95 to 98 per cent of Japan’s 100 million people can now be reached by TV, a situation unrivaled in all the world. In addition to a vast radio coverage, the Pacific Broadcasting Association airs TV programs as often as it has enough money to do so. If one hundred years of missions saw only one-half of 1 per cent of the Japanese people become Christians, surely an all-out use of the nation’s television facilities is demanded, in addition to continuing missionary work. How else can this staggering number of people be reached? Here is one of today’s stellar opportunities. The equivalent of the annual salaries of ten missionaries would pay for a whole series of gospel TV programs.

In another sector of the world, a pioneer missionary radio station at Quito, Ecuador, began transmitting in 1931. Eight years ago HCJB added to its “Voice of the Andes” the “Window of the Andes” through HCJB-TV. In 1959, television sets were unknown in Ecuador. However, an attractive TV schedule of cultural, public-service, and religious programs has resulted in the development of an audience in Quito. There are now thousands of TV sets, chiefly in the homes of diplomats and the upperclass professional and business people—a provocative and challenging audience. Approximately 50,000 viewers tune in to HCJB-TV nightly, and to these are gradually being added others who cannot afford to buy a set but who can look in on publicly installed receivers and on sets owned by friends. One priest reportedly charges his friends twenty-five cents to look at HCJB programs.

At first Quito’s TV viewers were cautious, even suspicious, about responding. Now they write or phone freely to discuss programs they have seen. During series of televised evangelistic meetings, the evangelist now holds open forum by telephone with the audience after his message. Immediate contact is established with the TV listeners as their questions of concern (sometimes abuse) are answered quickly, openly, and earnestly from God’s Word. Each inquirer is encouraged to come to the station to have a consultation and obtain literature, and possibly to purchase a Bible. Many have accepted Christ. A special church meeting for TV converts is held Sunday afternoons, for worship and instruction.

HCJB urgently needs experts in educational TV to join the Quito staff in producing “University of the Air” programs directed to students. This is a project that HCJB has long envisioned. It could easily have official sanction and status, in cooperation with the Ministry of Education. Educational extension radio programming was begun early in HCJB’s history, and teachers eagerly accepted small fix-tuned radio receivers for their classrooms. Now the door is open for a similar use of TV, which would give the educational system prestige among other countries of Latin America.

Although the mountainous terrain around Quito interferes with good TV reception, antennas installed high above the city, nearly 12,000 feet above sea level, make excellent reception possible for fifty miles up and down the valley. Other cities are wanting to “go modern” like Quito, the capital. They have petitioned HCJB-TV to set up repeater stations that will bring programs to their areas. One city of 30,000, Ambato, is already being served in this way. The Ecuadorean government is anxious to collaborate with HCJB-TV in trying to reach the northernmost part of the country, where people now have access only to programs from Colombia.

How did HCJB-TV get started? One man ventured with God to build a TV station for the mission field. Giff Hartwell, engineer with General Electric in New York State, started with bits and pieces he bought himself, winding up months later (with help from friends) with a full-fledged TV transmitter complete with a three-camera chain, monitors, and all accessories. Although he did not know where the equipment was to go, in time he felt led to give it to the World Radio Missionary Fellowship, the society that operates HCJB. And he and his wife gave themselves with the station to operate it in Quito. As a result, today HCJB not only operates on three 100,000-watt transmitters as one of the world’s largest shortwave stations but is also abreast of many television opportunities.

Both at home and overseas there is a crying need for more men and women like the Hartwells who have professional experience, a knowledge of God’s Word, and a strong desire to win souls. Pioneers in Christian TV will soon find themselves in the center of the action in Christianity today. Needed are artists, musicians, engineers, announcers, technicians, actors, cameramen, photographers, producers, writers, reporters, film librarians and editors, specialists in lighting, costuming, and make-up. In addition there is a great need for capable, far-sighted administrators, as well as for secretaries, accountants, and workers in the personnel, training, public-relations, and promotion fields.

The really great frontiers for Christianity today lie in the air. Leadership and “followship” in the Church must combine to use these golden communication channels to the full. Fortunes now rusting in bank vaults should be taken out and put to work for God in this generation. Pools of manpower now stagnating must be tapped to provide flowing streams of fresh energy at strategic points. And above all, there is need for concentrated prayer on the part of Christians.

In gospel TV, the greatest happenings are yet to come. Continuing scientific discoveries and inventions will quickly carry the communications world far ahead of where it is now. Television stations will be able to send programs via satellite to homes anywhere in the world. Laser light beams, carrying sight as well as sound, promise to revolutionize the whole concept of TV signal transmission. “Liquid crystals,” now in the experimental stage, are expected to give us TV sets as thin as a book. With sophisticated missile circuitry using the ubiquitous transistor, TV sets will be as common and cheap as radio sets. Someday we may wear a TV set like a wrist-watch, and have it energized by body heat.

Expo ’67 technical experts were able to bind the world in a living communications belt for two history-making hours. In June, 1967, they brought together television signals, via satellites, from nineteen countries, transmitting and receiving instantly and in perfectly timed sequence various segments of programs from overseas. These segments were fused into a thrilling mosaic of “Man and His World.” Where are those whom God will use in our day to outperform even this daring feat—to produce a program transmitted from missionary and other TV stations around the world, each sending its segment of testimony and gospel witness to the glory of “God in His World”?

The Church must realize that the world community is on its doorstep. Has it something meaningful to say? If so, how soon? Over every nation await the airlanes, now vacant of gospel witness. Let us airlift the Gospel over and around every obstacle to reach its destination, human hearts.

Milton D. Hunnex is professor and head of the department of philosophy at Willamette University, Salem, Oregon. He received the B.A. and M.A. degrees from the University of Redlands and the Ph.D. in the Inter-collegiate Program in Graduate Studies, Claremont, California. He is author of “Philosophies and Philosophers.”

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