It cannot be repeated too often that all men who are equipped by natural gifts and by other circumstances to give the message on the air should certainly do so on every station available. However, I do not believe that radio preaching is to take the place of our tent, tabernacle, hall, or church evangelism. Personally, I am anxious to hold another public campaign in the near future, and I definitely plan to do so. It seems to me that some are likely to forget public evangelism in their eagerness to get on the air. In all our radio work for ten or twelve years here on the Coast, even up until this last January, we conducted our regular evangelistic campaigns constantly. In fact, we held more evangelistic campaigns each year than are usually held by one company.
It seems to me that if a good preacher is not able to carry on both his radio work and his public evangelistic meetings, he ought to question seriously whether he should start the radio work at all. But if he can organize his work so that he can carry on both, then it seems to be perfectly clear that he should do both.
Exercise Care in Book Offers.—We Should redouble our care as to anything we say over the radio that might cast a reflection on any ecclesiastical organization. And not only is what we say important just now, but the books we offer to our radio audience are of great consequence. If we offer one of our small books which includes material unfavorable to any ecclesiastical organization or teaching, we are running a grave risk. Protests will be sent in to the Communications Commission; those attempting to have all religious programs censored by them or their representatives will be encouraged; and the day of free religious broadcasting will be hurried to its close.
Length and Nature of Prayer.—Most radio prayers are too long. In my opinion they should never exceed forty-five or fifty words at the most. There is a tendency to pray to the audience rather than to God. Prayers on the radio, like Bible texts painted on roadside rocks, are almost out of place unless very carefully and prayerfully offered. I _think the radio prayer usually should be written out. There should be no useless repetitions. It should be earnest and quiet and never filled with "noise and fury signifying nothing." Nor am I in favor of asking just any visitor who happens to be in the studio to offer prayer. Doubtless it is sometimes proper for a leading minister who may be present to pray. But usually I believe the same person should pray week after week.
Proper Speed of Talking.—And now a word on the speed of radio speech. It has been shown by exhaustive tests conducted during the last few months by certain radio authorities that the most effective speed for a news broadcast is 176 words a minute. Most people get more from the broadcast at that speed than at lower or higher speeds, and I believe that speed is approximately the best for a preacher of this message. Of course, every man's personality is involved here, and some men who naturally speak more slowly would not be wise to push themselves into an unnatural speed, which to them would be a frantic effort to catch up. But in general, 176 words a minute is a good speed.
Timing the Talk.—In ourVoice Of Prophecy manuscript there are 176 words on every page. This, therefore, requires a minute to the page, and the speaker can always tell exactly where he is in his program by the number of pages remaining or already used. On subjects which we send out through the mail, we often wish to include more material than we are able to put in seventeen or eighteen pages at 176 words to the page. So with these longer subjects, we just give part of the material over the air, and tell the people that those who send in for a copy of the sermon will receive several pages of material not given over the air. This often seems to excite their curiosity and leads them to be more eager to get a copy of the talk.
Of course, one has to master the ability of rapid cutting before the "mike." Before a person starts doing this, he ought to mark the parts which could be left out in the radio manuscript. After a while it becomes easy to cut very rapidly and to jump from one place to another without any waver in the voice, as the eye searches for various places in the copy.
An aid in timing the talk is to mark in heavy blue pencil, about half way up the right-hand side of each page, the number of pages still remaining till the end of the manuscript. The eye catches this instantly, and the reader can vary his speed or work up to his climax more easily, with this constant reminder of how much of the broadcast still remains to be delivered.
