Our radio program, The Voice of the Open Bible, has been very successful as a soul-winning agent in the Chesapeake Conference, for in a little over one year we have enrolled approximately 3,700 members in our Twentieth Century Bible Course. We are now making regular visits into nearly five hundred of these homes. This latter group includes students from every walk of life who have completed at least Lesson 9 or To, and are definite prospects for finishing the course. We do not start visiting in the homes until they get this far along, unless they make a specific request; but when they reach Lesson io we call on them, and try to build up confidence before they reach the testing lessons on the Sabbath and other vital truths that are so contrary to the average way of teaching.
The fact that one is connected with a radio program gives a ready invitation into the homes on the first visit. It is a wonderful entering wedge. Follow-up work is surely a vital part of radio success. Careful, personal work brings - right decisions and opportunity to answer perplexing questions.
To date seventy-five have completed the course, and we have baptized forty-one converts as a direct result of our radio program. We have a large number of good prospects among those on our active visiting list.
Under the leadership of E. L. Hanson, the program has been a growing enterprise from the very start. Associated with us in our visiting follow-up work are several workers, including two Bible instructors, who devote part time to visiting, each having other regular duties.
We also have received some good assistance from lay members studying with interested ones living near them. We believe that to be a success the radio work must become a part of every other branch of evangelism, all dovetailing together into one great forward movement. The secret of success is unity, and experience has shown us that radio evangelism is a vital part of our evangelistic effort, not a separate department.
Our program has been of a local nature, covering only metropolitan Baltimore and its environs. We broadcast over a 250-watt station, six fifteen-minute periods a week. A stronger station would present many marked advantages in greatly increased coverage, of course. Our weekly program, with some variations, has been as follows:
Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday—Sermonet or Inspirational Talk.
Wednesday—Know Your Bible Quiz (i5 questions).
Thursday—Discussion Type Program. Friday—Questions Answered.
This gives the public a well-rounded weekly program, and at the same time allows us opportunity for working in vital truths in an unobtrusive manner. Our Know Your Bible Quiz has met with favor. Through this approach we can ask thought-provoking questions that we could not state in a sermon over the air without stirring up prejudice.
One encouraging feature of our program is the type of people we are reaching. A large per cent are young people or folk in early middle life—people who are aggressive, willing to study and learn for themselves. They are not the type of individual that must be spoon-fed, but are more of the better working class and leaders in churches and community. We find these people make good substantial members as they are added to the church. Our prayer is that by God's grace we may see even greater results in the near future.
