In my work of evangelism in the past I always had the feeling that I wasn't reaching the masses of people with our message. We would hold a series of meetings in a town with about 15,000 people, and during that time perhaps get 150 nonSeventh-day Adventists to attend. At the close of the series I felt we had not begun to warn the city. How could we when only 150 out of 15,000 came to hear our preaching? So as soon as we moved to the beautiful Rio Grande Valley in the Texas Conference we decided to try another approach—TV evangelism.
In the Rio Grande Valley there are about 400,000 people and two TV stations. So our potential audience is terrific. The program is on from 10:00-10:30 A.M. Sunday, and is called "Your TV Pastor." We felt this gave it a personal touch. We recently conducted a survey in our area. We visited 500 homes and in these 500 homes found 627 TV sets. Only five of the 500 homes had no sets. The two most popular religious programs rams were "This Is the Life" and "Your TV Pastor." So with about one third of a million people in this area you can readily see our potential audience.
The stage setting is a study scene. Our aim is to develop the idea of having a friendly chat with our listeners rather than using a preaching approach. At first we used many slides, with texts and pictures illustrating what was being said. They would be projected on the screen according to prearranged cues. However, at the present time very few slides are used. Instead I use the blackboard nearly every week, and any other type of visual aid that illustrates my point. It is amazing how a simple thing like a newspaper or some glasses of water can be used as effective visual aids. We are also finding that bringing in some of the other pastors for a discussion adds a great deal of variety and increases interest. To cut down on cost we do most of our programs "live."
The "Your TV Pastor" quartet starts the program by singing "All Hail the Power of Jesus' Name!" and then the cameras zero in on one of the quartet members as he introduces the next musical number. Following that number, one of the other pastors makes the announcements and then introduces me. My talk closes with prayer and there is a close-up of my hands folded on my Bible while I am praying. At the close of the prayer there is another musical number. Then the camera comes back to me and I make a few announcements, tell about next week's program, and then close by saying, "And now may the Lord bless thee . . ," et cetera. As we go off the air there is a duet, "If you want joy, real joy, let Jesus come into your heart." This format leaves about twenty minutes for my talk and still provides the variety we feel we need.
Once a month we have a panel of pastors and ask listeners to telephone their questions during the program, and we answer them. The public always seems to enjoy this a great deal and it gives us a chance to discuss many topics.
We have tried different types of follow-up, such as the Bible course, free books and pamphlets; but the one that seems to be working the best is the Bible Marking Plan. We offer one free Bible to every family that writes in requesting one for the purpose of marking it with us on TV. Then on Sunday morning when I give a text I also give the page number for their TV Bibles so they can look it up with me and mark it. The Bibles are delivered to their homes. Every two weeks we go back with sermon outlines from the previous two weeks. The outlines include a list of texts and page numbers in case they missed a few texts or perhaps missed the whole program. This keeps us in contact with our interests. So far we have Bibles in more than 300 homes, which we endeavor to visit every two weeks. Our laymen are also helping in this phase of it.
We have discovered that we have a tremendous psychological advantage when visiting in the home of a person who has been watching "Your TV Pastor." They seem to forget that we are SDA preachers and really give us a royal welcome. Because of this, we work all of our local pastors into the program as much as possible, since they all help with the visiting. This is really proving to be a great help in our follow-up work.
Our members have been more than willing to finance the program as they see their pastors on TV every Sunday morning discussing our beliefs, and as they see their neighbors watching it and hear their comments. Even though we have been on for more than a year we take very few special offerings because our members are happy to give of their means to see the gospel preached to the masses. A number of times we have discussed our cardinal doctrines, such as the Sabbath and the state of the dead, and have received no criticism from the station. We feel we are on the air to preach the message, and that's what we are doing. The public enjoys studying right from the Bible.
It is thrilling to have people come up to you in the stores or on the street and say, "We are watching 'Your TV Pastor' program every Sunday morning and really enjoy it." Many of these people call us their pastors, forgetting they are Baptist or some other faith and we are SDA brethren. I believe that using TV in connection with the Bible Marking Plan and following up with evangelistic meetings are tremendous ways to reach the masses.
