FACED with the complex, sophisticated problems of reaching the American teenager in today's chaotic society through a mass medium that changes almost weekly with radically new, different, and exciting advances both in machinery and programming concepts, the Voice of Prophecy began several years ago the painstaking process of designing a totally new radio evangelism thrust.
After considerable prototype testing, the result was officially unveiled at the recent General Conference session in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Using the title or product name of The Way Out, the new youth thrust consists of a total mass media communications system. It is more than a broadcast.
In much the same way that the Voice of Prophecy's weekly, daily, and Nite Owl programs have long been merely the tip of the iceberg above the water (the rest of the iceberg being the huge Bible correspondence school, the follow-up coordinated by the field service department, and reaping crusades) The Way Out package includes radio spot announcements (similar to commercials), a one-time magazine, two followup fold-outs, a series of leaflets on various youth-centered personal and social problems, and a new series of Bible correspondence study guides written especially for teenagers.
Before developing any basic strategy, and long before the first word of the above materials was written, the Voice of Prophecy had to take into consideration the fact that the single most powerful medium by which to gain the attention of 27 million Americans between the ages of thirteen and seventeen is something called rock music or top forty radio.
In reality the rock-music phenomenon consists of a whole substratum of society, which includes a recording industry, big-time entertainers, magazines and newspapers, eating places, movies, clothing shops, et cetera. But radio is the kingpin of the whole youth culture, because it is the communications net that passes the latest fads and makes famous the newest hit songs.
Of course, we must say that all of this is completely secular. Although authentic, Bible-based Christianity is not foreign to this milieu, certainly all of the traditional, American middle-class values are; and certainly Seventh-day Adventists had never be fore officially and significantly ventured into this world.
How does The Way Out program seek to inoculate the Advent message into this specialized world? Phase 1 is the radio spot announcement. Time is bought on stations with a teen-age audience profile. Thirty-second and sixty-second commercial messages have been prepared, using youthful talent, to suggest that there is a better way than the typical teen-age way of life, and that a magazine called Way out has some thing to say about it. So the first contact that the secular teenager has with the pro gram is a simple broadcast advertisement for a free magazine.
The teenager writes to a Hollywood, California, box number and receives in the mail the large, colorful magazine. Wayout magazine is not a periodical. It is simply an introduction to the fact that Jesus Christ His love, life style, and teachings is the way out of the problems that engulf, con fuse, and sometimes destroy the contemporary teenager.
Within ten days of receiving Wayout magazine, the teenager gets a second mail piece. This comes unsolicited. It is a foldout, the term coined by the Voice of Prophecy's youth ministry staff to describe a new kind of print media format that opens from a 5- by 8-inch booklet into a 22- by 16-inch, poster-size spread. This first follow-up foldout is entitled, The Man From Wayout, and introduces the God-man, Jesus.
Ten days later, the second follow-up fold-out arrives, also unsolicited. It is entitled The Wayout Trip, and introduces, in a basic, four-step Bible study, the way to become a Christian. One quarter of its full-sized spread is a response sheet on which the teenager can tell the Wayout counseling staff about his personal problems and reactions to the gospel. There is also space to request one or more of the 13 Hang-ups, and/or the new teen Bible correspondence course, The High Way.
The Hang-ups are a series of fold-outs each discussing some serious personal or social problem that keeps young people from coming to Christ today. Topics already in production cover astrology, eastern religions, the rebellion against the establishment, the occult, drugs, marriage, getting along with parents, dating, various areas of sex education, and situation ethics. These are designed to personalize the gospel proclamation content of The Way Out system, showing that Jesus Christ can solve real, everyday problems.
The new Bible correspondence course, The High Way, teaches the full gospel in all its aspects, explaining that commitment to Jesus also means commitment to His teachings and His revolutionary movement the Christian church. It seeks a real decision on the part of the teenager to dedicate his life to Christ's service.
The package is not designed for adults, or even for teenagers with a Christian background. Certainly most Adventist youth, with a framework of protective pa rental and school programs, would find much of it foreign. It is designed to make the gospel speak to and change the lives of a generation that must hear the message.
The Way Out program, although no longer truly experimental, is certainly an effort that is constantly looking for new ideas and areas for improvement. It admittedly has its limitations. For example, early results indicate that for the program to be highly successful (as compared with only moderate success), it must be carried on in the same city where a strong con temporary youth evangelism project is under way. Where churches have active youth programs operative, The Way Out accomplishes most.
Above all, The Way Out program spells a new day in electronic evangelism. It is the vanguard of Seventh-day Adventist at tempts to deal with the vast changes that have taken place in the mass media since our standard programming was first conceived and released. It is one of the first attempts on the part of any Biblical church to evangelize the secular society that makes up a majority of the population in North America today. It cannot but be a fore cast of methods that can very probably finish the gospel task.
