|
In a staff meeting recently
we discussed the fact that pastors say there are two primary
problems they face.
The first is they never seem to have enough time for their own
family and the second is they are noticing a dramatic drop in Bible
literacy among their congregations.
To be honest I never saw the
paperwork so I can’t validate any statistics, but it sounds true.
Our ministry is celebrating
20 years this year so we want to do something special for our
listeners. Sure we have plans for giving away CDs, t-shirts, etc.,
but we wanted to do something more.
We believe in the value of
the local church and we want to support them in any way we can. That
means promotion of events through public service announcements and
personal appearances, but knowing pastors need time with family
prompted a different idea.
We are working with a
regional retreat center to make it possible for a few nominated
pastors to spend some time away with their spouse and or family free
of charge. We know Clergy Appreciation Month is in October, but we
may not wait.
We also want to make
ministry opportunities available, but frankly we’re so early in the
process we’re not sure what we might actually do. We’d love to help
address the problem of biblical illiteracy, but that’s also a pretty
fresh topic for us.
I guess I bring all this up
to suggest that we all take the time to wrestle with the what, how,
and why of ministry. It is incredibly easy to simply rely on the
proven tools of radio promotion. The truth is our audience probably
won’t get too upset if we just stroll along easy promotion street,
but do we follow this GPS route just because it has the fewest
roadblocks? Do we stay on this path because we tire of hearing that
pleasant, but grating voice say, “Recalculating”?
We want to make this 20th
year an event that explores outside the box. We want it to be
memorable for some pretty good reasons. We want to serve our
listeners better and we want to facilitate incredible ministry
within the local church.
Maybe you’re wrestling with
the same issues. Maybe you’ve come to some conclusions. There’s a
little feedback area below. Share what you’ve learned. We all want
what we do to be like pulling an orange from a tree – handpicked for
freshness and good taste. Maybe you could point us to a few orange
trees.
I wish I could tell you we
have learned all there is to know about perfect radio, but like a
mirage every time we get close the end result eludes us. That being
said, we keep trying. We hope you do too.
Oh, one question that came
up that you may wonder about as well, “Why do the labels send us CDs
when digital download cards would be less expensive and may be
better received?” Don’t get me wrong we’re grateful and will gladly
accept more CDs, but as long as we’re thinking outside the box…
Glenn
Hascall is station manager for KHYM and moderator of the Fellowship
of Christian Broadcasters email and Facebook forum. Winner of
multiple broadcasting awards including a Gold Addy, Telly Finalist
for documentary work as well as multiple state awards.
|
