NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2006 NRB 15NRB NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 200614

COVER FEATURE

BY JON HIRST AND HAROLD GOERZEN

Every big idea creates waves. As theimplications of ideas become obvi-ous, people act and the world ischanged. The formation of the NRB was abig idea that made a significant impact onthe 20th century and that continues totransform the world today.

One of the waves that rippled outfrom the church's engagement with radioand television was the founding of HCJBWorld Radio 75 years ago as the world’sfirst missionary radio station and later thefirst missionary television station. HCJBWorld Radio and NRB have been closelytied together in global ministry ever since.

Clarence W. Jones, co-founder ofHCJB World Radio and an inductee intothe NRB Hall of Fame, got his start in1922 working with Paul Rader, an evan-gelist and the pastor at Chicago GospelTabernacle. Rader, also an NRB Hall ofFame inductee and Christian radio pio-neer, was the first evangelist to use radioregularly in his ministry. Jones directedRader’s radio ministry known as WJBT(Where Jesus Blesses Thousands), airing15 hours of programming every Sunday.

It was out of this innovative ministryenvironment that God called ClarenceJones in 1927 to “arise and go south withradio.” Out of that call, missionary radio

They reached out and asked, “Whocan help us reach our communities withradio?” HCJB World Radio responded and,together with the NRB community, joinedforces in this amazing ministry opportuni-ty equipping the voice of the churcharound the world.

Under the leadership of HCJB WorldRadio President Dave Johnson and RonCline, the mission’s former president andthen current board chairman, the missionbegan to explore how to develop Christianradio ministries worldwide.

Through Cline’s dynamic speakingministry, the one-minute daily program,Beyond the Call, was born in 1996. Thisprogram is now carried on more than1,000 radio outlets nationwide andaround the world via the Internet, impact-ing millions of listeners with challengingstories of people who have been obedientto God’s calling in their lives.

Many members of the NRB—anorganization for which Johnson and Clineboth serve as board members—now part-ner with HCJB World Radio in creativeand exciting ways. Here are just a fewexamples in recent years.

Northwestern College and Radio hasworked closely with the radio ministry ona variety of projects. Northwestern playeda significant role in the launch of NewLife Radio (NLR), the Russian satellitenetwork operated by Christian Radio forRussia with HCJB World Radio as theprincipal partner. Northwestern raisedfunds to help put the network on the airin 2000. Today NLR has nearly 100 outletsacross the former Soviet Union andEastern Europe, making Christian broad-casts available in local communities, uni-versities, prisons, rehabilitation centers,and military bases.

In September 2001, HCJB World Radio’sChristian Center of Communications inQuito became an accredited branch campusof Northwestern—the school’s first over-seas campus. Since then, Northwestern hasbecome involved with the Radio School ofMission, a training course with the goal oftraining program producers in the AsiaPacific region.

The late Bob Neff, who stood at thehelm of Moody Broadcasting in Chicago

for 31 years, had a passion to train broad-casters around the world. In 2005, HCJBWorld Radio established the Bob NeffScholarship Fund as a way to honorNeff’s partnership and to provideresources to train national broadcasters.

He traveled extensively in HCJB WorldRadio’s regions, including trips to

Romania. As a result, Moody began work-ing more closely with Radio Voice of theGospel, HCJB World Radio’s partner net-work in Romania. Started in 1993, thenetwork now has eight outlets on the air.Staff members from Moody regularly help

with broadcaster training in that country.In December 2004, HCJB World Radio

joined with Tim McDermott, presidentand general manager of KSBJ in Houston,to help launch Nigeria’s first educationalradio station called “The Real LoveStation, Sharing God’s Love.” Engineersfrom the HCJB World Radio Engineering

Center in Elkhart, IN, installed technicalequipment to put the station on the air. Inaddition, staff members from KSBJ havehelped train broadcasters in Latin America.

Blue Ridge Broadcasting has providedmajor funding of HCJB World Radio’swould be birthed.

Clarence Jones later acknowledged theimpact that Rader had on his life. “As faras any part the Lord may have given mein this ministry, it stems back to theblessed ministry and life of my spiritualfather, Paul Rader, for whom I praise Godwith a grateful heart,” said Jones as quot-ed by Ben Armstrong in his book, TheElectric Church.

Out of this dynamic partnership havecome many more interactions betweenHCJB World Radio’s global ministry andNRB’s passion for proclaiming the Gospelvia the media.

One early example was George Palmerand his show called Morning Cheer. Withthe help of Harry Rimmer, the programwas instrumental in funding HCJB WorldRadio’s first hospital in Ecuador thatopened in 1955.

The late Dr. Abe Van Der Puy, a formerHCJB World Radio and NRB president andNRB Hall of Fame inductee, served as Backto the Bible’s “voice of missions” for morethan a decade. He also authored multiplebooks that were used in Back to the Bible’sministry. In addition, Theodore Epp of Backto the Bible raised funds for HCJB WorldRadio’s Vozandes Hospital in Shell, Ecuador,on the edge of the Amazon jungle.

HCJB World Radio served as a keylink between many of these early broad-casters and the world of missions. Muchof the interaction early on was in theform of broadcasting in English (or trans-lated) programming from Radio StationHCJB’s powerful international shortwavetransmitter site in Quito, Ecuador, reach-ing people around the world.

The mission has worked with cooper-ating broadcasters such as CharlesStanley, James Dobson, Billy Graham,Kay Arthur, and Harold Sala to share theirministry around the world. At the heightof the Cold War the mission’s reachimpacted places such as the former SovietUnion, Europe, and Latin America inpowerful ways.

Peter Deyneka, founder of SlavicGospel Mission, produced Radio StationHCJB’s first Russian programming.Another early Russian broadcaster, AlexLeonovich, went on to do exciting workin Russia and has served on the NRBBoard of Directors for decades.

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, theworld changed and so did Christian radio.As countries opened up their airwaves,Christians from around the world weretouched with the same desire that had beenborn in NRB’s founders many years ago.

The formation of the NRB was a big idea

that made a significant impact on the

20th century and that continues to

transform the world today.

NRB NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 200616

North Africa/Middle East region for morethan five years, boosting broadcast min-istries that reach the region via satellite,shortwave, and the Internet.

The listeners of WBFJ in Winston-Salem, NC, helped launch their sister sta-tion, Radio Emmanuel in Kiev, Ukraine,which became the city’s first full-timeChristian radio station in June 2006.WBFJ has also provided equipment for arecording studio in the volatile NorthCaucasus region of southern Russia andhelped fund airtime at a new Christianradio outlet in Volgodonsk, Russia.

“There has been a lot of listener inter-est shown in these projects during andafter our sharathons,” said WBFJ GeneralManager Wally Decker, who first heardabout HCJB World Radio’s radio plantingefforts during the NRB convention inFebruary 2004. “Our listeners were look-ing for an opportunity to help [with aministry abroad],” he said. “This projectseemed like a natural fit for what wewanted to do.”

Ed Matter, general manager of KXEI inHavre, MT, and sister station KALS inKalispell, helped fund a repeater stationin Goroka, Papua New Guinea, raisingmoney during the stations’ friend-raiser inApril 2004.

“The listeners were really excitedabout it,” he said. “Sometimes you sort ofget into a cocoon and look inward, butthis project helped listeners look outwardand help this mountainous area of PapuaNew Guinea get Christian radio.”

When HCJB World Radio launched a

campaign about six years ago called “CDsfor the Nations” to send used music CDsto Christian radio stations around theworld, WDAC in Lancaster, PA, was justone of many stations to get involved.Throughout the years, listeners and sta-

tions have donated more than 40,000 CDsto HCJB World Radio, and CDs continueto arrive.

WDAC also joined the efforts of manystations to send fixed-tuned, solar-poweredradios to Africa through an ongoing out-reach called “Turn the Radios On.” InAugust 2003, WDAC raised enough funds tobuy 430 of the durable radios that pick-up alocal African Christian station. All told, U.S.Christian stations have provided funds tosend more than 25,000 radios worldwide.

Often the response from listeners hassurpassed expectations. KCBI in Dallas,TX, for example, raised enough funds in

just three hours to plant a partner stationin East Timor. KCBI hoped to fund onetransmitter, but it “soon raised enoughmoney for two additional transmitters!”said HCJB World Radio’s Heide Jones,director of station relations.

Ron Harris, KCBI’s former generalmanager, said listeners to the station “hada vision that Christian radio can have animpact on the lives of people they willnever see. They saw radio as the ‘airforce,’ preparing the way for the ‘groundtroops’ to go in and plant churches.”

In some cases, U.S. stations haveorganized short-term teams to help atHCJB World Radio’s partner ministries.WCQR in Gray, TN, has sent two workteams to its sister station, CCFm in CapeTown, South Africa. Now it’s forming ateam that will go to Ecuador next June tohelp build a new studio for HCJB WorldRadio’s plant in Ibarra near theColombian border.

“It’s incredible to see how HCJB WorldRadio, together with members of the NRB,is changing the world,” Jones concluded.“Through networking we’re using everymethod at our disposal to give every peo-ple group an opportunity to hear theGospel of Christ via mass media.”

Harold Goerzen is the senior editor for HCJBWorld Radio (www.hcjb.org) in Colorado. Agraduate of Trinity College and Prairie BibleInstitute, Goerzen has served with the missionfor 22 years, including 10 years in Quito,Ecuador. Harold brings extensive news andjournalistic experience to HCJB World Radioand is the editor of Daily News Update, whichprovides world missions news to thousands ofmedia outlets, churches, and individualChristians.

Jon Hirst is currently the director of communi-cations for HCJB World Radio in Colorado. A Judson College graduate with a major inCommunications and a minor in Sociology,Hirst was a missionary kid in northwestArgentina and has been involved in greatcommission communication efforts since grad-uating from Judson. Hirst speaks about min-istry applications of new media, intellectualproperty, and content at conferences, universi-ties, and churches worldwide.

“Through networking

we’re using every

method at our disposal

to give every people

group an opportunity to

hear the Gospel of

Christ via mass media.”