shout

Newsletter Articles

"Taking Talk Radio Deeper"

Volume 2 Issue 1    January-February, 2005

If you’ve tuned into the talk show, you may have noticed that it doesn’t sound like your average religious radio program. That is because it isn’t supposed to. We are on a secular station and are aiming to reach non-believers who wouldn’t normally be thinking about religious things or listening to religious radio. In that context, we take certain steps to try to keep tuned in long enough to get them open to considering the claims of Christ.

The following ministry strategy explains how this works. It is taken from an article I wrote for our first newsletter (and which is also available on the Don Johnson Ministries.org website.) I decided to share it again here for those who have come on board since that time.

———————

My ministry strategy involves a four-fold objective. In whatever medium I happen to be working in, I take the following steps:

1. Show people what they believe. Many people base their lives on unexamined presuppositions about God, the universe and the meaning of life. I expose those presuppositions and get people to think about the big questions of their existence.

Mostly this involves framing the issues that people talk about everyday in a different way then they are used to. Instead of looking at only the political, sociological or psychological aspect of current events, I show them the theological and spiritual side. Instead of the temporal, I try to get them thinking about the eternal.

2. Break down false presuppositions. Most people believe things about the big questions of life that are simply untrue. I show them that. After framing the issue and getting people to realize what they believe about eternal issues, I expose the weaknesses of that false worldview.

3. Clearly explain the Biblical truth of the matter. C.S. Lewis said that much of the doubt he encountered regarding Christianity was quite understandable, given the doubters lack of knowledge about what the Bible actually teaches. I think that typifies much of the problem today. In every discussion or sermon, the doctrine that correctly answers the big question of life being discussing is clearly explained.

4. Do steps 1 through 3 in a place and a manner that is effective in a given culture.

In every society, there are certain places in which ideas are publicly disseminated and discussed. In New Testament days, for example, Paul went to the synagogues and marketplaces of the cities he visited because that is where people were listening and talking (Acts 17). Today a major segment of that marketplace of ideas is talk radio and the internet. So that is where we are.

This strategy could rightly be termed pre-evangelism because it is intended to get people ready to hear the gospel. It is out hope that God will use us to draw people into the churches who wouldn’t normally think about darkening the doors on Sunday morning.