What did you watch?

[Margies3]

I'm sitting here watching a Gaither Homecoming show on TV. It's the one about George Younce. Fabulous!!!

And such memories it's stirring up. I did not grow up in a Christian home and often when I did something I needed to be disciplined for, the discipline of choice would be to ground me from going to church. On those weeks when I wasn't allowed to attend church, I would watch church on TV. One program I remember watching often was the one with Rex Humbard. The Cathedrals sang on that. I can't even tell you what the doctrine was that they taught on that show. But I do remember the encouragement I got from watching them.

How about any of you? Do you remember watching any church shows on TV back in the 60's or so? Or what did you listen to on the radio for Gospel programming?

[Sam]

I used to watch Rex Humbard once in a while.
From what I understand, he was Oneness Pentecostal but didn't make an issue of the Name of Jesus.

Bro. Epley could tell us what Rex's background was.

[Sam]

I don't watch much tv.
I like the Gaither musicals but I haven't seen any for a couple of months.
During the winter I watch the three Law and Order shows.
I have our tv set to record the Sherlock Holmes movies and the Hal Lindsey show. That's basically all I watch except for an old movie once in a while. For some reason or another I like Humphrey Bogart and I like Bette Davis. I like black and white movies.

[Margies3]

I'm with you, Sam. I watch very little TV.

I was just sitting here tonight tho remembering how so many times those Gospel shows carried me through.

I remember, too, when I was about 10 or 11 and got my first transistor radio. I used to take it to bed with me, stick my head under the pillow and hold that thing up to my ear so I could keep it down real low. Then I'd turn the tuning dial to see what the farthest station was that I could pick up. It was always a Gospel radio station from somewhere in the south somewhere or else someplace like Kansas. That was like eternity away from my small world in NW Ohio. Aaahhh, the memories.

You know tho, I wonder if any of those folks who did any of those shows ever realized what a part they played in this little girl growing up to be saved and serve the Lord. They did, you know. They played a BIG part. God bless 'em all!!

[Sam]

I was not raised in a Christian home.
On March 28, 1955 I asked Jesus Christ to come into my life.
He came in and radically changed me.
A few months later I joined a local Baptist church.
These were good folks but they believed in cessationism (all the gifts of the Spirit ceased as the Apostles died).
I heard preachers on the radio like Jack Coe and A.A. Allen and also C.M. Ward on Revivaltime. I also read some of their writings and realized there was more for me. These radio preachers were instrumental in leading me into seeking out some other churches and I wound up receiving the Holy Ghost Baptism on May 20, 1956.

[Margies3]

Sam, it's when I read stories like yours and know others like myself who were so touched and changed by the ministries we watched on TV way back when that I have to wonder why it is that people are fighting so hard against using TV today? don't they get it? Sure there's alot of vile stuff ON TV. But if we, as Christian people don't put out something polar opposite of the vileness, then the evil wins.

And if we do put programming out there, what an avenue for ministry the TV has the potential to be. Lives could be touched and changed that the church would never know about - but GOD WOULD!!!

[Sam]

Whenever I watch a Billy Graham program, which is pretty rare, I pray the "sinner's prayer" along with the folks and it is a renewal of my vows to the Lord.

[pelathais]

Originally Posted by Margies3

Sam, ... I have to wonder why it is that people are fighting so hard against using TV today? don't they get it? Sure there's alot of vile stuff ON TV. But if we, as Christian people don't put out something polar opposite of the vileness, then the evil wins.

And if we do put programming out there, what an avenue for ministry the TV has the potential to be. Lives could be touched and changed that the church would never know about - but GOD WOULD!!!

I didn't grow up in a Christian home either. Until I was in my 20's I was the only one in my family who had been baptized in Jesus Name. I remember being so hungry for anything even Bible related that I would flip through the rather limited selection and find nothing at all in our area.

Once a friend and I watched Godspell - that came across as being rather silly and as a kid I was confused by it. Crucifying Jesus on a baseball backstop? I guess I wasn't sophisticated enough to understand the "art."

Books were my only outlet. I spent a whole year going through Hal Lindsey's Late Great Planet Earth when I was 11. No preacher, no teaching; just me, that book and my grandmother's bible.

When I was about 14 we moved into town. There was a UPC church just 2 blocks from my home but I always thought it was a Mennonite church, I think that's what some of the kids around had called it. I didn't even know what it was until I happened to attend a youth rally there several years later. "Oh! So this is the UPC church...?" Wow. Right there and it might as well have been invisible. They didn't even have a sign out front.

I worked out Oneness and Jesus Name baptism on my own. Later some people said, "God revealed it to you..." Perhaps. But to me it seemed like a lot of work and reading went into it. I really had to buck the culture I was in. It would have been nice to have had some friendly faces and voices to help out along the way. Seeing them on TV would have been helpful.

[Margies3]

Pelathias,

I'm so glad you chimed in on this. I see that this is only your 13th post, and I want you to know that I appreciate it.

I am impressed by your testimony, too. Thanks for sharing it.

Again, I have to say to anyone who will listen - do you hear what an impact you have within your grasp if you would just acknowledge it and USE it!!

There are people who sit at home, unable to attend an Apostolic Church, but who believe Apostolic. God alone knows what the reasons would be that they couldn't attend. But what a ministry a TV program put on by an Apostolic church could be to that person.

There are those who've never heard the Gospel. Again, an avenue for God to minister to those people.

What about elderly saints unable to get out any more? I can tell you of a dear, dear woman whose husband was a pastor for years and years. She ended up her last days in a nursing home. Granted, she suffered from Alzheimer's Disease. But I wonder, if she could have heard the singing, the praying and the preaching from what was familiar to her - would it have blessed her to her very core? I have to believe it would have.

[Sam]

An elderly woman, the mother of our former ALJC pastor, could not get out in her latter years and TBN was her church.

Another woman in our ALJC church was limited in her driving. She ordinarily got to church on Sunday mornings but not on Sunday nights. She loved Jack Hayford and enjoyed his preaching on Sunday nights.