RTVC Trustee "Wishes Every Committee Could Be Like This"

by Doug Willard                                                                                      Vol. VI, No. 7, September 1993

[Doug Willard serves the SBC Radio and Television Commission (RTVC) as vice president for external relations.]

Richard L. (Dick) Wakefield, serving in his eighth year as trustee of the RTVC, was a little late getting to the first plenary session last September. He paused in a basement room long enough to lead a soul to Christ. Wakefield, pastor of First Baptist Church, Camdenton, MO, was assigned this year to a subcommittee which oversees the Commission's counselling services. Wakefield and six other trustees didn't just talk about the counselling ministry, they participated in it.

ACTS' program Invitation to life began while the committee was in session, so the group adjourned to the Commission's modest telephone bank in the basement and watched the service. The instant the toll-free "spiritual help line" number appeared on the screen, phones began to ring. As soon as a counselor completed a call, another anxious voice would click in.

Twenty-four times, for one solid hour without let-up, a microcosm of human distress, disease, and desperation poured through the lines to the compassionate, caring counsellors.

Larry, not his real name, was the last caller. "I'm glad I wasn't in a hurry to get to the next session," said Wakefield. "This is what the Commission is all about."

President Jack Johnson agrees, and takes his own turn at the counselling phones every time he is in town. And his wife, Mary, says he will sometimes hurry off an afternoon plane and head straight for the counselling line before coming home for supper.

Wakefield said the biggest concern of his trustee committee this year was not wrestling with programming grids to cut ACTS from 24 hours down to 8, but how they could handle the increase in calls when ACTS almost tripled its coverage on October 1. At that time ACTS began sharing a satellite with VISN, a leading religious network and ACTS' chief competitor in the cable market. But while some count the barbs the Commission has taken over the move, trustees focussed more on such plus factors as:

– More than 700 new cable systems that will carry ACTS' positive, evangelical message, extending its coverage from 8.2 million to a total of almost 21 million subscribers, a potential viewing audience of more than 56 million persons.

– Extensive first-time coverage of pioneer mission areas, including New York City, Chicago, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Salt Lake City.

– More than $3 million that will be freed this year from savings in transmission costs, much

of which will be poured into fresh, new programming.

– Exploding overseas opportunities including two hours weekly on Russian television to a potential viewing audience of 115 million.

Johnson cited a survey by a St. Petersburg, Russia, television station which has broadcast Commission programs since last July. The survey showed 8.3% of the viewers in St. Petersburg watched The Word of Life, the Russian version of The Baptist Hour, 70% of those who watched RTVC programs expressed a desire to watch them again, and 36% acknowledged that the programs "influenced their attitudes about religion."

"Extend that to the entire ‘footprint' of the station," he added, "and it means an estimated 9 million Russians heard the gospel and 3 million said it was for them a spiritual experience."

It's all about reaching souls, says Johnson. "We're charged by the Southern Baptist Convention to preach the gospel. Broadcasting is the means, not the end." To that end, he adds, Commission volunteer telephone counsellors have received 329 professions of faith among more than 7,300 callers since they started the helpline on one program in 1984.

Bill Davis, Fort Worth area layman who served last year as a Mission Service Corps volunteer for RTVC's counselling services, was one of three manning the phones last spring when that Tuesday morning program first added the 800 helpline. After program, Bill staggered into the office almost in shock. "I just won three people to the Lord," he said.

And Bill Davis continued to take his turn for one year, leading 15 callers to accept Christ. "That's more in one year than I had won in all my years as a Christian witness," he said.

And grateful trustees, with anxious pleas for help echoing in their ears, are praying the Lord of the harvest for volunteers for that harvest.