The dot.com of Christian Broadcasting

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The dot.com of

Christian Broadcasting

Like most Gen-Xers, I watched hours of televi-

sion and a multitude of movies, but there wasn’t

much in the way of Christian shows or films – and

even less for Christian adults. A lot of the Christian

movies were so cheesy that the entertainment came

mostly from laughing at their corniness. Also there

were no explicitly Christian dramas on television.

For example, Touched By An Angel, which a lot of

people liked for its family friendliness and running

theme that “God loves you” never pointed to Jesus

as the answer. For this and other reasons, they could

be referring to the god of any religion.

There was Christian radio, of course. I found

Adventures in Odyssey very entertaining with good

Christian teaching and values, but as much as I

loved it – and still do – it was and is geared toward

kids. I thought it would be great if there were some-

thing like this directed at an older audience. Because

Christian radio was an outlet that already existed, it

would be our first and primary area of ministry: a

Christian audio drama that was geared toward a col-

lege-and-career audience.

Now What?

Much of what you hear on Christian radio is

teaching and preaching from pastors who have

churches or from people who have large organiza-

tions as a foundation. But what if you don’t have a

ARRY

MON

church or a large organization and you have a min-

istry that you feel called to start in Christian radio?

“Why not start non-traditionally?” suggested

Paul Buchanan, my friend and partner in the min-

istry. Although the Internet was new to a lot of peo-

ple, as tech junkies, it already was a way of life for

us. A few years earlier, Paul and I hosted an Internet-

based movie review show, Wired for Cinema. At the

time, video over the Internet was new technology.

We did this just for fun as part of a project that a

local Internet service provider created called ISP-TV.

They used video technology named See-You C-Me

and Real Video, which had just come out.

Unfortunately, the whole ISP-TV idea crashed a

few months later. Maybe it was bad marketing or

bad timing, but the concept of having a show strictly

on the Internet seemed more feasible now, especially

if it was just audio and didn’t require the bandwidth

that video did.

Now that we had an idea and an outlet for shar-

ing it, I started putting things together. I e-mailed

two other Christian friends, Darrell Winston and

Neil Johnson, and asked for their help. With a call

from God, Paul, Darrell, Neil and I started the min-

istry. We began the long and tedious process of set-

ting up a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation, Christian

Walk Alive (CWA, www.christianwalkalive.org). CWA

would be the umbrella under which we would make

Christian entertainment that would encourage the

audience to be more alive in its Christian walk.

Next came the purchase of equipment, and then

Paul and I sat down to build a story and characters

for the show. We spent hours choosing character

names and deciding on a general idea for a continu-

ing drama. I suggested to Paul that we name the

town Progress and we call the show A Work in

Progress, since we are all a work in progress spiritual-

ly and the show would be about people living and

working in the town of Progress. The hard part was

done … all we needed were voice actors.

We cast Christian friends ranging from semi-pro-

fessional actors to people with no experience at all.

Although it was a little challenging, I stuck to one

wenty years ago, if you wanted to start a company, it

took a good idea and a lot of capital. However, in the

late 1990s, that changed. All you needed was an

idea that was technical in nature and a website and boom,

you’re a dot.com millionaire. Even though a dot bomb fol-

lowed a few years later, it created a new and easy way for

entrepreneurs to enter the marketplace. But could I apply this

to starting a ministry in Christian broadcasting? That’s the

question I pondered in the summer of 2000.

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rule: we used only Christians as voice actors. I

thought this was important because the actors might

one day become role models to the listeners.

Next we rolled out www.aworkinprogess.org, and

then everything was ready to go. After a month or so

of writing and recording, we started putting Real

Audio episodes on the website. With a studio that

was only a few microphones in my bedroom, and a

web page, we were broadcasting! But we didn’t have

much of an audience at first.

You Mean We Have to Pay for It?!

At an NRB chapter conference, Bryan Mager, a

fellow member of our ministry, and I learned that

Christian radio worked much differently than we

had thought. You had to pay the radio station to air

your ministry’s program; the commercials didn’t pay

for your broadcast. About a year later, Oneplace.com

made an offer to host our program on its website. It

was going to be a bit harder to get the funds, but

Oneplace aired all of Christian broadcasting’s big

names, such as Focus on the Family, Chuck Swindoll

and many more.

In the beginning, we knew money would be

somewhat of a challenge. The money for micro-

phones, mixers, software and the cost of running a

website had to come from somewhere. But we decid-

ed we needed to do it to get the exposure and a larg-

er audience.

It’s been two years since we’ve been broadcasting

on Oneplace.com. After receiving the listener reports

from Oneplace, Paul was confident we did the right

thing. In the meantime, we have had offers from

Christian radio stations to air A Work in Progress and

we’ve even had some international interest. But we

didn’t have the money necessary because we were

still finishing the legal paperwork from the IRS. We

have only recently completed the process of becom-

ing a legally recognized nonprofit corporation.

A Work in Progress is our primary focus for now.

According to numbers provided by Oneplace, the

show has about 700 listeners a month. We want to

continue broadcasting on the Internet, because it’s a

whole new outlet for reaching people. We also want

to raise the money necessary for broadcasting on

Christian radio so we can reach the already plugged-

in millions of listeners there. And although we are

focusing on the audio drama right now, other forms

of media definitely are in our future, including

movies and animation. Our goal is to make

Christian entertainment that is relevant and real.

Did You Say Entertainment?

I’ve called what we’re doing Christian entertain-

ment. But what do I mean by that? We live in a

world where many people feel the need to be con-

stantly entertained or bombarded with noise. This is

not what we want to provide. We want to use media

to spread the Gospel, to edify believers and to help

Christians with their daily walk.

We don’t want to be just noise nor do we want

to divert people from thinking. But people usually

don’t go to a movie theater planning to learn and

grow. They want to enjoy the film. We want people

to enjoy the media we create, but in a fun and godly

way – enjoying it for what it is while experiencing

the Gospel and learning how to deal with life issues

using biblical responses. Also, we want people to

learn that God is the Source of those responses and

He is accessible to us personally through Jesus.

Hard Work and God’s Blessings

This wasn’t how I thought Christian radio min-

istries started and I guess for the most part it isn’t.

Maybe now that we’ve done it, it can help pave the

way for other ministries to get started. Don’t misun-

derstand, this was not as simple as it sounds and it

has taken a lot of work. In fact, everyone involved

gives a lot of his time and all of us have regular day-

time jobs.

I spend many hours weekly writing, editing and

planning. Moreover, coordinating recording times

for all of the voice actors can be very challenging.

Many of us who are involved have donated all of the

funding required so far. One reason for this is that

we lack fundraising skills. According to Paul,

“Fundraising isn't as easy as it seems … asking peo-

ple you know for money (like your church), is an

interpersonal barrier that needs to be crossed.”

Using the dot.com idea, it didn’t take hundreds

of people or tens of thousands of dollars to start. It

did, however, take a lot of hard work. But God has

blessed us. One of the best blessings is receiving let-

ters from listeners telling us how the ministry has

blessed them. I pray that God will continue to use

this ministry for His glory, continually using us as

works in progress.

Larry Amon is co-creator of A Work in Progress. Contact

him at amon@umbc.edu.