A major obligation of Christians is to witness their faith, but there is also needed sophistication related to the possibilities. There needs to be instruction for how the privilege and duty ought to be carried through. As this is being written there has appeared, on public television, paid advertising of denominations and religious groups making rather concise and appealing witness of what the speaker believes, in the context of a lay citizen. This has been done rather well by members of the Mormon faith. The effect of the project has not, at this writing been evaluated. A number of Christian radio stations in America and several internationally, have been on the air for many decades. (I served as the news reporter and commentator over KTIS in Minneapolis, Minnesota from the first day of its broadcasting, in 1949, until I left the State in 1957. Also, I spoke as a minister on programs on Saturdays and Sundays those years.) Even more programming is available sixty-plus years later but does not gain the former publicity. Response received from the listening public was favorable, providing the feedback hoped for from integrated schedules. Television has not appeared to be as effective as was radio. In part, this is likely due to some uneven reputations for persons, in both spoken and music ministries, and for uncreative programming, and personal unacceptable conduct. Much of religious broadcasting is for the faithful. Others are not usually tuned in.
Although TV programming by Bishop Sheen for Catholic broadcasting, and Billy Graham for evangelical, Protestant programming (and others) was popular for some years, the successors do not appear to have gained the audience loyalty the earlier registered. Some religion appears, with regularity, on the History Channel and elsewhere – without faith persuasion. As the electronic media have gained primary attention the written media have faded somewhat, but both tend to be affirmative and negative in conclusions, depending upon the authors’ approaches. Christianity Today and denominational magazines have been sustainable to biblical Christian concerns, including missions and evangelism. The widespread use of the media has made the Christian message known to anyone who cares to have it, even though it may not have had, in many instances, the professional treatment related to it that would make the gospel presentation more effective and respected. Religious malaise is common. Some representatives offered failed models.
The concerned Christian needs to attend to: 1)- attitudes, so that humility, love, concern, acceptance of persons, and grace toward them, are related to any witness of faith; 2)- knowledge, so that the witness does not communicate something that he/she does not possess, especially does not imply something that is special in some way that takes away from the universality of the gospel to all; 3)- model, so that the individual as a person synchronizes with his or her verbalization, meaning that the person receiving the message is likely made attractive by the life of the witness as by the words; 4)- singularity, so that the witness is not critical of the beliefs and oddities of the listener, or anyone else, but to keep the message to the point – that repentance of sin, and faith in Christ’s redemptive work makes the individual acceptable with God of Christian Scripture; 5)- invitation, so that the witness is sufficiently devout as to have prayed well for opportunity to articulate the story of Christ’s redemption, and from which background an individual will likely show some interest in the reason why this person, the Christian, might be solicited for spiritual aid and counsel. This removes the arrogance of godding with people. Godding is a word coinage to capture the attempt of persons to give counsel and instruction as though it came from them as source. They play god. The message of the gospel is to be carried in humility, in the concern for the hearer and the participation of God in life, and with no concern for self to be reprised. Counsel for the Christian is best found from Scripture and the consequences of studied experience. Christians can be humble and also have a gracious aggression to advance effective Christian faith and experience. It implies a culture to be lived and declared. There ought to be no desire to enter into confrontation with other views, but to permit the models of spiritual effectiveness to speak for themselves. *Mark W. Lee, Sr. — 2016, 2020