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IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT!
TGOC ANNOUNCES
THE PRODUCTION OF
NEW 3-MINUTE RADIO SPOTS!
Those of us associated with THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST are always on the look-out for more and better ways to "take the whole Gospel to the whole world." Sometimes we concentrate on the "more" part of the equation, while at other times we concentrate on the "better" part. And sometimes we concentrate on both—as we are doing by making the following announcement.
In the past we routinely received requests from congregations that wanted to offer a daily 3-minute radio program on their local radio station(s), but had no idea as to how to go about doing that. They therefore sought our help, and we put together some presentations on a few topics. However, those presentations were quite limited in scope. And, as time went by, they eventually got to the point where they were badly in need of revision. All the while, requests from congregations for this type of radio media continued to arrive in our offices.
So, with our ever-present goal of "more and better" in mind, we decided to do three things: (1) prepare completely new presentations for use on radio stations; (2) offer a much-larger variety of topics in order to more easily catch the ears of as many listeners as possible; and (e) write and record lessons that, while teaching important biblical concepts on everyday living, also were evangelistic in nature so that people who heard them could know what they needed to do to obey the Gospel of Christ.
Today, TGOC proudly announces the availability for the first time of these brand-new radio spots. Here is some pertinent information about the spots that we hope will help you understand why we produced them and how they are intended to be used.
- Each spot is a few seconds shy of being exactly 3-minutes long so that it will fit perfectly into a 3-minute-long slot on a radio station (and never run over the 3-minute time allotment).
- We began by producing enough lessons to permit spots to run Monday through Friday every week of the year; more are currently in production.
- The spots cover a variety of topics under category headings such as:
- "How Much Do You Know About the Bible?"
- "Have You Ever Wondered About...?"
- "Did You Know That...?"
- "What Is Right with the Church of Christ?"
- Within the categories listed above, individual subjects are covered, including (but not necessarily limited to):
- The Existence of God
- The Deity of Christ
- The Inspiration of the Bible
- The Origin, Nature, and Mission of Satan
- What a Person Must Do to Be Saved
- Understanding the Will of God
- The Problem of Evil, Pain, and Suffering
- How Prayer Works
- Heaven
- What "Becoming a Christian" Means to An Individual
- The Church of Christ Has the Right ___ (Head, time of origin, place of origin, name, creed, plan of salvation, worship, etc.)
- The spots have purposely been produced in what we refer to as "associated groups of five" (meaning that each set of five spots covers a single subject or related group of subjects) so that if a person was able to hear all five spots Monday through Friday, he or she would be able to detect a distinct "flow" to the material. However, the spots also have been produced so that each individual lesson stands on its own merit, and "makes sense" even if a person has not heard any (or all) of the previous spots.
- While the lessons intentionally cover a wide variety of topics (so as to create and retain interest among potential listeners), they also have been written so as to be evangelistic in their thrust. The plan of salvation is either given in full or alluded to frequently throughout the lessons so that listeners cannot help but learn what to do to obey the Gospel.
- We are in the process of posting all of the radio spots to a special section of our Website, which you can visit by clicking on the following link: 3 Minute Audio Page. As of today (September 30, 2008), we have posted the first group of lessons (covering the month of October). If you want to listen to one of these programs, click on a specific date and the 3-minute spot associated with that date will stream from our Website to your computer, just as our present 30-minute audio programs do. New lessons for future months will be added by the last day of the current month. [NOTE: We suspect that some people may want to use these lessons as a daily devotional. If you want to do that, we would like to suggest that you begin on October 6 so that you can use our Website schedule as your daily devotional schedule.]
We are making these radio spots available completely free of charge. As things now stand, it is our plan to have the first radio-spot CD, which will contain 3-months' worth of presentations, ready to ship to interested congregations or individuals by November 1.
A great deal of planning, preparation, and production effort has gone into these spots. Our intention was that every one of the lessons would be well thought out, professionally presented, and doctrinally sound. We invite you to listen to them to see if we have succeeded in our quest.
We want to strongly encourage congregations around the country to place these daily spots on their local radio stations. In the past, numerous congregations have taken our 30-minute weekly programs to their local radio stations to see if the stations might be able to air them at no cost. As a result, many congregations have succeeded in getting our programs on the air without any cost to them (or us) for air time. Also, since most congregations are about to begin budget preparations for 2008, we hope you will consider including in your new budget some funds to pay for air time for these new 3-minute daily spots as an evangelistic tool.
If you need additional information about the spots, feel free to call our offices, write us a letter, or send us an e-mail. We will be happy to respond as quickly as possible in an effort to answer any questions you may have about the spots' availability, content, use, etc.
TGOC ANNOUNCES
LESSONS FIVE AND SIX
IN ITS NEWLY REVISED
"WORSHIP SERIES"
We are pleased to announce in this newsletter the availability of the next two lessons in our newly revised Worship Series, for which Ben Bailey serves as the speaker. In his lesson on "Preaching," Ben opens with Paul's admonition to Timothy in 2 Timothy 4:2-4: "Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, will heap up for themselves teachers, and will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables." Ben then begins a three-pronged examination into biblical preaching as he investigates the content of, attitude of, and proper response to biblical preaching.
As Ben notes, the content of biblical preaching should not be jokes, anecdotes, or personal "testimonies." Rather, preaching should be based on God's Word. In Romans 4:3 the question is asked, "What do the Scriptures say?," which is what every Gospel preacher needs to remember when he stands to preach. The attitude of preaching is explained in Ephesians 4:15, where we are told to "speak the truth in love." And, of course, we are to express in our preaching reverence and respect regarding the subject matter (God and His Word), as well as an urgency regarding the message being preached (the salvation of people's souls). The proper response to preaching is perhaps best expressed in Revelation 2:11, where we are told, "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." Additionally, Luke 8:18 says, "Take heed how you hear," and Mark 4:24 admonishes us, "Take heed what you hear. When we hear preaching, we need to be like the Bereans in Acts 17:11 and "search the Scriptures daily to see if these things are so."
In his lesson on "Giving," Ben opens by reminding his viewers and listeners that "God loves a cheerful giver" (2 Cor. 9:7). He then examines the important concept expressed by the apostle Paul in 2 Corinthians 8:5 where it is said concerning the Macedonian Christians’ giving that they "first gave themselves to the Lord." Using this concept as a springboard, Ben observes that our attitude always affects our giving. The people in Malachi's day (Mal. 1:8) had the idea that their "leftovers" were good enough for God—which ended up with God accusing them of having robbed Him (Mal. 3:8). Giving is not an option, but a command (1 Cor. 16:1-2). Furthermore, God expects us to give back to Him as we have been prospered by Him. After all, as John 3:16 makes clear, God gave His very best to us when He sent His only begotten Son to Earth to die for us (Rom. 5:6-8 ). We, therefore, should have the same attitude that the poor widow of Luke 21:1-4 possessed when she, "out of her poverty, put in all the livelihood that she had." That is the kind of giving God wants us to exhibit as well.
Both of these new lessons are now available on our Website, where you will find them in video, audio, and written transcript formats. We invite you to examine them for yourself, and to share them with others.
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