The Catholic radio movement has made great strides in the last 16 years. I know because my wife and I were there when it all began to change. When I was program director in 1994 for KBVM (88.3 FM) in Portland Oregon, I marveled at the connection between the pastoral works of the local church and the radio station. There were only a few parishes that took advantage of the “heavy equipment” of the powerful FM that covered the Portland Vancouver Salem area, but for the parishes who did, each one saw the fruits of converstion in the initiatives that began to sprout up: adoration, more frequent confession, theology of the body talks, prayer groups, apologetics classes, more RCIA members each year, etc. Those are the fruits by which you judge a catholic apostolate.
My wife Vickie and I didn’t start the Catholic radio movement, Mary the Mother of the Returning King did. Yes we were there, along with a handful of others when it experienced the beginnings of a new time of growth and expansion. In the words of thom Price of EWTN at the Catholic Radio Institute, after he received the “Max” award for best Catholic radio network on behalf of EWTN global Catholic radio in 1995, we helped bring Catholic radio “to the next level”. But the actual movement itself traces its beginning back almost 2000 years ago to an upper room where Mary herself was deep in prayer surrounded by the apostles and disciples.
As I look to this Pentecost 2011 I am aware that some of us are gathered around our Mother, praying in the same way for the final Pentecost to fall, yet having experienced the trials and personal hardships of the last 18 years, though hearing in faith the words of the Holy Spirit “Prepare for My final outpouring; for which all heaven awaits and is actively preparing, and which will make the first seem small in comparison”.
It is time for the “next” level.
It’s time for the sleeping giant to breath with BOTH lungs: Catholic radio stations with a fully active pastoral plan for evangelization working much much closer with the local Bishops!
I am thinking about a husband who struggles with pornography…
A son of a friend who just got back from serving in Afghanistan and is dealing with PTSD and is not sure he wants to open up the heavy ‘can of worms’ he carries around….
A friend who has great faith and who has served the church in a national role in the new evangelization but who is struggling with the need for inner healing so much that he is on the verge of taking his own life…
I am thinking of you…..
All these I am thinking about need a real place within an hour’s drive to go to: where healing, deliverance, therapy, friendship, and REAL People will greet them and journey with them UNTIL they are healed!
For those of us who have been involved in Catholic radio for any number of years, or have even just been listeners, we need to foster the development of the ‘other lung’, or the sleeping giant will continue to slumber as the enemy of souls pillages the church.
time is very short
I share an exerpt from my bio page:
As the producer and host of a unique Catholic radio show covering one of the largest markets in the United States, I have seen the power of the ‘multiple media model’ to create or support powerful, life changing events for a distinct region. With the convergence of the power of radio, social media, and geographically accessible venues, the potential outcome in objective numbers served has proven to be 50% higher when I interview the organizers weeks prior to an event. There are many heroic, yet unsung laborers in our society who do not have the means to ‘broadcast’ their charism’s active ministry of presence in the world. As Church, we need to avail ourselves of the modern means of communication to bring the timeless truths of our faith to a world in ever more need of the Gospel message of faith, hope and love.
Chris Lyford 