My new friend in Cameroon that expressed concern about a seeming lack of transformation in churches (please see my September 5 blog) just wrote that he thinks radio is the way to go:

Since some months our God put in my heart to start a small Christian radio so that wherever they are they should hear our discipleship teaching and messages. Transmitter is what we need to start please can you an idea of how we can get it?

Here’s how I responded.

I said I couldn’t help him with a radio transmitter (I know nothing about that sort of thing), and I encouraged him to think about what he had told me originally: that he wanted to disciple his leaders. I continued:

I remind you that Jesus spent most of his time with the 12 men he chose. He trained them so that they could carry on after he left, and they did the same. The early church reached the world, and they had no radio, no television, no Internet, no printed materials, not even a copy of the New Testament. They told people about the resurrection, and they loved people in sacrificial ways, including taking in abandoned babies and tending to the sick during the plagues.

I closed with these verses:

You then, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus. And the things you have heard me say in the presence of many witnesses entrust to reliable people who will also be qualified to teach others. (2 Timothy 2.1, 2, NIV)

Those who had been scattered preached the word wherever they went. (Acts 8.4, NIV)

By the way, I’m not against radio, television and all the other media. I’m just pointing out that we may not need them as much as we think, and we can all make a contribution starting from where we are!