THE REAP RADIO REVOLUTION! (--The RRR!) DFO 1609 9/83
--A Radio Ministry Conference!
1. DO YOU WANT THE GOOD NEWS OR THE BAD NEWS FIRST? I always like to begin on & end on a positive note, but since there isn't anything that positive, maybe I'll give you the bad news first. Of these 4 pages of nearly 150 Stations served by one area, 75 are X's right off the bat! I X'd off every station where they have been on at least 11 or 12 months with virtually no results at all, most of them nothing but zeros! A few of them had maybe one or two responses, but nothing further than the original enquiry--no Salvations, no basic Club Members, nothing! So half of them we can drop immediately, boom, just like that! Half of them have been unfruitful for at least a year, & God knows how many more years, I don't know!
2. NOW DO YOU WANT TO HEAR THE GOOD NEWS?--THE OTHER HALF ARE VERY QUESTIONABLE! And the Office had no record of what stations the listener was listening to. Some places have half-a-dozen to almost a dozen stations & we've got so many responses, but we don't know from which station or which station they're listening to. Was no record ever kept of this sort of thing at all? (P: Unfortunately not a complete enough record to give us what we need.) Well, why not?--Because I have to demand them in order to get them, huh? I'll tell you, if we ran any other kind of business besides the Lord's business this way, we would long ago have gone broke!
3. OF THIS AREA OF STATIONS WHERE THEY'VE HAD AT LEAST SOME SALVATIONS & STILL HAVE SOME CLUB MEMBERS who are still corresponding & going on with the Basic Course etc., only seven of the cities where we're on the air have had any lasting fruit. In other words, we could be on less than a dozen stations & getting the same results! The rest of them have had nibbles, that's all, just nibbles!
4. IT'S AMAZING, IF THEY'VE GONE ON TO SALVATION, THEN THEY GO ON TO THE BASIC COURSE ETC., & usually almost exactly the same number that are saved have gone on to the Basic Course. Here's 22 total listener responses in a year on all these stations! Out of that we got 4 salvations & 4 who went on to the Basic Course. Here's another area: 26 responses--0 salvation, 0 Basic Course. But here's one: 86--probably if you divide that by 10 you'll get the actual number of steady listeners--3 & 3--& the 3 that got saved are probably the same 3 that are on the Basic Course. Here's 2 responses, 2 & 2--the response for the whole year, 2 got saved & the 2 are on the Basic Course. Some of these are on some of the littlest stations, whereas there are big cities where we've got maybe 10 stations & virtually no results. When I give you this first figure, that's the total we've heard from within one year. I'm stretching it out to one year. For any station we've been on less than a year I'm putting a question mark, they're questionable. We really haven't given them a full chance yet, which is a little less than half the stations.
5. HERE'S 7--2 SAVED & 2 BASIC. HERE'S 1--1 & 1. GET IT? WHEN YOU GET A GOOD SOLID RESPONSE, THEN THEY GO ALL THE WAY! If they get saved, in every single case they go right on through the works. Here's a station where they've had 114 responses, 62 of them, about half of them, during the last 6 months. Out of that, guess how much fruit we got?--1 & 1!--Been on there 23 months! Well, thank God we got one soul, one disciple out of the whole area out of 114 responses! Probably divide that by 10 & you've only got 11 real listeners, although the proportion may be a little higher. So out of the whole works we've got a total of 16 Salvations from these nearly 150 stations, every one of which, as far as I can see, went straight on through the Basic Course. Every single one! Now there you are: That's what the real fruit is.
6. OF COURSE, EVEN ONE SOUL IS WORTH IT, & 17 ARE CERTAINLY WORTH IT, BUT THERE SHOULD HAVE BEEN A MORE CAREFUL CHECK DURING THESE YEARS! We are going to keep tab on them like this from now on, even more fully than this! We're going to have the record! We may not keep Club Member filing cards, but we are going to keep station filing cards, which we have to do anyhow, & we are going to mark on that filing card how many of the Listeners' responses we got in, who say that they listened to that station, & we are going to insist that they tell us what station they were listening to!
7. NOW WHAT THE HELL GOOD IS IT TO BE ON THESE STATIONS, a half-a-dozen in a city, & we get responses & we don't even know which ones they're listening to or which ones are worth keeping? So frankly, in areas where we had more than one station, I X'd out all the rest of them & put that one questionable if it didn't have much response. All the rest that got definite X's were stations we'd been on for a year or more with absolutely no response! Well, maybe one or two wrote in, but that's as far as they went.
8. MY GOD, SON, WE SHOULD HAVE CAUGHT THIS SOONER! Why the Hell didn't somebody do a little research & stat work on it to find out where we were getting results & where we weren't, & to have dumped these stations long ago! I suppose it's my fault because I didn't jerk you guys up & make you get on the ball & survey these stations & find out where you were really getting results & fruit, where it was fruitful to stay on or where it was not. It seems most of these stations where we've been on so long have had no results at all, all they're doing is getting tapes. We don't even know if we're on there!
9. (P: THAT MEANS THAT THOSE STATIONS HAVE BEEN ON 31 MONTHS & IN THE LAST YEAR GOTTEN NO RESPONSE, BUT THEY COULD HAVE GOTTEN RESPONSE TWO YEARS AGO.) Well, maybe. We'll grant you that maybe they got response then, but they haven't had a bit in the last year! I thought I was stretching it out to say drop everybody that hadn't had any response in the last 6 months! In fact, most of the response, believe it or not, has been in the last 6 months!--Which leads me to believe, as the old saying goes in the Gospel circles of the U.S.A., you've got to be on at least a year in order to get any response.--Or at least your response really will not come in unless you've been on about a year. So let's be real generous, let's give'm a year.
10. I FINALLY WOUND UP CIRCLING THE STATIONS WHERE WE HAVE BEEN ON LESS THAN A YEAR, & I PUT A QUESTION MARK BY THEM. It's not fair to yank the Show away from them, from the study of these stats. If they've been on only less than a year, I think they would feel a little let down & hurt if they're actually faithfully running it. A lot of them have only been on a month or two or three.
11. I'D SAY ROUGHLY WE'VE BEEN ON AT LEAST A THIRD OF THESE STATIONS A YEAR OR MORE, MAYBE 25% OF THEM FOR TWO YEARS, & OUT OF THAT WE HAVE GOTTEN 16 SALVATIONS & 16 DISCIPLES! I'll let you finish this up, Son. We'll start with a year & we'll give the poor stations that have been on less than a year the benefit of the doubt. Find out how many stations we've been on less than a year, how many we've been on a year or more, how many we've been on 2 years & how many we've been on for more than two years. In other words, 3 main groups--1 year, 2 years & more than 2 years.
12. LET'S JUST FIGURE OUT HOW MUCH WE'VE THROWN AWAY! I'll just count'm off for you real fast: 40 stations we've been on 20 months or more; 47 Stations we've been on 10-19 months. That's an average of 15 months. How many tapes have we sent them in 15 months on an average? Let's just say the minimum of two tapes a month. This is going to teach you guys something about keeping stats if nothing else!--What you need to know! 30 tapes per station times 47 & what have we got?--1410 tapes! So the 10-to-19 months stations have cost us an absolute minimum of about $1500, including correspondence & everything else. We average out at about $1 per tape including postage.
13. THIS IS JUST TO MAKE A QUICK ESTIMATE OUT OF THE HAT TO SHOW YOU WHERE WE'VE BEEN THROWING STUFF AWAY! Let's say the 20-months-stations run from 20 to 30 months, or an average of 25 months each. At 25 months we've sent them a minimum of 50 tapes per station, which is for 40 stations 2,000 tapes plus correspondence. Well, let's make it $2500. We're just talking about cost of tapes now, we've also got the Music Units & the offices. And God knows if we need such Music Units or even such offices, but here we are. Just the cost of tapes alone roughly figured at $4,000.
14. I DID THIS WITH BILLY GRAHAM'S LOS ANGELES MEETING ONCE, OF THE HIGHLY-TOUTED 5,000 CONVERTS THEY HAD. I figured out how much it cost them per convert, because in some of their items it told how much this big campaign cost him. I figured out how many people it took to win that many converts considering the 5,000 attendance they had every night for about 6 or 8 weeks. I'm trying to show you something about the difference between so-called mass evangelism & personal evangelism, & I think this may help convince you!
15. WE HAVE SPENT AT LEAST $4,000, & WE'RE NOT EVEN COUNTING ALL THE 9'ERS & ALL THE REST! I'd say we could add another thousand dollars to this at least or maybe a whole lot more for all the test mailings to 9'ers!
16. LET'S SAY THAT YOU'RE RIGHT, & TWO-THIRDS OF THESE RESPONSES ARE 9'ERS. It's still about two-thirds, because there was only one who was the original listener. Of the 300 people who responded, two-thirds of them were 9'ers who responded. When they get those 9 names, they don't count them amongst the responders, they only count as many as have actually responded to test mailings. Well, you can see how many more pieces were sent out & didn't respond. Then perhaps we can say 200 of these 300 were 9'ers who responded, & 100 were the original listeners. In other words, about 100 were actual listeners, & about 200 were 9'ers. And yet out of a total of 300, we only got 16 salvations, every one of whom went on, apparently, to be disciples, what I would call real Members.
17. WE HAVE CALLED THEM CLUB MEMBERS IF THEY MERELY WROTE IN. We have called them Club Members if they responded at all. This is including both listeners & 9'ers. And here we have 300 who have written in & responded at all, but out of all these, we've only reaped 16 souls! But every one of those 16 has gone on to the Basic Course & is still on it as far as I know & is still a disciple. Does that tell you anything?
18. LET'S JUST GET SOME ROUGH AVERAGES!--And I want you to figure these stats out exactly for me, Son, after I'm through, because I didn't have time. But because it's an emergency situation I'm going to rough it up for you right now. Of this $4,000 worth of tapes, you've got 6,820 half-hour Shows. We're just counting tapes & postage, not counting the musicians & the offices to handle them, & my God, I want you to figure that up!--Calculate what that area's share is of the total ministry of MWMI. We haven't got the whole picture yet with all the stats, but at least you can figure up the proportion just by the actual number of stations. Well, the fact of the matter is, that area is about 150 stations, & altogether MWMI is supposed to have 490 stations. So in other words, it represents about a third of all MWMI's stations.
19. I'M NOT BLAMING ANYBODY--I TAKE THE BLAME! I SHOULD HAVE DONE IT SOONER. But I'm just wondering why, when you are stewards of the job & appointed to do it, why was not any survey made any sooner or why didn't you keep a running account in stats of just what you were getting out of each of these stations? But what I'm trying to prove to you is something else, really, not just what stations we're going to drop. But let's go on.
20. YOU SAY IN TAPES & POSTAGE ALONE, THESE 87 STATIONS THAT HAVE BEEN ON JUST A YEAR OR MORE, HAVE COST US ABOUT $4,000 JUST TO SEND THEM TAPES & CORRESPONDENCE. Of the actual souls & disciples we've gotten out of that, in tapes alone those disciples have cost us $250 apiece! Out of the number of times we've had to preach'm the Gospel, in other words, 6,820 Shows, we've had to preach the Gospel 426 sermons or shows per soul! It took 426 shows, if they were shown at all. This is just counting these 87 stations that have run a year or more, not the total of nearly twice that many. These stats are going to be worse if you add them all, because I'd say that those that have run a year or more is a little more than half the stations. I didn't want to add the poor stats, those under a year, because there's been very little response under a year, although there's been more response in the second 6 months. It took 426 shows per disciple at a cost of $250 per disciple--426 good witnesses, so to speak, not to even count all the expense of the follow-up & follow-up literature.
21. WE HAVE NOW HAD MWMI IN INDIA FOR 6 YEARS, & WE HAVE HAD IT INTERNATIONALLY NEARLY 3 YEARS. Don't you think it's a pretty good time to take stock? And by this kind of stats we ought to know exactly where we're at & exactly what it costs & whether it's worth it or not. I'd say from the results etc. as a radio ministry goes, some stations are worth it. But here is a program just in one area alone, about a third of your stations, which in tapes alone has cost us $4,000 & nearly 7,000 Shows, & out of that we've only gotten 16 actual souls & disciples won! For every soul won we got a disciple, the nearest thing you could count to a disciple.
22. WE DON'T HAVE THE STATS FOR BEYOND ONE YEAR, but according to the one year, most of it's just been recently, within the last 6 months.--And probably most of that during the last 2 or 3 months since they've had a local address. You say, "Well, if we'd had a local address all this time, maybe we'd have had a lot more!" Well, you'd have had a lot more deadheads & dead chaff too, & perhaps the proportion wouldn't have been much better with all those 9'ers!
23. WE'VE ADDED UP THE COST OF MWMI, & I WANT YOU TO DO THE SAME THING FOR MCV. We can't count the Local Language Shows yet because I don't think any of them have been on a good year or more. But we should be able to get stats from MCV as well--not only what it's cost us in tapes. Well, why can't we just roughly estimate right now what these shows have cost us. We've been supporting the MWM Musical Unit in full for just over 3 years. We also supported MWM for 3 years before that, before we finally took over the whole Unit. (P: We also paid the radio station all that time as well.)
24. (DAD FIGURES OUT THE TOTAL COST FOR THE MWM PRODUCTION, OFFICES, TAPE MAILINGS, ETC., OVER THE PAST 7 YEARS.)
25. WELL, SHALL WE BE REAL GENEROUS & SAY WE GOT 20 DISCIPLES OUT OF THIS ONE AREA WHICH HAS COST US AROUND $200,000 DURING THAT TIME?--Including those who in the previous years' time have also become disciples & may have joined Homes or whatever. So then you've got $10,000 per disciple! It makes a nice easy figure to work with. I don't know whether you get the point of what I'm driving at or not! It's cost us $10,000 per soul, & hopefully we generously estimate that each soul became a fulltime disciple & joined a Home. Now what do you think I'm going to figure next?
26. I'M GOING TO SHOW YOU THE VALUE OF PERSONAL SOUL-WINNING! Let's take that $200,000 & instead of spending it on radio, let's see what it would have done in supporting the average Family Home. What do you suppose you could have supported the average Family Home on in the East.--An average Family Home, I'd say even if it went up to 6 adults & children. Let's take a nice easy round figure of $1,000 a month because it's easy to divide etc.
27. SO THIS $10,000 COULD HAVE SUPPORTED A FAMILY HOME FOR NEARLY A YEAR! Wouldn't you say that our average Home wins more than one soul a year & even gets even more than one disciple per year? So if you take the $200,000, the total cost of MWM for that area & invest it in, let's say, one Family Home, that would have supported them for 200 months! Well, most Homes may not operate that long, but we're just figuring roughly. This $200,000 would have supported them for 16 years! Don't you think the average Home in 16 years could have won more than 16 souls?--In fact, even disciples? I'd think a Home wasn't on the job & wasn't even worth the $1,000 a month if they couldn't do better than that! Most of our Homes are winning hundreds of souls per month! They're not doing quite so well in move-in disciples, but if we'd count the mailing lists & others who are following-up, a follow-up program of some kind just like on radio, don't you think we'd come out far ahead of this? Last but not least, then don't you think it's time to cut down all the way around just to the parts of this Radio Ministry that are really paying off?--Not only just to the stations who are paying off! Are you thinking what I'm thinking?
28. HOW MANY SOULS DO YOU THINK MWMI MUSIC & MWMI OFFICE COULD HAVE WON IF WE'D HAVE SPLIT THAT BETWEEN THEM & they'd only been each living on $1,000 a month doing regular litnessing & witnessing & soul-winning & discipling, each of them for 8 years, a total of 16 years? Don't you think the two Homes together could have done better than that?--Especially the monstrosity monster of the Blob that MWMI Musical Unit has always been! I must confess that the Office Unit is a normal-sized Home, but between the two, I wouldn't be surprised that if those MWMI musicians had gotten out & played to crowds on the street & the park & restaurants, they would have won more souls & had more disciples than this, in what I would call personal soul-winning, including litnessing, & even a certain amount of crowds in mass evangelism! Don't you think it would have been a lot more fruitful than this in 7 years?--And we're just talking about 3 years!
29. THIS WOULD HAVE KEPT ONE FAMILY GOING FOR 16 YEARS! Or in 3 years, it would have kept five families going--we'll just say an even 5--at the same cost. This amount of money could have fully supported them so they wouldn't even have to worry about money much, they could spend all their time witnessing, litnessing, personal soul-winning, FFing & busking. Look at all the talent they've got in the MWMI Musical Units! Let's say altogether, MWMI Music & the Office have averaged out to about 100 people over the last 3 years, which actually then is about 8 families of a dozen each.
30. SO AT THAT RATE WE COULD HAVE SUPPORTED 8 FAMILIES OF A DOZEN, OR 5 FAMILIES OF 20. Of course, half of them are children, so it might average out to 10 & 10 per Home.--But even 5 Homes for 3 years! I'm talking about this one area. Roughly speaking, you've got enough to support 5 to 8 families maybe for a period of 3 years. Don't you think those 5 to 8 families could have done better than this through personal evangelism, witnessing, litnessing, busking, FFing & my God knows what in that length of time!
31. WELL, I'VE BEEN WILLING TO TRY IT--NOW I WANT YOU TO FIGURE OUT THE EXACT STATS FROM THESE EXACT STATS THAT WE HAVE RIGHT HERE! I mean, just from what you can get from this paper right here. Let's really figure it out exactly. We have just roughly estimated, but let's get the exact figures of what this Radio Ministry has cost us & what it has profited us in souls, & compare it to what could have been done in person by the same amount of personnel over the same period of time in more Homes & more places.
32. I WOULD FRANKLY THINK THAT IF 5 TO 8 HOMES COULDN'T HAVE DONE BETTER THAN HAVE WON 16 FULLTIME DISCIPLES THAT HAVE EVEN MOVED IN & JOINED IN 3 YEARS, THEY'RE NOT EVEN HARDLY WORTH SUPPORTING! Yet we have supported a radio program that has had, as far as we can now see, only that much results! Maybe they have stats of how many from the Radio Ministry in the previous two years have maybe gone on & actually joined Homes or something, we don't know, so maybe this is short-changing'm. We know it's only been 16 in the last year. Even if we give them 16 a year, which isn't likely, maybe strike a happy medium of saying there's 30 souls been won & gone on to be a disciple, & maybe even joined. Don't you think that minimum of 5 fully supported Homes could have done better than that in 3 years?--If you'd even say a minimum of 5 Homes supported for 3 years & we gave them 16 for every year, let's be real generous & give them 50 for the 3 years.
33. SAY THEY'VE WON 50 SOULS & HAD 50 DISCIPLES & 50 PEOPLE HAVE JOINED THE FAMILY through the Radio Ministry in 3 years work of just 5 Homes, that's only 10 fulltime joiners, Family Members, disciples that each Home will have won & have joined in 3 years, which is about 3 per year. Don't you think the average Home gets at least that many? Don't you think the average Home probably has more than that? (Maria: They might have been getting one per year.) Well, they're not doing their job then! They used to do better than that. In the early years they used to do a lot better. They've gotten selfish!
34. (MARIA: IT WAS A LOT EASIER TO WIN DISCIPLES IN THE WEST.) Oh, I don't think it should be at all! In the East you have the problem of tighter family restrictions, but you've also got the incentive & the attraction of even just plain room-&-board, "Rice Christians," so I'd say they kind of balance up. (Maria: But we aren't supposed to be taking in that kind of disciple. Look what we got in the States--oodles of good disciples!) So what's the matter with our ministry now? (Maria: It's much harder in the East.) I don't believe it's the East--I believe the families are more selfish now & they don't want to take in new people like they used to. (P: If each of our Homes now won 3 disciples a year, we would have an increase of 4500 disciples every year, which I don't think we do.) Well, that's what we ought to be having!
35. YOU MEAN A WHOLE HOME CANNOT WIN MORE THAN ONE DISCIPLE IN FOUR MONTHS' TIME? (Maria: I'd estimate at the most, 2 per year.) (P: We could get the real stats.) Let's see what the average is for the whole Family for the past 3 years in just population, not counting all the ones they lost, but the ones that stuck. Is that a pretty good figure? The way these "to date" stats are done we don't really get the picture & the stats only go back one year on the monthlies, but let's just go back on the TRF population-to-date. Go back to the mid-'80s.
36. WE BEGAN 1980 WITH A LITTLE OVER 6,000 MEMBERS, WE'VE NOW NOT QUITE DOUBLED THAT, EVEN INCLUDING CHILDREN. We're not winning as many real disciples nowadays as we did in the early days. We're having more children, more family responsibilities, & they're being busy more with a little here & there & have to worry about support, but they're not bringing in the disciples like they ought to. (Maria: I think since your "Mass Evangelism" Letter & "Meaningful Meetings" there's been a real radical change & they've been getting more disciples, but that's just been in the past few months.) We've almost doubled our population in the last little over 3 years--what does that mean per Home?
37. STATS DON'T MEAN ANYTHING UNLESS YOU ANALYSE THEM & INTERPRET THEM AS TO WHAT DOES THIS MEAN? For the last 3 years we've averaged something around 1500 TRF Homes altogether. Now they have a population of 10,000, which gives our average Home what? Our Homes have not actually increased in the last 3 years. We've increased our TRF population, but number of TRF Homes has not increased all that much. So what does that mean in gains of disciples? We've almost doubled our discipleship, our Members, but you could almost figure those out in children. And I'll tell you, they are not winning the disciples they ought to win. (Maria: Well, they weren't before, but I think it's really picked up since those Letters.) They've got homes now, they've got children, they've got one or two childcare workers & they don't want anybody else in the Home!
38. WHAT'S GOING TO HAPPEN TO US? ARE WE GOING TO GET STATIC LIKE THE CHURCHES BECAUSE WE'RE SO SELFISH WE NO LONGER WANT TO BRING PEOPLE IN & HAVE DISCIPLES JOIN ANY MORE? What do you think the problem is? Man, we used to figure if a guy couldn't get out & win about a disciple a day in the old days & bring'm in after a day's work, they weren't doing very much! (Maria: In the old days nobody had children. Children are a fulltime job & they've got a lot of kids.) (P: Besides the children, in the early days all we did was personal one-on-one witnessing. We then went to litnessing, don't stop & talk to them, just get out the lit, which in itself you spend more time getting out the Word, but as far as time spent witnessing you've cut down on your number of disciples. Then came all the persecution & going underground & FFing--which does bring in disciples but not at the same rate, you win older friends. Actually there's been less emphasis on actual getting the guy to live-in then there was at the beginning.)
39. WE CAN FIND THINGS TO BLAME FOR IT & SAY, "WELL, HAVING ALL THESE CHILDREN TO TAKE CARE OF WE'VE GOT MORE WORK TO DO & WE'RE TRAINING OUR CHILDREN INSTEAD AS FULLTIME DISCIPLES." That has been a lot of work, & let's face it, children are fulltime disciples from scratch, & the best kind of disciples, like I've always said. And they're a lot of work & we take care of them fulltime & I think we can count every single one of them a disciple. If we ever had any disciples, it's our children! But I would say that to have only doubled our population in an equivalent period of time, even with children--which of course are more time-consuming disciples, raising them from pregnancy on up--still I don't think that's a high enough score even for our personal witnessing.
40. IF WE HAVE ONLY INCREASED NOW VIA THE BIRTH CANAL, THEN HAVE WE REACHED THE SATURATION POINT AS FAR AS WINNING SOULS & DISCIPLES FROM THE OUTSIDE? It looks like we have! (Maria: No, there's been a new surge just in the last few months! That's why you don't see it reflected on there, but it's really booming now in comparison to what it was before. They're really winning disciples now since "Mass Evangelism" & "Meaningful Meetings". Because they were all gung-ho into mass evangelism until you wrote that Letter!) Well, it shows that was needed! And it shows how much more fruitful the personal work is than the mass evangelism.
41. ARE YOU CONVINCED FROM THIS VERY BRIEF & ROUGH SURVEY WE'VE MADE OF THE RADIO MINISTRY, WHICH IS WHAT BROUGHT THIS UP? I mean, the fact that we have compared this to what a Home can do in the same length of time has also brought up & shown by comparison that the Homes are also doing pretty poorly!--That even if you want to count the children as disciples in the same period of time, instead of each Home winning 3 disciples a year, they have only won, their children apparently, one disciple in three years! Because our population has only about doubled in 3 years. The disciples are the increase, & our increase has only been less than twice, less than 100%.
42. IF YOU TAKE 1500 HOMES, IT'S BETTER. Whereas we've stayed pretty steady at about 1500 Homes the last three years, we've nearly doubled the population. The average Home size is about 7. The point is, if you divide the increase of about 5,000, in about 3 years our 1500 Homes have only won about 3 disciples each, that's one per year! That's about the rate they've been having babies almost!
43. BACK TO OUR RADIO STATS: FIVE FAMILIES IN 3 YEARS AT THAT RATE WINNING ONLY ONE DISCIPLE PER YEAR WOULD HAVE WON HOW MANY FULLTIME DISCIPLES? (P: 15.) That's not very good. Of course we don't know how good these Radio Disciples are, how far they go & whether they ever join or not. That's something else we need to know, if they can give us any kind of an estimate on how many have joined.
44. WELL, CONSIDERING OUR POOR RATE OF INCREASE ON FAMILY-WON DISCIPLES, I MUST ADMIT THAT DOESN'T SHOW UP VERY GOOD EITHER. What do you think? (P: One factor is we can't determine at this point if those 16 radio disciples are disciples. If we were basing it on souls rather than disciples, then your Family-Home souls is much higher than that.) Oh yes! Actual decisions, hands raised! Of course we can't determine the number of disciples from that, but at least those as far as we're concerned who have joined our Homes, we've only had an increase of approximately one per year per Home in the last 3 years. I'd say that sounds pretty bad too. Could it be because we have been putting the emphasis on mass evangelism & mass witness & mass media & massive stats instead of getting back to the good old-fashioned right down-to-home work of personal witnessing & winning & being willing to bring disciples into the Home & teach & train them along with our families & our children?
45. BROTHER, I HATE TO SAY IT, BUT THAT'S ABOUT WHERE THE CHURCHES GOT TO! The churches became a good excuse for the private families not to have those strangers in their homes & not to have to support'm & not to have to teach & train'm: "That's what we pay the preacher for & we build the church for, so he can simply evangelise the lost & bring'm into the church & the sinner can be won & then have his own private family & get his training once a week in the church." Well, you can see where it got the churches when they left all the witnessing & all the soul-winning up to the preacher! The average little church that you & I were in, how many new souls were won & joined the church in a year's time, a whole church of maybe a dozen families?
46. I'D SAY IF THE AVERAGE SMALL CHURCH HAD MAYBE ONE NEW MEMBER A YEAR WHO GOT SAVED & JOINED AS A RESULT OF THAT SALVATION IN ONE YEAR, WOULDN'T YOU SAY THAT WOULD BE A PRETTY GOOD AVERAGE?--Representing in this case about a dozen families. So I'd say we're at least doing a little bit better than that. And those were good evangelical churches, mind you! They really meant real salvation, & joining that kind of church meant real discipleship with very strict rules, most of them including tithing. The only thing they didn't have to do was live with each other! They could all have their private homes & private jobs & they didn't have to sit here & listen to me for two hours a day or read that much! They only had to go to church once or twice a week & hear a pretty little 10- or 20-minute sermon & a lot of music, & things were pretty much over with!
47. SO THE COST OF BEING A DISCIPLE, IF YOU'RE GOING TO CALL THEM A CHURCH MEMBER, WAS NOT VERY HIGH. They could still live pretty much like they had all the time, except the only difference in their lives now is they try to be good & they have confessed Christ, joined the church & come to church a couple times a week. And as a whole, if the church managed to reach any outsiders at all, if the average small church of 10 or a dozen families brought in actually one saved member, I'd say they were doing pretty good in most of the churches I was in.--And usually they got saved in the yearly revival meeting. (Maria: But sometimes they had a family, so they brought their family along.) Yes, quite often it did result in a whole family. There you've got the increase of one family in 12. It took 10 or 12 families to get one more family, an increase of 10%. At least in our Family we've had an increase of nearly 100% in 3 years, so we're still doing a little bit better than the churches.
48. BUT BROTHER WE HAD BETTER WATCH OUT IF WE'RE GOING TO BE THAT SELFISH that we don't want to bring in those dirty sinners to mix with our nice pure children & we don't want to have the trouble of teaching & training them & supporting them! The folks should realise that they're getting another worker who could also go out & help support the Home, especially single disciples! It seems that's something we have kind of a dearth of--singles. Today most of our folks are married or are children. They're either couples, triples & children, & the single disciples are in the minority. If there's anything we've found out in looking for help, single disciples are rare! And yet that's exactly what we need, more workers who are not already burdened down with a mate & a bunch of children in their own Home, but can come into our Home & help us!
49. THEY'RE MISSING THE BOAT BECAUSE OF THE COST! Because of the cost of the single disciple & the sacrifice & the risk of bringing that disciple into the Home, they're missing the opportunity to win somebody like that & really teach & train them & take them right into their Home as their own disciple. And boy, if there's anybody that's going to love you, it's somebody like that that you took in & really loved & taught & trained! You risked your life & you risked your children & they know it! You're going to have somebody there that's going to work themselves to death for you, do anything for you, give their lives for you!
50. THEY'RE MISSING THE VALUE OF WINNING DISCIPLES IN THEIR NICE LITTLE PRIVATE HOMES OF "THEE, ME, THOU & OUR KIDS & NO OTHER!" (Maria: I would say they were missing the value of that, because this is the exact shocking revelation that you gave them in "Mass Evangelism". That was a big shock to everybody Worldwide, but it completely changed their outlook. I think now we're really going to see a difference in disciples.) I hope so!
51. DO YOU REMEMBER THE NEW REVOLUTION IN 1975? Do you know what our requirement then was to be authorised as a full-fledged Home that was entitled to all literature & material, etc., that got all Letters? Do you know what our disciple requirement was per Home per month? I think it started out one disciple per month, but then we kind of got a little looser all the time. We went up to one disciple for 3 months, & then we had compassion & pity on the poor & we said, well, one disciple every 6 months. But in the New Revolution at the beginning, as I recall, we said any Home that can't bring in at least one disciple per month isn't worth getting all the Letters! We had two or three different classes of Homes, one got everything if they fulfilled all the requirements--they only had 6-to-a-dozen members, they won at least one disciple every month & they distributed at least a thousand pieces of lit per adult per month.
52. WELL, I'LL TELL YOU ONE THING WE'RE DOING, WE'RE AVERAGING PRETTY WELL ON THE LIT PER ADULT. It went way down for awhile, but it's back up to what we'd call normal. But I wonder how many Homes are actually even taking in one new disciple per year? (Maria: I think this year they will!) God bless Mother Mary who intercedes for her people! Well, I'll tell you, they had better change & they had better do better, or I might as well consider my job done, that we have won all the souls we're going to win! And if you count them in disciples taken into the Homes, we've gotten all the disciples we're going to get, so therefore we're not going to grow any more except by the birth canal, which is about where the churches got to! We're only doing a little bit better than them now. Well, thank God, for one thing I think we do have more children, more babies, give us credit for that, & that's a tough job.
53. BUT AS FAR AS WINNING NOT JUST SOULS, BUT DISCIPLES JOINING HOMES, according to our actual rate of growth--& you can only count it by gains & losses, birth rate balanced against the death rate in our nation--they may have had twice as many disciples but they didn't stick, whoever. And according to our growth, our disciple growth has just been the number of our children, sad to say. Well, good to say in a way. Thank God for children, they're the best disciples in the World! Maybe we can look forward to them as the hope of the future, that within the next ten years that we still have to operate, God willing, that they will have become teenagers & on-fire & hot like you were when you were teenagers & first joined, or close to teenagers, & maybe we'll have another harvest! But I'll tell you, our showing right now of actual new disciples in regard to actual growth of the Homes & our population is pretty low. It's only about a 90% growth in 3 years. We've hardly doubled in the past 3 years! We have doubled in about 4 years, but that's not good enough to suit me, & I don't think it's good enough to suit the Lord!
54. SO LET'S FACE IT, THEY HAVE ALMOST COMPLETELY STOPPED WINNING & TAKING IN DISCIPLES, & if we don't do better than that, we have reached saturation point as far as really winning disciples is concerned. All right, I'll admit the possibility & probability & hopefulness that they have now begun to win disciples again. But back to our original subject. That brought out a very important point we need to put more emphasis on, & maybe this'll jerk some of us up!
55. CONSIDERING THE PICTURE OF OUR DISCIPLESHIP WITHIN THE LAST 3 YEARS REGARDING HOMES, IT'S ALMOST AS POOR AS THE RESULTS OF OUR RADIO MINISTRY! There's only one thing I can say for it, there would have been at least five Homes that wouldn't have been scratchin' & scrapin' & scrimpin', trying to make a living at the same time they were trying to do the Lord's work; they'd have had full support for a full 3 years. And with that full support, not having to worry about having a few more mouths to feed, maybe they would have won more disciples & been willing to take'm in. I certainly think they should have been able to, & that they should've & could've--these five theoretical Homes we're speaking of who could have been supported in full for over three years by what we spent on radio & counting this one area alone in results.
56. I WANT YOU TO GET THE SAME KIND OF STATS FROM MCV & I WANT TO SEE THE SAME KIND OF STATS STATION BY STATION! And they need to keep tabs on individual station areas, as well as individual stations when these people write in. When these people write in, what station are they listening to? And when we find out it's all one station which has got the best results, let's drop the rest! Well, roughly speaking in this one area alone, according to these stats we can drop half the stations & not even feel it as far as results are concerned! And considering the other half are all questionable, we might even be able to drop most of the other half!--Since I only counted a handful of station areas that we got enough results to even make it worthwhile to stay on one station in each area!--In other words, each one of which one station could cover. We could be getting the same amount of results through this handful of good stations, with only one in each area.
57. MAYBE WE COULD DO THE SAME THING WITH THOSE FEW STATIONS IN THOSE FEW CITIES AS WE'RE TALKING ABOUT PERSONAL EVANGELISM & PERSONAL SOUL-WINNING & really go after those stations & really push & demand of these stations that they put us on at better times, better hours! My Lord, look what we could do on this handful of stations if we were on a half-an-hour every day! We could send 20 times as many tapes to each station. We could be on, in other words, 5 days a week on 7 stations for example!--And that's when you really get results, I'll tell you! From past experience in the U.S. & as everybody who's ever been on radio can tell you, if you're on the same hour of every day of the week or at least five days a week, then you get results! You get regular steady listeners & you get solid results! In the States they count it in dollars & cents of support; we could count it in salvations & real follow-up & disciples & genuine fruit!
58. I WOULD RATHER SEE US SEND THAT MANY TAPES & GO TO THAT MUCH EXPENSE TO BE ON 7 AREAS ON RADIO 5 TIMES A WEEK, same time every day that people can listen, & have steady fans & steady listeners every day, every day! That's what got Fred Jordan where he was!--It wasn't television, it was radio! 15 minutes a day, 6 days a week got him an audience of thousands, people writing in excited about these testimonies of new souls won! And you know what he did? He brought in, first of all, just the souls he was winning personally every day. He'd go out all day witnessing, winning souls, & then he'd come back & put at least one or two or more of them on the radio with their testimony, how he won them to the Lord! I think it was 7 o'clock in the evening. That's a real good hour because it's hard to get. Of course, he paid for his time, & he paid plenty! It was just on a little station though, a little Long Beach station about 7 o'clock at night, 15 minutes a night, that's all, just a hole they happened to have open. And he'd bring in new souls he'd personally won every show to give their testimony! Boy, that thing went over like a bomb!
59. THAT'S WHAT MADE FRED JORDAN!--BECAUSE THE CHURCHES WEREN'T DOING THAT & THEY KNEW IT! And the Christians weren't doing it & they knew it! So when Christians even listened to this show & heard what he was accomplishing, they just poured in the letters & the funds & the support because they figured, "Well, why should I support a church that's not winning souls, when this one guy's winning more souls than my church!" And of course on his commercial program he could beg for money too. But he was getting results, so he had a right to beg for money! And he got fruit, he got results & their investments paid off in souls & they could hear him!--And when he got on television they could see him! Then he went to missions, sending out missionaries, & boy, that brought in even more as far as backers & support & souls!
60. I WOULD RATHER CONCENTRATE ON THE AREAS WHERE WE ARE GETTING RESULTS & GETTING FRUIT, & THE STATIONS THAT WE'RE GETTING IT ON! And I would say considering the amount of money it's costing us, we could almost afford to pay for the time on some of those stations, on 7 stations for half-an-hour a day, five days a week, & get good solid listener response. I'm just theorising right now what we could do instead of just spreading ourselves out so thin & wasteful on a lot of stations that are getting nothing, some of which we've been on for 2 or 3 years!
61. AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST, BACK TO IHC! I'm giving you the moral now. I think we can not only accomplish more by concentrating our efforts & our tapes & our shows & our expense on this handful of stations that are reaping results, I believe we could accomplish even more if we would go into those areas where we've got good solid saved disciples--& in most of them, by the way, there're two or more people in that area, very few where it's only one. I believe we would accomplish more if we would go in there with the tapes & start giving it to those two people & teaching & training those two people & getting them together in fellowship & in a Club & reaching them directly, personally, maybe just first of all by tape, but sooner or later by a Visitor who can organise those people into a working, fellowshipping Club, even if it's only two people. I think they would accomplish more in the long run in witnessing, soul-winning & winning disciples than wasting those tapes on the stations, even in the areas where we do have some fruit. I think we should take advantage of the fruit we've got! "What Is That In Thine Hand?" (Ex.4:2 & ML#315)
62. INSTEAD OF ALL THIS EXPENSE OF SO MANY STATIONS & SO MANY TAPES, if we stopped sending thousands of dollars' worth of tapes to all these unprofitable stations & we even kept seven stations, one in each fruitful area, how much does that save us? Well, it would be only a fraction of the cost, even if it was 5 times a week, in tapes. It should even save us money, plus accomplish a lot more! But what if we take that cost of even sending a tape to these two disciples in an area, two tapes a month for them to listen to, or five tapes a week, 20 tapes a month. If you sent those two disciples 20 tapes, & tell one of them: "Listen, we're sending you 10 tapes for your use this month. We also sent so-&-so 10 other tapes you haven't heard. If you two guys get together, you can swap tapes & you can listen all week long!" Don't you think that would have more results than just all this scattershot through these stations?
63. IF YOU TOOK 7 AREAS & STARTED SENDING THEM EACH 20 TAPES A MONTH, EVEN TO JUST TWO DISCIPLES IN THAT AREA & SEND THEM A VISITOR, I THINK THAT WOULD RESULT IN MORE FRUIT! You'd have those kids inviting other kids in to hear'm & you'd have a Club in no time! You wouldn't need a radio station! You'd get more results, more power, more reaction, more response, everything, from just that personal approach!--Taking the same amount of tapes & investing them in an average of two disciples in each of 7 areas, an average of two. What do you think about that? Do you think I'm crazy or do you think that's true?
64. IN THIS ONE AREA THERE ARE ONLY SEVEN CITIES THAT HAVE BEEN FRUITFUL WITH AN AVERAGE OF 2 OR 3 DISCIPLES PER AREA. For what we've been paying for all this other, we could afford to send out 7 fulltime Pastors to work on each of those areas!--With two hands full of 20 tapes a month for them to listen to!--To get together, "where two or three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them"--along with 20 tapes! Don't you think there would be some kind of an explosion?
65. MAYBE IF WE'D GO OUT THERE & TAKE CARE OF THEM WE'D MAKE GOOD DISCIPLES OUT OF THEM THAT WILL GET RESULTS!--If we had a man or somebody, a team, a couple maybe to send to each one of these seven areas where we're getting fruit, with a bag full of tapes to circulate amongst actual listeners who have tape recorders. We could even afford to buy some cheap tape recorders, donate a tape recorder per Club if they'll come together & listen! I'm sure the Visitors could find out who's the most reputable, dependable, reliable person in the bunch to be the local Secretary & to handle the tape recorder & the tapes & call the meetings & whatnot.
66. I'M JUST SUGGESTING TO YOU, DON'T YOU THINK THAT WOULD GET MORE RESULTS IF WE WOULD TAKE THE SAME AMOUNT OF TAPES & TIME & PERSONNEL & MONEY? You say, "Well, where are we going to get all this personnel?" Well, let's see, we've got about 21 adults at MWMI. Let's say we left a third of them behind, 7 out of the 21. We'd have 14 left & we could send 2 of them to each one of those 7 places with handfuls of tapes! That may sound crazy, but I'm just telling you, don't you think they could get more solid results & genuine disciples, as well as many multiplied more Salvations than sitting around on their thumbs & their stools & their machines, Tweedledum & Tweedledee, twiddling off this, that & the other song?
67. THAT MAY SOUND REAL RADICAL & DRASTIC & FANATICAL & REVOLUTIONARY, BUT I WONDER WHAT WOULD HAPPEN IF WE WOULD JUST TRY IT. Let's set the example & show these mass-media mass-evangelism hot-heads & enthusiasts that we believe personal evangelism can do more! After all this time on the radio, I think we have just about got almost all we're going to get! We could keep on just piddling along as far as radio's concerned, but I think it's time to get out there & reap & work on'm, & get in there & cultivate the disciples we have got & organise them & put them to work & train'm & really get'm into fellowship, & I just have a feeling we'd just about have an explosion! We would have a Club explosion, an organisational explosion, a fellowship explosion, a discipleship explosion, a soul-winning explosion! I think we would just really have an explosion, a real personal witnessing explosion & personal evangelism explosion & fruit explosion! (P: As Maria mentioned before, the new disciples being won in India are being won primarily by the people that were freed from the Hindi Lit-Pic & the Hindi MWM, the top personnel that were tied up in those things.)
68. SO THEREFORE, WHY DON'T WE TAKE ALL THIS MONEY WE'RE GOING TO SAVE IN THE NOT-RAISING-HOGS BUSINESS, & INSTEAD OF WASTING IT ON THE HOGS, LET'S PUT IT INTO SHEEP, REAL SHEEP!--Instead of the hogs that have been gobbling it up & getting very little results, including the stations. I'm not just talking about the musicians or the offices, everybody's been working their heads off & asses off & hearts out & everything else! I'm sure they've been doing the best they can, at least I hope they have. God help them if they haven't!
69. TELL'M, "HERE'S YOUR CHANCE TO PIONEER. We'll give you support each month. Who wants to volunteer to hit the road & go out into these seven fruitful areas where we've already got hot leads, hot customers, already saved, won, on the discipleship courses, & all you have to do is go in there & rent yourself a house & get'm together & work from scratch?" Don't you think we'd get more results than we're getting right now. Does that sound crazy?
70. WE PLAN ON STILL GIVING THEM TAPES, BECAUSE WE'VE GOT LOTS OF TAPES! They can go in there with bags full of tapes! They can play 2 or 3 tapes a meeting, make their whole meeting real MWMI Shows! If they'll sit & listen to the program from a radio, why wouldn't they come together to listen to it on a good tape recorder? I'll bet they've got enough tape recorders right now at MWMI that they each have one that's good enough to play to groups! You used to hook up those little amplifiers to micros so the whole room could hear it! Well, if that isn't good enough, I'd be willing to buy'm tape recorders that are powerful enough & good enough to play!--And the ones that play the standard size tapes, which is what we've got the most of, are real cheap! A small group of half-a-dozen to a dozen people can sit down in one room & listen to them beautifully! Hallelujah!
71. I'D BE WILLING TO BUY THEM SOME NEW GOOD ONES! You don't have to buy those expensive things that play two different kinds of tapes, just a stereo tape player in a small portable model that's just got the two speakers & just plays tapes. They're so common now, I'll bet you could buy them for $100 or less! I mean something that's really got two good stereo speakers that they could really hear, that you could blast them out of the house with! The last time we priced them in Singapore, those little ones we saw there that just played big tapes had two speakers & I think they even had radios. I suppose you could get them cheaper even without the radio, just tape players & two speakers. Of course, in case we're still on the radio in that town, maybe it would be good to have a radio that they could all listen to too. But I'll bet you could buy'm for $100 apiece. I'd be happy to volunteer to buy'm for those 4 teams!
72. OKAY BOYS, THERE'S THE BALL & I'M TOSSING IT INTO YOUR COURT & YOU TAKE IT AWAY! Let me see you make a goal with it! Get me all these stats, Son, not only on all of MWMI, but MCV & all, full stats on the whole works. Figure it out like this including what we can boil offices down to & expenses down to by cutting out all the 9'ers & all the rest of the stuff we've already been talking about. We're going to start right now, period! Agreed?--First of all dropping stations.
73. ONE OF THE FIRST THINGS WE NEED TO KNOW BEFORE WE SEND OUT ANOTHER BATCH OF TAPES IS HOW MANY OF THESE PACKAGES ARE WE GOING TO SLIP THESE FINAL NOTICES IN TO THE STATIONS. You're going to slip in a little note along with a card for them to let us know whether they want to beg us & tell us either the better time slot they'll give it or the better day. In other words, they've got to start screaming & begging us to stay on, otherwise we'll drop these unfruitful stations!
74. MAYBE WE CAN DEVISE A "LAST CHANCE CARD" TO PUT IN THERE WITH THE NOTICE & SAY: "What do you suggest we do to increase station response in this area? What do you offer to do to persuade us to continue to send you these shows?" Figure out some kind of a card to send them: "We promise to put MWM in on such-&-such a day at such-&-such a better hour or so many times a week & to really promote it, advertise it, push it!" And you get back these Last Chance Cards from stations that really want to keep it & promise to do this & that & the other on the Card if we'll please continue the tapes. We'll see what kind of response we get out of that, even from some of these questionable stations.
75. I WOULDN'T EVEN HESITATE TO DROP THE OTHERS RIGHT NOW & FORGET ABOUT IT AS FAR AS THE ONES WHO HAVEN'T HAD A SINGLE RESPONSE IN THE LAST YEAR! What do you think?--Or since the local address has just recently been introduced, should we let'm go on for another 4 months with the local address & see what happens? I think we need to try to give that a chance. (P: They've noticed this month that response has increased. The kind of people that are writing in seem to be better & they're getting more of them!--And that's only with the local address on once at the end of the Show.)
76. WELL, I THINK THE IHC IS THE ONE TO MAKE THIS NEXT DECISION, & that is to go over this list with a fine-tooth comb & decide which of these stations to drop, particularly unmonitored stations. I'd say any station that won't send back a Confirmation Card, why do we keep sending them tapes? (P: Apparently if it's not monitored, they do send them a Reconfirmation Card once every 3 or 6 months, & then drop them if they don't respond.) Well, they've got a Hell of a lot of them on this list, Brother, that haven't confirmed or reconfirmed & are not monitored that I think ought to be dropped right now!
77. IF A STATION DOESN'T WANT THE PROGRAM & ISN'T HONEST ENOUGH TO SEND YOU BACK AT LEAST A CARD TELLING YOU WHAT DAYS & WHAT TIME OF DAY THEY PROGRAM IT, I'D DROP'M ON THE SPOT WITHOUT FURTHER NOTICE! We already are supposed to have warned them that if they didn't confirm or reconfirm we're going to drop'm, right? So they don't need any further notice, just drop'm! Have the IHC go through this with a fine-tooth comb & find out how many stations we can drop right now without giving them any further time or chance, period!--Because it's obvious that they're either not programming it or don't care or don't give it a decent time since it's not getting any results. Now we don't want to offend stations that are really programming it & really trying. So they'd better go through this & really weed'm out.
78. THAT'S THE IHC'S JOB! They know the areas, they know even the stations & the results. Let's let them do the weeding-out right now of what stations they think ought to be dropped immediately.--And I'd say certainly stations who have failed to confirm or reconfirm! They're not supposed to be given any more tapes one month after they've received that Confirmation Card. In fact, it's supposed to say in the notice that "These are your last tapes unless we get this card back immediately!" Then let's either make sure they're monitored & really are broadcasting, as well as how many months they've been on, that has a lot of bearing on it.
79. I'D SAY ANY STATION THAT'S BEEN ON A YEAR OR MORE & THEY KNOW IT'S ACTUALLY BEEN PLAYING--it's either monitored or they've confirmed, reconfirmed, etc., & they're pretty sure it's on but have had no results in the past year--I think they ought to be given their final notice. Not just to reconfirm, but warned: "Because we've had little or no response in your area, unless you send us back this Last Chance Card promising that you'll do this better, better day, better time, more promotion, more effort to get listeners, we'll have to discontinue the Show. If we get back the card we'll give you a few more months." How much more time shall we give'm?--I'd say at the maximum 6 months. "If you'll send us back this card promising a better day, better time, more promotion, more advertising, we'll give you another 6 months, at the end of which time if we don't get more response from your area, sorry, we'll have to drop your station." Something on that order. You guys can work on that. Okay, do you get the general drive?--General direction?
80. I WANT TO SEE IF RADIO IS REALLY WORTH IT, & if it's worth it at all, I want to know where it's worth it & who is worth it & how much it's worth it! And if in some of these areas we have apparently reached a maximum or a saturation point of results, it's time to drop the Radio Ministry & go in with the personal ministry with what we've already got, which I think would be more fruitful. And take the money & pay the personnel to do it instead of just throwing it away on the air waves we know not where. I think it's about time & we ought to know by now.
81. --EXCEPT, AS WE SAY, THESE LAST CHANCE STATIONS THAT COME BACK WITH A CARD REALLY DESPERATE THAT THEY WANT THE SHOW & they're going to do this, that & the other, more than they've done before.--And I would say, except for the stations who have only recently been booked & have not yet been on for 6 months. I would really say we need to give a station 12 months of actual programming, one year. Just write them a little letter: "We've been on your station, according to you, for a whole year, & yet we've had no response. How come? Is it at the wrong time of day on the wrong day of the week? Is it because you don't push it or promote it? You're not interested in encouraging listener response? Is it because you're getting the phone calls & the mail & not us?" That's a possibility, you know, especially if the people don't want to take the trouble to write a letter to Greece or some other distant country!
82. LET'S MAKE IT A LETTER: "WHAT'S THE PROBLEM? We've been on your station a year, or nearly a year, why aren't we getting more response? You tell us! And if you want to keep this Show any longer, we'll have to get back this card this month promising more effort on your part etc.--or these are your last tapes!" OK?--To all of the stations where we've been on somewhere around a year with little or no response. I don't consider one response enough to warrant it. I'd say by the time we've got two, well, that might warrant following-up the two disciples, but it's hardly worth staying on the station. I just think we'd get more results out of going right in there to those two disciples & working on them personally & forming a Club & teaching them to litness & witness & win souls & win disciples. I think you'd get more good solid results in the long run than just staying on that unfruitful station.
83. THESE ARE THINGS THAT THE IHC CAN DO RIGHT NOW WITH THESE RESULTS! They can figure out which stations need to be notified in the next tape mailing that they are going to be dropped if they don't return this Last Chance Card! Maybe that's a good title to wake'm up!--Last Chance! "This is your last chance to keep MWM on the air on your station. What's the matter? Why aren't we getting response from your area? What can you do about it? And if we don't get this card back with your promise to do better--not just the card but your promise to do better & more promotion--these are your last tapes!" Fair enough?--Stations where we've been on for almost a year or over a year. And for God's sake, certainly all the stations where we've been on for 2 or 3 or more years!
84. I THINK WE'RE GOING TO WEED OUT A LOT OF STATIONS, & probably a lot of stations that haven't even been programming & that's why we've got no response! There's oodles of stations there that aren't monitored. I'd rather keep it on one good station in an area than 7 or 8 in the same coverage area. Why send so many tapes to that area when they can just listen to one station? I don't think that area deserves that many shows on that many stations, do you? I think it's kind of silly to have so many shows on so many stations.
85. BUT SINCE THE IHC'S GOING TO HAVE THE RESPONSIBILITY NOW, LET THEM COMB THROUGH & WEED'M OUT! Let them know the score & they can probably read this Letter pretty soon, & we'll find out! Then we'll know what to do from there.
86. JUST A LIST OF STATIONS OR HOW MANY TAPES YOU SENT OUT DOESN'T MEAN A DAMN THING IF THEY'RE NOT PROGRAMMING THEM, & MOREOVER IF THEY'RE NOT GETTING RESULTS! And all these names of so-called Club Members doesn't mean a damn thing if 2/3 of them are 9'ers & only 4% of the rest of them ever come through with salvation & follow-up! I'd rather boil it down to the people who really count, that we can go to work on & really develop into something good--solid Clubs with solid Club Members, which will eventually amount to new Homes & real genuine Family Members of real, genuine, saved, sanctified, Spirit-filled, loving, witnessing, litnessing, soul-winning, discipling Christians! Amen? Okay, I guess that's enough! PTL!
87. THE MAIN DIFFICULTY I FOUND WAS I WONDER HOW MANY OF THESE SO-CALLED RESPONSES WERE 9'ERS? Of course, we know how many of them got saved & went through. That to me is a wonderful indication to show that if they get saved, they go all the way! And that means, if we send somebody in there to nail'm, we can keep'm & make fulltime Family Members out of them! I believe it!
88. ANOTHER THING I HAD A HARD TIME FINDING OUT--IN THESE AREAS WHICH ARE GROUPED TOGETHER WHERE THEY'VE GOT HALF-A-DOZEN DIFFERENT STATIONS OR MORE, WHICH STATION IS GETTING THE RESULTS? They should be able to go by those cards they're getting back from the Members as to what station they're listening to. Every card that comes from the Members should have a place for the station that they listen to & the day & time of day. (P: It doesn't.) Well, it should have, why not? That's our best monitoring system of all, is all those people, not just Family Members. That's a monitoring system with every response! "I heard your show on station so-&-so at such-&-such a time, such-&-such a day of the week." And tell'm: "You must fill out this entire card or we don't respond, we don't send you what we promised." And just have that on every single request card, so we'll know. That keeps a steady flow of information on what stations are being listened to & what day & time they're on. It'll take some time to do all this, but I think we're moving in the right direction, don't you? Of course, I'd liked to have gotten it done yesterday!
89. SO THE IHC HAS TO MAKE A DECISION AS TO WHAT STATIONS OUGHT TO BE DROPPED RIGHT NOW--sent their last tape with their Last Chance Warning! Maybe that's a good name for it: "Last Chance Warning!" I think if I got a card like that, I'd read it!--Wouldn't you? "Last Chance Warning! If your station doesn't come up with better response or plans for better response, such as a better time of day or day of the week or more promotion, & if you don't return this card immediately with these plans & a request for continuance, then these will be your last tapes!"
90. YOU GUYS CAN WORK TOGETHER ON THAT CARD & WORD IT THE SIMPLEST POSSIBLE. I'd say make it short & simple & blunt & to the point, & bitter if necessary! Not short & sweet, but short & bitter! Be polite & courteous.--Like these diplomats, they can all lie with the straightest faces you ever saw! We're not going to lie to'm, but we're going to tell'm the facts nicely. Thrust the dagger in as sweetly as you know how!
91. SO GET THEM TO DROP EVERYBODY THEY THINK OUGHT TO BE DROPPED RIGHT NOW & FIND OUT WHAT STATIONS ARE BEING LISTENED TO AS QUICKLY AS WE CAN! That may take a little time, a little response--I think even one mailing at least to the so-called Club Members, those whom we hear from, for example, this month. Make a new card & send it out now: "What station are you listening to, what time of day, what day of the week, how good is the reception, are they promoting the show?" Let's get some information out of these Listeners too! "Do they announce the Show any other time except when it comes on? When? How often?" etc. Let's send out a Survey Card to the supposed Listeners, shall we? We need to know these things, what station it is, what time of day, what day of the week & do they push it or not & how good's the reception etc.
92. SOME OF THESE STATIONS, YOU GET THE POINT, WILL BE ABLE TO BE DROPPED IMMEDIATELY--ONE, TWO, THREE YEARS & NO RESPONSE! I don't think it's even worth asking the station. I think they should just be told: "This is your last tape mailing." Send them a Last Chance Warning Card, that's all. If they really come up with some good ideas, maybe we'll continue'm, let's see what the card looks like first. So for some of these stations, this could be their last mailing. The ones who favourably respond to the Last Chance Warning Card, we can tell'm: "Well, we'll give you 6 more months with this new time & day & promotion & local address & see what you can do. And if your response merits it, we'll continue. But we'll give you just 6 more months."--Only to those you get back a good Last Chance Warning Card from.
93. SO SOME CAN BE DROPPED RIGHT NOW, SOME CAN BE DROPPED WHO DON'T GIVE A GOOD RESPONSE TO THE LAST CHANCE WARNING CARD. They'll be dropped immediately--at least you won't send them another mailing. I don't believe any station should just be dropped without any warning. All the stations they're supposed to be mailing to now will receive a Last Chance Warning Card if they're not getting any results.
94. WHO KNOWS? IT MIGHT BE A GOOD IDEA TO SEND THEM ALL THAT CARD! If we haven't had any response, it must not be on at a very good time or they're not pushing it or something! At least all the stations where we're not having any response, I think no matter who they are or what they are, we ought to send them a Last Chance Warning Card, don't you? Right now! In the areas where we're getting some response & we've had good solid response, I don't want to shake'm up too much or hurt their feelings.
95. YOU CAN SYMPATHISE WITH ME, I'M PAST MY LUNCHTIME TOO! In fact, I called you in here just about my lunchtime & I've been hungry ever since! But I think it's worth fasting a little bit & praying about if something comes out of this that's going to be worthwhile. And this, I think, maybe will shake up some of these Offices to see they're not going to be able to pad these stats any more with a lot of deadwood & dead stations, & we'll get down to the nitty-gritty of real honest-to-goodness solid real live flesh-&-blood-&-spirit disciples!
96. AND THEN WE'LL START PUSHING THE PROGRAM OF PERSONAL VISITATION! I wouldn't be surprised if we find out it works! That would help get rid of those Blobs they've got before we have to move only a couple of hardcore musicians, a technician & a couple of singers wherever they're going to move! They've got 6 months to give us an excuse for their living! What's your excuse for livin'? Okay, get out & prove it! OK? Amen? GBY! I believe you can do it!
97. ALL RIGHT, LET'S GO TO WORK ON THIS! LET'S TRIM'M DOWN! Let's trim down the stations! Let's trim down the disciples to disciples we've really got, stations we've really got & are producing results, disciples that we've really got that are saved & are going through the follow-up. And let's cut down the Music Units & the Offices to what we absolutely have to have, & send the rest of them on the road--& then we've got the personnel for the follow-up!--For the IHC Minstrel Teams & Visitors & whatever, in fact, Local Pastors to get in there & organise the Clubs & the sheep & train'm, & we'll support'm!--I mean, we'll support the teams that go out & hit the road as missionaries to do the follow-up!
98. BY THIS TIME, AT THE END OF 2 & 3 YEARS, WE SHOULD KNOW WHAT FRUIT WE'VE GOT, & WE OUGHT TO GET IN THERE NOW & REAP IT!--And that's exactly what you heard when I started this show. When I talked about the IHC program, that's what I meant! It's time to get in there & reap those disciples & make good solid Members out of them with good solid Clubs, Homes & Fellowships, whatever you want to call'm! Amen?
99. WE'VE BEEN PLAYING AROUND LONG ENOUGH, PIPING TO THEM MUSIC IN THE MARKET PLACE & THEY'VE NOT RESPONDED! "We've sung to you & you haven't sung back, we've danced for you & you haven't danced!" Jesus said, "To what shall I liken this generation? It is like children sitting in the markets & calling unto their fellows & saying, We have piped unto you, & ye have not danced!" (Mt.11:16,17) Let's go after the live ones & leave the dead ones alone! Amen? Okay? PTL! GBY! That's it! Questions? Suggestions? Comments? Complaints? Needs? Criticisms? You don't dare offer one now, do you, because it would make the meeting too long!--Ha! GBY! I hope that gets the point across!
100. AMEN, LORD, TYJ! PRAISE YOU LORD FOR THIS TIME & THESE WHO ARE WILLING TO SACRIFICE THEIR TIME & THEIR TUMMIES & FAST & PRAY & THINK & WORK ON WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE SITUATION. After this much sowing, Lord, & watering & cultivating & fertilising with follow-up & all the rest, it's time we sat down & counted the cost, assessed the results & decided on how much fruit really is remaining or will remain when we're done with it, & how many stations are going to remain too & what we're going to have left to work with & what to do about it & how to do it, Lord, & without whom & how much.
101. HELP US, LORD, TO REALLY BE FAITHFUL, DILIGENT SERVANTS, EFFICIENT, EFFECTIVE, PROFITABLE & FRUITFUL, & make Thy funds & Thy money & Thy personnel & Thy hard-working people & their time & energy & lives that they're sacrificing & investing in this ministry, Lord, to stretch as far as possible & accomplish as much as we can! So that You can say to us when it's all done, "Well done thou good & faithful servant, enter thou into the joy of thy Lord" in that wonderful, glorious Heavenly City you've gone to prepare, in Jesus' name. And may we be thankful, too, Lord as we enter, & almost proud--not proud but thankful--Lord, for all the souls we'll see there as a result of our faithfulness & our ministries. That'll be the pay-off, Lord!--As much as Thy "well done," it'll be their "thank-you's"! TYJ!--In Jesus' name, amen! PTL!
102. THREE HOURS, YOU'RE DISMISSED! Anything to say, Maria? (Maria: No, Sir.) Enough said, huh? Do you think that's enough said? Well, we'll know by your comeback. I want to see more stats & I want to see the results of the IHC survey as soon as possible, & the plans for MWMI & MCV, etc.
103. I KNEW WE NEEDED TO DO IT, BUT I DIDN'T KNOW HOW OR WHO OR WHAT FOR, BUT NOW THE LORD'S SHOWN US WHAT TO DO WITH THEM! We thought about just dumpin' some of them out there in fields where they could take care of themselves, but why not give them this ministry? They've invested their life & time & years of their work in this Radio ministry, let them go out into the field & see what they've got! Shouldn't that be some inspiration & incentive to go out there & find it?--And we'll back'm up financially & pay for it with what we're going to save on all these wasted stations & wasted mail & all the other ways we've been wasting money & too much personnel sitting around in the barn singing songs & playing music instead of getting out there & reaping the harvest!
104. WE'LL BACK'M UP, WE'LL FINANCE'M! We'll give each of these families or teams some monthly support to get out there & follow-up these hot leads & produce results! Is that fair enough? Amen! Okay, that's the P.S. Now you'd better run quick before I put a P.P.S. on it or before you have to go pee-pee! GBY & thanks for your time! ILY! I know it's hard living with me & having to go through all this, but you could have a worse boss! (Maria: We've got the best!) I don't do this maybe more than once a week. Sunday just seems to be such a nice time. I'm used to preaching on Sundays, I'm an old-time preacher! Now you've had your Fellowship Meeting!--Ha! GBAKY discipling for Jesus!--In Jesus' name, amen.--Amen?
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