Here We Go!
Welcome to the inaugural issue of the LifeLetter. We’ve gotten so many great ideas and suggestions from so many of you it would be impossible for us to incorporate them all into one newsletter. If we tried, the newsletter would become an e-zine and a fulltime job… and you all know how well we keep up with just producing regular radio programs already. So you can be assured that each newsletter will be a little different as we try to do all the cool stuff you all have suggested.
Since our website hasn’t been updated in nearly a year, I’d like to let everyone know what is happening with “Our Life in Christ” lately. Well, Bill and I have had to face some reality (like that fact the website hasn’t been updated in quite a while even though we talk about it…). When we put up the website almost three years ago, we were a weekly live broadcast on 1360 KPXQ, a local evangelical radio station in Phoenix, AZ. We recorded the programs, edited out the commercials etc., and put them up on the website. After a while the website was getting traffic and we betrothed ourselves to Ancient Faith Radio which was just starting up. Our contract with KPXQ was coming due and we evaluated the relative cost of going internet only vs. local broadcast. We decided to drop the local program (and 1,300.00 a month airtime expense), and focused on the website and producing programs for Ancient Faith Radio. So that brings us to “today’s reality”.
By the grace of God and our listeners spreading the word, the program has become (or could be) essentially a full time ministry. Unfortunately both Bill and I have “real” full time jobs, a Mission Church we are committed to establishing, and all the other daily life stuff everyone else on earth has to deal with. Over the months, we’ve looked at so many areas we haven’t had the time to keep up with, like producing a weekly broadcast, doing program notes, recommended reading, updating the website regularly, and break music notes.
So to buy some time, we decided to try to streamline some things. We’ve begun to put in administrative infrastructure like “sign up forms” which saves me hours of data entry and lessens the chance of me losing files and names etc. The Study Bible offer has gone from two to three Bibles a month to over 100 a month. We’ve faced the need to do some serious fundraising for the Free Study Bible Offer (which of course requires more administrative infrastructure and time away from doing programs.) We’re looking at adding features to the website (more to come on those in future newsletters).
To be honest, administration is not my first love. It is not my gift. I’m computer stupid and I just don’t like spending hours learning how to print mailing labels from an Excel spreadsheet and setting up accounts and leasing postage meters etc.. But for now this is what I have to do so I can get back to doing the part of the ministry I love most.
Well, that’s the recent nuts and bolts stuff. It’s not earthshaking, I know. So, in this first Life Letter we just want to let everyone know we are blessed to have all of you on board. We are truly humbled that our small efforts have touched so many people that it actually now requires administration. But the bottom line is, it is our constant prayer that our yakking into a couple microphones in my basement is ultimately to the glory of God and the edification of all who find “Our Life in Christ”.