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Last year, a woman in a little town in North Carolina, found the hope of Jesus Christ in an unlikely place: a clear plastic fish bowl at the local DMV. That woman, depressed, suffering from serious health problems and weighed down by the burdens of this world had just written her own suicide note. But on that day when she had decided to end her own life, she was led by God to pick up a free CD.
The title of the message on that CD was "Renewing Hope." Hope is exactly what she needed.
The difference between life and death…
The message on that CD saved her life because she had already made up her mind that she was going to take her life. That message, placed there in a free fish bowl ministry by Robert Thomas of the Shallow Well United Church of Christ, proved to be the difference for her between life and death.
Becoming more outreach-oriented
Ten years before, when Pastor Donald Thompson arrived at the Shallow Well United Church of Christ, he knew that he wanted to see his new church become more outreach oriented. By then, Robert Thomas, the man who made the CD that saved the woman from suicide, had already been a longtime member of the Shallow Well United Church of Christ.
At the time Pastor Thompson arrived, Shallow Well did have a media ministry of sorts, but it was primarily for shut-ins and church members that might request a tape because they had missed a service. If the Shallow Well United Church of Christ continued operating their tape ministry the way they did 10 years ago, that desperate soul at the DMV may never have heard the Good News of Jesus Christ.
An idea for media ministry is born…
"Well, this little church has been here for about 200 years," Robert Thomas said. "I guess you can say that we kind of became comfortable. But when Pastor Thompson got here, he wanted to see us change that. He wanted us to start focusing on outreach. He and I sat down together and we were going through magazines. We were looking for some sound system equipment and we came upon a Kingdom catalog and we started reading some of the stories in there about tape ministries and fish bowl ministries. That’s what got us started with our tape ministry, the idea that we got out of the Kingdom catalog."
If you were to ask him, Robert would share that he is called to evangelism and that he also used to be a truck driver. He will also tell you that there is an evangelist that he truly admires, Billy Cashwell, who goes by the name the "Highway Shepherd."
How a truck driver’s mission inspired the church’s media ministry…
Robert said that when he drove truck for a living, he would see thousands of cassette tapes made by the "Highway Shepherd" all up and down the East Coast. The tapes were specifically placed in locations where long haulers could find them: restaurants, truck stops and weigh stations. Cashwell would surround the Good News message on his tapes with Gospel Music and close each one of his tapes with an invitation to allow Christ into the listener’s life as personal savior. |
When Robert and Pastor Thompson really began to plan out their tape ministry, Billy Cashwell, the "Highway Shepherd" himself, happened to be speaking nearby at a sister church. Robert and Pastor Thompson went to see him.
"The Lord put everybody together…"
"The Lord put everybody together for us — the people, that Kingdom catalog with the fish bowl ministry ideas, Billy Cashwell and his format that I liked so much — well, we just copied from everybody," Robert said.
And that is how the Shallow Well United Church of Christ’s media ministry was born. Ten years ago the United Church of Christ purchased their first set of duplicators and supply of tapes from Kingdom.
Robert would take the Sunday Morning message from a master recording at his church and surround that with music from local gospel bands who gave permission for their music to be used to reach others for Christ. At the end of each recording, he made sure that the salvation message was told, clearly and concisely. Then, Robert moved on to the duplication process, aided by his Kingdom® duplicators.
Ten years and five fish bowls later…
Ten years later, the church is still providing recorded services for shut-ins and members of the congregation. They record the entire service, from the call to worship to the benediction. Robert does, however, take special time in preparing tapes, and now CDs, to be used in the five fish bowls his church plants in the surrounding area. One of those fish bowls happened to be located in the local DMV. And that one message in the fish bowl saved that desperate woman’s life.
200 messages are given out each month!
Robert says that he and the volunteers on his distribution team hand out 200 CDs and tapes a month on average. Many go out to the fish bowls where people can pick them up free of charge. Others go out to one of the eight rest homes in the area where retired folks and the elderly can listen – either in their personal tape players or together in the day room.
In addition, other tapes and CDs are personally handed out by Robert and the members of the church in the same way that tracts would be handed out. One of the best ways to do that, Robert says, is when you can leave a CD on a table at a restaurant or put a stack of them any place where free circulars, flyers or real estate guides are placed.
Working for the Lord blesses everyone!
"Any time you’re doing work for the Lord, the Lord blesses the people you’re doing the work for. But you know what? He blesses you more by you doing His work," Robert said.
It can be as simple as handing CDs or tapes out to people wherever you find them. "I think that some people will listen to a CD before they read a tract," Robert says. CDs and tapes have worth. An unbeliever might just see a tract as a piece of paper that can be easily discarded. Tapes and CDs can be difficult to throw away and are usually listened to.
It can be as simple as handing CDs or tapes out to people wherever you find them. "I think that some people will listen to a CD before they read a tract," |
Robert says. CDs and tapes have worth. An unbeliever might just see a tract as a piece of paper that can be easily discarded. Tapes and CDs can be difficult to throw away and are usually listened to.
A time appointed by God…
"You know, I don’t know why that woman went to the DMV that day to renew her driver’s license. I really don’t. You might think that something like that would be the last thing on her mind when she was getting ready to go home and kill herself. But she did go and it saved her life."
Another example of someone being impacted from one of Shallow Well’s recorded messages comes from a couple who had recently moved to the area who, again, went to the local DMV center and picked up a tape. They listened to the tape and sent Pastor Donald a letter about how they didn’t have a home church and how the message had stirred them to find a church.
CDs and tapes help preserve the message that God has placed on your heart!
Robert Thompson shows great wisdom and great desire in his evangelist heart. "You know, I’ve done a little bit of preaching before," Robert said. "You spend six, eight, ten hours preparing for that message. All of your knowledge and effort and longing goes into that message. Then you deliver that message on Sunday Morning. The Holy Spirit steps in and sends it out into that sanctuary. But when you give that message on Sunday morning, it’s confined inside of that sanctuary on that morning. By doing this tape and CD ministry, there’s no confining that message anymore. It’s out there, for whoever will, to pick it up. And that, to me, is the beauty of our media ministry. We’ve enjoyed this ministry so much. It‘s a fulfilling ministry. It is amazing what the Lord can do with a little CD or cassette tape."
CD and Media ministry equals changed lives
Robert’s right… It is amazing. CDs and tapes do change lives, whether they have been placed in a fish bowl by Robert’s church or yours. The power is not the CD or Tape itself, the power is what is recorded on it: hope and love and mercy that is found in the message of the Gospel.
If you doubt the impact, just ask the woman in the DMV that day who picked up that message in the fish bowl, provided by Robert and the good people of the Shallow Well United Church of Christ.
It saved her life, bringing light into the darkest of days. |
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