Recent research indicates unchurched people are much more receptive to the gospel than their churched family, friends and neighbors think.
In fact, Dr. Thom Rainer, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., estimates up to 17 million Americans are ready to accept Christ and another 43 million are close to that spiritual acceptance.
According to Rainer, that is more than 37 percent of the estimated 160 million unchurched people in the United States. Many, if not most of them, would be willing to attend church if they were simply asked.
Fear of rejection, however, hinders many Christians from evangelizing within their sphere of influence. To combat that, pastors and church leaders look for programs and plans that will help their flocks fulfill the Great Commission.
Power of the Spoken Word
One program that has been effectively used by churches to spread the message to members of the community is the tape ministry. Sermons and special messages are recorded
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These taped messages serve a number of purposes.
At East Side Baptist Church in Paragould, Ark., a tape ministry is available to a segment of the church community that is unable to attend services but still wants to hear what is preached.
"We do it more than anything for our homebound members," said Kerri Freeman, pastor's secretary at East Side. "We have a homebound visitation team that meets every week and they go out and visit all our homebound members. They make the tapes available to them."
Freeman said while there may only be about 25 people on the homebound list,
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-- Kerri Freeman, |
We feel like they are still a part of our church even though they can't come any more. That's a way to make them feel more involved and to let them hear the services.
"We feel like they are still a part of our church even though they can't come any more," Freeman said. "That's a way to make them feel more involved and to let them hear the services."
Another segment that often misses out on the service is staff and volunteers who are involved in ministries of their own, such as children's church or the nursery. A tape ministry gives these workers a chance to catch up on the message and helps to eliminate an objection to volunteering.
"I think a lot of the churches, or probably all of them, have congregants that can't make it to the service but would like to hear the service," said Bob Cosulich, co-owner of Transco Products, a Linden N.J.-based company that markets recording materials. "So, they will make copies and get it to them."
The Take-Home Tape
By taking home recorded messages after a service, members can listen to and reflect on the sermon later, either in their homes or in their cars. Through the take-home tape, pastors not only extend the life of their message, but they give members a means of creating extensive resource libraries of their own.
Pat McDonnell, a church growth consultant at Kingdom Tapes, CDs & Electronics in Mansfield, Pa., said he recommends churches get the most impact they can out of their tape ministry.
"We encourage the churches to make copies of their messages and then really encourage the congregation to take them with them after the service  even to take multiple copies," he said.
He not only recommends members listen to the messages themselves, they should then share them with others in their circle of influence.
"I think most studies show a person gets saved because a friend reaches out," he said. Churches that focus on largely impersonal evangelism efforts, such as religious tracts or radio or television broadcasts, often see very little results compared to churches that promote a more personal outreach, he said.
Handing out tapes to their friends and family is a much more personal way that a member of a church can reach out with the gospel.
"The churches that are doing that are seeing tremendous results," he said. "We're getting reports of churches doubling and tripling in size because of this soul strategy and equipping the saints for outreach."
Something of Value
Cassette tapes and CDs have an intrinsic value that most people recognize, even if they
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-- Pat McDonnell, |
"People value that kind of media, more than something in print. If they are not interested in something in print, they throw it away," he said. "I get reports from people who received a tape and were not interested in anything spiritual at the time but they didn't throw it away because of that intrinsic value. They threw it in a drawer or just kept it in their possession somewhere. Years later, sometimes, they would rediscover this tape, listen to it and get saved."
Not only are unchurched people more likely to accept a tape or CD, Christians are more likely to offer them than they are tracts or other printed materials, he said.
"Most people won't hand out tracts," he said. "The few that do won't do it, oftentimes, long term because they get too much rejection. They just feel like they're shoving something down people's throat because of the rejection factor."
Since people are less likely to refuse a tape or CD, he said, it is easier to enlist volunteers into evangelism.
"I've found it's easy to get people to hand out tapes and CDs because you remove that rejection factor. People rarely ever reject it," he said. "On the contrary, they say things that would indicate they feel like they just received a gift. Even if they are not that excited about the message on it, they still, just because of the type of media it is, feel like they've been given something of value."
What's it Going to Cost?
The actual start-up cost of a tape ministry depends on the size and scope of it. For a church with average attendance of a few hundred that anticipates small volume, a basic, single tape duplicator and a supply of 100 tapes can be purchased for as little as $400.
Most likely, though, churches will want to purchase a four-position duplicator that dubs three tapes from a master recording. That unit will likely cost between $1,000 and $2,000. Tape ministries with high-volume needs will likely need several units that can be tied together in a "daisy chain" and copy up to 28 copies.
Churches can choose between mono and stereo reproduction, but the price difference of about $700 may make stereo recording cost prohibitive.
"When we have customers looking to purchase the duplicating equipment, a lot of them will ask about stereo and we kind of discourage it," said Transco's Cosulich. "It's a lot more expensive, it's more expensive to maintain and you really don't need it."
Blank cassette prices can range from about 34 cents apiece to well over $1, depending upon the quality and length of the tape. CD-R media runs between 40 cents to 50 cents, again depending upon quality and quantity. Jewell cases add about 23 cents to 25 cents to the cost.
Most churches try to offset the cost of a tape ministry by selling the recordings.
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-- Becky Raffety, |
Some churches, on the other hand, provide the tapes at no cost to members.
Westside Family Church in Shawnee, Kan., for instance, duplicates about 3,000 tapes each month that are given away to members and anyone else who asks.
"My budget for tapes and CDs last year was almost $18,000," said Becky Raffety, ministry development director at Westside.
Providing tapes to members to share with others in the community, she said, has proven to be more effective than any other method the church has used to get its message out.
"We spent lots of money on advertising and those sorts of things, but you always get your best results by someone inviting someone else," she said. "That (taped) message is probably the most effective."
