Happy Birthday Guidelines

"Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation."- Mark 16:15

Guidelines is no longer a baby–she’s 38 years old today. Guidelines, probably the longest running five-minute commentary on the air, was first heard on September 2, 1963. I was 26 years old then and felt that thirty-minute sermons, broadcast on radio, were too long and too boring for the average person.

The idea for Guidelines was conceived in a little mountain cabin, when Darlene and I went on vacation in 1962. In those days Christian radio meant preaching programs, introduced by thundering renditions of "Onward Christian Soldiers".

As we read the Gospels, we were impressed that Jesus went where people were. He never put up a sign in front of the synagogue at Nazareth which read, "If you want to go to heaven, come hear me speak Friday at 7:30 pm." As He began His ministry, He sent out the Twelve, then the seventy. He invaded the marketplace, the world of commerce and industry. And His marching orders to the Church was: "Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation" (Mark 16:15).

Make it simple, make it relevant, make it biblical. Those were our goals. I resigned from a comfortable position as an associate pastor in a large church, took our love offering and bought used radio equipment. As I sat on a shipping crate in a missionary guesthouse in Los Angeles where I had gone for further studies, I produced the first Guidelines commentary.

Honestly, I would probably have fallen of that shipping crate in surprise or laughed myself into convulsions if someone then had told me that 38 years later I would still be doing the same thing. Over the years we have sought neither money or publicity. I’ve been content to chat with you heart to heart, bringing the Good News to you wherever you are.

As we begin our 38th year of broadcasting, Guidelines is reaching into more than 100 countries in 17 languages over 670 radio stations. Our weekly television program is seen in certain areas in the United States and throughout much of Southeast Asia and as far away as the South Sea islands.

I praise God for His faithfulness and for every one of you. Remember, you are the reason I’m still doing this.

Resource Reading: Mark 16