Cleveland, TN—While not as prominent in the overall ministry of the Church of God as it once was, Forward in Faith continues to garner consistent listeners, both on the radio airwaves and now as an on-demand digital download.
Radio stations in selected markets carry the weekly message in a variety of formats, including 15 and 30-minute lengths. The broadcasts are either aired for free by the stations as a public service, or sponsored by a local Church of God congregation. In Cleveland, Tenn., the broadcast is sponsored by the International Offices and airs Sunday mornings on the local 104.1 WCLE.
To increase the reach of the message of Forward in Faith, churches are encouraged to seek out sponsorship opportunities with their local radio stations. Depending on the time, size of market and other factors, sponsorship costs will vary widely.
To ease the process for radio stations, Church of God Communications maintains the website www.cogforwardinfaith.com [1] where several weeks of the program are available. Radio stations use the site to download the desired program into their radio logs rather than rely on the previous methods of mail delivery of a cassette or CD to the station, or, in the early days of the ministry, a reel-to-reel tape. The website also allows those who cannot hear the weekly message on their local station to download episodes.
Since 1994, the voice of Forward in Faith has been Pastor Loran Livingston. The weekly programs are Livingston’s sermons delivered to the congregation at Central Church of God in Charlotte, N.C. where he serves as senior pastor.
The number of cities where Forward in Faith is fewer than it was in its heyday when radio was a dominant media. The ministry began in December 1958 and for decades reigned as the signature program of the Church of God. Prior to the rise of the Internet, Forward in Faith was a full department of the Church with several employees and a reach across the nation and several foreign countries. Such names as Ray H. Hughes, Floyd J. Timmerman, Bennie Triplett and Carl Richardson were synonymous as the voices of the Church of God with a weekly recorded message broadcast across the radio airwaves. Listeners’ only option was to tune in to their favorite local station at the time it was scheduled, usually on Sunday morning. In the mid-70s, Forward in Faith, led by Richardson at the time, also produced full-length television programs, including “New World Coming,” and “Freedom Celebration,” which coincided with the United States Bicentennial in 1976.
In the early 1990s, the Public relations Department of the Church of God was re-launched as Church of God Communications and included the ministry of Forward in Faith, along with the successful Minister’s Tape Service (MTS), where for a small donation, subscribers would receive a cassette (or later, a CD) along with a written transcript of that week’s Forward in Faith message. With an emerging Internet presence and the revolution that websites, and now streaming, brought to the forefront, consumers’ preferences for obtaining media changed with these rising mediums, including easily accessible videos and other advanced programming. Through the years, weekly radio as a primary source for enrichment lowered in popularity, yet still maintains a loyal following of listeners.
To sponsor Forward in Faith in your area, please contact management of your desired local radio station(s) and direct them to cogforwardinfaith.com to download the weekly messages. The sponsoring church is encouraged to request a short message be added to the front or back of the broadcast inviting listeners to learn more about their local Church of God congregation.
—Cameron Fisher, Church of God Communications