At a time when church is no longer a part of people’s weekly activities, Christians are being increasingly challenged by the Biblical mandate to ‘go into all the world and preach the good news’, and in doing so, consider new ways in which that can be done effectively.

Here at Ballymoney Baptist, we increasingly felt over a period of time that the medium of FM radio would be an excellent way to try and reach our town and district with the good news about Jesus Christ. Potentially large numbers of people could listen in without having to physically come through our church doors. So in the autumn of 2004 we formed an organising committee with the aim of broadcasting in the spring of 2005. We decided to call ourselves ‘Life 4 You’ Radio, and a competition was held amongst the young people of the church to see who could come up with a suitable logo for our publicity purposes. The relevant licences were applied for and early in the new year we were granted permission and given our frequency, 107 FM.

After six months of hard work by everyone, ‘Life 4 You’ radio went on the air on Friday 18th March. What followed was one of the most exciting weekends ever known in the life of our church. To be able to turn on the radio and hear ourselves presenting our programmes, and to know that there were many people listening in was thrilling for us. People were known to be receiving our signal some 20 miles away, and many confessed to listening in the entire weekend.

We had 40 hours of live programmes going out. Each slot was one hour long, apart from our live Sunday worship services, and about 30 different people presented the programmes. Through the night we played music.

So what was on the menu? ‘Radioactive Kids’ was the production of our children’s clubs and their leaders. ‘The Good Ole Days’ brought together some of our older folks who shared memories and experiences with their young interviewers. We enjoyed an adaptation of ‘Pilgrim’s Progress’, and even had an overseas telephone link with missionaries in Peru. Through these and other programmes the message of the Bible was presented.

At midnight on Sunday 20th March, the signal went dead and it was all over. Was it worth all the effort? The answer was a collective ‘yes!’ With the Lord’s help we felt we had achieved our goals. The gospel was presented over a large geographical area, something that would have proved very difficult using any other method. Our church members were mobilised, strengthened and encouraged. Our church profile was also enhanced, as subsequent feedback would reveal; and the icing on the cake was the news that one gentleman had come to faith in Christ.

Are we going to do it again? We already have!! Our second “radio adventure” took place in April 2006. This time we added a new dimension by broadcasting on the internet. So the gospel reached not only our town and neighbourhood, but all over the world! People from as far away as New Zealand, Jamaica, USA, and Scandinavia, contacted us over the weekend to let us know they’d been listening in. Once again, with God’s help, we managed to fulfil our aim of broadcasting the gospel.

Our third broadcast took place from Friday 30th March to Sunday 1st April 2007. Again, we broadcast online and on our new frequency - 105.3FM.

As we think over the experience of our broadcasts, and as we look at the pictures on this page, Psalm 126:2-3 seems to sum up our feelings very well.

“Our mouths were filled with laughter, our tongues with songs of joy. Then it was said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we are filled with joy.”