We recently celebrated my 50 year Anniversary in Ministry and what a celebration it was! There were many people from years gone by that surprised and delighted me on the show! It seems nearly impossible that it’s been that long, yet I can remember some things as if they were yesterday. As a young Evangelist, I would hold revivals from Tuesday through Sunday night and then travel on Monday to the next location.
Quite often, after preaching and being in the anointing at church, I would turn on late-night TV to unwind. There was very little to watch at that hour except Johnny Carson. I remember listening to everything they would talk about; most of it gossip, politics or entertainment news of some variety. It didn’t take long for me to be completely annoyed by all of the frivolous things that passed for late-night talk show content. I remember thinking “why doesn’t someone talk about Jesus?”
It was this small, yet profound inspiration that led me to break new ground in a revolutionary Christian talk show – so that Christians could have an alternative to the world’s ‘babble’ and more people could participate in talking about Jesus! I began on “The 700 Club” and eventually moved into pioneering “The PTL Television Network.” PTL inspired the birth of countless other Christian talk shows.
Before long, there was an abundance of Christian programming and those who knew Jesus could now rejoice because they had an alternative to the world’s ‘babble’. Now that’s what I had been inspired to do as a young Evangelist! To see and hear so many people talking about Jesus on television was the height of my life’s dream – not only for the Christians, but for those who were to become Christians by hearing the Gospel!
Today, the dream lives on. The times we are living in have brought many people to Christian television seeking answers for this prophetic age just before Jesus returns again. Even the unbelievers are looking for hope. While a large part of the world still fiddles away their time in the mindless, meaningless pursuit of trivial things, there is a beacon of light being broadcast through the darkness. The Gospel is still being preached, the lost are still finding their way to Jesus, and the dreams of a once-young Evangelist are still coming true.
