I Was Ready When The Green Light Came On

In 2001 when I was a pastor in Springer, N. M., Carol and I joined the community. However, we didn’t want to get involved in too many functions because Springer is 170 miles from Los Alamos where I worked, but was 200 miles from our house.

One of the more enjoyable activities was singing with the All-Church Choir. I had fun teasing the choir leader because the choir consisted of members of churches in four towns.

To clarify that a little, only Baptist churches were involved in the All-Church Choir, and each month we sang at a different Baptist church.

I was pastor of an Assembly of God church, but we never allowed denominational differences to separate us from the love of God or from the love of God’s people.

Carol and I visited the choir several times, then in front of everyone I asked the leader a question.

“Brother Larry, the Springer Assembly of God Church would like the privilege of joining the Baptist All-Church Choir.”

Everyone enjoyed the humor and laughed. But Larry made things even funnier when he said, “Everyone, listen up. The Springer Assembly of God Church wants to join the Baptist All-Church Choir. Now, as unaccustomed to voting as Baptists are ….”

Larry didn’t get much further because uproarious laughter rang throughout the building.

One member hollered out, “We Baptists vote about everything! Let’s vote on this issue right now!”

Larry looked across the sea of jubilant faces and announced, “I think it’s obvious that we have a unanimous vote here. You’re in!”

Meeting and singing with them was heavenly. And when word spread that we had joined, other churches joined. Two interdenominational, two Methodist, a Lutheran, another Pentecostal and a few people who didn’t attend anywhere joined with the four Baptist churches and harmony began spreading throughout that part of the state. But something else changed.

One day Gary, a leader in one of the churches, said, “I would like to visit the Assembly next Sunday.”

“Come on down! You are truly welcome.”

“Even though I’m a Baptist?”

“Because you’re a Baptist!” And we laughed. “And I’d like you to sing for us during the church meeting.” He sang for us, and we treated him to lunch after the meeting.

That’s when he dropped the bomb.

“Now that I’ve heard you preach, I am inviting you to be our radio preacher on Thursday nights in Raton, New Mexico. It’s only 30 miles up I- 25. Will you consider it?”

“Because of my work schedule at the lab in Los Alamos, I can agree to it every other week. Is that OK?”

“We’ll make that work.” With a twinkle in his eyes, he continued. “I know how preachers are. You people can’t preach less than 45 minutes, but on Thursdays you will be limited to seven minutes maximum. Can you do it?”

“Done deal. Seven minutes it is.”

A 7-minute message takes more time to prepare than a 45-minute message because every word is important. There’s no time for rabbit trails or extraneous talk. Also, when I was a kid, my Dad was a U.S. Navy chaplain, and 10- to 15- minute messages were the norm.

Dad taught me, “In your church meetings, hopefully non- Christians will attend, and many of them are closed to the Gospel. So always have something in your messages they can take home and chew on.”

So I incorporated science, history, current events and other topics into the messages.

On my first Thursday, 7: 14: 50 p. m., the station manager gave me a 10-second countdown and pointed to me as the green light came on. I began …

“Good evening all you out in Radio-land.” The clock was ticking.

On my radio debut, I finished the message three seconds short of seven minutes. But the station began receiving a higher-than-normal number of phone calls, so a month later they upped my time to ten minutes. Phones rang off the hook.

Eventually, they asked me to fill the 15-minute segment. After six months, the station manager asked Carol and me to stay over for a live interview, and our story changed his life.

When Gary asked me if preaching on radio made me nervous, I truthfully told him, “No one can see me, so I’m very calm. I’m only concerned with getting the message out.”

2 Timothy 4:2 teaches us to be ready at all times and in all circumstances to share the Gospel.

Even on the radio.