An AGR history lesson

Below is a portion of my clever response to an email request for some background information that I hope you'll enjoy.

I don’t know how much you care to know about me, the ministry I’m involved in……..but it is what it is and may very well be yet another indication of the amazing ways that God is at work in EVERYTHING!!!!

For very near three years I've been affiliated with the mission organization Artists in Christian Testimony. Our association began not long after I started performing a one-man characterization of the Apostle Peter I’d written [Simon Peter: I Witness] and was traveling around to various venues in numerous states living the life many actors only dream of. Of course Hal Holbrook had paved the way to a degree with “Mark Twain Tonight”, but I digress. Anyway, ACT became my 501(c) (3) umbrella and continues in that capacity to this day.

All was as it should be, I thought, until (wow, it’s been two years now) I overheard a conversation between a video producer and a computer geek at our church talking about the impact Internet Radio could have. I’m sure they were thinking about utilizing the medium for a Grace Community Church outreach and I only interrupted their chat to see if I could get a laugh out of them from a couple of one-liners I’d been practicing. (I did get a chortle out of both of them, by the way.)

Okay, move ahead a couple of days and I’m at the radio job I held, taking a break, and it seemed as though God was trying to impress upon me that I should get about doing Internet Radio. (Think something not unlike a full frontal head-smack with a six by six). As I am, more often than not, prone to do, I scoffed. It had to be too expensive, I didn’t have the time what with all my traveling, oh and just what did I know about the Internet to begin with?…yada, yada, yada. But, I did think “what the hey”, what could it hurt to look up some information about Internet Radio on hmmm, maybe the Internet? Here endeth the history lesson.

With the shorter version of this long story not an option any more…I went to ACT, my pastor, our church elders, the two guys who first introduced the idea to me, and the old lady next door and told them what I was thinking about. With many a well intended pat on the head and an oatmeal raisin cookie from the nice neighbor lady, it was clear that nobody was getting the same world-wide impact visions I was and ULTIMATELY this is where ActofGraceRadio.net came into being.

I started playing around with some ideas…intended only as a means for showcasing what I was thinking could be done on an Internet Radio venue that would be far from a replication of a lot of what was already being presented [because why do what’s already being done] in the realm of Christian broadcasting and came up with a show I called “@ the Rock Shop”. It was going to have a little drama (i.e. the Actors of Grace Radio), a little news, a little bit of Bible teaching from guys you may never have heard of before. And “@ the Rock Shop” was intended to give a virtual cyber-café feeling that would come across as an overall entertaining and engaging discussion forum about the Christian worldview directed toward those who are not Christians, and maybe don't even like Christians. Wherein I, serving in the capacity of show host, “the old-man at the microphone, sitting here with my Jug of Joe, sharing with you some of the voices inside my head” didn’t shy away from attempts at being funny in the process of sharing God’s Good News to an unsaved audience. Now a good many critics do not agree that the show is anywhere close to being all that humorous…I think stupid pretty well sums up most of what they’ve had to say about it. Nevertheless I remain convinced that this is what that first God meeting was about and now exemplifies some of what Peter may have inferred when he called us "an peculiar people.” So anyhoo, that serves as summarization of what – as of late last night – became an archive of 75 weeks of programs that have, to date, invaded cyberspace at ActofGraceRadio.net.

However, all the radio stuff seems to have actually become a “Catch 22.” Merely doing my own radio show on the Internet was never the AGR intention from the outset. I was convinced that there are other “creative” types somewhere who would want to play within this open format playground – and although I’ve been successful in showcasing endless playwrights from around the world and a musical artist here and there – as yet, I haven’t come across any of those "artsy-fartsy" types committed to the prospect of producing “radio-style” materials on a regular basis replete with all the deadlines and other doo-dads that come along in that process. But honestly, could the original European missionary to India, William Carey, have been considered an overnight success?

mr

Now, I include this little ditty hoping that if you've read this far you might be inclined to take a listen to an episode of "@ the Rock Shop" right here at www.ActofGraceRadio.net. (It comes in two convenient formats "on demand" streaming or MP3). And if you like it maybe you'll come back again and if you keep coming back maybe you'll really get to know a lot about Jesus and then come up with something of your own to do on the internet and then...oh wait, maybe we'll take a step at a time. Because what if you didn't even read this far?