Renewing the Culture

  Ten years ago this month, the first BreakPoint radio broadcast hit the airwaves on ninety radio stations. At the time, almost all programming on Christian radio was devotional in nature. We wondered: Would Christians listen to a hard-hitting, biblically based critique of current events and issues? Some of the professionals told us it wouldn't work -- that we would be bucking the tide to talk about something so esoteric as a "Christian worldview." But we felt God's conviction, and, with the help of a few key donors, the ministry of BreakPoint radio was launched. With every commentary, we tried to help listeners think biblically about the world -- to build a grid of truth through which to sift and expose the distortions of our culture. Daily, we urged listeners to use these worldview lessons to impact the culture around them for Jesus Christ. Now, ten years later, we know the experts were wrong. BreakPoint is heard on more than 1,000 broadcast outlets across the nation with a listening audience of more than five million people. Everywhere I go, people tell me how much they enjoy and use our material -- parents who listen along with their kids, teachers who use the commentaries in the classroom. Even congressmen and senators listen every day so as Christians they can better understand and deal with today's issues. Over the years, letters and e-mails from listeners convinced us that Christians truly want the tools with which to challenge the secular culture and advance the truth of Christ. For instance, one mother used BreakPoint material to challenge the inaccurate teachings at her daughter's school -- and ended up being asked to join the school's curriculum committee. Others wrote to say that they'd gotten involved in prison ministry. Two years ago, when we held our first worldview conference in Colorado Springs, hundreds of BreakPoint listeners came to immerse themselves in Christian worldview thinking. Our second conference in Chicago this June attracted nearly five hundred people. Students who came to the conference from Canada and told me how they use BreakPoint in their weekly Bible studies. A New Zealander said that he heard about the conference on the Internet; he promised that next time he would bring with him a whole boatload of people from New Zealand. Now even with all the gains we've made this past decade, there's still so much more to do. We hope and pray that this great awakening will spread, much like the one begun by one of my heroes, William Wilberforce. In the eighteenth century, Wilberforce not only led the fight in England to end slavery, he also reformed England's morals. Wilberforce argued in a time of moral decay that the only hope for England rested in recapturing biblical principles and the shared morality that flowed from them. And I'm convinced that this is our only hope in this time in our culture. That's why the work of BreakPoint equipping people across this country is so very important. I'm encouraged that already this movement has all the signs of a genuine God-inspired awakening among people -- it's His movement, not ours. And that's why, as we celebrate our tenth anniversary, I want to thank you for standing with us -- for challenging those in your sphere of influence with the truth of the biblical revelation. And may God continue -- through the work of all of us -- to renew this culture for His glory.

09/4/01