Our History
History
In 1944, the Rev. Howard Teusink, then pastor of the Trinity Reformed Church of Kalamazoo, Michigan, remained at home one Sunday morning too ill to preach. From his bed he tuned his radio dial, searching for gospel broadcasts. After listening carefully, he became convinced of the need for a radio broadcast with a sound, well-balanced biblical witness to the evangelical Christian faith.
The consistory of his congregation overtured the Classis of Kalamazoo with respect to such an outreach, and the ministry of Words of Hope officially began under the name Temple Time. The original articles of incorporation provided a firm foundation for the organization with the following statement of purpose: "to preach through broadcasting Jesus Christ as the only Savior . . . ."
The first broadcast of the new ministry aired July 22, 1945, "live" from the Central Reformed Church of Grand Rapids, Michigan. Dr. William Goulooze, then Professor of Church History at Western Theological Seminary in Holland, Michigan, presented a message entitled "Consider Christ Jesus." Within months of this first broadcast, the gospel proclaiming work of Temple Time was soon adopted by three regional synods as their official broadcast.
A number of other Reformed Church ministers spoke on the program in its early years. The Rev. Harland Steele served as Temple Time radio minister from 1950-1952. Dr. Henry Bast, pastor of Bethany Reformed Church in Grand Rapids and later Professor of Preaching at Western Theological Seminary, served as radio minister from 1952-1972.
During Dr. Bast's time of service, Temple Time launched its first foreign language broadcasts: Japanese (1953), Chinese (1955), Russian (1958) and Spanish (1959). Temple Time also began production of a devotional booklet in 1952, entitled Prayer Time.
Glenn LePard, after a career in secular radio, became the Executive Vice President of the ministry and the announcer on its broadcasts in 1963.
In September 1972, when Dr. Bast's health was declining, Dr. William Brownson, then Professor of Preaching at Western Theological Seminary, became the Temple Time radio minister. His first broadcast was aired at Christmas-time, 1972.
The name of the broadcast ministry was changed in 1974 from Temple Time to Words of Hope. As foreign language ministries became more prominent, it was realized that the word "temple" in many cultures is customarily associated with non-Christian faiths. The staff and board decided upon Words of Hope as a title, which both avoided this difficulty and also pointed to the nature of the Christian message.
Also in 1974, production of Words of Hope television programs began with Dr. Brownson as speaker. These programs were originally presented on several national cable systems at no charge. Eventually, however, television time became so costly that in 1982, it was decided to stop production of Words of Hope telecasts. The staff and board had faced this decision: shall we, as a ministry with modest resources, become chiefly a North American television program, or shall we specialize in missionary radio? The unanimous choice of the Words of Hope staff and board was to do the latter. This proved to be a momentous decision.
Throughout these years, the devotional booklet, Prayer Time, continued to grow in popularity. Along with the ministry, its title was also changed to Words of Hope in 1975. Currently, more than 100,000 copies of each quarterly edition are distributed worldwide.
In 1981, Dr. and Mrs. Brownson traveled around the world, visiting key broadcast facilities of Trans World Radio, Far East Broadcasting Company and the World Radio Missionary Fellowship (HCJB). The aim was to discover what the greatest needs were in missionary broadcasting and what overall strategy was in place to meet those needs. This was a rich and fruitful trip, but it became clear that the various broadcast agencies were operating independently with no shared plan for world evangelization. Words of Hope began to work with these broadcast partners toward closer cooperation. Since 1982, Words of Hope has experienced an unparalleled advance in missionary broadcasting. Over 25 new foreign language programs have since been launched.
The major Christian broadcast agencies covenanted together in 1985 to form the World by 2000 initiative, a cooperative effort to produce gospel broadcasts in all the world's remaining major languages (about 150 of them at the time) by the end of the century. Words of Hope has been active in this movement from the beginning and now holds a place on the World by 2000 (now called World by Radio) Steering Committee. Approximately 80 megalanguages (a language with a million or more speakers) remain unreached with the gospel.
In 1985, Lee DeYoung joined the Words of Hope team after a career in secular radio to become the Executive Director. He has since become the Vice President for Broadcasting.
The year 1990 witnessed the beginning of Words of Hope's fundraising campaign for increased missionary broadcasting entitled WORLD-REACH. This campaign, concluded in 1996, has enabled Words of Hope to begin 18 programs in languages previously unreached by Christian broadcasters.
Bill Brownson retired in 1994 and was succeeded by Rev. David Bast, who became Words of Hope's new President and Broadcast Minister.
Today, in more than 30 languages on five continents, Words of Hope proclaims Jesus Christ by radio to a potential audience of staggering size. Together with our broadcast partners, we are closing in on our goal to make the gospel accessible by radio in the "heart language" of all the world's peoples.
