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| Frank Wright, Ph.D. President & CEO |
Excellence In All Things
Religious liberty is the cornerstone of a free society. No society can be called truly free that does not respect the rights of men and women to worship God according to the dictates of conscience. Patrick Henry famously said:
It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that (America) was founded not by religionists, but by Christians; not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, prosperity, and freedom of worship here.
It was commitment to this ideal of religious liberty that gave birth to NRB 65 years ago. In the earliest days of radio, visionary leaders saw radio as a powerful and effective tool for reaching the world for Christ. They embraced the new technology never losing sight of the truth that it was the message and not the medium that mattered. They knew that to preach Christ and Him crucified was the very “power of God.”
Early successes in spreading the Gospel were quickly followed by significant opposition. Oddly, that opposition came from within the church. When the government looked for guidance in licensing religious broadcasters, it turned to the forces of theological liberalism; it turned to the National Council of Churches. In fairly short order evangelical Christian radio broadcasters faced exclusion from the airwaves.
NRB emerged in response to these threats. It was created to preserve the religious freedom of evangelical Christian broadcasters, to foster excellence among its members, and to strengthen that portion of the body of Christ involved in broadcasting. That commitment remains the heartbeat of NRB today.
Today the tools we use (radio, television, Internet [including social media], mobile devices) are as varied as the manifold delivery systems (broadcast, satellite, cable, wireless and broadband). Yet while the tools have changed, the foundational ideals of NRB have not. They remain: proclamation, transformation, and preservation.
We are committed to proclaiming the Good News of eternal life through faith in Jesus Christ, to transforming the culture through the clear application of biblical truth, and to preserving religious liberty by keeping the doors of electronic media open for the spread of the Gospel.
In our day, we too face opposition. We live in a time where there are greater threats to religious freedom than at any time in the history of our republic. Yet by the grace of God, NRB stands at the threshold of an exciting new period of growth, impact, and ministry effectiveness. As we move forward, let us do so with a renewed commitment to the person and purposes of Jesus Christ. For Jesus said, “If I am lifted up from the earth, [I] will draw all men unto myself” (John 12:32).
Since Jesus is the only hope for the human heart as well as the desire of nations, let us renew our commitment to use every medium available to proclaim the Gospel of Christ and to bring the mind of Christ to the culture. As we fulfill that high and holy calling of “lifting up” Christ before a watching and listening world, let us do so with a renewed commitment to one another and to “excellence in all things and all things to God’s glory.”
