Haven Ministries, as it’s known today, is the oldest daily radio broadcast ministry of its kind.
It all began back in 1934, when a former radio professional wandered the streets of San Diego in an alcoholic stupor, having lost a successful career. His voice was nearly shot, but his wife continued to pray for him.
Looking out at the harbor’s resting ships in undisturbed waters, he couldn’t help but feel how his life had been a relentless storm, tossing him in unforgiving waves. As he meandered along, he passed by a church, where he heard voices singing: “I have anchored my soul in the haven of rest.”
Back in his hotel room, he pulled out a Gideon Bible, began to read, and knew Christ was calling him. “I’ll sail the wild seas no more,” the hymn says. Right away, he sent a telegram to his wife: “Coming home.”
Founded as “Haven of Rest,” the broadcast featured an unlikely crew—a speaker, an organist, and a quartet of singers—who were all dedicated to sharing the Gospel over the air —starting out on a secular AM station in Southern California.
“Both his testimony and the message of Haven to listeners always was, in the storms of life, to come and be anchored in the haven of rest in Christ,” current President David Wollen said.
A Divergent Path to Leadership
Long before stepping into his role as president of Haven Ministries, Wollen grew up around worship leaders who encouraged him to make music his ambition.
“I was absolutely full of myself,” Wollen said. “But I felt the dissonance, because I knew the Lord, loved the Lord, was a believer, and was also a student of the Word.”
The conviction he felt in his idol of music came to this one thought: “God, I’m a glory thief,” he remembers praying. “I’m relishing a spotlight that belongs to You.”
Wollen ended up giving up music for several years to dive into deep theological study.
“At the time, I didn’t really have a career plan built on that,” he remembers. “It was more desperation—this deep hunger and thirst to know the Word.”
Right out of college, he married Marci, whose father connected him with Charles Morris, the head of Haven at the time.
During his time working as Morris’s assistant in the early 2000s, and later as COO for the organization, he gained valuable time to learn what it looks like to put on a radio broadcast day after day.
Stepping Away to Step Up
By 2014, the board asked Wollen to become Charles’s successor. Because Haven had been his only career experience, moving directly from COO to president seemed like too much to take on, so he chose to step away to get exposure to other areas. Leaving the door open for the Lord’s timing, he moved his family to Chicago, where he spent several years broadening his perspective and working with other leading Christian media organizations.
When the board at Haven eventually came calling again, Wollen accepted the helm after a long season of prayer.
“I knew that stepping into this would put me and my family under a weight and a burden that we hadn’t known before,” Wollen said. “Just what it takes to put a daily broadcast, a new one, on the air every single day—Ray Ortlund Sr., who was before Charles, used to say that it’s like jogging in front of a freight train that never stops.”
He continued: “I’ve been working in ministry my whole career, but I’ve never known need like this, and I’ve also never known supply like this. It’s extraordinary. I’m so grateful and honored that the Lord would let me do it.”
Expanding the Ministry’s Reach
For a historic organization founded right on the cusp of religious radio’s launch, Wollen reflected on what has remained consistent: “A focus on Christ and the Gospel as foremost. … What we’re most concerned about is daily coming before the Lord with our eyes on Jesus.”
Though the program’s current name no longer includes the word “rest,” Wollen shared how that theme still shapes his vision. “With Jesus, when we rest in Him, that’s actually the place we need to be in order to take His yoke, which is uniquely fitted to us for the work He’s given to us.”
Today, the primary radio program is “Haven Today,” broadcasting across the U.S. and Canada. Haven Ministries also houses a sister ministry called El Faro de Redención, a standalone Spanish program by Danny Rojas. They have been in Cuba for most of the last decade, creating a network of about 100 churches.
The overarching mission of Haven Ministries is to engage and encourage people through media to behold and follow Jesus Christ.
Spirit Dependence & Kingdom Collaboration
The constant challenges of day-after-day production in the new media age likely sound familiar to most modern broadcasters.
“There’s increasing safety, I think, among all of us to just admit the world’s changing faster than we can keep up with it,” Wollen said. “But what’s beautiful about some of the challenges that we’re facing is it’s also bringing us together in categories of partnership, collaboration, encouragement, knowledge, wisdom, and insight-sharing that I’ve never seen before.”
Wollen is convinced that AI is changing the game faster than we can keep up with, seeing amazing opportunities to help streamline operations when stewarded well.
“We have a call, as image bearers, as ambassadors for Christ entrusted with the proclamation of the Gospel, to do so in a way that’s faithful,” Wollen advised.
While not anti-AI, he encourages his team to conduct their work in a way that above all else ensures absolute reliance on the Holy Spirit for the work of ministry, to honor the imago Dei, and to operate with transparency and diligence in such a way that they are not just focusing on good output, but ensuring the Lord is first doing His work in them.
“It is okay to be human,” Wollen said. “In fact, it’s great to be human. It’s okay to be finite and limited, to not speak absolute perfect, brilliant sentences every time we open our mouths. … Part of my authentic witness is that I’m a human being dependent upon the Lord.”
His guiding verses for AI usage are 2 Corinthians 4:1-2, “Therefore, since through God’s mercy we have this ministry, we do not lose heart. Rather, we have renounced secret and shameful ways; we do not use deception, nor do we distort the word of God. On the contrary, by setting forth the truth plainly we commend ourselves to everyone’s conscience in the sight of God.”
In a media climate that often feels like trying to breathe in a sandstorm, Wollen sees the role of Christian communicators in the public square as being a voice of discernment.
“It’s incredibly difficult to discern what’s real, creating a deepened hunger for truth,” Wollen said. “What’s incumbent upon us, reliant on the Spirit of God, is to remain truthful and faithful.”
With hundreds of millions of competitors vying for people’s attention with counter-gospels or frivolous messages, his convictions for his peers in media are clear: “Now is the time to really band together and collaborate,” Wollen said. “We’re not competitors, we’re collaborators in the Kingdom. Let’s act like it. Let’s live like it.”
Even as Wollen has stepped into leadership, he never changed the steady phrase that Morris coined for Haven: “We’re telling the great story, and it’s all about Jesus.”
Haven Ministries has been an NRB member since 1967. To listen to their program, “Haven Today,” and to learn more about their ministry, visit haventoday.org.