Anniversary!  70 Years Strong Spreading the Word!

Our anniversary is upon us! 70 years ago, on April 7, the Trinity Radio Council was born. Last month, we focused on the history of the Radio Club. This month we’ll get into the video ministry and where we see ourselves over the next 70 years!

Video? From a Radio Club? YES!

As the radio ministry continued, new technology made it less expensive for organizations to start looking at video expansion. Trinity started to move that way in the early 1980’s. Another group of forward-thinking members, some of whom were electronic wizards, came up with the idea of putting a remote operated camera in the sanctuary and recording the service to a VHS tape. This they did and so began our video services.

That single tape made the rounds of all the nursing homes in town and went to the local cable television company to be played on the Faribault community cable channel. The service could have been a couple of weeks old by the time it got to some of the nursing homes. But our nursing home residents and those with cable in Faribault had the opportunity to watch the services and see and hear the Word.
In 1996, we expanded our video offerings by recording to four VHS recorders simultaneously. This allowed a copy to go to each of the three nursing homes as well as to Faribault Community Television (FCTV) the same day! This really made our services more relevant and timely.

Expanding Our Capabilities

We also started to expand our video service capability as well. We added titling to the screen, added an additional camera (giving us two) and the associated switching systems. These additions made our videos much more professional looking and allowed us to add additional information to the screen for our viewers.

In 2004 we upgraded our computer system and video system by adding a state-of-the-art “Production Studio” system. We also added two more cameras, giving us a total of four. This gave us tremendous capability and allowed us to really expand our recording offerings. We also started to record to DVD’s instead of VHS tapes. This improved our quality tremendously.

Moving Out Into the World!

2014 saw us expand to putting our videos on YouTube and making them available to the world. We’ve had over 11,000 views of our videos since then. As of this writing, we’ve got 265 videos available online. We can look at analytics and see where people are watching us from. It’s so interesting to see that we’ve had people from the Middle East, Europe, the Far East as well as all over the United States watch our videos.

Live Streaming

That brings us to the last year or so. In 2016, we started to live stream our services on uStream.com. This was our first foray into this type of ministry. While uStream was a good company and gave us some options, we found it to be more expensive and tough for people to find our services. In 2017, we moved to a new company for streaming called “Sunday Streams”. This move was great because we were able to not only drop our costs but also gave us more capability by adding Apps for iPhone, Android and Roku devices.

We’ve steadily seen our streaming viewership each week increase. We also live stream other services, such as the FLS Christmas Program. That service saw over 20 people streaming the service which showed the power of this delivery method.
In 2017, we also added our first High-Definition camera to replace the original camera from the sanctuary which had given us so many years of service. We are now at 3 cameras in our sanctuary to be able to record all our services.

What’s Next?

So where do we go from here?  Celebrating an anniversary is great, but we need to continue move forward.

We’ve been 70 years strong on the radio. Our Nursing Home services has been around since the middle 80’s. The services have been on local cable, FCTV, since the middle 80’s. We’ve been on the internet since 2014. Our live stream has been going since 2016. In our 70 years, we’ve worked hard to, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” (Matthew 28:19-20a)

The costs of broadcasting continue to rise. We have been truly blessed each year to be able to finance our ministry through gifts and memorials. Broadcasts on KDHL are nearly $11,000 per year. Streaming costs are about $1,000 per year. Software and hardware maintenance and upkeep is nearly $1,500 per year. We’ve done some promotions on the internet to get our viewership up and show more people our ministry and ultimately bring them to God. That costs money as well but is very well worth the spend.

We’d like to be able to replace our two standard-definition cameras (behind the Pulpit and behind the Lectern) with high-definition cameras (about $2,000 each to replace). It would be great to add a manual high-definition camera, so we could film outside of the sanctuary.
We want to continue to expand our internet presence.

What Do We Need?

Doing what we do takes several things to be successful.

First, we need people. Without the dedicated volunteers we have had over the years, this ministry would have withered and died a long time ago. Each Sunday we need at least two people in our booth. Please consider helping us out!

Second, we need the funding. As mentioned, we have been very blessed over the years with the gifts and memorials. But it takes money to continue to innovate and keep our ministry relevant in today’s fast-paced world. We’d ask that you continue to support our ministry through your gifts and memorials.

And finally, and most importantly, we need your continued prayer support. God has blessed us so much over the years. From our very beginning, God has guided us to new technologies and methods to spread His Word throughout the land. Your prayers helps keep us focused on what is important.

With God’s guidance, your support and the support of our volunteers, we are well positioned to take this ministry into the next 70 years!