WorldReach
When he founded The Christian Broadcasting Network (CBN) in 1960, Pat Robertson was hoping the signal from his television station would at least reach across the city limits of Portsmouth, Virginia. "I must say I never had a vision in those days beyond the east coast of America, much less beyond the continental limits of the U.S.," said Pat Robertson. "So the outreach we are now engaged in to televise programs that can be seen in 201 nations in more than 65 languages is an amazing development."
Today, through CBN International and a global evangelism campaign called CBN WorldReach, millions worldwide are hearing the Gospel by means of mass media, primarily through television broadcasts. "International programming is an obvious extension of CBN's mission statement, but more importantly, it is a reflection of our desire to obey Christ's Great Commission of Matthew 28:19-20 to go and make disciples of all nations, " states Michael Little, president of CBN.
CBN International's mission is to spread the Gospel throughout the world by means of mass media, primarily television broadcasts. CBN's international project, WorldReach, was launched in the Fall of 1995. The goal of CBN WorldReach is to see 500 million people brought to faith in Jesus Christ.
CBN WorldReach follows God's favor and initiative to present the world with the Gospel message. It partners with others in: strategic use of mass media for disseminating the message in a culturally relevant manner thoughout the world; training leaders in Biblical principles; discipleship for the spiritual development of millions who come to Christ and relief efforts to alleviate human suffering throughout the world. Innovation, excellence, and integrity are the principle guiding values in these tasks.
The primary strategy adopted by CBN WorldReach is the development and sustaining of weekly television programs on terrestrial TV stations in selected countries. These original programs are often produced in country by local production staff. The objective is that each program will be culturally sensitive and relevant to the ethnic audience as it is viewed in their own language. These "sustained" broadcasts are complemented by effective follow-up via mail and telephone counselling. To further support sustained programming, CBN WorldReach has opened new production studios in Ukraine, India, Philippines and Indonesia.
CBN WorldReach also produces TV specials that are ususally placed on national TV in selected countries. These programs are usually placed in "prime time" and are designed to generate a mass response from the audience to a CBN WorldReach office, a church, or partner organization.
The United States, Latin America, Africa, the Muslim World, Europe, India, Indonesia, Southeast Asia, Philippines, China, and the C.I.S are the regions of CBN WorldReach focus.
The international activities of CBN began in the 1970s with broadcasts in the Philippines of The International 700 Club. This 30 minute version of The 700 Club is specially produced for international distribution. Since that time the program has been seen around the world in approximately 60 countries. More than 20 years of television broadcasts and relief activities in those countries brought about the establishment of CBN WorldReach.
Highlights
In 2002 alone, more than 1500 various ethnic programs were produced in 41 different languages including many weekly series such as Solusi in Indonesia and Super Kids Club in Ukraine. WorldReach broadcasts have now been produced in more than 70 foreign languages. More than 262 million salvations were recorded in the past decade. More than 40 million salvations were recorded outside the U.S. in the year 2002 WorldReach programs can be seen in more than 200 countries and are accessible by more than 1.6 billion people around the world. More than 40,000 in-home cell churches have now been planted in the former Soviet Union. More than 4,000 cisterns and wells have been installed in India, Philippines, China, Africa and other locations around the world, bringing life-sustaining water to hundreds of thousands of people. In 2002, in partnership with Operation Blessing, WorldReach conducted almost 400 medical, dental and surgical missions around the world treating nearly 250,000 people.
