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St Francis Magazine Vol 9, No 4 | August 2013 Incidentally I have the impression that about the same period the Arabic Service of the British Broadcasting Company seemed to shift away from the dominance of standard Arabic, as more and more reporting from various areas included elements in non-standard Arabic (dialectical and "middle" levels), and even a few non-Arabs speaking imperfect Arabic in their areas of expertise. 119 In the early 1990s, RSB began recruiting and training national believers to produce materials for the program in North Africa. This created a greater variety in voices and dialects, and a richness of materials produced in North Africa itself. 120 MSA remained the linguistic standard, though, which is clear from the agreement RSB made with GMU for their co-produced programs. The organizations agreed that the overall format was to be in MSA with inserts in North African colloquial Arabic. That arrangement did not work well, but it reflected RSB’s linguistic choices. In 1991, in its magazine Contact, RSB published that for the Let’s Walk Together programs, RSB would continue to focus on MSA broadcasts, with Moroccan Arabic inserts it received from GMU; GMU would use Moroccan Arabic with MSA inserts it received from RSB and TWR. 121 4. Program Strategy and Actual Programs 4.1 Radio as the First Phase of Evangelism From the beginning of NAM’s thinking about producing radio programs, it decided that ‘national Christians’ were to be used as speakers and announcers whenever possible. There should be ‘a careful editing of material extra to the Scriptures’, and the ‘place of singing and music in programmes’ was to be ‘carefully considered’. NAM agreed that the ‘message [sic] to believers could provide a good though indirect approach to unbelievers’. 122 All these ‘resolutions’ were made years before actual production began. The idea to broadcasts messages that seemed intended for a Christian audience was probably the result of NAM not wanting to aim directly at Muslims, for reasons of security. Throughout its existence, NAM has been formally and informally involved with the other Christian producers and broadcasters for the Arab world and, in that context, the organization has been discussing practical issues related to how to best produce programs for Arab Muslims. NAM seems not to have produced its own internal documents for whatever strategy it wanted to pursue. In 1966 Gaston, the first director of RSB, described why NAM was interested to be involved in radio broadcasting to North Africa. He did that during a conference of ELWA in Liberia. 123 In general, Gaston considered Arabs the ‘elite of Islam’ and therefore the key to the whole religion of Islam. He considered the Christian Arabs as the key to reaching all other Arab Muslims. 124 He probably thought of the Christians of the Middle East, as the church in North Africa was virtually non-existent. It seemed NAM had an instrumentalist view of these Middle Eastern Christians. The language Gaston used gives the impression that the Christian Arabs were seen as tools for NAM for reaching Muslims. This was during a period when the word ‘partnership’ had not become bon ton yet. The interest of Gaston in Christian radio to North Africa was related to the fact that missionaries were expelled from countries like Tunisia and Libya. In 1966, according to Gaston, there were only four missionaries left in Libya, 20 in Tunisia, 75 in Algeria, and 200 in Morocco. Gaston was glad that radio could be used in evangelism to reach closed countries, to reach a high number of illiterates, even in distant locations, and that it could speak to people every day in the seclusion of their homes. 125 The idea that NAM reached illiterates with radio was an illusion as the language of the programs, MSA, was not understood by illiterates. 119 Ibid. 120 ‘An Eye to the Future’, in Contact (February 1993), p. 1. 121 ‘Team Effort’, in Contact (February 1991), pp. 1-2. 122 ‘Minutes of Meeting of Field Council held at Tangier (22-24 September 1959)’, p. 3. 123 ‘Transcript of Meetings (10-11 May 1966)’, pp. 1, 5-7. 124 Ibid., p. 6. 125 Ibid., pp. 6-7. St Francis Magazine is published by Arab Vision and Interserve 17
St Francis Magazine Vol 9, No 4 | August 2013 The difficulties North African converts from Islam were facing were another reason why Gaston considered radio so helpful. It could encourage and help them in their hard times, which often entailed suffering from physical attacks, threats, poisoning, stoning, stabbing, the loss of jobs, and imprisonments. 126 There was ‘not yet a visible church in North Africa’, and radio could encourage these young, isolated Christians. 127 Shafir, one of the main speakers in NAM programs, stressed that radio was just the initial step in a process of changing people’s mind about Christ. He believed the actual change of mind would occur through more personal contacts: Personally I prefer to speak to people face to face. But I do believe I get through better to my own people by radio than I do face to face, especially in first contacts and with groups. They cannot argue with radio. They usually listen to the end. They may get angry and turn it off, but they cannot argue with the speaker. And […] the idea often is that anything coming over the radio just must be true. […] Radio alone is not enough. It is just a medium to contact people, to get them interested, hungry, desiring to read and study the Gospel. Along with radio, we need the literature, Bible correspondence courses, follow-up and personal contact with those who respond to the radio programmes. 128 In 1969, Bell reported that in Tunisia and Algeria the only places where converts from the radio broadcasts and BCC’s were beginning to organize in groups, was where missionaries lived. ‘I know of no place, where we have students in a village and where there is anything like the beginning of a group, where there is no missionary who is able to visit them.’ 129 That meant for RSB, radio was a tool supporting its missionaries in starting churches, and not a medium in its own right. For NAM, Christian radio was the ‘indispensable first phase of evangelism which stirred interest and developed contact for the missionaries in North Africa’, according to Steele in 1980. 130 Vishanoff wrote in 1981 that radio could awaken interest and communicate basic information, but ‘then literature and correspondence courses enter the scene’. Thirdly, ‘personal correspondence bridges the gap to the local church’. For those who became Christians and wanted to study further, NAM had a Theological Education by Extension (TEE) program. 131 Think about the automobile ads on radio. They don’t say: ‘Send us your cheque for £3000’. They say: ‘See your local dealer’. […] I mean that radio’s natural role is to awaken interest. We encourage our listener to make personal contact with the ‘local dealer’ – that’s us! We invite people to write and ask for literature. And when they do, among other things, we also send them the first lesson of a Bible correspondence course. 132 This approach of NAM seemed to be in line with the opinions of James Engel, a missiologist who held that ‘the basic role of the mass media is to change existing beliefs and attitudes, thus moving a person closer to decision. The actual decision, however, is usually stimulated through face-to-face conversation.’ 133 In its Frontline magazine, NAM described in 1980 how that face-to-face contact was usually created with those who respond to the RSB radio programs. Our ultimate goal is to see churches established in North Africa. [When BCC students] realize that groups are worshipping together, they may get involved. […] The initial contact is very important [and] is usually made by a letter from a missionary on the field or at RSB. If the response is positive, a meeting place is established or addresses or contacts are sent to the student. In general, the response has been good. Every worshipping group [in North Africa] has maturing Christians who were initially BCC students, either with NAM or other groups. 134 126 Ibid. 127 Ibid., p. 6. 128 Shaf Shafir, ‘The Programme!’ in Frontline (September 1978), p. 10. 129 ‘Effective Methods in Reaching Muslims by Correspondence Courses - Report by William Bell - Radio School of the Bible’, p. 30. 130 Steele, Not in Vain, p. 161. 131 Ken McBride and Steve Vishanoff, ‘Radio School of the Bible’, p. 16. 132 ‘Awakening them By Radio!’, p. 5. 133 Dr. James Engel, Contemporary Christian Communications: Theory and Practice (Nashville, 1979), p. 44. 134 ‘Contact!’ in Frontline (September 1980), pp. 7-8. St Francis Magazine is published by Arab Vision and Interserve 18
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