The Concordia Story: A Fifty-Year History of Concordia Lutheran Church 1951-2001

CHAPTER 3
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Getting everyone into worship in the
early 1980’s involved setting up
folding chairs in the aisles, having
televised overflow seating in the gym,
and the scheduling of five worship
opportunities per week.
In the early 1980’s Concordia purchased
video equipment and began telecasting services
to locations around the campus. This experimentation
with television, plus the tremendous
growth of Christian television programming, led
to a decision in 1982 to put Concordia on the
air in a big way.
Breakthrough became Concordia’s television
ministry. The 30-minute program was built
around a televised sermon by Dr. Merkens, but
also included contemporary Christian music
and, at times, brief interviews. At first the program
was aired on Sunday mornings in a time
slot just after the Robert Schuller program. It
was produced by a professional television production
company and came across as polished
as any Christian program being aired.
“That brought a lot of visitors and a lot of attention,
too,” said Merkens. “We reached a lot of people
whom we wouldn’t have reached in any other
way. A good example was a man who headed up a
major oil company. He had just moved to town.
He was watching television one morning, just flipping
the dial. He saw our program and couldn’t
believe this was right here in San Antonio. He saw
the packed church and the enthusiastic congregation.
He turned to his wife and said, ‘Honey, we
still have time to get there for the 11 o’clock serv-
34 ✦ THE CONCORDIA STORY