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

ice.’ So they came that week and kept coming.
They joined and were dear, loyal members and
great friends of mine.”
The local broadcast became very popular
Sunday morning television fare. At different
times, it was on all three major network stations
in San Antonio through the mid-1980’s. The
show was also broadcast for a time on two satellite
networks, including nine months on CBN,
which took the production onto various cable
networks around the nation and the world.
At times the church also offered a prayer
phone line, manned by volunteers. The number
was displayed at the bottom of the screen during
the show. Those who participated reported
calls coming in from all over the United States.
“Breakthrough gave our own people a great
sense of self-esteem,” recalled Merkens. “We had
three cameras. One camera would pan the congregation,
and they never knew when they were
going to be on. This gave them a feeling of
‘Wow, my church is on television and I’m a part
of all this excitement.’”
It was a successful undertaking, Merkens
believes, “but we ultimately couldn’t keep funding
it through the congregational budget.”
“Perhaps we were not as aggressive as we should
have been in asking for funds from our viewers,” he
notes. “It gave us a tremendous amount of exposure
locally and nationally, but in the end it just
seemed too costly compared with other priorities.”
✦
Above: A new pulpit in Concordia’s
sanctuary was purchased and the
baffle wall behind lowered to
accommodate the television show,
Breakthrough.
Left: As many as 650 packed the
gymnasium for Adult Bible Class
during the 1980’s. Coffee was served
and eventually tacos and donuts were
available for purchase.
Chapter III ✦ 35