Vision Christian Radio

You all must be aware of this amazing ministry:

One of God’s great gifts to Australia and nearby regions is Vision Christian Radio – part of Vision Christian Media. It began here in 1988, and has been growing from strength to strength ever since. As will be seen, I have had a close involvement with this ministry over the years. You can check out their site for yourself: https://vision.org.au/

On their “About Us” page we find this information about them:

Vision Christian Media is a non-profit charity that has been working hard to bring the good news of the Gospel to Australia for over 30 years. Originally known as UCB Australia, we were a key driver in establishing over 30 independent Christian Community radio stations during the 1990s before we became a broadcaster and publisher ourselves. Today, hundreds of thousands of Aussies across the country turn to us daily for encouragement, good company, support and Biblical perspective. We’d love to help connect faith to your life, too.

 

The Vision Christian Radio story is amazing. Since our first broadcast in 1999, our growth has been a phenomenal testimony of God’s provision. Today Vision Christian Radio now has over 720 FM and AM relay stations nationwide covering major cities through to outback towns. Each day we broadcast great music, interesting and engaging conversations, talkback, encouraging real life stories, Biblical perspectives on life, culture and current events, news and so much more – including solidly Biblical programmes from esteemed speakers such as Charles Stanley, Jeff Vines, Chuck Missler, Greg Laurie and many more.

Wow – 720 stations. That means pretty much wherever you live you can tune in. But if not, you can also listen online. And on their “History” section we read this:

Vision Christian Media is a testament to God’s faithfulness. Established in 1988 at the initiative of United Christian Broadcasters International, from day one we have been committed to broadcasting the message of Jesus Christ through a variety of media. Although Vision is independent, we retain a close alliance and working relationship with other similar groups worldwide, through UCB International.

 

For most of our history we have been known as UCB Australia but, in 2015, we changed our name to Vision Christian Media. The only viable opportunity for Christian radio in the early years was through ‘Community’ licences.

 

This meant much of our work in the early years involved lots of travelling, meetings, and phone calls — resulting in the establishment of over 30 independent Christian radio groups across Australia, most of whom successfully attained licenses. For many years we supported these stations with programming, management, technical assistance, fundraising and a whole lot more. It was during this time that we started publishing The Word for Today.

 

Then, in the late 1990s, we became a broadcaster in our own right, launching Vision FM (now known as Vision Christian Radio). Over time, our role as a support group to the other stations diminished as they began to mature and also as our own radio network began to grow.

My regular radio interviews with Vision

I have done well over 1200 radio interviews since coming to Australia over three decades ago as part of my ministry to church and culture. Many of them have been with most of the major secular radio stations throughout the nation – even the ABC and SBS. But in more recent years my involvement has been primarily with Christian radio stations.

While I had done a number of interviews with the folks at Vision prior to 2008, it seems it was in that year that I began my regular weekly interviews. And they have been going strong ever since. With around 45 interviews conducted each year, that comes to around 600 interviews that we have done so far.

They have not always been preserved, but the more recent ones have been. Thus if you are really keen, you can listen to 263 of my interviews which have all been very handily gathered together in one place – see here: https://omny.fm/shows/20twenty/playlists/bill-muehlenberg

The most recent one found there is from July 30. It has to do with our discussion about the great English Christian A. W. Pink: https://omny.fm/shows/20twenty/a-w-pink-notable-christians-bill-muehlenberg-cultu?in_playlist=20twenty!bill-muehlenberg

And the first one found there comes from July 20, 2012, dealing with rediscovering Jesus: https://omny.fm/shows/20twenty/rediscovering-jesus?in_playlist=20twenty!bill-muehlenberg

I have had the privilege of working with various interviewers from Vision over the years – champions such as Mike London, Tracey Weare, Matt Prater, and Neil Johnson. They have all been consummate professionals. Neil is my most recent interviewer, and I may have done more sessions with him than anyone else.

Neil is excellent. The interviews are part of the “20Twenty” show, and they are heard each Friday morning. They usually range from 13 to 18 minutes (they are gradually getting longer!), and cover a wide range of subjects, usually relating to a recent piece I have written on CultureWatch. That page is here: https://vision.org.au/20Twenty/

Usually I prerecord these interviews by telephone on Wednesday afternoons, given that I am in Melbourne and their main headquarters is in Brisbane. But sometimes I will do a live interview on a Friday morning. And special events such as a federal or state election may involve interviews of 30 to 60 minutes in length.

The routine usually goes something like this: Neil will give me a call and ask, ‘OK, what should we discuss this week?’ I will take him through the past week’s articles (I usually write one a day) and we will quickly decide on one of them.

He may glance over the piece for 10 seconds; we will then pray; and then off we go. He will ask perhaps four to seven questions and I of course reply. The finished result is so smooth and professional, you would think Neil spent hours in preparation for each interview. But he just wings it each week, yet it comes out sounding like a top-notch polished production. Well done Neil – you do a terrific job.

When our interview is finished, I often tell Neil how thankful I am for him and Vision Christian Radio. The very fact that they are willing to have me on week after week, year after year, is most telling. There are other Christian radio stations that dare not touch any controversial or hot potato topics, and/or if they do, they are often rather PC and trendy.

So I am so very thankful that Vision sticks with solid biblical truth and is not afraid to stay away from the trendy lefty fashions of the day. I once had lunch with the Vision leadership team in Brisbane a few years ago and I told them just that. Please pray that they stand strong and stay true to biblical Christianity, and never compromise or water things down.

Indeed, with cancel culture in full swing, with political correctness raging, and with media censorship increasing, there would be many who would love to see Vision shut down once and for all. It really is by God’s grace that it is still going strong. But our spiritual enemy is eager to see it permanently stopped. So regular and sustained intercession and spiritual warfare is vitally needed here.

Of course in addition to keeping Vision in your prayers, make sure you tune in on a regular basis, not just to hear me but so much of the other terrific, inspiring and challenging Bible-based content. This is a first-rate Christian ministry that we dare not take for granted and that we all must support.

God richly bless Vision Christian Radio.

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