Southeast to launch on WAVE
By Ruth Schenk | .(JavaScript must be enabled to view this email address)
There is one goal in launching Southeast TV: “connecting people to Jesus and one another.”
The 30-minute program, which will launch on WAVE-TV at 10 a.m. on Sunday, Feb. 12, will air every Sunday on a one-week delay from the live service at the
Blankenbaker Campus.
It is designed for people who have not set foot in church in a long time, those who are too ill to leave their homes, those who are in prison, those who are curious
and want to know more about faith and those who have a boatload of needs with no idea what to do next.
Since broadcasts will look different than worship services, those who attend Southeast may want to tune in to review and experience God in a new way as they
watch at home.
“Our prayer is that people will connect with Christ,” said Southeast’s Communications and Creative Arts Director Cary Meyer. “If someone watches the program
and feels God is calling them to come to Southeast, we would love to have them be a part of our big family. If they connect with Christ and feel called to another
church, that’s great, too.”
For 2012, those who watch the program will walk through “The Story” with the congregation.
Producer Craig Miller said there is no set mold to fill every week, which presents both a unique challenge and opportunity.
“We will take the video from Saturday night and Sunday morning services as God moves in each message and we’ll work to edit the moments from all three,” Miller
said. “Just as things change from one service to another as Dave or Kyle share different moments that they may experience in their sermons, so the broadcasts
will change too.”
Each program will include the sermon from the previous week, plus testimonies and ways to apply the message to everyday life. Those stories will highlight how
God is working in individual lives. Many will be filmed outside the walls of Southeast.
Thousands of lives were changed when Southeast launched the radio ministry in the 1980s and many tuned in to learn about faith. The production team met with
Joe Fedele, who has edited Southeast sermons to fit broadcasts for 30 years.
“It’s all about the message,” he told the production team. “We work hard so nothing interferes with the message.”
That’s the goal in the television ministry as well.
The week delay will give those who hear the sermon a chance to tell friends and family to tune in or record it to listen at another time.
Adding television to Southeast outreach will not change anything in the sanctuary. No one in the church service will see additional cameras or be distracted by
filming for the broadcasts.
Meyer said the decision to include television in outreach at Southeast was considered long and hard by Senior Pastor Dave Stone and Teaching Pastor Kyle
Idleman, as well as the board of elders.
One key factor in making the decision to launch is how many people they know have come to Christ through television ministry.
Choosing a team was another big step, Meyer said. Miller, who has worked in television and film production for eight years in Los Angeles, has worked on
high-budget, feature-length films and in television. Originally from Kentucky, he returned to Louisville in 2010 to teach film production to at-risk teens.
“I left the first meeting so thrilled about this outreach,” he said. “My dream is this will get out and touch people. I believe this will reach those who are afraid to walk
in the door of any church.”
William Wallace, the show’s senior editor, didn’t know Christ when he left his home in Beaver Dam, Ky., after high school to move to Louisville.
“At one time, I was pretty outspoken against the church,” he said. “God used a series of events to draw me to Him.”
In 1997, Wallace moved to Alaska where he lived in a tent for a summer.
“During that time, God began to reveal Himself to me as the Creator,” he said. “From Alaska, I moved to Reno, Nev. There God began to open my eyes through my
roommate, a believer who began sharing with me.”
Wallace began working in television in 2002.
“I love to tell a story,” he said, “especially one that shares the Gospel. One of the things that excites me about this is it’s not just about a television ministry. It’s
about glorifying God and reaching people who haven’t heard it presented in a personal way."