Using Technology to Preach

[jwhess]

NOTE:  I am sorry that I could not get the photos to line up according to the list.

 

Our ministry has expanded from just a few “Bible Students in the 1870s to a world-wide organization with tens of millions attending our meetings.  Our preaching work has taken on an accelerated pace over the years.  We have been aided by the proper use of modern technology.

 

I thought it would be interesting to see how the technology aided us and how it changed over the decades (and the centuries).  I invite anyone with a story or experience of a picture to share.

 

I am going to start with the CT Russell era from 1880 to 1915.  From “horse and buggy to modern transportation.

 

In the earliest of our organization used horse carriages and even horseback to dispense the Good News.  The first picture was from 1890 to 1900 showing Russell on one of his overseas tours.

 

*** kr chap. 2 p. 29 The Kingdom Is Born in Heaven ***

1891  C. T. Russell begins extensive tours outside the United States, seeking ways of “forwarding the spread of the Truth”

 

Second picture - 1911

Further expansion around the world made steamship travel necessary.  Seven brothers on the Missionary Committee embarked on a journey that took months. They went by boat even to the Orient.

 

*** kr chap. 2 p. 29 The Kingdom Is Born in Heaven ***

1911-1912

C. T. Russell and six companions travel some 35,000 miles (56,000 km) on a round-the-world tour to investigate the “status and prospects of Christianity” in various lands, including China, India, Japan, and the Philippines

 

*** jv chap. 22 pp. 419-421 Part 1—Witnesses to the Most Distant Part of the Earth ***

A World Tour to Further the Preaching of the Good News

A further major effort was put forth in 1911-12 to help people of the Orient. The International Bible Students Association sent a committee of seven men, headed by C. T. Russell, to examine firsthand the conditions there. Wherever they went they spoke about God’s purpose to bring blessings to mankind by means of the Messianic Kingdom

 

Third picture  circa 1912

As technology advanced, we find our organization moving on to motor vehicles for transportation and later for advertising the PhotoDrama presentations. That movie was released in early 1914. I do not know the model of automobile in this next picture.

 

*** w98 5/15 pp. 12-13 par. 14 Christian Faith Will Be Tested ***

In 1913, The Watch Tower said of a convention in Arkansas, U.S.A.: “It was unanimously resolved that the time has come for the use of moving pictures in teaching Bible truths. . . . [Russell] explained that he had been at work upon this very plan for three years and now had almost ready hundreds of beautiful pictures, which will undoubtedly attract great crowds and herald the Gospel, and help the public back to faith in God.”

 

Fourth picture  1913

The steam train was used for more distant travel.  There are quite a few pictures of the famous “Transcontinental Tour” by train that went from the East Coast to the West Coast, with stops along the way showing the brothers at famous parks and places, spreading the word.

 

*** yb13 p. 175 One Hundred Years Ago—1913 ***

Transcontinental Tour of Pastor Russell and the International Bible Students at Hot Springs, Arkansas, June 4, 1913

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited April 13, 2021 by jwhess

[Doug]

Nice topic, John !

We can be proud of our organization. We are definitely not stuck in the 'ways we used to do it'.

Maybe someone can comment on the story about Microsoft , or was it IBM , approaching the brothers to license the MEPS  technology for commercial use. True?

[jwhess]

1 hour ago, Doug said:

Nice topic, John !

We can be proud of our organization. We are definitely not stuck in the 'ways we used to do it'.

Maybe someone can comment on the story about Microsoft , or was it IBM , approaching the brothers to license the MEPS  technology for commercial use. True?

I hope many will comment on their favorite technological improvements to the ministry.  It does not have to be chronological. My next posting will be in the 194-1925 era. But any time and any place is encouraged.

[jwhess]

There were other preaching advances in the 1900-1915 era.  Colporteurs (Pioneers) canvassed wide areas placing sets of Br. Russell's books called the Millennial Dawn series.  A complete set of volumes 1 to 6 was quite large and heavy.  On delivery day, a sister carried a suitcase with up to 50 books in it.  Fifty books weighed over 40 pounds..  So in 1908, Br. James Cole invented a "rolling" suitcase on wheels.  It was presented at the 1908 Cincinnati, Ohio Bible Students Convention.  Because the main books were the Dawn series, there was a little button on the unit engraved Dawn Mobile".  the name stuck.  The two pictures are from the Watchtower archives and presented in the February 15, 2012 Watchtower magazine on pages 31-32, under the Article..."From Our Archives".  The pictures are of Sisters Charlotte White and Melinda Keefer.

 

Br. Russell also made good use of the telegraph and telephone instruments to dispense the Good News.  One picture shows his office with the telephone on a flexible extension and the other shows a page from the "Proclaimers" book explaining how he was able to send in his sermons to the newspapers.

 

 

 

[jwhess]

As we push forward with the use of technology in the work of preaching the good news, the 15 years from 1915 to 1930 was outstanding.  First we produced the PhotoDrama of Creation.  A movie that was earth=shaking and ground-breaking in all respects.  In a time when people could only rarely see a black-and-white silent movie...we produced a movie with color and sound and it was 8 hours long (shown on four nights of 2 hours each).  What a monumental task.  We had to synchronized voice recordings on turntable disks with a moving picture to have the lips move when the voice came out.  The video film and the glass slides were "hand-painted to give them color.  it was beautifully done.  And not just one set of these either.  There were many sets traveling around the country and the world.  I seem t recall at least 24 sets of the movie/slide presentation.

 

Millions of people saw the PhotoDrama and many more (in smaller locations) saw the slide-only Eureka Drama presentations.  We even had our own audio record business...the Angelaphone player and records.

 

The Photo-Drama pictures are from the Watchtower February 15, 2014 pages 30-32 (From Our Archives).

The Angelophone pictures are ones I downloaded from the Internet.

 

[jwhess]

As the decades change, the new technology of wireless radio transmission takes a leap, By 1920 we were getting radio voice and music (not just Morse Code) by radio.  Our organization was at the front.  We began with radio broadcasts (and rebroadcast from distant stations) of Br. Rutherford's talks.  So important was this method of preaching, our Golden Age magazine (now the Awake) published two pages on how to construct your own receiver to listen.  It would not be long before we owned our own station.

 

 

[jwhess]

Before we decide to ban all photographs here on the site, I wanted to move this discussion forward a few years.  Our organization was small in numbers and a whole world to preach to.  We needed a way to get the message to the masses.  In the 1920s to the 1940s we turned to mass communications.  Radio was populr.  So we got our own radio station.  Our first one was WBBR on Staten Island, NY.  We eventually bought or built several others WORD near Chicago and others across Canada and more distant places.

 

The pictures show some of the transmitters, a sample schedule of the programming, a handbill for public distribution and a sample of the programming for presentation on the air (music, chorus, bible discourses).  the presentations and dramas were "Live" by speakers, musicians and actors from Bethel).