I’m writing this as we get ready for our Celebration. While preparing, it always dawns on me what a serious thing we do during those three days and at the same time how much we tease one another while on air. We’re all aware that many important things happen during our fundraising, but being a bit cheerful is the staff’s natural way of treating one another. Another significant thing that happens during celebrations is that our listeners, with their contributions, directly participate in sharing the Gospel into our communities. They are disciples of the Gospel; they make a difference in other people’s lives. Our first Celebration got its name from our desire to not be a share-a-thon or a telethon, but something more telling of our true nature than those two terms. Celebration was chosen because it was the simplest way to describe what we were doing 6 months after our first broadcast, January 8th, 1990. Back then, and again this year, we may get a little caught up in being “cheerful givers”, (the Gospel should be Joy-full, Hope-full and Peace-full) but there’s a lot of serious reflection done during those times as well.
Let me explain a bit more about what Celebrations were and are intended to do. Obviously share the Gospel was first. But the sub-title would be, we want WBVN to make life better for our listeners. We can’t, as a radio ministry, change the world, but we can build and provide a positive influence into the world we all live in. That’s something like what the Father, Son and Spirit did after the fall. God didn’t destroy the garden but did what it took next: send a Messiah, to provide an environment in earth’s garden for the creatures They created and loved. In some minuscule way we mimic that purpose a bit. The world is what it is, but the Gospel shared is a way to bless and overpower the ugly. 
The following statement may be a little sarcastic but has a little truth: sometimes I see commercials, (many times not only the programs are objectionable but the commercials make some of us blush!) and many, far too many, simply make me stop and say a little prayer. Commercials have increased my prayer life! I mean, if you listen closely to the characteristic of what we’re being sold, what we need to be healthy and happy, it’s sad. You can tell that our culture has moved away from the values of what are real human rights, rights that are good for all humans, into ‘my rights’, we’ve moved to being professionals in ‘self’. Moved away from what’s good for the country to: to heck with the country, what do I get? If we’re not careful we can even religiously change the Gospel into what ‘I want’ rather than ‘Thy will be done.’
Celebrations “re-fresh” our purpose: “why we came to share the Gospel in this specific way” thru CCM. The Gospel means “good tiding” or good news! Good news is our ‘business’. Found in the Gospel are many messages telling how we should live and how we should behave. However the Gospel is more than behavior modification.
No one has been able to live totally ‘right’ yet, so that can’t be the Gospel in itself. If behaving perfectly all the time was possible surely someone would be able to declare, “I’ve done it, I’m right all the time.” However, we know from scripture that “No! Not one” is able to do that, for all have come short. The Ten Commandments tell us a great deal about what it would take to be “self-righteous,” but can we live them every minute of every day? I can’t and I’m suspicious if you can. Who’s not guilty of at least one of them? In fact self-righteousness is the exact opposite of the Gospel. The prophet Isaiah tells us that our righteousness, even if possibly perfect, would be as filthy rags. (Isa. 64) (I can only imagine what it would be like to stand before God and Jesus and say: ‘I did it, got it all right, I made the cut, I earned my way into this place.’ I just see Father and Son look at each other and the expression on their faces.) Self-righteousness would be insulting to the Grace and Mercy of God and to the crucifixion of Jesus. Logically, if simply good behavior and good attitude was what was required, we would not need a Messiah, not need a Son of God. All we would need is the ‘10′.
A promise to do better in the future is not the Gospel in itself. All other beliefs rely on people doing the deed. The Gospel relies on Him doing the deed. Imagine another religion that suggests that God sent part of the Trinity to make sinners righteous. The Gospel is linked to nothing else but the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ! It is true that merit benefits us greatly, I highly recommend it! And it’s commanded to experience more of the kind of Life He desires for us here on earth. The Father gave us guidelines not selfishly, but compassionately. He wants us to experience a godly life. But those commands alone are not our Savior, not our Emmanuel.
(As a new Christian I began making a Gospel foundation first by using the book of Colossians, reading Romans, Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, and Hebrews in that order to build a cornerstone about the Gospel. For the most part, if we misunderstand those ‘Paul’ scriptures we will probably misunderstand the rest of God’s plan for man.)
The Gospel is a Person. It’s not an ethic, or moral teaching, although the Gospel contains both. It’s bigger than that. The Gospel is always linked to Christ Jesus. We must not permit the Cross and the Resurrection to be a part of our lives; they must be huge in our lives. We have to give up on any thought of ever being “good enough” by ourselves. We are to rely on God’s gifts of Holiness and Righteousness to be the cornerstones of our lives. We need to yield to the Grace of God. It’s only that Gospel we’re to put our trust in, our faith in. We can trust in nothing else. Likewise, we can’t stand only on our own understanding of the Gospel, our human thoughts about it. (Prov. 3:5) The reason for that: His ways are not our ways. (Isa. 55:8) Accept what Jesus did through God and what God did through Jesus. The Gospel is a covenant between a Father requiring a sacrifice and a Son saying he’d be that Sacrifice. We enter into Their covenant, Their Gospel plan. We do not make a covenant of our own design. The Father and the Son have set the rules. No man could have imagined ‘such a deal’: Grace and Mercy! No other religion mimics it. No other religion can provide it. We put the whole deal in One Life, in one death and one resurrection. We enter into Their Grace, not with our ability or merit, but by the ability of the Gospel of Peace and the Gospel of Grace to offer that to us. “It’s by Grace that you have been saved.”
This Gospel is so profoundly “un-religious” it could only have been imaged by God. It is so powerful it could only be worthy and accomplished by the Creator’s hand. That Amazing Grace is what we come to share every day over this station, it’s why we ask you to help us do that and make a difference. We create a ‘home’ of encouragement and God’s invitation to bless people’s lives. Together we can make a better place for thousands of listeners each day, disciple the Gospel, encourage the Church.