60 years later, First Presbyterian still has strong presence on TV

It was a strange request.

A physician contacted First Presbyterian Church in Columbus and requested one of its hymnals for a patient.

The Rev. Jones Doughton, associate pastor, said there was a good reason behind it.

“The patient watched our Sunday morning services on television and wanted to be able to sing along,” he said.

Doughton said he has heard of a married couple who watched the broadcast at home but still dressed up in their Sunday best.

People have been viewing the First Presbyterian broadcast, dressed up or not, for quite a while.

It was 60 years ago that First Presbyterian decided to put its Sunday service on television. The Rev. Robert Blakeley McNeill was the pastor.

“There has been a time when the broadcast went on hiatus, but most of the time since then First Presbyterian has been on the air,” said the Rev. Joel Alvis, the interim pastor at First Presbyterian.

Alvis said Sunday broadcasts, seen live locally at 11 a.m. on WRBL and via a live stream on the internet, reaches numerous people in Columbus and around the county.

“Not everyone can make it to the church, but we provide other ways for them to share the experience,” he said. “All of the services are archived and may also be seen by anyone on YouTube.”

Alvis called the broadcasts a “critical event in the life of the church that is made available to the larger community.”

“People stop me on the street to talk about something they saw in the service,” he said. “That is amazing.”

He knows of a woman who watches on her iPad in Corvallis, Ore.

Garry Cook is the media coordinator who controls the broadcast from the church’s TV room. Four cameras are used to show the service.

During the week, Cook does pre-planning for the high-definition production, getting graphics prepared, cameras calibrated and working on the timing of the show, checking with Alvis and the music director as to how long the sermon will take, the length of hymns.

“Sometimes, I do go over a bit,” Alvis said.

There are televisions in the loft above and behind the pulpit so choir members can see what others in the sanctuary are viewing.

First Presbyterian takes the production seriously.

“In 2013, we put in a new system,” Cook said.

The price tag was about $100,000.

“It is worth it,” Alvis said. “There are a lot of shut-ins we reach with God’s message. There is a group at Spring Harbour that gathers on Sunday to watch together.”

The story about how First Presbyterian got into the television business was told briefly in a 1956 edition of the church newsletter.

A committee chaired by Paul K. McKenney Jr. was formed.

Other members were E.W. Swift Jr., John Kinnett Sr., R.E. Butler, Kyle Spencer, J.W. Feighner, Herbert H. Hughes and Henry B. Pease.

McKenney told the congregants how a “thorough study” of the possibility of a broadcast was made.

The committee checked with an official of the Protestant Radio and Television Center for his thoughts.

The church was told “if you have the opportunity to televise your services don’t miss it. For in one service you can reach more people than Paul preached to in all his travels.”

The official went on to point out that the “healers” and many others are using television more and more and unless the Protestant congregations make more use of it, and soon, they may wake up and find the time is not available on the stations.

Stephen T. Harvin, pastor of the South Jacksonville Presbyterian Church, which has been broadcasting for quite some time, was asked for his thoughts.

Harvin told the committee if the church had an opportunity to televise morning sessions, his advice was to “do so immediately.” Harvin said cameras in the balcony caused no confusion and is hardly noticeable to the congregation. He said more of his congregation was attending than ever.

McKenney said members of First Presbyterian went to the house of George Venable to watch church broadcasts on Atlanta stations. They watched morning services of Grace Methodist Church and were greatly impressed with the dignity and effectiveness of the entire service.

“It was almost as if we were sitting in their congregation,” he said.

McKenney and two others attended the services of the Second Ponce de Leon Baptist Church in Atlanta, which was televised on WSB-TV.

Pastor Norman Swilley told the visitors that television “offers any church the greatest single medium of evangelism the world has known.” He said many churches in the rural areas without pastors are attending his services by placing a television on their own pulpits.

The First Presbyterian budget committee approved the idea as did church members by a 192-51 vote.

Officers met with management at WDAK (now WTVM), which got the equipment necessary.

A camera with suitable lens, equipment that could be mounted in a truck or van, and a microwave relay, totaling $25,000 was purchased.

The church signed a deal obligating it for five years at a rate of $96.15 per week or $5,000 per year to pay for it. The station obligated itself to bear all of the expenses of operating the equipment each Sunday estimated at from $25 to $50 and agreed to keep the equipment in perfect operating condition and to modernize it by an exchange to color if and when that development should become general in the industry. There was a renewal option for another five years.

WDAK purchased the equipment from a television station in Chicago.

Alvis wonders whether people at First Presbyterian in 1956 had any idea how the broadcast would continue and grow.

“It is very exciting,” he said. “To have the ability to share with so many people the message of Jesus Christ is wonderful.”

This story was originally published December 9, 2016 at 2:04 PM with the headline "60 years later, First Presbyterian still has strong presence on TV."