The Sacred Power of Radio Preaching

Rev. Dr. Tom Long is one of the most respected voices in homiletics today—named by Baylor University as one of the 12 most effective preachers in the English-speaking world. In this clip from Episode #4175 of Day1, he joins host Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime to reflect on a medium that helped shape his calling: radio preaching.

At a time when video dominates nearly every form of communication, Dr. Long reminds us that the spoken word—especially over audio—holds a uniquely intimate and imaginative power. From his early days as a seminary student and disc jockey to his formative experience hearing sermons on the Protestant Hour, Tom Long shares how the radio brings the Gospel straight into daily life—not as spectacle, but as companionship.

And yes, we’re aware of the irony: we’ve included a video clip about the magic of audio.
(But trust us, it’s worth watching—and listening.)

Whether you're tuning in from the garden or the car, this reflection will make you listen a little more closely to the voice that calls us home.

Watch the Clip

Transcript

Rev. Dr. Katie Givens Kime
We know that one gift of preaching delivered over the radio or podcast is that people can receive sermons wherever they are in their personal lives, not just inside a sanctuary. What do you think, though, distinguishes audio from video? In other words, what does radio preaching create in terms of connection that televised preaching cannot?

Rev. Dr. Tom Long
It's interesting, I was thinking about that. Not long after the Protestant Hour first went on the air in 1945, suddenly television was ushered into the American home. Many people thought this was the death of radio, that who would want to listen to the radio when you could watch television? Quite to the contrary, it's been the discovery of what radio can do that television cannot.

It creates an intimacy. On television, you're watching a screen, you're at some distance from it, but on the radio, you're listening to a voice speaking in a way just to you. And also, radio has a portability that television doesn't have.

You can listen in the car, you can listen riding the lawnmower, you can listen doing gardening. And suddenly, radio teases the imagination in a way that sometimes the video does not. There are many people who prefer, for example, to listen to a baseball game on the radio rather than watching one on television.

Because as you listen on the radio, you have to create the scenes in your own imagination. And so you participate in radio in a way that you perhaps do not with the video.

Reflecting on the Power of Voice

What makes the spoken word sacred? In this thoughtful moment, Rev. Dr. Tom Long draws our attention to the subtle, imaginative power of hearing sermons through audio—an intimacy that is often lost in the age of screens. Rather than consuming a performance, listeners are invited into a holy conversation.

This reflection matters for preachers, podcast producers, and all who proclaim the Gospel in today’s world. As Tom Long notes, the voice connects personally. It asks us not just to consume—but to create, to imagine, and to participate.

It’s a reminder that when we speak truth in love, even over a radio, the Spirit is at work.

Questions to Consider:
- How do you experience sermons differently when you hear them rather than watch them?
- In what ways does the medium shape the message—and your reception of it?
- Where in your life has a simple voice made a lasting impact on your faith?

Explore Rev. Dr. Tom Long’s full sermon from episode 4175 >>>