Reach Beyond was founded on bold faith. Despite there being only five or six radios in the country, Clarence Jones (holding trombone) launched Radio Station HCJB to bring the hope of Jesus to Latin America. Bold faith continues to lead us today.

Last summer, Reach Beyond president Steve Harling was attending the Maranatha Bible and Missionary Conference when he decided to go for a walk and visit the Prayer Tower. Upon approaching the tower, he noticed a plaque, stating:

The original prayer tower building was located on the peak of this, the highest dune at Maranatha. In the Rader Era (1926-1932) the prayer tower was in daily use for seasons of prayer. This practice continued when Maranatha was established.

Many decisions and commitments were made here. In 1927, one such decision, made by a young couple, Mr. & Mrs. Clarence Jones was to answer God’s call to South America to establish Christian radio broadcasting.

Steve found himself standing at the site where it all began. It took four years before that calling was answered, before Clarence would go south and establish HCJB, later to become Reach Beyond. But it began with bold faith.

“Clarence Jones was a man of bold faith. Six radios in the country…and he starts a radio station. That’s bold faith,” said Steve. “Clarence saw the future, saw what God was doing, and knew this medium would be a powerful force in spreading the gospel.”

In the early days, a number of people were attracted to the idea of what God was doing through Clarence in Ecuador. Because of the strong sense of vision they felt, they formed a solid sense of community. It was life-giving community. They prayed together, lived together, sacrificed together, and sought God’s will together. They took a lot of risks, but they were in it together. 

This vibrant community created an incubator of entrepreneurism. HCJB was the first Christian missionary radio station in the world. So many of our pioneers were men and women of great vision, who dreamed up new ways of proclaiming and demonstrating the gospel through strategic innovation.

Dr. Ron Guderian's clinical investigation research led to the erratication of Onchocerciasis (river blindness) in Ecuador.

“We started with shortwave, but that wasn’t the only thing we did,” said Steve. “We got into medicine and developed technologies for treating common conditions people had in the Amazon jungle. One of our doctors created protocols for eliminating river blindness in Ecuador. They put loudspeakers on vans and bought the first missionary plane. They were always pushing the envelope on how it could be done.”

Finally, there never was a sense that this was just our own thing. Reach Beyond has been about partnership from the very beginning. We were always coming alongside other groups to support what they were doing.

“Bold faith, life-giving community, empowered partnership, and strategic innovation. Put those four values together. We feel like they were embedded in our DNA as a mission, and need to shape our mission moving forward,” said Steve.

SHAPING THE FUTURE OF REACH BEYOND

This month, Reach Beyond is rolling out a new brand identity, but what does that mean? Why now? What has changed?

Since Clarence Jones received the call from God to go south and start HCJB Radio, the ministry has gone through seasons of significant change. Going from primarily shortwave radio to helping our global partners initiate community FM radio in the early 1990s was a monumental change. Expanding our focus and presence from being Ecuador-based to having a presence around the world was another big change. In the early 2000s we took the skills and experience our missionaries acquired in Ecuador and began to come alongside national believers in Africa, Asia and Eastern Europe to mobilize them to use the tools of media, medicine and community development in their evangelism strategies. The impact has been enormous … far greater than if we had stayed in Ecuador alone.

And now we are in a season of growth and change once again.

When Steve Harling became president in 2016, he led our staff, missionaries, and leadership through discussions over big questions: How do we build on the foundation of our past and be willing to change to be relevant today and into the future? If recent research is true that 70,000 people a day are entering eternity without Jesus, how can we position Reach Beyond for greater impact and at what cost?

From those conversations, we agreed that our vision is clear:

To see Jesus known and loved among all people

Our mission is to facilitate a partner-driven movement that results in every unreached people group (UPG) of more than 100,000 individuals having ready access to a relevant and transformational gospel witness.

Our strategy is to use our specialized skills in media, medicine and community development in order to catalyze a movement of churches and individuals to come alongside our disciple-making partners around the globe and resource them with the tools and strategies for proclaiming and demonstrating the love of Christ among the world’s least reached people.

Reach Beyond radio trainer Joseph Kebbie (on left) with Theovision Radio staff

Thus our tagline, Voice + Hands, Together.

VOICE: BEYOND BORDERS

We believe that everyone deserves the chance to hear the story of Jesus. We leverage radio and digital media resources to reach beyond borders, communicating to UPGs around the globe. We believe this is our specific calling, and that our unique positioning and gifting is for the 1,900 UPGs of 100,000 individuals or more. We currently have some touch with 32% of UPGs that fit this category, but we need to go deeper.

How do you define a UPG? They are an ethnic group without an indigenous, self-propagating Christian church movement. They are two percent evangelical or less, with no church of their own able to support growth without outside intervention. There is a reason these UPGs haven’t been reached. They are hard to get to, and they are resistant to the gospel. But we are living out our mission with BOLD FAITH and trusting God to do a miracle among these people.

HANDS: BEYOND WORDS

We believe the gospel needs to not only be proclaimed, but also demonstrated by serving the needs of UPGs beyond just words. We do this through community development and medical outreach projects.

Our Hands strategies open doors into unreached people groups to which we wouldn’t otherwise have access.

We don’t just drop the gospel from the sky, but we are on the ground providing medical support, clean water projects and training in geographical areas that often don’t allow overt Christian witness. We have lots of opportunities for believers to use the skills and experience that God has given them to serve the least reached. We’re looking for engineers, medical practitioners, veterinarians, agronomists, entrepreneurs, and disciple makers…and you don’t have to have a seminary degree.

We believe that God has called the church to fulfill the Great Commission

Partnership allows us to demonstrate the Gospel and impact this remote community by installing a clean water system.

TOGETHER: BEYOND OURSELVES

We believe that the best way to fulfill the Great Commission is through empowered partnerships, with churches from sending countries and organizations in receiving areas, to reach beyond ourselves.

We have always been about partnership, and we continue to come alongside incredible indigenous partners to proclaim and demonstrate the gospel. But partnership isn’t just in the field. It is also how we partner here at home. We believe that God has called the church to fulfill the Great Commission, so we ask ourselves, “how can we come alongside and partner with the local church to help them accomplish what God has placed on their heart to do?”

Not only do we partner with churches, but we also partner with individuals, both as workers and as donors. Later this summer we will be launching a new opportunity for supporters to partner with us financially, called + Partners. These are donors who commit to giving on a monthly recurring basis at least $30 a month. We are trusting God to raise up 1,900 + Partners to represent the 1,900 unreached people groups of 100,000 or more individuals that God has placed on our heart to reach.

REACHING OUR FUTURE

In order to finish the task, we need to triple our footprint. We need to invest in our people and raise up a new generation of leaders to focus on UPGs. We need to engage with churches in new ways, and we need to become a loud voice for the least reached.

Our new brand platform is a first step in building clarity and excitement around this story. Will a new logo get us to fulfilling Revelation 7:9? No. But it is one piece in how we are positioned to accomplish all that God has called us to do and be.