Sometime in early 2017, in happy reply to the invitation of station manager Ellie Wharton of KWRH-LP Radio63119, First Church will begin airing an hour-long program of “words and music for the progressive Christian” – a program called, The First Thing.

Due first to construction delays, and now to the necessity of locating a site for the station transmitter, the station which was originally expected to begin broadcasting in June 2016 has of necessity deferred to the measure of “in God’s own time.”

Progressive Christians such as ourselves are open-minded, open-hearted interpreters of scripture. We take the Bible seriously, but not literally. Within a Bible’s pages you will find the Word of God, though not necessarily the words of God. So, we have learned that when science and faith conflict, the more trustworthy literal answer may be found with science, even though our spiritual sense will trust the Bible more. We consider the practice of our faith to be a continuing testament of God’s work in the world. Obviously, then, Progressive Christians tend to stress faith over belief, and practice over doctrine.

The music in our program will be across a wide spectrum of genres – most our own recordings from worship and some the contributions of recording artists. It will be as diverse as what you hear in worship with us on Sunday mornings.

The words will be meditations, devotions, and commentary created by Pastor Dave Denoon, ourselves, and guests.

The call letters for the radio station match the initials of “Webster – Rock Hill,” and the studio for the station will be in the newly expanded Webster – Rock Hill Ministries facility at 111 E. Waymire Ave. in Webster Groves. The low power (30 watt) transmission of “Radio 63119” will travel out to a 10-mile radius from a tower on Webster Groves High School, thanks to an 8-year lease granted at no charge by the Webster Groves School District. Learn more about KWRH at its website, its Facebook page, its Soundcloud page (which includes some audio links to Jubilee worship and our afternoon event with John Dorhauer on January 31 here) or on Twitter.

In exchange for airing our program, First Church will pay a small monthly donation to the station. We hope that this will prove to be a blessed investment in the evangelization of our community and possibly to the growth of our faith community.