BURLINGTON, Canada, June 6, 2002 — Forty years ago today, Canadian Christian television history was made, and a ministry was launched that would dramatically change the broadcasting landscape in this country. Canada's best-known television evangelist, Rev. David Mainse, and Crossroads Christian Communications (the organization he founded), have been ministering to Canadians through the airwaves since 1962.
It all started on a small town TV station in Pembroke, Ontario, where Mainse hosted a weekly15-minute program following the late night news. The Crossroads ministry has grown to include a daily, live television program called 100 Huntley Street. Since 1977, this flagship program has featured more than 12,000 guests on over 6,400 episodes and pulls in weekly audiences averaging one million Canadian viewers. Other productions have included programs for children, teens, and Christian shows in 18 different languages.
Crossroads produces more than just TV shows
But television is not all that Crossroads does. Counsellors man a 24/7-telephone prayer line and have prayed for over 6 million Canadians, often referring callers to social service agencies and churches. Each year, roughly 7,000 children and teens attend one of nine Circle Square Ranches for retreats or summer camp programs. The Geoffrey R. Conway School of Broadcasting and Communications, launched by Crossroads, has trained students in the production of Christian programming, and claims to have graduates producing on-air TV ministries in 41 different countries around the globe today. In 1982, Mainse and his organization established the Emergency Response and Development Fund, which has disbursed over $15 million to Canadian and International disaster relief projects. A new, 24-hour, independent commercial television station, CTS, was launched in 1998.
Crossroads is a family affair
Crossroads began as a family affair and it remains so. Mainse's wife, Norma-Jean, has been a ministry companion from the beginning, and her brothers often provided the musical elements of the program. Today, David and Norma-Jean's children, children-in-law and grandchildren participate.
Now 65, David Mainse was born in Campbell's Bay, Quebec, and raised with a missionary father who inspired him to take God's message of hope, love and saving grace to the nation. He began his ministry as a pastor, and while he and his wife resigned from pastoring churches in 1970, it is a pastor's heart that continues to beat in his chest. And while 40 years have seen his ministry expand to reach many corners of the globe, he retains a pastor's vision: to share with others his deep faith in Jesus Christ, and see God relate in a significant way to each individual's life.
Source: Bible Network News
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