Working from a bare-bones basement studio in Bucharest, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is reaching an entire nation via television.
Working from a bare-bones basement studio in Bucharest, the Seventh-day Adventist Church is reaching an entire nation via television.
The Adventist Church’s media center there is producing a weekday television program aired on one of the top three television networks in the country, Realitatea TV. The program, called “In the Center of Attention,” is recognized among the most popular in the country and has been awarded accolades from media-watchers.
As a result, the church’s public image is improving. Many thought leaders, academics and government officials are appearing on the program, and Romanians are becoming interested in the church, according to Adrian Bocaneanu, president of the church in Romania.
In June 2002, the Romanian media center launched a weekly 45-minute program entitled “Life at the Superlative,” which consists of 15 minute of local programming, plus a subtitled English-language show from “The Evidence” series produced by It Is Written and Faith for Today—Adventist programs produced by the church’s media center in Simi Valley, California.
The programs were so well received, Bocaneanu says, that Realitatea TV asked the church to begin a daily program. They developed “In the Center of Attention,” which runs for 45 minutes every weekday.
In the Center of Attention aims to communicate the Adventist Church’s worldview as it relates to current events, Bible themes, and health and cultural matters. A wide range of public figures have appeared on the program, including Romanian government officials, education, health, and culture ministers, and the nation’s foreign secretary and justice minister are slated to appear.
According to Bocaneanu, the program’s past guests represent a mosaic of who-is-who in Romania and internationally. He readily lists several members of the Romanian parliament, along with the former Romanian president, Dr. Emil Constantinescu, ambassadors from Israel and the United States, as well as representatives of humanitarian organizations, including World Vision. The program also included two of the four metropolitans of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the president of the Baptist Union in Romania, representatives of the United Bible Societies of Europe, as well as a long list of international and national Adventist church leaders.
Both Life at the Superlative and In the Center of Attention are produced in a studio at the Romanian church’s headquarters. “Often our TV guests are surprised—even a little upset—to learn that they are in such a place, only to radically change their opinions about the church and to vividly express their admiration for the television program, and the church that sponsors it,” Bocaneanu says. “They [also] promote the program in their circles and suggest other guests to be invited.”
The station has a very good penetration in the urban young and mid-adult professional audience, Bocaneanu adds, and the program has recently added the capability of taking audience phone calls and e-mails during the broadcast, making it an interactive experience. Realitatea TV’s owner spent US$30,000 to make this option available, and the program receives some 30 to 50 call-ins and e-mail messages every night.
Adventist television officials are working on new programming for PAX TV in Romania, and are offering their facilities to other Adventist church regions in neighboring countries, including Bulgaria, Moldova, the former Yugoslavia, Hungary and Ukraine.