International (MNN) – A few years ago, Trans World Radio had the vision to create a one-stop shop for Gospel-related content to be available to audiences worldwide. This month, TWR360 celebrates its fifth anniversary and they are now receiving a million visitors a month.
Ralf Stores of TWR was an integral part of making this digital content platform happen. He says, “Trans World Radio has been a radio ministry for over … 65 years where we’ve been broadcasting the Gospel around the world on our high-powered AM and mediumwave and shortwave stations. We reach … a potential audience of nearly four billion through our high-powered stations.
“But we also are aggressively moving towards the digital side of our ministry because our vision and our calling is to reach the world for Christ by mass media so that lasting fruit is produced.”
The goal of TWR360 is to provide a place for people to find Christ and to grow in their relationship with Him. And it’s proving to be effective and accessible.
Accessible Resources for Spiritual Growth
“TWR360 is a global, digital platform, multi-language that allows a person to access content via video, audio, or text files in their heart language anytime, anywhere, on any connected device, all on one website,” Stores says.
In fact, their website is set up so that users of different languages don’t even have to navigate the website in a different language. Instead, the website will match the language of their browser setting. In addition to that, there are a list of ministries sorted by languages to help people quickly find content that they can understand.
The alternative is, Stores says, to go website by website in an independent search.
“Here, it allows us to bring the ministries to one portal so that the end user, somebody who speaks Russian or Arabic or Mandarin, can find multiple ministries in that language to be able to have access to.”
And while one of the goals is to grow the reach of TWR360 even more, one of the other goals is to continue to provide quality content in a way that is accessible technologically, as well.
(Capture courtesy of TWR360)
“While there’s a huge technical infrastructure behind TWR 360, the user experience is really very simple. We have both the site itself which is completely mobile-friendly (and right now, over 60 percent of our users are coming in off of the mobile platform, so it’s mobile friendly), plus TWR 360 also has an actual app.”
Users can search by topics, ministries, or languages. Right now, TWR is working on increasing the number of topics from 36 to 60.
“So if somebody is dealing with loneliness or they need a Gospel presentation, or family or marriage or things of that nature, there are topics available on that and they can literally search by topic or by ministry.”
Today, TWR360 is available in 54 languages, is accessed by users from over 200 countries, and is made up of 200 partners and 600 programs. In addition, users can find Christian music, devotionals, study guides, the Bible, and so much more. And there is still so much more potential to grow.
“Even though we have topped a major numerical goal in terms of reaching over a million visitors in one month, it’s not just about the traffic, it’s about engagement. And we want TWR 360 to be the platform of choice. They can come to the platform the watch the JESUS Film. They can come to the platform to listen to music. They can come to the platform to reach the Bible. And, they can come to the platform to get good teaching and sound, biblical instruction.”
Stores says the tagline of TWR360 is “Faith for your world”. He explains that not only is the platform there to encourage faith for your world, but also to increase faith in the world around you. In other words, it’s about coming to Christ, growing in Him, and sharing that with others. And they hope to be able to offer this content in even more languages.
“Right now, … we are on a major campaign to increase the number of languages that the site will be translated in and have content available in. We’re currently at 54 languages and before the end of the year, our goal is to be at 100 online languages with the TWR360 platform.”
So, would you take time to check out this resource? After you’ve had a chance to look around, consider sharing it with others. And keep this tool in mind the next time you meet someone who speaks a different language but wants to know more about Jesus.
And, if you happen to be in ministry, consider this: “This is an opportunity for broadcasters, for churches, for parachurch ministries and organizations that have good, biblical content, to get their content out to a global audience.”
