This past January, I found myself once again running after Pat Robertson on a visit to CBN, the Christian Broadcasting Network, in Virginia Beach, Virginia. I simply wanted to say hello to the Christian leader, who had so beautifully influenced my life.
Now in a wheelchair and accompanied by attendants, he managed to give me a smile as he exited the ministry’s January staff prayer gathering and end-of-year review. That would be the last time I would see this amazing Christian leader before he passed from this earthly life to heaven this past Thursday morning.
But it was the second time I had inserted myself into his “space” after hearing him speak. The first was 38 years ago, and it was life-changing.
I literally “ran after” Robertson after hearing him speak in Washington, D.C., in 1985. As a relatively new Christian, I had discovered “The 700 Club” on TV more than two decades after its first broadcast in 1966. The evangelical and news broadcast—now watched round the world with about 90% of its current audience outside the U.S.—initially had a signal that barely reached around the block in Portsmouth, Virginia.
I was captivated as a new viewer in the mid-’80s by how CBN so creatively and honestly employed professional TV journalism/ broadcasting to share the Gospel and lead people to Christ. I’d seen TV preachers before, but this was entirely different, with real stories (testimonies) of people whose lives had been transformed by a living Lord, as well as news from a Christian perspective. Pat always was professional, personable, and prayerful as he commented on the news of the day, prayed for people’s healings, and even offered nutritional advice on healthy eating.
As I tuned into these daily broadcasts, I realized, as a single woman in my 30s at the time, that I had a growing desire to work for this groundbreaking ministry, though I knew nothing about TV production. In my role at the time, as a writer and managing editor for a local Northern Virginia newspaper, I became aware that he would soon be speaking to a group of “Senate wives” (yes, that’s what they were called back then) at an embassy in Washington. I made a phone call, obtained an invitation as a reporter, grabbed my steno pad (how it was done then), and was off to Embassy Row.
Why had he been invited to speak to a political audience? It was the spring of 1985, and there were rumors of his running for the Republican nomination for president in the next presidential election cycle, which he ultimately did.
Assuming that his speech would be followed by a reception, I looked forward to introducing myself, but after his talk, he immediately exited through glass doors behind the podium. Seated many rows back, I leapt to my feet, running through those same doors up Massachusetts Avenue and yelling at the top of my lungs, “Dr. Robertson, Dr. Robertson.”
At least 50 yards away, on the sidewalk with his wife and security guards, he graciously stopped and turned. Breathlessly, I expressed my desire to work at CBN. And the rest is history—an in-person interview with Robertson a week later, and an exciting position there as a writer and manager of corporate communication in its public relations office for several years.
Being hired personally by him, at a time when CBN’s human resources division received thousands of job applications annually, was wonderful. But there was more. I met my husband of now 35 years at CBN, which led to our move to Boston after he was hired as CBN’s New England ministry director. We continue to live out that call on our lives to serve as part of the body of Christ in New England.
But millions of people have been touched by the ministry of CBN and “The 700 Club.” And, they didn’t all run after Robertson. He came looking for them, following the leading of the Lord. Robertson ran after the Lord, and over and over, God showed him what He was calling him to start—to lead more people to Jesus, to literally bless those in need, inform the uninformed, and take a stand for righteousness and biblical values in our nation.
Broadcasting the Gospel was the bedrock beginning, followed by the start of Operation Blessing in 1978, which has helped millions worldwide with food, clean water, medical care, and disaster relief. Regent University—now in its 46th year with 11,000 currently enrolled students—was founded by Robertson with the motto “Christian leadership to change the world.”
He also founded the American Center for Law and Justice, headquartered in Washington with affiliated offices worldwide today, for the purpose of protecting religious and constitutional freedoms.
With “The 700 Club” reporting from its Middle East TV bureau almost daily, it has stood with Israel over and over. On Pat’s 93rd birthday in March, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu shared: “I want to say categorically that Israel has had no better friend than you.”
While some have criticized Robertson over the years for various public remarks, his legacy cannot be denied.
Pat, most of all, was a friend to those in need of the saving knowledge of Jesus Christ, having led millions to Jesus through the daily airing of “The 700 Club,” its daily 24/7 prayer lines, the establishment of Regent University and so many life-changing CBN ministries, as well as his authoring of 23 books.
Pat Robertson ran after God, and taught millions of others to do the same.
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