The Voice of Prophecy Turns 95 Years Old
“Ninety-five years—and look at the way God blessed a spark in a young preacher’s heart! The ministry started so humbly—in a chicken coop—and now it’s across the face of the Earth, ministering in more than 70 languages. It’s become a front-line evangelistic agency for the church.”
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The Voice of Prophecy (VOP), Seventh-day Adventism’s oldest existing media ministry, celebrated its 95th birthday last month. From its first day to now, VOP has used cutting-edge technology to proclaim the everlasting Gospel of Christ, touching millions of lives worldwide.
The ministry began on October 19, 1929, when Adventist preacher Harold Marshall Sylvester (H.M.S.) Richards Sr. started regularly broadcasting biblical messages on California radio stations. Although some church leaders at the time called radio “the devil’s tool,” Richards Sr. was determined to harness the recently popularized invention for Christ.
Soon, the young evangelist was broadcasting his program, The Tabernacle of the Air (renamed The Voice of Prophecy in 1937), on a daily basis. His headquarters, a renovated chicken coop in his garage, reflected his humility, a trait he retained even as his broadcast’s fame grew—and grow it did.
In 1942, just weeks after the attack on Pearl Harbor, listeners across the United States turned on their radios to hear “Lift up the trumpet, and loud let it ring: Jesus is coming again!” The Voice of Prophecy, which began each segment with its uplifting theme song, had become the Adventist Church’s national radio program. This brand-new appointment, created in 1941 by the General Conference Radio Commission, distinguished The Voice of Prophecy as one of the first religious programs to be broadcast coast to coast.
Five years later, the broadcast went international, and communities around the world became acquainted with the sound of VOP’s signature male quartet, The King’s Heralds, the contralto Del Delker, and the friendly voice of Richards Sr. By the 1960s
, over 1,300 stations in 30 languages carried The Voice of Prophecy.
Also growing was the ministry’s Bible Correspondence School (now called the Discover Bible School), established in 1942. A month after the school was announced, more than 2,000 students had enrolled. By 1946, that number had soared to 85,000.
H.M.S. Richards Jr. succeeded his father in leadership in 1969. He was followed by Lonnie Melashenko, Fred Kinsey, and current Speaker/Director Shawn Boonstra. Under these leaders and their associates, the Voice of Prophecy expanded its reach, developing specialized radio programs, branching into television, and organizing preaching campaigns and evangelistic crusades across the country and world.
“Ninety-five years—and look at the way God blessed a spark in a young preacher’s heart!” Boonstra expressed. “The ministry started so humbly—in a chicken coop—and now it’s across the face of the Earth, ministering in more than 70 languages. It’s become a front-line evangelistic agency for the church.”
Boonstra, alongside his wife, Jean Boonstra, has been leading VOP for 12 years. The ministry is now based in Loveland, Colorado, the city where Richards Sr. grew up and was baptized.
VOP’s current flagship program is the weekly television show Authentic, in which Shawn Boonstra pursues answers to the deepest questions of human existence. Jean Boonstra leads the children’s ministry, Discovery Mountain, a weekly Bible-based audio adventure series that has captured the imaginations of kids worldwide—it even hosted the nightly broadcasts of the recent International Pathfinder Camporee!
The Discover Bible School continues to offer free courses for both children and adults. It now supports over 2,000 churches in North America and hundreds more across the globe. United States graduates alone exceed one million. Far higher is the sum of worldwide graduates, which has soared into the millions.
More than ever before, the Voice of Prophecy is focused on supporting local church evangelism by producing high-quality media resources and bridge events. Its next series, Primordial, decodes the origins of existence to point audiences toward their loving Creator. VOP’s partnership with Pentecost 2025, a North American Division initiative, will allow participating churches to host Primordial and other VOP events for free.
“I can’t believe I get to be a part of this enduring ministry,” Shawn Boonstra shared. “I’m looking forward to the report we can give H.M.S. Richards Sr. on resurrection morning about the way God continued to expand his vision.”
