The story of Gospel Communications

Over 50 years ago, movies were evolving from an eye-catching curiousity to an all-new way of telling a story. Movies like Sunset Boulevard and Disney's Cinderella were attracting swarms of moviegoers, and it was clear that film was here to stay.

While Christians debated the merits and usefulness of film, a handful of outreach visionaries were asking one all-important question: how could this amazing new medium be used to share the Gospel of Christ with the world?

The answer came in 1950, when Gospel Films was founded as a non-profit ministry that sought to use film to reach people with the Gospel. Not long afterwards, evangelist Billy Zeoli took the reigns of Gospel Films, and would serve as President until 2004. Over the years, Gospel Films' evangelistic outreach grew beyond all expectations, sending Gospel movies to countries all over the world, from North America to Africa. From The Gospel Blimp to How Shall We Then Live, Gospel Films continually sought new ways to use film to communicate the message of Jesus Christ.

The ministry continued to expand, and by 1994 added videos to its list of ministry media. An all-new video-loan program called Free Media was launched, and began doing the impossible: showing evangelistic videos to millions of public school students around North America. Zeoli's ministry had always been about communicating the Gospel using every type of media available--and so, sensing the rising importance of the early internet and envisioning an outreach that stretched beyond film and video alone, the board of directors changed the ministry's name to Gospel Communications International.

The internet proved a natural new extension to Gospel Communications' vision for media evangelism. Since then, the ministry has grown exponentially, using everything from film to video to email and websites to reach millions of people around the globe.

Central to Gospel Communications' internet ministry is the Gospelcom Ministry Alliance, a network of 300+ Christian ministries all working together to use the internet for evangelism. In addition to creating and maintaining websites like the Bible Gateway and Gospelcom.net, Gospel Communications hosts an annual internet evangelism conference at which these hundreds of ministries gather to share wisdom and receive training.

Standing on a long history of media outreach, we're pressing ahead into the new century with a renewed passion for evangelism. Whether it's film, the internet, or all-new media yet to be developed, Gospel Communications will be there proclaiming the Gospel... getting the Word out to the entire world.