PB-based Christian program reaches 236 million around the globe

A Poplar Bluff-based Christian program has grown in recent months to a viewership now reaching 236 million people in 83 countries around the globe.

Kingdom News Now began airing in December 2013 on the local cable station’s religious channel, reaching those subscribers in Poplar Bluff.

Today, it’s on The Now Network, which airs on ROKU, an internet TV service.

“We, personally, have been blown away … When we began this, we never had any idea that it would get to this level,” said Jack Dilday, the program’s host and creator, along with his wife, Lisa. “It is neat though to think that a program that is being produced in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, is reaching all across the world.”

The Dildays began the program after their church, Dominion World Outreach, merged with another church in November 2013, and they opened a TV studio the next month.

“We pastored a church here in Poplar Bluff for about seven years,” and its Sunday morning worship services were aired on the local cable station’s religious channel, Jack Dilday said. “ … After the merger, we knew we needed to change the format.

“We began recording individuals’ religious testimonies.”

The Dildays said graduates of the John 3:16 program, as well as women from Recycling Grace and men from Crossroad ministries, have been among those giving testimonials.

What the Dildays were wanting to capture “was people’s personal experiences with Christ, how they came to choose Christianity and how it had impacted their lives,” Lisa Dilday explained.

The 60-minute program, the Dildays said, aired for about three years on the Poplar Bluff station, as well as on social media.

In May 2017, Jack Dilday said, they changed broadcasting companies to one in Dexter, which reached about 200,000 people in Southeast Missouri and Northeast Arkansas.

The Now Network’s promotional materials for Kingdom News Now, featuring Jack and Lisa Dilday of Poplar Bluff.Photo provided

The program followed a similar format, but also incorporated some pastors and ministers, who would preach for about 20 to 30 minutes and talk about their churches and areas, Jack Dilday said.

“In February of 2020, we changed broadcast companies again,” moving to The Now Network, a national broadcasting company in Easley, South Carolina, Jack Dilday explained. “Their viewership at that point was 30 million.”

Jack Dilday said the program was “pretty much the same format,” but “cut in half. We still do some testimony; we also bring in pastors/ministers to share with us” during the 30-minute format.

The program airs at 9:30 a.m. Saturday CST on The Now Network/ROKU and on major cable companies nationwide.

The program also airs at 9 p.m. Saturday on the program’s Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/KingdomNewsNow/. The program also has a social media presence on YouTube and a website at kingdomnewsnow.org .

“In June, (the network) made a change,” Jack Dilday explained. “They expanded to 83 nations across the world.

“… Their viewership went from 30 million to 236 million.”

Since beginning the program, Lisa Dilday said, their guests have been from “California, from Israel, different people who have come through Poplar Bluff to minister” from all over the country.

“If we have a guest there with us on the set … if they are from a different area, part of the country, we share what God is doing in their area or their church,” Jack Dilday said.

The guests who are ministering, Lisa Dilday said, are asked “what brought them into the heartland of the nation and what they feel like God is doing here or wants to do here.”

Jack Dilday said they still use local people and ministers on their program.

Since the program has gone international, Jack Dilday said, they have received “many responses from other countries. They are reaching us by email” after viewing the program on The Now Network or the program’s Facebook page.

During their 30 plus years of ministry, “we evangelized and traveled and went to several nations,” Lisa Dilday explained. “Many of the nations that we visited in the past are nations that our program is being aired in” now, including South Africa and Libya.