Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 23, 1995 TAG: 9507240144
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Short
One commercial had him in green surgical scrubs, standing in an operating room.
Watching, you discover Via is not a doctor, but a minister. And he's inviting you to church.
The room where he stands is a place where patients come to get a new heart, he says. But Jesus Christ is also in the business of fixing herats. He can do that today for you, Via says.
Then you see the multicolored logo of Rainbow Forest Baptist Church.
During the past several years, Via and his church have become household names in the Roanoke Valley as a result of sophisticated marketing techniques including TV spots, radio broadcasts, billboards, bumper stickers, direct mail and newspaper ads.
During Via's tenure at Rainbow Forest, the church has multiplied to almost 10 times the 250 members it had when he stepped into the pulpit - enough to be classified a "mega-church" by some sociologists of religion.
Now Via, pastor at Rainbow Forest for the past 13 years, is leaving to become an intinerant evangelist, traveling around the country leading revivals and crusades seeking to bring sinners to a saving faith in Jesus Christ.
Today in Extra, we take a look at the church and the man who made it one of the most-recognized houses of faith in the Roanoke Valley.
by CNB