Praise FM had recently gone on the air with a new station in South Dakota, and McIver was there to visit. After morning church services, a worship leader asked McIver to step outside the church for a few minutes.

“She wanted to show me something,” McIver remembers. Standing outside the church, she said, “From this place you can see three brand new church buildings. Praise FM came to our city, and we as worship leaders began to listen. We all realized we were doing church minus the invitation of the presence of God. And we decided to invite Him back.”

And what soon followed, according to the worship leader, was explosive growth and dynamic outreach as those churches determined to come back to the heart of worship.


The beginnings
Praise FM went on the air in central Minnesota in 1985, focusing specifically—as their name reveals—on praise, or on “a lifestyle of worship,” as their Web site says. McIver, at the time, was a recent graduate of Bethel University (Bethel College at the time) and was working on his own computer business. He heard the station on the radio one day and soon found Praise FM as his second business client.

A few weeks later, after working with McIver during that time, the radio station asked McIver to join the staff; and two years later he was managing the station—with no radio background. And that is where McIver stayed for the next 21 years.


Something more
In the early 1990s, however, McIver was often awakened at night, as he felt God was trying to share with him a vision for a new radio ministry.

“A. W. Tozer talks about worship as the missing jewel,” McIver said. “So many times it’s the thing we forget. We’re doing church, and we’re trying to do missions and we’re trying to help needy people. All of a sudden, it’s not working because we’ve left the source of that life and that light, that power.”

McIver shared what God had put on his heart with the board of Praise FM, and together they were open to what God would do. Soon after saying “yes” to what God was trying to do, Praise FM started adding radio stations to their network: Willmar, Minn., Milbank, South Dakota, and eventually the Twin Cities.


Praise FM and North Central University
In 1960, Fred and Grace Adams started KNOF radio in the Twin Cities. They owned the station—a valuable commodity in any city—for the next 40 plus years. But when it was time to determine the future of the radio station, Grace, in her 90s at the time and as a North Central University (NCU) alum, she decided to give it to NCU.

Through mutual friends—one being on the board of NCU and the other being on the board of Praise FM—the two boards (NCU and Praise FM) met to determine what to do with the gift from Grace Adams.

McIver described the meeting as “an instant connection of vision. Praise FM with a heart for worship and for prayer and missions. And NCU—that’s what they do. They raise up pastors and missionaries and business leaders who have a heart for bringing the Kingdom of God into their workplace.”

The relationship matured to where there is now a partnership between the two organizations. NCU owns the station (KNOF) and leases it to Praise FM at a considerable discount.


Impact of the station
When Praise FM began broadcasting in the Twin Cities in June of 2008, McIver moved to the Twin Cities and became station manager. The small staff, which includes McIver and Alex Whitworth, operations administrator, has already heard from many people throughout the Twin Cities who are excited about the new radio format.

McIver believes there is already wonderful Christian radio in the Twin Cities, but “there’s just a resonance that this is something God has chosen to add to what’s already being presented.”

People unfamiliar with the station will find they focus on three aspects of worship: personal, intimate worship; corporate worship; and acts of worship.

This vision is carried out every 30 minutes by a call to worship, a proclamation, a testimony, a vertical song and a horizontal song.


Expanding overseas
Back in the early 1990s, McIver felt God was eventually going to open up doors to overseas ministry. And that vision seems to be coming to fruition.

So far, Praise FM has heard from a TV station in Sweden who is considering adding radio; a group of pastors from the Cayman Islands who have begun the process of applying for a radio license (the governor of the Cayman Islands listens online to Praise FM); a church in Calgary, Albert, Canada feels led to pursue collaboration with Praise FM; and the possibility of working in Accra, Ghana, via HCJB Global and Wayne Pederson.


“We just want to be a part of that”
“What we see in the Twin Cities,” McIver said, “is that Praise FM is a part of what God is doing with other radio stations, other TV [stations], other churches. We believe the Twin Cities is going to be one of those places people look to…and they’re going to see this new level of worship, this new level of mission, new level of accountability and love for one another. We just want to be part of that.”

“I am thrilled to be a part of a team of people in Osakis and the Twin Cities with a heart for the presence of God,” McIver concluded.


ACTION BOX: For more information on Praise FM, including their Salvation Card ministry, visit www.praisefm.org.