For most of people, airplanes are uncomfortable transportation devices intended to get them quickly from point A to point B — hopefully with same number of bags, children, and pets they started out with. For fundamentalist preachers and evangelists, however, airplanes are the perfect location to gather unto themselves stories of in-flight evangelism.
Somehow, even on international flights the speaker always ends up next to an interesting character who speaks English, is not sleeping, and is willing to talk at length about religion to a perfect stranger. To anyone who has ever flown this is nothing short of miraculous. By the end of the flight the evangelist has inevitably shocked and awed the listener with his speaking prowess and the have decided to question the very roots of their belief in atheism/Buddhism/Home Shopping Network or whatever their creed may happen to be.
With the amazing rate of success on these flights, it would seem that a full-time missionary movement that does nothing but spread the gospel on aircraft should have emerged by this time. There could even be special classes added to Bible college curriculum to teach such missions. For example, someone may want to point out that in these turbulent times it may be imprudent to make your pre-flight introductions by saying “If you were to die today…”
In fundy churches, the most common type of traveling musical family is the missionary family. The traveling family musical act is a mainstay of the fundamentalist missionary endeavor. If a missionary is to be a success on deputation and furlough he or his family must sing, play an instrument, and be able to quote John 3:16 in a foreign language. As a reward for doing these things (and not necessarily for doing them well) the missionary is then allowed to sell tapes and CDs of his family’s musical feats on the back table after the service.
Somewhere in a fundamentalist church a guest speaker is wrapping up his thunderous sermon. He swigs a last sip of water from the cup on the pulpit and invites the pastor back to the so he can “draw the net” with the invitation.