FINNEY’S FAST FIVE Plus
NATIONWIDE RESEARCH AT A GLANCE
December 2016
Diversity of Denominations Among Listeners
In the 2016 Finney Media Why Listen? Survey, we asked Christian Radio listeners across the US about their denomination or church affiliation. Our survey uncovered listeners from many different denominations, representing major differences in how they worship, the words they use, and even how they – and their pastors – dress for church. Here are the top denominations, with the percentages of the respondents, from each of the formats represented in our survey:
| Music | Music and Talk | Teaching and Talk | |||
| 1) Nondenominational/
Community |
33% | 1) Nondenominational/
Community |
33% | 1) Nondenominational/
Community |
28% |
| 2) Baptist | 20 | 2) Baptist | 26 | 2) Baptist | 25 |
| 3) Pentecostal | 9 | 3) Pentecostal | 6 | 3) Lutheran | 8 |
| 4) Methodist | 7 | 4) Lutheran | 4 | 4) Pentecostal | 7 |
| 5) Catholic | 6 | 5) Methodist | 4 | 5) Reformed | 4 |
| 6) Lutheran | 4 | 6) Presbyterian | 3 | 6) Catholic | 3 |
| 7) Reformed | 3 | 7) Catholic | 3 | 7) Presbyterian | 3 |
| 8) Church of Christ | 2 | 8) Reformed | 3 | 8) Methodist | 2 |
| 9) Presbyterian | 2 | 9) Church of Christ | 2 | 9) Church of Christ | 1 |
Chuck here.
A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend my nephew’s Catholic confirmation. It’s a ceremony where teenagers are “confirmed” into the Church. It’s such a big deal that one of the bishops from the Archdiocese is the officiant.
“Officiant” is a word that means something if you’re Catholic, but it usually requires translation for people from other denominations. Other “foreign” words from the Confirmation ceremony – “sacrament,” “chrism,” “vocation,” “Eucharist.” Nothing wrong with these words if you’re Catholic and know what they mean within Catholicism (hint – “vocation” is not what happens in shop class in high school). But for someone who’s not Catholic, these words probably sound like French.
Think about this in terms of our Christian radio stations. It turns out we appeal to people from many different denominations. Expressive Pentecostals. More subdued Methodists. Liturgically-focused Catholics. Lots of Baptists who are used to expository preaching.
And here’s the challenge . . . for our Christian radio stations – with their broadly multi-denominational audience – to succeed with the widest group of people, we need to be multi-denominational. Talking and playing songs in ways that are boldly Truthful and are appealing to as many as possible by using a common language that is understandable to all of them.
It’s clear from our survey that the passion for Christian radio is high. Your listener’s desire to grow spiritually, to be encouraged, to better understand Scripture and how to apply it to her life is universal across all these denominations. Those findings were clear in the Finney Media Why Listen? Survey.
But are we designing what we put on the air in a way that, for people who are part of diverse denominations, is always easy to consume, always easy to understand, and actually encourages them to move toward Him today?
