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HOLIDAY CHEER 2017

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him who brings good news, Who proclaims peace, Who brings glad tidings of good things, Who proclaims salvation, Who says to Zion, “Your God reigns!” ~ Isaiah 52:7

It’s Christmas. The distinctive music everywhere. Lights on most streets. Yet many hearts are heavy now, for some more than ever before. It’s not enough to say, “We need your support. We need your gift. If we have blessed you in some way, won’t you prayerfully consider blah blah blah … “.

If you’re a listener supported ministry (and even if you are not), why not include the word cheerful in your messaging? Ask people to call in and tell you why they’re cheerful about giving. Don’t forget to record their answers. Were they transformed somehow? Were they once donating out of duty, guilt or pride … now brimming with delight to help out your (or some other) cause?

Bottom line: Stop asking your listeners for money and ask them what they need.

WANDERING YOUTH AND THE CHEERFUL GIVER

We remember a young couple. They had to leave their hometown in a hurry for some reason. The girl was very pregnant and about to give birth, so they were wandering around the city looking for a place to stay, just in case she went into labor. They weren’t married, and to make matters worse, the young man she was with was NOT child’s father. Would you have taken them in? Or would you have ignored them?

One business owner was willing to help them out. Just in time too … she had her baby that night in his barn. Of course, by now you’ve figured it out.

The man who helped them was none other than the innkeeper. Now … don’t you and doesn’t your listener want to be that innkeeper? He was a cheerful giver … probably more so when he found out he was ushering in the Son of God.

CALL TO ACTION = CALL TO FELLOWSHIP

Come and see. Though He may require everything from you, come and see this Savior, this Good News that rises above your every earthly trial. Come and hear this Glad Tiding we broadcast. Come and hear what makes our givers so cheerful.

People don’t need to hear how much you need their money. They need to hear how much they need Jesus. How much the world needs Jesus. How much Jesus loves them. Why He came to this world so low.

And where, pray tell, can people who need hope hear about Jesus? From you … more than any random Christmas song-playing-station.

GLAD TIDINGS WE BRING

What in the Sam Hill are “Glad Tidings”?
Glad Tidings are Good News.

You’ll find Glad Tidings in the King James Version from the verb euaggelizo which means, “To tell good news” (Luke 1:19 among many). It also is frequently translated in the King James Version “to preach the gospel.” The original word, god-spell, is “good news or tidings” (Matthew 11:5 and more). Good News, Glad Tidings and The Gospel are nearly interchangeable — both being the announcement of the promised, long-looked-for salvation and kingdom of God. Specifically, the Gospel in the King James Version refers to God’s reconciliation of the world to Himself in Christ.

“God loves a cheerful giver.” ~ 2 Corinthians 9:7

Given a choice, givers would probably rather be cheerful too. Together, let us lift up their hearts by giving them the greatest gifts of all … glad tidings, personal connection, and a reminder of God’s love for them.

Chuck with Jan here.

Tim Keller, eminent preacher, author, thinker and communicator writes this.

“It is fundamental to preach biblically, and to preach to cultural narratives, but these are not enough. Unless the truth is not only clear but also real to listeners, then people will still fail to obey it. Preaching cannot simply be accurate and sound. It must capture the listeners’ interest and imaginations; it must be compelling and penetrate to their hearts.”

When we read this chapter opener in Tim Keller’s book Preaching the whole of Christian formatted radio and audio and TV rolled through our minds, with the spectrum of views about what to put on air, how to present the Gospel and how to relate Scriptural truth.

In one part of the Christian radio/TV spectrum are those who would suggest emotionally compelling material with little to no Biblical content; these bounce up against those in another area who would call for clear information that targets the head, and systematically reviews the whole of Scripture. What we were struck with was that Tim Keller clearly thinks that both are required for really changed lives. And we think Keller has a great point.

For us, though, the challenge goes even further. Yes, further. We note that when Keller or others preach, they have a near-captive audience. Rarely do people get up and wander out of a church service, especially with today’s nurseries and padded seats. Here, the audience made a choice to go to the church service. The preacher’s competition may be distracted looking around at other people, or dozing. But it’s not walking out.

For radio and other electronic forms, the competition for attention is much more intense. The listener may be driving, in a car with heavy traffic, with children, or in a hurry to get somewhere. It’s very easy to turn off the radio or change channels. In today’s car, with presets, flipping channels is an art-form. The media distraction literally knows no bounds.

This takes us back to Keller’s point. Head and heart are both needed. He says, “Change happens not just by giving the mind new arguments, but by feeding the imagination new beauties.”

With a heart connection, the mind inclines toward action, raising the batting average in a challenging communication environment. No matter where you (now) are on the content spectrum, that’s worthy of your consideration.

Next in this series, more on what heart means in the Scripture—and how that translates in our worlds.

WARM FEET TO COLD FEET
I need a pair of winter socks.

I, the customer, want to give the store some money as quickly as possible in exchange for nice warm feet. The clerk wants to do his/her job. Simple, right?

Not simple. Often, the process has become burdensome. The clerk is required to recite a string of questions during the transaction. “Do you have your Rewards Card?” “Would you like to get one?” “Do you want to donate to the Radio-Staff-without Socks Campaign?”

Blessings on the next person in line if the customer decides to get a Rewards Card.

The screen on the card reader asks the customer yet another set of questions, then decides it can’t read the chip. The customer is now inwardly apologizing to God for his evil thoughts. Next time, he’ll probably shop elsewhere.

There are entire organizations suffering from this kind of slowdown. If you work for such an organization, everything feels like “one step forward, two steps back”, like slogging through mud or knee-deep snow.

UNITY OF PURPOSE
When did protocol trump common sense and normal human interaction? In this environment, employees may default to passive aggressiveness, and few communicate honestly. Instead of having one common goal, employees are likely to default to tunnel vision. In other words, “If it ain’t my department, it ain’t my job.”

If this is happening to your organization, consider adopting a Unity of Purpose mentality.

Rather than focus on one particular facet of an assembly line, each employee must adopt the entire project as his/her own. The final outcome of a project becomes everyone’s goal. Just as iron sharpens iron, each holds him/herself accountable for moving the project along. How to do this? Try a brainstorming session followed by a process flowchart—all bathed in prayer.

ARE WE HAVING FUN YET?
With Unity of Purpose, you boil the project down to a simple, ultimate objective. Each person involved has a specific role, but his/her goal is focused on the ultimate objective. Let’s say you’re promoting a Christmas Concert. Everyone agrees that the registration process (should this be ticket purchase process?) is too involved. It’s slowing down productivity and taxing the server. Instead of making folks crazy trying to make it work, do a restart and simplify it.

Everyone’s having fun.

There’s communication when everyone is responsible for the goal, not just their part. The Holy Spirit works when everyone works in one accord … decently and in order.

Now where are those tickets to the Christmas concert?

Who knew that Christian radio listeners could be amazingly picky? Do they only want to hear music or scripture and go on about their day? Yes. But we found that Christian radio listeners are more mindful in what they want from their radio stations.

Research released from the Finney Medial Why Listen?® 2016 survey shows that Christian radio listeners have specific wants, and when those are met they are intensely loyal. In fact, the vast majority indicate they listen either exclusively to almost exclusively to Christian radio. This information is derived from the survey results of 23,000 Christian radio listeners in the United States and Canada.

In the latest whitepaper “Christian Radio: I Choose You Because” we explore the loyalty factor and the similarities and differences among three format groups of Christian radio listeners—the listeners who listen for Christian teaching only, the listeners who listen for Christian music only, and the listeners who listen for both teaching and music. For all of these listeners it is clear: If you want to cause them to come back more often, breaks and songs that are focused on helping your listener grow spiritually and an uplifting, encouraging tone will bring her back.

There’s a much broader list of observations, questions to ask and actions to consider in the whitepaper. Download it.

Next time you attend an event—say a Mercy Me tour event—look around. Look over the audience like Jan did recently and really see your listener. She’s the listener sitting with a group of girlfriends —the one that’s the mom with her almost grown daughters. She’s the one holding the hands of two small children, asking for a booster seat (yes, that happened). She the one with her hubby, dressed almost too nicely, very into the sound. And she’s the gal all alone, looking a little worn and run down.

Are you moving toward her? Are the songs you are playing the ones she loves? The ones that lift her up and encourage her? That cause her to turn up the sound as she drives home from work?

Chuck has a couple specific questions for you.

What’s in your music library? Is Blessed Assurance by Third Day? That’s right. It was not released as a single. But your listener could care less. She doesn’t know the ins and outs of how songs are released. She only knows that it warms her heart and soul.
Are you reviewing your recent song history from time to time to be certain that some of the most loved songs aren’t getting slammed by artist sep rules that are set too long? And that huge testing songs like Amazing Grace My Chains Are Gone are actually playing often enough for average listener to hear it.
Are you at least discussing songs like Give Me Words to Speak with Aaron Shust? Sure it came out about ten years ago. But not only discussing among yourselves, are you discussing this with your listener? Doing music research that accurately reflects your audience? They can’t weigh in if you don’t include the song in the research.

With you, we want you to grow your audience—both spiritually and numerically. To do that, keep her ear tuned your way because you are tuned to her heart and her musical choices.

Additional Resources: For more input on this important topic, check out this month’s Finney Fast Five and our supplemental song list behind the Finney Fast Five top artist list.

Finney Media does music research that discovers what your listener wants to hear.

What she says

Movie A Dog’s Purpose (2017)

Chuck and Jan here.

Movie A Dog’s Purpose (2017)

Recently, we asked about 125 people, mostly women, who listen to Christian music radio, for their description of “worshipful Christian music”.

Movie A Dog’s Purpose (2017)

Just to be clear, these were not professional musicians, Program Directors, theological experts or even industry leaders. These were your radio listeners. Moms. Teachers. Managers. Grandmas. Grocery store clerks. Your everyday radio listeners.

Movie A Dog’s Purpose (2017)

The responses were consistent. Consistently positive and God-focused. We think you’ll be interested in their word choices and comments as you select music and decide what to say between the songs.

Movie A Dog’s Purpose (2017)

Nikki says, “Worship music points directly to Jesus and lifts up His name!”

Luanne says, “Lyrics that speak about the Savior!”

And Jeff adds, “Praising the Lord our Creator for His love and everlasting life!”

Movie A Dog’s Purpose (2017)

And what was the word emphasis in their descriptions? In rank order, here are the most used descriptors:

Praise
Uplifting
Worship
Closer [to God]

Movie A Dog’s Purpose (2017)

Coming in for honorable mention are words like “prayerful” and “glorify”.

Movie A Dog’s Purpose (2017)

All of which should make any theologian give a cheer. And it should provide a Program Director with some listener guidance on song selection, since our Finney Media Why Listen? national research shows “worshipful Christian music” to be a top reason that your listeners tune in.

Movie A Dog’s Purpose (2017)

Hear Nina: “Music that puts the focus on worshipping and adoring the Lord for who He is and what He’s done.”

Movie A Dog’s Purpose (2017)

Nina, we agree. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.

Movie A Dog’s Purpose (2017)

Blog Info.

By wisdom a house is built. And by understanding it is established; And by knowledge the rooms are filled With all precious and pleasant riches. – Proverbs 24:3-4

Your website is the “Home” of your digital ministry. Here are 5 simple (and inexpensive) things you can do in order to build wisely your digital home to make it a welcoming place and to fill with the precious and pleasant riches of His Word and more.

Pray for your Website and your Digital Ministry

Do you cover your website and digital ministry in prayer? More and more, this part of your ministry will be where your audience will engage with you at least in some way. Also, this is an area for your ministry where you may have staffers as well as maybe some contractors who are not believers (yet!).

Ensure you have an opportunity for website visitors to “Listen Now” on every page

Your live broadcast is still likely the heart of your ministry. Invite website visitors to “Listen Now” on the very top of your home page and at least once on every other page (or in your header and footer, depending on how your site is organized). Some media outlets will begin playing their live feed automatically when visitors come to their home page. Visitors can listen to the live feed while otherwise engaging with your site, enabling you to reach them in a more in-depth way. Also, as visitors leave your site, they may still leave the broadcast playing, further extending your ministry to them.

Make sure your links to program partners and other outside content “Opens in a New Window”

Websites are great for giving people access to additional information by adding Hyperlinks. One typical example is to have links on your program guide to the ministries you are broadcasting. While promoting our program partners and giving our listeners more information is helpful, we want to do that by opening a new website window rather than closing out of your website. This enables the visitor to easily return to your site and to continue to engage with your ministry.

Integrate your Social Media into your website

Many broadcast ministries have very limited staff and time to keep their website presence fresh and interactive. One easy way to keep the site current is to leverage your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc.) which you are already populating anyway. By integrating these accounts on your website, the latest content always appears and there even can be some two-way communication with your audience based on efforts your staff / volunteers already are performing. This also brings a regular presence of “story” into this part of your ministry, something as important for your website as for your on-air presence.

Regularly review how your site works on mobile devices

Over 56 percent of website visits are now happening over mobile devices. While this percentage may be a little lower for US-based Christian broadcast ministries, we still can see the importance of having your website working well for those using a smartphone or other device. There may be a little more investment here but there are many “Mobile Responsive” tools and templates to get your site working well across all devices.

Finney Media can coach you on how to significantly improve your online presence with mostly your existing team and resources. Review our DigiTal Offerings online or email chuck@finneymedia.com to learn more about our services in this important ministry area.

In Part 1 of this two-part series, we answered a few questions about how we see the future. You can read that HERE.

Chuck here. One of my top five Strengthsfinder areas is called Futuristic. And it is true: I do love to visualize the future. That’s why I have a list of 9 observations. These are not in order of importance or possibility—you can gather friends around and chat about any one of these reflections! So, let’s go!

CMB stations: Pay attention to the ones that win way beyond what they should. This means those that are the big “famous” ones, and those that are not as famous. Ask: What are they doing that is audience focused? And especially ponder if that audience focus is not within the conventional wisdom.
TV: Who is winning as people cut cords and switch how and where they receive? Note Disney’s move to create their own “Netflix”. Biggest change is unique, connective, “addictive” content. How do we do that while being boldly about our values?
Alexa: This delivery device is now getting press due to its rapid and vigorous growth. Keep an eye here as radio becomes a part of this audio. As Tom Taylor said recently, “Voice is the new touch.”
Jesus in today: What would Jesus do right now to reach our culture? Just a thoughtful guess: It would be consistent with the Great Commandment (Love) and the Great Commission (Go). It would involve community, genuine caring and a passion for people.
Christian radio: Yes, it is the fastest growing radio format. Part of that is demand for Christian media because of the increasing coarseness of the world. If we focus on broadly accessible content while still being Biblically bold, this could be our most amazing time of growth.
Digital: Things will likely go more digital. An obstacle in music is rights fees. This logjam must resolve. When digital music rights get resolved (two years or 20 years?!?), get out of the way of growth!
Content IS king: With a million channels, getting your head wrapped around this solves a lot of issues. Of all the things you should address, this might be the most important and potentially impactful.
Where to look: The answers almost certainly won’t be where the hype is. Get focused on the win and not on distracting “shiny objects”.
God’s view: God has asked us to be His witnesses and He has empowered us to do just that.

The future is on my mind. Yours, too, judging from recent conversations. As a result, I’ve compiled a few questions that have come my way, with thoughts. Whether you agree or not, the conversation is worth the energy, for the future is the page God gives us to serve Him.

Here we go.

1) What should my station, network or ministry do today, to be positioned for future years of impact?

We recommend that change become something you study, and by that we mean more than media change. Focus your attention on other industries, too – airlines, retail such as Walmart and Amazon, and then other forms such as Google. Within the media space, stretch to outside your immediate type. If you are in radio, look at music and publishing, video and new digital methods such as Alexa. Know what you can know. Also know the things you can’t know. Develop principles from your review. For example, digital will be the delivery when the listener is ready – and when it’s easy, intuitive and free (or cheap). Be prepped and poised to move quickly.

2) What’s the best way to update how we target our audience?

Society is a mix and you want to reflect that. But possibly less obvious, but also true is this: Address where the world actually is on things about God. We tend to talk as though our audience is a tiny church-going bubble and assume way too many things about where our listener is. In reality, only some of the available audience is in the conservative Bible church bubble. The impact comes in doing what we do in a way that is widely accessible and simultaneously consistent with the Word.

3) What can we learn from some of the larger churches?

Good examples for radio are the bigger churches with the most non-church people going and trying. Why? Because they are so much like what we are trying to accomplish – broadly accessible without turning away the core. It’s so helpful if the people weighing in “get” great product but also “get” Christian belief. You can’t fake genuine passion! This is a group worth visiting and observing.

As we wrap this post, a reminder to me and you how our studying and reviewing needs to be done prayerfully, relying on the Holy Spirit’s guidance. God got our future and He’s got plans!

Next time, Part 2….who is winning as people cut cords?

Glad Tidings, Cheerful Giving

What she says

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