“. . . gospel clarity is the antidote to the rampant confusion.”
Dean Inserra, The Unsaved Christian/Reaching Cultural Christianity with the Gospel
The Finney Media Why Listen?® Survey saw almost 15,000 respondents from three different formats: Music stations, Music/Teaching stations, and All-Teaching stations and programs.
One of the challenges we face and opportunities we have, unlike a church which is focused on one particular denomination, is that our radio stations and programs are multi-denominational. They are heard by people from many denominations. In our nationwide Finney Media Why Listen® Survey, we asked about denomination affiliation. Among respondents from CCM stations, here are the Top Five Denominations:
| 1. Non-denominational/Bible/Community | 30% |
| 2. Baptist | 30% |
| 3. Lutheran | 10% |
| 4. Pentecostal/Charismatic | 10% |
| 5. Catholic | 7% |
The first two denominations total 60 percent. The other 40 percent are led by Lutherans at 10 percent and include Catholics at 7 percent. Many denominations with different ways of worship and different words they use in their worship and ways they communicate with each other.
For us to reach them and perhaps many who haven’t even given us a listen yet, we’ll need to focus on using words and concepts that many or most understand.
A Word Illustration
Should we share testimonies – stories of how God has worked in people’s lives – on our stations and programs? Most definitely. Do listeners from mainline Protestant churches use the word testimony to describe their God Story? It’s likely they think that “testimony” is what happens in a courtroom. If we want more listeners from mainline Protestant churches to listen, using the words “testimony” is a challenge.
If we’re going to be clear in our communication, we’ll need to consider what our multi-denominational listener – people of all nations . . . and denominations – understand. Clarity and understanding of the Truth is at stake.
Coming in February: From our nationwide research conducted in the past six months: The Top Five Testing Songs released in each of the past ten years.
