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Megatrend 6:
Mushrooming of radio/TV Christianity
by Justin D. Long
In suburban America, an elderly woman rolls around her house in a wheelchair. Her children live three states away and no one can take her to church-- but that's all right, because the church she's gone to for fourty years has a local television broadcast, and she can join right in. Half a world away, a group of Chinese believers huddle around a small radio set. They can't attend a "church" either--but that's all right, because church is coming to them, via an FEBC broadcast. In an Indian village, several of the local congregation gather around a television set, watching a discipleship course being beamed across Asia via a satellite. In the Middle East, hundreds of thousands of Kurds turn on their own televisions and pick up pre-evangelistic material being beamed to them via satellite as well. To reach those who can't come to church, to reach those who don't have a church, and to reach those who don't have any conception of the Gospel--the impact of radio, television and satellite broadcasting is the equivalent of a spiritual shockwave throughout the world.
In 1990 there were 32,500 radio transmitters, 50,500 television transmitters and 2,160 specifically Christian radio and television stations reaching 1.7 billion radio sets and 750 million television sets. Those figures have grown dramatically since then. As 900 Christian broadcasting organizations their 100,000 full-time personnel put their heart and soul into beaming the Gospel throughout the world, they have an audience of 452 million regular listeners in 300 languages over Christian stations, with an additional 1.1 billion regular listeners over secular stations (in 3,400 languages and 251 countries). The total: 1.3 billion regular listeners, 25.9% of the world, in 3,500 languages. Evangelistic coverage to non-regular listeners is far more extensive: 4.6 billion can receive Christian broadcasting in their mother-tongue.
900 million Christians regularly listen to Christian radio and TV. Of these, 51 million are bedridden listeners, and 20 million are "radio/TV believers"—that is, they have no local church and depend on the broadcasts for discipleship, training and fellowship (4.7 million depending on radio alone).
Yet there is a dark side to radio broadcasting. Without the Scriptures available, heresies can spring up that cannot be detected and countered. And, many languages only get a scant 15 or 30 minutes each. In a technology that broadcasts 390,000 hours of radio and 346,000 hours of television every week, a half hour for a language of a million speakers is an insult to potential hearers.
Too, although 4.6 billion could hear the Gospel, this depends on their owning a radio or TV and turning it on to a Christian station. Moreover, there are still 709 million who receive no broadcasts in their "heart language," though some of these can understand programs broadcast in "trade languages."
The results are astounding: there are on average 3 million new believers a year in 200 countries, 400,000 of them being isolated radio converts. 10,000 new isolated house churches spring into existence every year.
What happens to these believers? Many are able to get "correspondence courses" from the broadcasters, which they can use to further their own discipleship. Some receive direct training via the broadcasts, learning how to share the Gospel and evangelize their neighbors. Radio broadcasting is a major help to the spread of Christianity in restricted access countries. Eventually, "radio churches" spring up--congregations of believers that meet and listen to radio broadcasts for their worship services. These churches often get into contact with believers in other parts of the world and receive support, then evangelize their neighbors. A cell of 10 Christians today could become a major church of 1,000 believers next year.
Although Christian broadcasting has a major effect on the world, 99.9% of it is directed toward Christian regions, intending to disciple and correct nominality. Unfortunately, this results in less broadcasting being directed to World A, where significant results are being seen. This needs to be corrected.