Someone is aimlessly scanning their car radio when it halts on a national Christian radio station. Perhaps God miraculously stopped the scan button, or maybe nostalgia led a deconstructed listener to pause on familiar sounds. Regardless of why this person started listening, this is the message they’ll probably hear:
We humans are hapless and messy. We button our shirts wrong and have too much clutter in our homes. Our tires go flat and we burn the dinner. We let innocent things distract us. We send our kids to school with a crayon box instead of a lunch box, or dressed for Pajama Day on Picture Day. And yet God, who is perfect, loves us still.
Some argue that this message of positive encouragement is the perfect way to hook the chance non-Christian listener, enticing them to tune in long enough to hear something about Jesus. Though this is possible, in most cases, I believe that the watered-down messaging broadcasted by most national Christian radio stations functions like baby food to the long-time Christian listener who should be weaned off it by now.
Have You Heard What He Heard?
One man, in a revealing diatribe against Christendom, included Christian radio among his grievances. He said,
“How can anyone defend a belief system that somehow assumes the junk they play on Christian talk radio is actually an honest effort to help people?”
Even though I am a Christian, I agree with this man’s frustration with the shallow content aired by national stations. For example, when radio audiences are encouraged to call in and relate an act of random kindness they performed that day, who is that actually helping? What does that do but puff up the caller? It seems to me that this kind of segment is merely restoring faith in humanity rather than glorifying God.
And why should a Christian ministry like Air1 take up airspace in a segment called Totally Rando Texts? Another segment has a host blindly reach into a box to identify an object by feel. This game hardly translates to radio, so its sole purpose seems to be increasing traffic on their Facebook page. How do these realize God’s will for humanity?
The radio industry justifies this content as “on ramps.” The idea is to play something a not-yet listener wants to hear, so they’ll stick around. Building a loyal listenership makes good business sense, but when the business touts itself as evangelistic, it seems wrong to devote any significant amount of time to inane humor and listener-aggrandizing.
Worship for the Listeners’ Sake
To be fair, Christian radio has a nearly impossible task, one that pastors attempt weekly: give a personally relevant message to hundreds of people at once. Radio hosts have to do this 24/7 to a larger crowd than most pastors. So national stations like K-LOVE and Air1 simplify this task by broadcasting messages of positivity.
Theirs is a therapeutic gospel, a type of prosperity gospel that, as author David Powlison defines, “centers exclusively around the welfare of man and temporal happiness.” Toward that end, stations choose optimism-themed taglines. K-LOVE’s motto, for example, is “Positive, Encouraging.” SmileFM’s is “Michigan’s Positive Hits.” Other stations promote themselves using similar terms, like “uplifting,” “meaningful,” “life-changing,” and “inspiring.” None of these are bad things, but noticeably, none are fruits of the Spirit—evidence of maturity in the Christian walk.
The 30-Day Challenge typifies the impact these stations hope to have. K-LOVE and others dare listeners to “[l]isten to nothing but Christian music for 30 days and see what happens!!!” The result can only be a loyal listener glutted on pick-me-ups. Hopefully, they are involved in a local church, praying, and studying the Bible. But if radio is their teacher for all other hours of the week, they’re consuming a sugary gospel.
A recent spot on Air1 promoting Phil Wickham’s book made a pun of his name with their Fill Up with Phil Sweepstakes. Every hour, listeners would hear two songs in a row by Wickham, reminding them to enter for the chance to win the worship leader’s book and a $100 gas gift card. In this way, they said, his lyrics would “fill your life spiritually… and the gas cards… will help fill your actual tank.” Though clever, I think this double meaning shows a misunderstanding of musical worship.
Their idea is that we sing to fill up our energy tanks to get ourselves through a hectic day. Psalm 23 does sing of our cup overflowing, but in context, God is providing our needs in excess, not adding an extra shot of espresso to our coffee. Praise is not a pep rally; it’s obeying God’s command to glorify him because he alone deserves it. If we gain encouragement at all by singing praises, it is because we are turning our hearts and minds to our Creator, not hyping ourselves up to knock out a lengthy to-do list.
But many listeners appreciate Christian radio precisely because of this “pep rally” mindset. In a survey by Finney Media, a radio ministry consultant, listeners gave these responses, among others, to the question “Why do you listen to Christian radio?”
“[I]t is uplifting for me, especially during tough times.”
“There are days whenever you are really down, and you feel as if the Lord spoke through a certain lyric in a song just to get you through it.”
“Listening to the Christian radio helps me to stay positive, get a good message, and a good feeling throughout the day.”
Positivity won’t nurture genuine faith. It may grab the attention of someone scanning their dial, but eventually, they will need nourishing discipleship instead of a pat on the back.
Why has a ministry of optimism been the mission of national Christian radio for so long? Who’s been tuning in to this gospel of positivity?
Meet Becky
In a 2007 Christianity Today article series, writer Mark Geil introduced Christian radio’s aggregate listener, Becky:
"She’s recently turned 40, but is not quick to admit it. She’s a Christian and a devoted wife and mother. She drives a mini-van. Half-melted crayons roll around on the floor as she stops at a light en route to her daughter’s Tuesday night soccer practice. She laughs sometimes, chagrined that she is the very “Soccer Mom” they talk about come election time. Becky lives in the suburbs, likes to read, enjoys the women’s retreats at church, is struggling to remember algebra so she can help her son with his homework, and is a regular volunteer at the food pantry."
That was sixteen years ago. Today’s programming confirms that Becky remains Christian radio’s audience of one. Becky is the one trying to get through her day, who thinks that in order to do that, she needs to hear, “You are loved. Everything is going to be okay, and God thinks you’re doing amazing.”
But she ought to have outgrown that positivity by now. The author of Hebrews teaches us that Becky, if she’s been a believer for the many years she’s been tuning into Christian radio, should have a deeper grasp of the Christian life than what DJs sell. Speaking about spiritual growth in the Christian walk, the author of Hebrews writes:
"For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the basic principles of the oracles of God. You need milk, not solid food, for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, since he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their powers of discernment trained by a constant practice to distinguish good from evil. Therefore let us leave the elementary doctrine of Christ and go on to maturity." (Hebrews 5:12-6:1)
The message on national Christian radio is elementary doctrine—palatable for seekers and infants in the faith. The loyal listener who ingests national stations as a significant part of their spiritual diet is unskilled in the word of righteousness because they’re eating as if they are still spiritual newborns. They cannot go on to maturity in the faith with baby food on their plate.
In 1 Corinthians 13, Paul attested to this natural order: growth and maturity yield responsibility and understanding. As we age or draw closer to God in a trial, we gain new insights and the old becomes trite. Paul wrote, “When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways.”
The deeper truth—what Becky is old enough to hear more of—is that without God, we humans are not hapless; we’re hopeless. Our sin is not messy; it is adultery. We are poor stewards of our material possessions. We prostitute ourselves to things we have made more important than God (Hosea 1:2). Yet God, who is holy, loves us still.
Snacking on Solid Food
Later in his series, Geil wrote, “Defenders of Christian radio point to ratings success and fall back on…anecdotal evidence in the form of encouraging calls and letters, suggest[ing] they are delivering exactly what their audience wants, not just in the form of entertainment but also in the form of ministry.” But are their ministries all they could be?
For example, Air1 broadcasts 59 Seconds of Hope, and K-LOVE ups the ante with 1 Minute of Encouragement. In these segments, pastors and leaders including Levi Lusko, Tim Tebow, Charlotte Gambill, and Max Lucado have fifty-nine or sixty seconds to preach.
Those who attempt a one-minute sermon invariably spend the first twenty to thirty seconds forcing an analogy (“the junk drawer of our hearts”) to come around to their point, which is typically more motivational than biblical (“let God clean it out”). Other speakers get a sound bite taken from a full sermon for their one minute. Though tweetable, what’s heard is better understood in its original context.
In contrast, many local radio stations play full-length sermons during prime time. For instance, EquipFM out of Lynchburg, Virginia airs sermons by local pastors whose church listeners could attend the following Sunday. EquipFM only plays music for twenty-two hours a week; the remaining hours are filled with full-length sermons. Perhaps K-LOVE should take what I call the “30-30 Challenge”: air a thirty-minute sermon once a day for thirty days and see what happens.
K-LOVE and Air1 frequently advertise their on-staff pastors. These men and women sit at the telephone ready to talk and pray with anyone who calls. They’re trained to counsel with specific focus on biblical guidance and crisis intervention. Anyone can make use of the Pastoral Care Team, but its mission seems geared toward the despondent—the caller standing on the edge of a bridge. Becky, of course, has her own tribulations, but the way they advertise the service, she may underestimate her needs and hang up.
Meanwhile, Family Life Ministries (FLM), broadcasting from Bath, New York, has extensive ministry opportunities for its listeners. FLM offers robust counseling and can refer listeners to resources in their hometown. Compare this rehab center to the urgent care of the Pastoral Care Team.
FLM also airs music, whole sermons, call-in talk shows, and children’s programming like Adventures in Odyssey. Becky’s comforted to know that Air1 and K-LOVE are “safe for little ears” but so are Odyssey and many sermons. Think of all the topics addressed in this spoken programming. What conversations might Becky be missing with her children if all they hear are soft jocks and motivational music?
Listen Local
Mike Novak, former CEO of the Educational Media Foundation (EMF is the parent company of K-LOVE, Air1, and more), spoke of the relationship listeners like Becky feel with his stations. “It’s more of a lifestyle than a radio station,” said Novak. “It’s part of their daily life…like a marriage. Most people look at us as a portion of their family, as a way to help them get through their day.” Becky might feel a kinship to her favorite DJ, but this relationship is not reciprocated; it can’t be at the national level.
New York’s FLM edges above the national EMF by limiting its focus to its home state and Pennsylvania. EquipFM in Lynchburg is even more local than that. Here’s a good rule of thumb: if your DJ can report the traffic and weather, there’s a good chance you’ll hear something more substantial than the feel-good messages of the national stations.
Kelly Gilbert, Radio Marketing Coordinator and Program Producer for Trans World Radio (TWR), appreciates the greater impact local Christian radio can have on its listeners. In an interview, she said,
“People can stop by, call in, and connect with someone fairly easily, [and] learn about events and people in their area. At its heart, radio builds relationships, and this becomes a lot less one-sided at a smaller station.”
TWR uses FM, AM, shortwave, and satellite radio and other digital mediums to spread the gospel around the globe. When describing how it differs from national Christian stations, Gilbert said:
"We broadcast in over 300 languages and reach 190 countries…Depending on where you are in the world, you will tune in…and hear programs meant to reach a specific audience, facing specific problems in their culture, all with the purpose of allowing them to draw closer to God and walk alongside Him in daily life. It’s the difference between a one-week mission trip that will have a greater impact on the goer than the people they meet, and someone who moves to a country to minister to people for years on end, maybe even giving them the first Bible written in their heart language."
Gilbert added that a listener’s relationship with the radio station is what they make of it, so the stations most attuned to those desires do the best. In her experience, stations airing a healthy blend of full-length sermons, music, and morning shows foster the most loyal listeners, and she’s noticed that those listeners are in deeper communion with the Lord.
We can’t know when the Holy Spirit will use something we say to bring an unbeliever one step closer to salvation. Applied liberally, this might include a few of those trivial on ramps—as long as the station does go on to present more scripture than motivation. And they better, because these stations’ unbelieving listeners are going to remain so if they only hear quick hits of positivity. If not, hopefully Becky will consider tuning in to a station with substance, one that’s preaching meat she hasn’t known she’s been hungry for.