Christian Media Growing More Popular

By Audrey Barrick, Christian Post Reporter Thursday, June 29, 2006

Christian media is growing ever more popular, reported the head of Ellison Research. A recent study revealed that most people who attend a Protestant church, both clergy and laity, are using Christian media.

In two separate studies released in LifeWay's Facts & Trends magazine, Ellison Research found that Protestant clergy are more likely to read, watch and utilize Christian media than the people in the pews.

Christian music was revealed as the most commonly used form of media with 78 percent of laity and 94 percent of clergy listening to it. The proportion of music that lay people listen to that is specifically Christian was found to be 42 percent and those who solely listen to Christian music was marked at only seven percent. Among clergy, 66 percent of the music they listen to it Christian.

Other findings on Christian media usage by lay people showed 64 percent watch Christian television, 64 percent visit Christian websites, 64 percent listen to Christian radio, 60 percent read Christian non-fiction books, 55 percent watch Christian movies, 47 percent read Christian fiction books and 44 percent read Christian magazines.

Lay leaders showed higher proportions across the range of Christian media usage.

According to the study, 92 percent of clergy read Christian non-fiction books, 87 percent read Christian magazines, 84 percent listen to Christian radio, 83 percent visit Christian websites, 77 percent watch Christian television, 76 percent watch Christian movies and 53 percent read Christian fiction books.

In regards to website visitation, 51 percent of the websites ministers visit are Christian as opposed to the 20 percent among laity.

Ron Sellers, president of Ellison Research, highlighted the growth of Christian media even in the secular market. Cultural and business trends attesting to this include the boom of Christian books and music albums hitting best-seller lists. Box offices have also fared successfully with such Christian-themed films as "The Passion of the Christ" and "The Chronicles of Narnia."

"Secular corporations have been backing movies with strong religious themes, buying Christian publishing companies, and releasing albums from Christian artists," Sellers noted, according to LifeWay, "and these figures really show why. Christian media, although often still lacking the financial resources of the secular media, is reaching tens of millions of Protestant churchgoers and clergy on a regular basis - to say nothing of its reach among people who don’t attend Protestant churches."

Major retailers have also picked up the Christian trend. Wal-Mart and Best Buy have put Christian books and music on their shelves. Christian forms of popular secular trends have also popped up, including the latest Christian MySpace.com - Xianz.com. And there's still room for growth for the Christian market.

"Although Christian media of some type reaches the vast majority of Protestants, for the average person it still represents a fraction of the media they consume," said Sellers. "From a pure business standpoint, in most categories there is probably greater growth potential in getting current Christian media consumers to consume more of it than to try to convert nonusers to users."

The two recent studies were based on a representative sample of 791 Protestant church ministers nationwide and a companion survey sample of 1,184 people who attend Protestant churches at least once a month.