Goat Rodeo Cowboy said:
Thank you for a very interesting observation about this group. Some of the characteristics you describe are present in a number of faith-groups today. Since faith-groups... denominations... churches... are so scattered, fractured and frazzled... it is not at all surprising that we are so very scattered, fractured and frazzled over what we expect from a radio station that has a format tailored to serve "The Faithful".
My question may seem off topic... but the answers people offer may help us understand what makes "Christian radio" so... so... Can I use the term dysfunctional? Here is my observation-and-question: You observe that Calvary Chapel is NOT a denomination. There are a lot of very dynamic congregations of various stripes today who make a similar claim about themselves. But most congregations "fellowship" with similar congregations though mechanisms with titles like association, fellowship, etc.
What is a denomination? What makes one different than any of the other relationships between congregations? Why is the word "denomination" considered so nasty in today's Christian culture?
What I find interesting is that when I come across one of these modern day dynamic faith groups, when you track down the biography and resume of the pastor and other leaders, you often find a strong tie to a denominational upbringing which they can't fully put behind them, but don't want to get caught wrapping their arms around.
A pastor who plays this "shell game" with his/her allegiances develops and encourages followers who then develop their strange relationships and allegiances to hard-to-define Christian radio stations (and TV ministries as well).
I'm not so much putting-down or criticizing such congregations, pastors, members and broadcasters as I am asking: "What gives?"
Dysfunctional is a good description of the Christian "family" in general. We are supposed to know one another by our love. But there are squabbles over Bible translations, baptism, confessions of faith, who is and isn't saved, what is essential for salvation - any number of pet issues. Unfortunately that also includes musical style. You want a scathing condemnation of CCM - just go to Dial the "Truth" av1611.org. The sad thing is, I agree with 90% of what is on that web site. But they would immediately shun and disfellowship me because I happen to like Christian rock, and read a different Bible translation. Normally, if you agree with somebody 90%, you would be BFF's forever, staunchly supportive of each other. But - no - not in the case of Christianity. The AV1611 people would just as soon burn me at the stake as look at me if they found out I was in Christian radio and played the horrible Christian rock. Whatever - my 9th great grandmother Rebecca Addington (Mrs. William Chamberlain) died in a Salem jail awaiting trial, so I guess my family is used to this sort of treatment.
Denominations - well look up a good definition in the dictionary or something. Loosely, it describes various schools of thought that developed after the Reformation. With the exception of Baptists, who never accepted Catholic Baptism in the Roman Empire and existed underground for centuries. A lot of them are geographically linked to early colonies, others trace their roots to England like the Episcopals who started as Henry the 8th's replacement for the Catholic church when he needed to ditch yet another wife.
Sects are small, usually very conservative denominations that do not think anybody but their own members are saved. Good examples are the Amish and the Church of Christ. Join or burn in hell - accept everything we say or you are lost is the basic message.
The reason I called CC a franchise is - even though local branches don't pay for the rights to the name and information, they are duty bound to faithfully reproduce the "brand" in each city. There is very little room for individuality in a local branch. It is like McDonalds, go to one in California or Alaska or New York, you get the same food. CC is the same, everywhere you go it is the same experience. They do have local pastors, but could probably benefit enormously from new technology which would allow the California church to live feed everywhere. Probably the only reason why they haven't done it is time zone limitations.
The various non-denomination churches tend to be large and charismatic. Denominations do have some advantages, there are perks like money from the denomination, support from the denomination when your pastor gets sick or dies, standardized Sunday school curriculum, bulk purchasing power. A church going it alone without a denomination doesn't have the support structure, so it takes a substantial and / or dedicated membership to keep the money flowing and the church solvent. I've been a member of them, I tend to like them better because there is much more freedom in a large congregation for individuality to be respected. Be an individual who disagrees with the pastor in a church with 100 members, and you are in deep doo-doo. Also, a very large church has resources to keep the services interesting, they can pay for top notch musical talent, they are usually on TV so you don't have to go every single Sunday to keep up, you have more potential for making friends, etc. Small churches have an unfortunate characteristic of turning into houses of gossip instead of houses of worship, and every member is under the microscope if they fail to show up on Sunday or write their check for the tithe. Some of us prefer less control over our lives.
So how does this translate to radio? If you are Calvary Chapel, you want to spread your standardized doctrine wide and far, and buying hundreds or thousands of translator stations will help you do just that. So their attempt to flood the dial makes perfect sense from their perspective. Moody, AFR, BBN, and other older, more conservative radio networks had their roots in Baptist and other conservative denominations decades ago. Change is not a hallmark of such denominations, so it comes slow to their networks - which are inevitably controlled by high ranking, long term (read into that OLD) members of the denomination, who are not likely to be kindly disposed towards Christian rock or Christian hip-hop. Given their long term authority in their denomination, they tend to think they speak for God in matters of format on the network, so the programming on those networks makes perfect sense from their point of view.
So - why haven't the large non-denominational churches gotten into radio more? I think a lot of it has to do with the relative new nature of the movement. There are simply not a lot of licenses left after the commercial stations, public stations, and traditional churches split up the band years and years ago. It is expensive - even by mega-church standards - to break into the business now. A lot of these mega churches run on very slim margins - by faith. So they teter week to week on the verge of bankruptcy. Every once in a while you get an emergency sermon about how it is Biblical to tithe. Yes, it is, but you know a church is in trouble when those messages come every few weeks. It would be better for them to "count the cost of the tower" before going off on mega building programs with huge debt to the bank - only to fleece the flock when payments come due. Such churches are not likely to be big investors in radio, although I think it would help their cause.
I'll give you an example of this - actually a Calvary Chapel - the same one in Dallas I spoke of earlier. They built a new wing for a school. My daughter went there. After a few years, the school got into financial trouble. I knew some people at KLTY - the big Dallas CCM station. I called them, and they offered to give Calvary Chapel advertising for their school at a very discounted rate. It was a done deal, all they had to do is go in and finalize the content for the commercials. KLTY has huge ratings, you would think this would be considered a blessing - God's miraculous intervention at the time it was needed most. But - KLTY was not owned by Calvary Chapel. Instead, they chose to advertise on the Calvary Chapel station KKDR. Understand this - Calvary Chapel Dallas is in Plano, TX. KKDR is located in Decatur, TX, over 70 miles away! At the time, they were extremely weak at best over Plano. But - on went the commercials and - not a single new student because of them. The school folded. Without advertising, nothing happens. If you advertise on a deep fringe station, nothing will happen either. Calvary Chapel Dallas is chock full of DX'ers - who DX KKDR exclusively. I got one of them excited a few months back when I showed them a Sony SRF-59 that can pick up KKDR. No doubt they picked one up soon thereafter. Such is the mania and dedication of that sect for their sectarian material. It cost their church a school.
