First of all, the question asked not in order to knock or discourage the current efforts of 3ABN. I'm hoping that by asking ourselves this question we would be able to share the message more effectively. As a fellow broadcaster and producer, I am asking myself this question quite often. I find that most of of the projects that I've been involved with were targeted primarily towards the "choir", and not as an evangelism outreach... even those which were purposed to do so.

The question goes something like this. Wouldn't you agree that that most of the programming on 3ABN, although starts out to be as a vehicle to spread the 3 angel's message, ends up in the least needed place for that message - TV sets and computers of Christians, and most likely Adventist Christians? Therefore, it in effect ends up preaching to the choir, instead of being a mainstream alternative to Television that the viewers are getting daily.

I've been studying film/television production in college in hopes to be an independent Christian producer, which I am today... I've noticed that most of the Christian films and television that were made in the past were not speaking the language of the mainstream culture. It was too wordy, and if we took away the visuals... it would still make for a nice radio show, which is what I find much of Christian television being. Not only it does not prioritize "showing" above "telling", but it also lacks the cultural context for message to exist. Without that cultural context, the message just gets stuck being seed on a rocky ground.

I'm not talking about the "hip hop" or "rock music" culture here either. That I'm trying to point out is that the writers/producers create a "model" version of Christianity that is far from reality - essentially a sterile version of what really is going on in lives of the people today. Thus the final product looks like a non-authentic and preachy version of reality... that only the "perfect audience of the choir" can relate to.

It's ironic, that the best "Christian" films that I've ever seen end up being those which were not indented to be "Christian", and were produced by unregenerate people. I often wonder ... how can these films (good example being "A Walk to Remember") demonstrate love of Christ in a more relative and "real" way? How can that be? And the answer is simple. These films were not intented to be Christian, but the characters described were. "A Walk to Remember" took a real story of Christian girl whose love for Christ completely changed a young man's life. Somehow, I find the reality missing in Christian entertainment, and it ends up to be 95% of a talk show. if you take away the visuals, most of the Christian programming we see today would not loose much. I think it's a waste of a powerful medium of communication.

Have you ever thought about taking a risk and producing programming that is directed towards the unsaved audience, and that would introduce them to Christ using the language that they understand?

I appreciate your thoughts on this matter.

Thanks for the question. The fact is that most of 3ABN's audience are not Christian outlets. Probably %95 percent or more of our programming ends up being available in non SDA homes! I'm not sure where this kind of info comes from but let me give you examples of what I am talking about. 3ABN is on the "Dish Network". There are potentially millions of viewers that subscribe to this Network. I believe that Dish Network claims over 13,000,000 subscribers and 3 per US household. That equates to approx 42,000,000 potential viewers in N. America. I believe that the SDA church only has somewhat over 1,000,000 members in N. America. Based on those figures alone you can see that the potential viewing audience is overwhelmingly non SDA or even churched for that matter. Out of 1,000,000 SDA members in N.America probably only a small percentage have Dish Network as their main source of Television. 3ABN has approx. 120 owned and operated TV stations in the US alone. These are free to air stations that reach any given audience within the geographical area covered by 3ABN television. Unless we were talking about an SDA Mecca somewhere the overwhelming majority of the potential viewers are not SDA. Same goes with over 80 owned and operated radio stations also in the US. 3ABN is on numerous cable systems througout the US and around the world. Nashville Tn. for instance 3ABN is on Comcast Cable. Most of these potential viewers would not be SDA. 3ABN is on the new television services of major phone co. like Quest and I believe Verizon and others. I could go on but the list would take to long. Whether your looking at potential Internet viewers, Satellite systems etc. 3ABN's main audience is non-SDA. Hope Channel for instance has, as my understanding, a nearly all SDA audience and there is nothing wrong with this as church members usually need to be awakened or encouraged in the truth. I believe they are working to spread their network to other non SDA outlets as well. I do appreciate your comments and your vision. In nearly 25 years of Broadcasting within the SDA church I've seen many producers come and go. My advice though would be to continue to reseach new ways to proclaim the 3 Angels messages to the world but be very careful of compromise and dilution of our distinctive message to the world as SDA's. I have no doubt that 3ABN would not still be around today if we had compromised the vision that God gave us to do. We not only have a lot of non SDA's that hate our message and would love to see us off the air waves, but the Devil has used many who claim to be SDA's, to pursue to discredit and destroy this ministry all in the name of "Truth"! I am very glad that God has called you to do a work and be assured that if you are true to your calling by Him that He will supply all of your needs! God Bless! One other thing. There are churches all across the US and around the world that now have new members from those outside the SDA church through watching or listening to 3ABN.