\

Serving the Christian Market Since 1968

14732 Middle Point Road Van Wert, Ohio 45891 - 419.238.4082

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Foster Letter —

Religious Market Update

The FOSTER Letter is a bi-weekly e-mail religious market intelligence report targeted to Christian market channel and ministry leaders.  Each issue reports on news, trends, events and research that will directly or indirectly impact your audiences and businesses in a convenient summary format  Better informed leaders make better choices!

Researched, Edited & Published by Gary D. Foster

Excerpts from the

August 25, 2010 edition of

The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update 

Bible Readers Tithe 85% who Christians who read the Bible 4 to 7 times per week are more than twice as likely to donate 10% or more of their income than those who do not read the Bible (40%). Those who read their Bible 7 times a week carried fewer debt obligations – 50% had mortgage payments, 31% car payments, and 24% credit card bills beyond 30 days old.  These percentages are much lower than those who never read their Bible – 80% of these had mortgage payments, 53% car payments, and 53% credit card bills beyond 30 days old.  (View from the Pew Research, 2010, Brian Kluth) 

Younger Seminarians The median age of candidates for M.Div. degrees is declining, marking a reversal from the previous decade. Auburn Seminary Center for the Study of Theological Education research finds the median age of these candidates was 32.19 in ’09, down from 34.14 in ’99 and reflecting a trend reversal from ’89–’99, when the median age steadily climbed. As churches continue working to attract younger congregants with staffs of aging leaders, denominations may have cause to celebrate. Researchers credit the decrease in the median age of candidates to the increase in 20-somethings in the U.S. population. (USA Today 8/9/10, 7/12/10, Church Leader’s Intelligence Report 8/11/10) 

Best Countries If you were born today, which country would provide you the very best opportunity to live a healthy, safe, reasonably prosperous and upwardly mobile life? A new Newsweek survey that chose 5 categories of national well-being—education, health, quality of life, economic competitiveness and political environment—and compiled metrics for these categories across 100 nations found Finland was 1st and the U.S. was 11th. Click here to view the entire list Infographic/Database.  (Pastor’s Weekly Briefing 8/20/10) 

Business Intelligence (customer and market information) is a key and necessary strategic element for every Christian ministry and product company. I can provide a full-fledged scan of the environment facing your organization, plus seasoned advice on what it means and how to best respond.  Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com.  

Holiday Layaway According to the Experian Marketing Services annual 2010 Holiday Marketer: Benchmark Trend Report, ’08 and ’09 holiday seasons registered the first declines in sales since the early ’50s, but an analysis of ’10 catalog sales data predicts this year’s 4th quarter will register a 1%–2% increase. The Internet continues to grow as the most preferred media channel with 37.7% of U.S. consumers identifying it as the media they can’t live without, above TV at 21.6%. The percentage of consumers who purchase from mobile phones has grown from 10% in ’09 to 13% in ’10. (Center for Media Research Brief 8/17/10) 

Beyond Finances The bad economy is impacting people well beyond their finances, finds a StrategyOne poll. It has caused 58% of U.S. adults to re-evaluate their approach to life. 52% have become less hopeful about the future, 49% now believe they’ll probably fall short of their goals, 42% become more easily angered or emotional and 19% have started drinking more. 27% of women 18-34 have decided to delay having a baby, while 18% of single Americans have decided to delay marriage. (Brandweek 7/12/10) 

Consumers Say the 3 most influential factors when deciding which companies they do business with include personal experience (98%), the company’s reputation or brand (92%) and recommendations from friends and family (88%). 48% of consumers report always or often using an online posting or blog to get others’ opinions about a company’s customer service reputation. But when consumers go online, they put greater credence in negative reviews on blogs and social networking sites than on positive ones (57% vs. 48%). (Center for Media Research Brief 7/20/10) 

Why People Leave Christianity According to the Barna Group, the most common reasons people switch from Christianity to another faith are life experiences, such as gaining new knowledge or education; feeling disillusioned with church and religion; feeling the church is hypocritical; having negative experiences in churches; being in disagreement with Christianity about specific issues such as homosexuality, abortion or birth control; feeling the church is too authoritarian; wanting to express their faith outside of church; and searching for a new faith or wanting to experience other religions. (Barna Update 8/16/10) 

Why People Switch to Christianity The most common reasons are a difficult life event (divorce, a health crisis or death of a loved one); getting older and seeing life differently; wanting to connect with a church and grow spiritually; discovering Christ; or wanting to know what was in the Bible. (Barna Update 8/16/10) 

Drifter, Surfer, Drowner or Navigator On the ocean of life, Drifters define themselves by their circumstances, pushed here and there by the winds and waves of chance. Surfers define themselves by their activities, riding the swells this way and that, dreaming of the perfect wave. Drowners define themselves by their limiting factors; sad and mournful, they are professional victims. Navigators define themselves by their commitments. They know exactly what they’re trying to make happen, and they’re willing to pay the price. Do you know what you’re trying to make happen? Are you willing to pay the price? Maybe I can help. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. (Roy Williams, Monday Morning Memo 8/16/10) 

Clergy routinely work 60-hour weeks and often have just one day off — and it’s not the day everyone else is off. This makes it hard to develop friendships and creates a lot of loneliness. The root of the stress is that, for a minister, work centers around so many different relationships and the demand that he or she be all things to all people. Although it needs to start with the congregation, pastors must recognize that long hours and porous boundaries between one’ work life and personal life is an occupational hazard. (Pastor’s Weekly Briefing 8/5/10) 

Corporate Giving A majority of U.S. companies said they expect their ’10 charitable donations to be about the same as in ’09, a year when cash giving fell by 7.5%. Of the 102 firms answering the Chronicle of Philanthropy survey, 73% predicted a flat ’10. 68 companies decreased their ’09 cash giving to $3.9 billion, the first time since ’03 that cash contributions from businesses in the survey have dropped. 54% gave less cash, 30% gave more, and 16% gave roughly the same. But donations of cash and products increased by nearly 5% in ’09 as companies sought to compensate for the decline in cash by offering other types of assistance. Giving $288.1 million in ’09, Wal-Mart was the biggest cash contributor. (USA Today 8/9/10) 

Women & Social Media According to a ComScore’s Women on the Web: How Women are Shaping the Internet study, 75.8% of all women online visited a social networking site in May ’10 vs. 69.7% of men. Globally, women demonstrate higher levels of engagement with social networking sites. Although women account for 47.9% of total unique visitors to the social networking category, they consume 57% of pages and account for nearly 57% of total minutes spent on these sites. Women average 5.5 hours per month vs. men’s 4 hours. (Center for Media Research Brief 8/5/10) 

Albert Einstein said, “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.” He also said the problems you face can’t be solved by the same level of thinking that created the problems. I can bring you fresh thinking that will lead to new solutions that deliver new results. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. (IvySeaZine 5/20/08) 

Gen-Y Changing B-to-B Sales Somewhere around age 30 to 35, you can draw a line in the sand between people who are used to calling around to get everything, and B-to-B sales has been all about relationships and face-to-face. Gen-Y buyers and influencers expect to conduct a great deal of the buying cycle online. They prefer companies put everything on their websites, real-time feeds and information, and that companies be totally integrated into Twitter and the blogosphere. (Target Marketing 7/21/10) 

E-Book Boom In the first 5 months of ’09, e-books made up 2.9% of trade book sales. In the same period in ’10, sales of e-books grew to 8.5%, according to the Association of American Publishers, spurred by sales of the Amazon Kindle and the new Apple iPad. Many publishers have been astounded by the pace of e-book popularity and the threat to print book sales that it represents. Some worry that large bookstores will go the way of the record stores that shut down when the music business went digital. (NY Times 8/12/10) 

Better Parents Attend Church The children of parents who regularly attend church and talk with their child about religion are rated by both parents and teachers as showing better behavior, self-control skills and social skills than children from non-religious families. Children whose parents both attend church regularly are rated as having the best behavior and being the most well-adjusted. (LifeSite News.com 8/9/10) 

Earlier Development Some girls are reaching the onset of puberty at an earlier age than in the past, claims a new study published in the 8/10 Pediatrics journal. Today 10% of white, 23% of black and 15% of Hispanic girls had breast development by age 7. Researchers warn this puts girls at higher risk for behavioral problems as adolescents and for breast cancer as adults. Possible causes are body mass index, with heavier girls developing breasts sooner, and hormone-disrupting chemicals in the environment. Pure In Heart conference speaker Rebecca Ingram Powell notes, “Unfortunately, the early development of breasts in our sex-saturated culture will cause girls to be confused about their own maturity, and it will cause both same-age peers and older kids to be confused, as well.” Parents have to talk with them about sexuality often before they, as parents, are ready to do so. (Baptist Press 8/18/10)

Shrinking Youth Groups Only 1 in 4 U.S. teens participate in church youth groups, and other teen religious behaviors are waning, finds Barna Group research. Some churches are canceling youth summer camps as a result of low enrollment. Jeremy Johnston, Executive Pastor with First Family Church in Overland Park, Kansas, blames parents who didn’t grow up in church, since most teens don’t drive, and their parents are either overstressed, overcommitted or just plain lazy. Other youth leaders blame overcommitted teens, the recession, growing competition from summer mission trips and even social media. (USA Today 8/12/10) 

The Top-Ten Favorite Types of Music in the U.S. are, in order, country-western, rock, hymns and gospel, classical/chamber music, mood or easy listening, jazz, blues or R&B, Latino/salsa, big band, and operetta/show tunes.  (Church Leadership Intelligence Report 7/13/10) 

For information on how to become a subscriber to the entire 3-page Foster Letter---Religious Market Update, E-mail us at: subscribe@garydfoster.com