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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 leaJAN10_09.htmlders make better choices!

Researched, Edited & Published by Gary D. Foster

Excerpts from the

January 10, 2010 edition of

The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update

Dobson to Leave Focus James Dobson will leave Focus on the Family at the end of February and launch a new nonprofit, James Dobson on the Family, with his son Ryan in March. Built around a daily radio show, the new ministry will have an agenda similar to that of Focus. This move will certainly pose a challenge to Focus which cut its budget from $160 million in ’08 to $139 million in ’09 and reduced it staff from 1,400 in ’02 to 860 today. (Colorado Springs Gazette 12/31/09) 

Pew vs. Pulpit According to a Zogby International study, many church members strongly disagree with their leaders’ contention that more immigrant workers need to be allowed back into the U.S. Most parishioners advocate aggressive immigration law enforcement to cause illegal workers to return home, while the majority of religious leaders are calling for illegal immigrants to be put on a path to citizenship. Mark Tooley, president of the Institute on Religion & Democracy, said, “It seems that the evangelical elites, like the mainline Protestant elites, are growing almost calloused and very comfortable with disregarding the views of their own church members in their pursuit of their own fairly liberal political agenda.” (OneNewsNow 12/31/09) 

Facebook is found to be the “coolest network” by far among students with over 300,000,000 Facebook active users, half of whom return to the site every day. (Center for Media Research Brief 12/18/09) 

Religious Restrictions Nearly a third of the world’s countries have stiff restrictions on religious practice, either because of government policies and laws or hostile acts by individuals or groups. This impedes the religious practices of 70% of the people on Earth, since some of the most restrictive countries are very populous. The study by the Pew Research Center found that of the world's 25 most populous countries, citizens in Iran, Egypt, Indonesia, Pakistan and India live with the most religious restrictions. The U.S., Britain, Brazil, Japan, Italy and South Africa have the most religious liberty and the least government infringement and religion-based violence or harassment. (OneNewsNow 12/20/009) 

Economy Slows Book Buying Nearly 34 % of Americans are cutting down on how many books they are purchasing due to the economic downturn of the past 2 years, finds a PubTrack Consumer survey. Also 19% of consumers are either buying more used books or are swapping books with others. Interestingly, while only 14% of men reported they were more likely to adopt this frugal behavior, more than 23% of women are doing so. 57% of men say the economy has impacted their book buying vs. 68% of women. Nearly 13% report buying fewer hardcover books and more paperbacks. 12% are buying books only at deep discounts or on sale. More than 10% are going to lower-cost outlets for their book purchases. Only 2.6% of consumers are buying more books as a less expensive alternative to other forms of entertainment. Less than 2% said they were buying more e-books to download. 26% of those age 65+ are cutting back on book buying. (ECPA Rush to Press 12/21/09) 

Urban World A century ago, less than 5% of the world’s population lived in cities; in ’08, for the first time in history, that figure topped 50%. In just the last 20 years, the urban population of the developing world has grown by an average of 3 million people per week. By 2050, it will have hit 70%, representing 6.4 billion people. Most of this growth will be taking place in developing regions; Asia will host 63% of the global urban population, or 3.3 billion people, in 2050. Expect ministries to give greater emphasis to urban ministry endeavors in the coming years. (Global Report in Human Settlements 10/09) 

Pastors Speak Out According to LifeWay Research, 89% of very conservative Protestant pastors speak to their churches at least once a year on the unborn, and 79% address the topic of homosexuality about once a year or more often. This compares with 25% of liberal or very liberal pastors who address the unborn at least annually and 53% who speak on homosexuality. Most Protestant pastors whose political ideology is conservative do not believe gay marriage should be legal, but almost half of liberal pastors do. (LifeWay Research 11/23/09) 

Seniors Online While people 65+ still make up less than 10% of the active Internet universe, in the last 5 years their number has increased by more than 55%, from 11.3 million active users in ’04 to 17.5 million in ’09. Among people 65+, the increase of women online in the last 5 years has outpaced the growth of men by 6 percentage points. This age group is also spending more time on the Web. Time spent on the Internet by seniors increased 11% in the last 5 years, from 52 hours per month in ’04 to just over 58 hours in ’09.  88.6% of seniors check personal e-mail as the No. 1 online activity performed in the last 30 days. (Center for Media Research Brief 12/15/09) 

Alarming Marriage Facts A new Marriage Index, released jointly by the National Center on African American Marriages and Parenting and the Institute for American Values in October ’09, reveals a huge decline in national marriage indicators. One indicator shows 78% of adults were married in 1970 vs. only 57% in ’08. Another indicator shows 40% of all children in America were born out-of-wedlock in ’08, including 72% of African American children. (CR Newswire 12/17/09) 

How Quickly Trust Can be Lost In ’04, 40% of Americans said they would normally believe a statement by a company in the banking industry. This year, that number dropped to just 12%. (Harris Poll Weekly 12/1/09) 

A Dangerous Religion Two-thirds of Protestant pastors believe Islam is a dangerous religion, according to a recent LifeWay Research study. The survey of more than 1,000 Protestant pastors found 45% strongly agree with the statement “I believe Islam is a dangerous religion,” and 21% agree somewhat. Additionally, a Pew Research Center study found 38% of Americans say Islam is more likely to encourage violence than other religions. According to the LifeWay study, 44% of mainline pastors are less likely than evangelicals to say Islam is “a dangerous religion” vs. 77% of evangelical pastors. More educated pastors are less likely to agree than those with less education. 64% of pastors with a bachelor's degree or less strongly agree with the statement, while only 37% with a master’s degree or more feel the same way. (Christian Post 12/14/09) 

High Risk Half of urban teen girls may acquire at least 1 of 3 common STDs within 2 years of becoming sexually active, finds an Indiana Univ. School of Medicine study. (LifeSite News 12/15/09)

Fewer Christian Brits A National Center for Social Research survey of people across Britain found that the number of people describing themselves as Christian has dropped in the last 25 years from 66% percent to 50%. The drop is due largely to the steady decline in numbers belonging to the Church of England, with only 23% of those surveyed describing themselves as Anglican today vs. 40% in ’83. Even among those describing themselves as Anglican, half never attend church at all, and less than 20% attend church once a month. The number of Britons that say they do not belong to any particular faith rose from 31% in ’83 to 43% today. (Christian Post 12/19/09) 

People Who Feel Lonely or isolated are more likely to believe in God and the supernatural, according to a Univ. of Chicago study. Lonely people try to create social connections by reaching out to old friends, making new ones, or, as the study suggests, believing in a higher being. Although group living is not essential for survival in the modern world, feeling socially connected is. Feeling disconnected and lonely is a painful emotional state for people and can lead to health problems, both physically and mentally, according to Nicholas Epley, lead researcher. (Psychological Science 2/08) 

Think Like A Customer! Most companies want to make life easier for themselves rather than for their customers. I can uncover these “invisible barriers” to customer service excellence and increased profits. My audit and summary of findings will give you a roadmap to rooting out and resolving these unnecessary anchors on your business or ministry. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. 

Longevity Although Americans have a reputation for job-hopping, a ’07 study by Towers Perrin found that among workers who have been in the same industry 20 years or more, 40% said they have been with the same company for 20 years plus. (USA Today 12/27/09) 

Billboard has named MercyMe’s “Word of God Speak” the #1 Song of the Decade and the group the #1 Christian Songs Artist of the Decade. MercyMe earns an additional #1 in the Christian AC Song Artist of the Decade category. MercyMe has garnered 22 #1 songs in their career, 6 of which are reflected on the Billboard radio charts for this decade. (CBA Industry Brief 12/23/09) 

Radio Younger people remain committed to their radios, according to the recently released Nielsen white paper, How U.S. Adults Use Radio and Other Forms of Audio. Almost 80% of the 18-34-crowd listens to radio every day for an average of 104 minutes. Contrary to conventional wisdom, only 20% of this coveted demographic segment listens to MP3s daily, and among those who did, 82% also listen to broadcast radio for close to 100 minutes a day. (Engage Gen-Y 12/24/09) 

Women Today make up 51% of professional workers in the U.S. The Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates that women make up more than two-thirds of employees in 10 of the 15 job categories likely to grow fastest in the next few years. By ’11 there will be 2.6 million more women than men studying in American universities. (The Economist 12/30/09) 

American Christians A new Gallup poll shows most Americans self-identify as Christian, though the number of those who don’t follow any religion is on the increase. 78% of Americans self-identify as Christian, while 13% say they do not follow a religion. The 13% number for those who follow no religion is the highest ever for the poll. Among those who do follow a religion, 56% said their religion is “very important” in their life, while 25% said it is somewhat important and 19% said it is not important at all. Also, 63% of those who follow a religion are members of a church or synagogue, while 37% are not. While Christianity remains by far the most dominant religion in the U.S., it’s numbers are in decline. (Gallup 12/24/09)

Pastor’s Time Full-time senior pastors tend to work 55 hours or more per week, finds a LifeWay Research study. While the median number of work hours for Protestant pastors is 55 hours, 42% work 60 or more hours. When including bi-vocational pastors, part-time senior pastors and volunteer pastors, 35% work at least 60 hours a week and 30% 50 to 59 hours. Half spend 5 to 14 hours a week preparing sermons, while 9% spend 25 or more with just 7% spending less than 5. 30% of evangelical pastors spend 20 or more hours a week in sermon preparation vs. 20% of mainline pastors. Other time consuming activities include meetings, handling e-mail or e-correspondence, counseling others, or in hospital, home or witnessing visits. More than 70% of pastors spend up to 5 hours a week in meetings with 15% doing so 10 hours or more a week. 30% spend 20 to 29 hours a week with their families, and 16% report spending 40 or more hours with them. 52% spend 1 to 6 hours in prayer each week, and the same percentage spend 2 to 5 hours in personal devotions unrelated to sermon prep. 14% spend an hour or less in personal devotions. 24% watch TV 10 to 14 hours each week. (LifeWay Research 12/28/09) 

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