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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 leaders make better choices!

Researched, Edited & Published by Gary D. Foster

Excerpts from the

June 10, 2008 edition of

The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update 

Marriage Saver A study published in the 6/08 Journal of Marriage and Family found that strong faith in God by itself won’t protect against marital infidelity. But a study by Fuller Seminary researchers David Atkins and Deborah Kessel found that regular church attendance does make a difference. People who rarely attend services are 4 times more likely to have an affair than those who attend more often. Frequent churchgoers hear sermons about the moral aspect of marital infidelity and are likely to practice what is preached. Other activities such as prayer do not make a statistical difference in marital faithfulness. (www.foxnews.com, 4/15/08) 

Not Online 110 million U.S. adults do not shop online and 55 million do not use the Internet at all. 36 million adults 62 and older do not shop online. About 12 million say they won’t shop online for fear of privacy and security risks. 34 million dial-up users and 21 million with broadband do not shop online. 17 million African-American and 19 million Hispanic adults do not shop online. (Internet Retailer 5/08) 

Minorities & Media Movies are the most-watched type of TV show among all racial groups, 66% of African-Americans are most likely to watch them regularly, as are 63.6% of Hispanics and 51.4% of whites. (Center for Media Research 5/28/08) 

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 at the same level of thinking that created them. I can bring you fresh thinking, leading to new solutions that deliver new results. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. (IvySeaZine 5/20/08) 

Books 82% of Americans prefer reading printed books over e-books, finds a Random House/Zogby poll. But 13% of respondents under 30 are open to reading a book online or on an e-book reader vs. just 6% of those 65 or older. 39% buy between 1 and 5 books per year for themselves and 22% buy 16 or more. They most often buy them online or at chain bookstores; 9% primarily buy them at independent booksellers. More than half judge a book by its cover, particularly those 30 or younger. More than a third have bought books because of a quote from another author, while women are more likely than men to seek out books by authors they already enjoy (92% vs. 86%). 78% of Americans own the books they read vs. 19% relying on a library. 66% typically read a book just once. Once finished reading a book, 57% keep it on a shelf at home; just 3% sell their books after reading them. (Reuters 5/30/08) 

Tech Church People within the Christian community are just as immersed in digital technologies and social networks as those outside. Both evangelicals and born-agains emerged as statistically on-par with national norms when it comes to technological habits. The one exception is access to spiritual content via podcasting. A new Barna Group study finds 38% of evangelicals and 31% of other born-agains listened to a sermon or church teaching via a podcast vs. 17% of other adults. Roughly 45 million Americans (23%) report going digital to acquire church sermon and teaching content in the past week. (Barna Update 5/26/08) 

Flocks Not Flocking An Ellison Research study finds 69% of all Americans who currently attend worship services have attended more than one place of worship as an adult. Only 31% say their current place of worship is the only one they have regularly attended since age 18. Americans are equally divided regarding larger or smaller congregations: 43% of U.S. Protestants have moved to a larger congregation and 45% to a smaller one. Just 11% switched to a place about the same size. 31% say their current church has a more contemporary worship style, while 42% say it is more traditional. Although megachurches get a lot of press, they have not cannibalized smaller churches as some observers have concluded. There has been a slight trend toward more contemporary worship styles.  (Christian Post 5/20/08) 

Business Intelligence Any small-business owner knows that competition is tough, but he or she may not be able to pinpoint exactly what changes are needed in order to get to the top. Business as usual may no longer suffice. How can small businesses identify noteworthy trends and make better decisions faster? Many answers already reside in a business’s customer data. I can help you discover and analyze that data. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. (Small Business Computing 4/11/06) 

U.S. Spiritual Health 89% of the more than 13,000 Christian respondents of Coral Ridge Ministries’ 2008 Annual Spiritual State of the Nation Survey view Hollywood as “very” dangerous to the nation’s spiritual well-being, compared to 85% who consider Darwinism/evolution the same degree of threat. 89% support efforts to “take back” the culture from what they consider a harmful secular society by using mass media that presents a Christian view. TV (90%), the Internet (72%) and DVDs (61%) were voted the most effective mass media tools for Christians to positively impact culture. In response to the perceived attack on America’s spiritual health, respondents believe families (89%), churches (86%) and Christian media (85%) are the most influential institutions to lead the nation in a spiritual revival. (Christian Post 5/22/08) 

Technology Generation Gaps The Barna Group defines “mainstream” technology as those used by 50% or more of the population; and “emerging” technology is used by 20% to less than half of the population. Among Elders (ages 62+), 2 of the 15 areas studied were deemed mainstream (email and search), while another 2 were emerging (IM and online purchases). Boomers (43 to 61) had 2 mainstream and 4 emerging areas. Busters (24 to 42) had 4 mainstream and 4 emerging technologies. Mosaics (23 and under) had 8 mainstream categories and another 3 emerging. In other words, out of the 15 areas of technology assessed, Elders widely embraced or were becoming comfortable with 4, Boomers 6, Busters 8, and Mosaics 11. (Barna Update 5/26/08) 

Latino Faith 68% of foreign-born Hispanics consider themselves Catholic; many convert to evangelical Christianity once they reach the U.S. 43% of Hispanic evangelicals are former Catholics. A desire for a direct, personal relationship with God is cited as the main reason for their conversion. Currently 15% of Latinos are born-again or evangelical Protestants. More than half of Latino Catholics and Protestants identify themselves as Charismatics. (Outreach Magazine 11-12/07) 

Hyper-Connected 38% of North American workers would choose their mobile phone over their wallet, keys, laptop or digital music player if they had to leave the house for 24 hours and could take only one item, finds a Nortel survey. 30% chose their wallets first. 16% are “hyper-connected” (use at least 7 devices for work and personal access, plus at least 9 applications like instant messaging, text messaging, etc). The survey also predicts the number of the hyper-connected will likely rise to 40% in 5 years. (Reuters 5/13/08) 

Collapsing Birthrates An increasing number of U.S. metropolitan areas continue to report more deaths than births. “In times past, this would have indicated a major catastrophe such as famine, plague, or war. But with regard to these cities, the causes include nothing to do with famine, plague, or war,” warns conservative commentator Albert Mohler. America is not immune to the severe population declines and related social and economic ills of Europe and Japan. “The collapse of birthrates is a sign of huge social and moral transformations.” stated Mohler. (Lifesitenews.com 5/26/08) 

Zondervan announced “a strategic realignment” in which the publisher eliminated 5 executive positions and about a dozen others. The realignment streamlined the company’s operations by reducing management layers and forming 8 strategic business units focused on its core markets: Bibles, Youth Specialties, Editorial Vida, Trade Books, Church/Academic Reference and Resources, Zonderkidz, Digital and Church Engagement. (Foster Network 5/08) 

Kindle Fear Amazon’s Jeff Bezos reports the e-book reader Kindle already accounts for 6% of his company’s unit sales of books that are available in both paper and e-formats. But some publishing executives fear Amazon.com’s still-growing power as a bookseller. They note Amazon currently sells most of its Kindle books for a price well below what it pays publishers, and they foresee Amazon using Kindle’s popularity as a lever to demand that publishers cut prices. (NY Times 6/2/08) 

How Do We Keep Our Organization as Agile as a Startup? Often an objective set of eyes can see overlooked opportunities, or ones your competition could leverage against you. Beat the competition by being your own competitor and let me help you exploit those opportunities yourself. Contact 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. (Monday Morning memo 5/1/06) 

Religious Book Sales continued to grow strongly in ’07, according to the Book Industry Trends 2008, a comprehensive view of U.S. book publishing dollar and unit sales. The religion segment increased 5.6% from ’07 to ’08 after rising 6.3% from ’06 to ’07. (Book Industry Trends 2008) 

Books in Print The production of traditional books rose 1% in ’07 to 276,649 new titles and editions, but the output of on-demand, short-run and unclassified titles soared from 21,936 in ’06 to 134,773 in ’07, reports R.R. Bowker. Among traditional categories, the biggest title gain was in literature, up 19% to 9,796 titles, while fiction rose 17% to 50,071 titles. Fiction is also the single largest category. 17 categories had output drops, with the largest decline (12%) in business titles to 7,651. Personal/financial titles fell 8%, while religious titles dropped 5%. Juvenile titles fell 1% to 30,063. Between ’02 and ’07, production of traditional titles rose 29% vs. 313% in the on-demand segment, resulting in an overall increase of 66% in the past 5 years. (Publisher’s Weekly.com 5/28/08)

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