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

June 10, 2010 edition of

The FOSTER Letter—Religious Market Update 

June 10, 2010

 Having Children influences parents’ involvement with church according to a recent Barna Group study. 17% of parents say having a child helped them reconnect with church after a long period of not attending, particularly among lower income and Hispanic parents. 20% say they were already active, but it led them to become more involved while 4% say it decreased church involvement. 5% say it helped them become active in a church for the first time. 50% of parents say having children had no influence their connection to a church. Younger parents (under 35) were more likely than average to say parenthood had helped them reconnect to church. Evangelicals were among the least likely to have changed their church patterns as a result of becoming a parent. (Barna Update 5/24/10) 

Tsunami Of Digital Data A technologist at HP Labs tells ReadWriteWeb that data is growing significantly faster than Moore’s Law. Last summer, HP CEO Mark Hurd said: “More data will be created in the next 4 years than in the history of the planet.” And the data appears to be coming from every direction one can imagine. Google VP Marissa Mayer said that the amount of user-generated content alone increased 15-fold over the past few years, since which time Facebook’s growth trajectory has surpassed the most optimistic of projections. (Around the Net 6/1/10) 

When Their Kids Misbehave, parents of 2-12 year-olds are most likely to “explain or reason” with the youngsters (88%) or “take away a privilege or something the child enjoys” (70%). Just 10% of parents polled said they “spank” them. (C.S. Mott Children’s Hospital National Poll on Children’s Health) 

Marketing Rules Change The buying mode and mood of the general public has moved from Intuitive and Feeling (NF, right brain/right brain, pattern recognition) to Sensing and Thinking (ST, left brain/left brain, sequential reasoning.) Consumers have begun buying with their heads instead of their hearts. Ads today should be direct, clear and concise. Clarity is more important than creativity, but it’s also more difficult to achieve. I can help. Contact me at 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. (Monday Morning Wizard of Ads 2/23/09) 

Today’s Mothers of U.S. newborns are older and better educated; they are less likely to be white and less likely to be married than 20 years ago. Among the key findings of this Pew Research report: In ’90, teens accounted for 13% of all births and women 35 and older 9%. In ’08, 10% of births were to teens vs. 14% to women 35 and older. In ’08, a record 41% of all U.S. births were to unmarried women vs. 28% in ’90. White women made up 53% of mothers of newborns in ’08, down from 65% in ’90. The share of births to Hispanic women has grown dramatically to 1 in 4. 54% of mothers of newborns had at least some college education in ’06, up from 41% in ’90. (PewResearch.org)  

Millennial Spirituality Among the 65% of Millennials who claim to be Christian in a new LifeWay study, two-thirds of those who indicate they trust Christ as Savior mention nothing about faith, religion or spirituality when asked to name what’s really important in their lives. Others who list the importance of faith were the churched (31%); those with graduate degrees (23%); and those claiming to be broadly Christian (18%). Only 3% of the unchurched mention faith, while 2% of those who claim no religious affiliation say faith is important in their lives. (LifeWay 5/11/10)

Generation G captures the growing importance of ‘generosity’ as a leading societal and business mindset. As consumers are disgusted with greed and its current dire consequences for the economy (and while that same upheaval has them longing more than ever for institutions that care), the need for more generosity coincides with the ongoing emergence of an online-fueled culture of individuals who share, give, engage, create and collaborate in large numbers. One of the most important drivers behind generosity is the collaborative/free/creation/crowd-sourced/gift/sharing movement that (especially online) has unlocked in entirely new ways the perennial need of individuals to feel part of the greater good, to contribute, to help. But the online world, of course, also makes it easy to showcase and share one’s acts of altruism. (Trendwatching.com 5/10) 

More Single Parent Homes A recent Yale Univ. study confirms the growing trend toward single-parent families and fatherless homes. In ’08, a record 41% of U.S. births were to unmarried women vs. 28% in ’90. The share of births that are non-marital is highest for black women (72%), followed by Hispanics (53%), whites (29%) and Asians (17%), but whites have had the greatest increase over the past two decades (69%). (LifeSite News 5/8/10) 

Men Show Networking Fatigue According to Univ. of Southern California researchers, 67% of women under 40 feel as strongly about their Internet communities as their offline ones, while only 38% of men said the same. In ’07, the numbers were the reverse, with 69% of the men and 35% of the women feeling that way. And in ’05, 77% of men under 40 said their online community was “extremely important” vs. 39% today. Women tend to adopt new technologies more slowly than men. Also, women are finding deeper connections to Web communities because many go there for social reasons rather than to primarily find information. (The Associated Press)  

Teen Texting Pew Research has found that 75% of young people between the ages of 12 and 17 now own cell phones, and of those that do, girls typically send or receive 80 text messages per day and boys 30 per day. (Online Media Daily 4/20/10) 

Baby Names A little more than 22,000 girls born in ’09 were named Isabella, followed by Emma, Olivia, Sophia and Ava. Nearly 21,000 boys were named Jacob, followed by Ethan, Michael, Alexander and William. (AP 5/10) 

Special Markets Are you looking for a new marketing channel for your Christian products? Let me help you put together a workable plan to penetrate non-traditional channels. Contact 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com. 

Thomas Nelson says they will set up a UK-based distribution point this summer, serving both Christian and general markets and “enabling speedy delivery to customers in the UK” of their books. (Publisher’s Lunch 5/21/10)

Older Entrepreneurs Folks 55 to 64 represented the second-largest jump in entrepreneurial activity by age (just behind 35- to 44-year-olds) from ’08 to ’09, according to an Index of Entrepreneurial Activity. The number of self-employed Americans rose to 8.9 million in December ’09 vs. 8.7 million in ’08. Self-employment among 55 to 64s hit nearly 2 million, a 5% rise from the prior year. Self-employment for those 65 and older hit 939,000, a 29% increase. The rise has been fueled by Baby Boomers who don’t want to stop working, economic necessity triggered by the recession, and the rise in longevity. (USA Today 5/25/10) 

Opportunity The number of “advertising, marketing, promotions, public relations and sales managers” jobs is expected to rise 13% between ’08 and ’18. (Bureau of Labor Statistics)  

Stability Preferred The economic volatility of recent years has given young adults (18-29) a yearning for stability not typically associated with this life stage. Among those working, 42% would like to stay in their current job “for a long term, say 10 years or more.” 55% would prefer “long term employment with a single employer.” On ranking possible aspects of a career, they give “job security” precedence over “earning the highest pay possible” and “work that you find intellectually interesting.” (Brandweek 5/17/10)

Men’s Quest for Data increases as they age. For women, this quest is more likely to depend on their level of education. If your audience is college-educated women, providing valuable information should be a key part of your communication strategy. If your female audience hasn't attended college, you are much better off focusing on offering deals. (Engage Gen-Y 5/21/10) 

Baptisms Increase The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has posted its highest number of baptisms since ’06, up from 342,000 last year to over 349,000. Attributed to a renewed focus on outreach, this reverses several years of decline. Last year, a group of Baptist leaders began the Great Commission Task Force to increase SBC evangelistic efforts. (USA Today 5/20/10) 

Clergy Glut For the past decade, churches have struggled to fill their pulpits, but today some denominations report they have 2 ministers for every vacant pulpit. The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) currently has 4 for every opening. The Assemblies of God, United Methodist Church and the Church of the Nazarene have also reported significant surpluses. This shift within denominations reflects the impact of an ailing economy. Staff has been cut in churches where struggling parishioners are giving less, and older clergy are delaying their retirement because of their decreasing retirement funds. Yet small congregations (100 members or fewer), which make up the majority of U.S. Protestant churches, face a shortage of ministers. (ChristianCentury.org 5/10)  

Out-Booming Boomers Gen-Y has already given birth to more than 13 million babies. With the generation being nearly 80 million strong, they will produce more children than Baby Boomers did. (Engage Gen-Y 5/28/10)

Fresh Thoughts Do you have relationships with people outside the company who can bring in fresh ideas and offer third opinions? Every organization should have someone like this on retainer, someone not bound by company politics or the tyranny of the urgent. I can serve this purpose for your organization. 419-238-4082, Gary@garydfoster.com or www.garydfoster.com.  

Nurture—Not Nature Family structure in childhood has a huge influence on the likelihood of women to engage in homosexual conduct as adults, finds the National Survey of Family Growth. Women who grew up with their married, biological mother and father were the least likely to have had a same-sex sexual partner in the previous year. Women who did not grow up with both biological parents were anywhere from 50 to 240% more likely to have had a homosexual partner. Also, women from non-intact families who never attend worship are 450% more likely to have homosexual relations than women from intact families who worship weekly. (Washington Update)  

Most Important Role 64% of Americans think being a mother is the most important role for a woman to fill in today’s world, according to a Rasmussen Reports survey. 18% disagree, and another 18% aren’t sure. This is virtually unchanged from a year ago. Women are more likely than men to think being a mother is a woman’s most fulfilling role. 55% of U.S. adults say their mother is still living, 64% visited her on Mother’s Day, and 25% called. (Rasmussen Reports 5/9/10)

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