Christian TV and radio are enjoying a larger audience than America's churches, according to a recent Barna Research Group study.

Nearly 141 million adults used Christian media, including TV, radio and books, in March. That compares to 132 million who attended a church service during the same period, according to the study, released July 2.

"It is important to recognize that traditional Christian activities such as evangelism, worship and discipleship may happen outside of a church building for many people, including millions of individuals who have no interest or intention of visiting a church," said George Barna in a news release. Barna's Ventura, Calif., research firm studies Christian trends.

Doug Batchelder, pastor of Fellowship Church in Phillipsburg, N.J., is not surprised by the results. Batchelder's church, which averages 350 in weekly worship attendance, has broadcast its services on a local, independent TV station on Sunday nights for 20 years.

"We're getting into more homes than we would ever get into using any other format," Batchelder said. "Churches have to face the fact that not everyone can or will make the effort to be in church on Sundays. We have to look for other ways to reach them."

Fellowship Church's hour-long "Fellowship Echoes" program reaches an estimated 200,000 viewers each week in eastern Pennsylvania, western New Jersey and Delaware, according to Allentown, Pa., WFMZ-TV's marketing reports, Batchelder said. Church volunteers tape the services and prepare them for broadcasts. The church pays $500 a week, or roughly $26,000 a year, for the station to broadcast its services. Regular church contributions cover the costs, Batchelder said, and occasionally viewers will send donations.

Batchelder receives three to four letters a week from viewers, usually asking about what happens when a person dies. Many of those who write in are elderly and physically unable to make it to church. The TV program, though, reaches a cross-section of society, he said.

"I'm absolutely staggered by the number of people who approach me in public and say that they recognize me," he said. "They usually go on to tell me about specific programs they've seen, so I think they're tuning in for more than just a glance."

Tuning in

Forty-three percent of all adults watched some Christian television programming in March, according to Barna's study of 1,007 adults nationwide in April. The study did not indicate whether that programming was local or nationally syndicated shows. Most of the programs aired on cable or satellite networks, according to the report.

Radio programming featuring teaching, preaching and talk-show formats are the most popular Christian media, Barna reports. Fifty-two percent of American adults - 109 million people -- listened to such shows in March.

Barna's research shows Christian music programming quickly surpassing talk-driven formats. Christian music is one of the fastest-growing categories in the music industry, according to the Christian Music Trade Association (CMTA). Nearly 50 million Christian albums were sold in 2001, a 13.5 percent increase over 2000, when there was a 3 percent drop in overall music industry sales.

They're listening

Christian media is proving nearly as popular with secular markets as it is with Christians, Barna said.

Among his findings:

• Forty-two percent -- nearly 27 million -- of the 65 million unchurched adults in the United States were exposed to Christianity through the media in March. Twenty-seven percent of those listened to Christian radio.
• The use of Christian media, from books to TV and radio, increases as people age until they reach their mid-70s. Women were more likely than men to use Christian media, and African-Americans were more likely than any other ethnic segment to use it.
• Individuals who described themselves as politically conservative were twice as likely as self-described liberals to use Christian media. Protestant adults were twice as likely as Catholics to use Christian media.
• Forty-four percent of Americans who are associated with a non-Christian faith used Christian media in June, and one-third of those who described themselves as either "atheist" or "agnostic" (37 percent) said they listen, watch or read something related to the Christian faith.

Barna said improving technology has made today's media a good resource for reaching the unchurched.

"The content must meet their personal needs, the quality must be up to the standards of the day, and the medium must fit into hectic, fast-paced, unpredictable schedules," Barna said. "The Christian media industry has come a long way from the days when it simply aired or transcribed sermons."

Making the most of media

If it isn't yet a trend for churches to use media to spread the gospel, it needs to be, Batchelder said. But with media markets consolidating across the country, it's more difficult to produce TV programs at a cost churches can afford, he said.

"Maybe five years down the road digital television will bring the costs closer to the churches and make special programming easier to manage," Batchelder said. For now, though, he has other recommendations.

Local radio stations provide more opportunities than TV to air church services, he said, and the quality of public access channels on cable TV is improving, making it more enticing for churches to use them as an outreach tool.

Fellowship Church reaches out to those in local hospitals by videotaping specific messages related to reasons people would be hospitalized, such as surgery or a child's birth. Hospitals, many of which have trouble staffing their chaplaincy programs, can air the videos throughout the hospital network or give the tapes to interested individuals.

"Over a lifetime, everyone spends time in a hospital," Batchelder said. "We've found hospitals in our area to be very receptive to the idea."

While he favors radio over any other medium because it requires listeners to concentrate more on the message, Batchelder said churches must acknowledge that people expect to be visually stimulated.

"But remember that we can do that in a number of ways, from the Web to videos to CDs, not just TV," he said.