Grants and Noncomm Christian Radio

[JimmyJames]

My experience is more on the NPR/community radio side of things where we have CPB, PTFP, various regional arts foundations and so on.

But an associate asked me if there were any foundations or groups doing grants and assistance to new Christian radio stations in the US. I realize there's many groups doing "missions" broadcasting to other nations, but don't know of any in the US - and yes, I know most areas now can get at least 3 K-Love signals and various other Christian stations but there are a few areas where a local Christian station might still could be built.

Any information I can pass along?

 

[radioboy]

Hi Jimmy,

I'm not aware of anything off the top of my head. BUT...

I'm currently taking a course in grant-writing and have access to some databases. I'll look through them and let you know if there is anything promising.

If you can, send me a PM with info about the community your associate is considering. There are a lot of grants that are available only in certain cities, counties, regions and such.

I got into grant writing partly to try to make a living since I can't seem to get "off the beach" as far as radio work locally is concerned.

 

[Talk_Dude]

I'd suggest finding an area where there is no existing station programming Christian content and looking for the largest non-denominational, independent congregation in the area and approaching that congregation. If you have the credentials as someone skilled at operating a radio station, you might be able to persuade that congregation to take you on as a minister with an emphasis on operating a radio station that's part of the congregation's outreach ministry.

 

[joshzz]

Unfortunately, that scenario is not likely to work.

Everything that the radio station broadcast will have to been in agreement with the head Pastor.

Then there's the issue of support. If you're catering to ONE congregation, it's not likely the Pastor of this church will want you to broadcast sermons of other local pastors on the station. It will also make it difficult for you to win support from listeners that attend other churches whose pastors are being refused a radio slot on your station.

The best scenario is to raise enough capital to buy a station . I can get you a construction permit for some stations for as low as about $ 10,000.

If you can't raise this amount, you may want to consider starting an internet station.

 

[Talk_Dude]

Unfortunately, that scenario is not likely to work.

Everything that the radio station broadcast will have to been in agreement with the head Pastor.

Then there's the issue of support. If you're catering to ONE congregation, it's not likely the Pastor of this church will want you to broadcast sermons of other local pastors on the station. It will also make it difficult for you to win support from listeners that attend other churches whose pastors are being refused a radio slot on your station.

The best scenario is to raise enough capital to buy a station . I can get you a construction permit for some stations for as low as about $ 10,000.

If you can't raise this amount, you may want to consider starting an internet station.

Any pastor who regards himself as in competition with any other pastor is a false pastor, not a servant of the Lord, and someone to totally avoid. If a pastor doesn't place the Lord's mission and ministry ahead of his personal fame of cult of popularity, he's fraud and a charlatan who has no business pretending to do God's work.

That's not to say that a pastor who confesses the teachings of one particular denomination or faith tradition might not want to give voice to those whose confessions of faith are in conflict with his. Someone who adheres to "Decision Theology" might not want the message heard of someone preaching the "Theology of Grace". That's understandable. He'd also be responsible for episcopal oversight to ensure that theological messages were within his understanding of orthodoxy, but that should be satisfied by an examination of the training and credentials of any chosen to preach over the air.

 

[joshzz]

YOU SAID, "Any pastor who regards himself as in competition with any other pastor is a false pastor, not a servant of the Lord, and someone to totally avoid. If a pastor doesn't place the Lord's mission and ministry ahead of his personal fame of cult of popularity, he's fraud and a charlatan who has no business pretending to do God's work"




I don't agree with that. He may find the teachings of other churches not compatible with his OR and this most likely scenario, the Pastor is using the radio station as part of his outreach to grow his ministry. When churches do "meet and greets" they don't go visiting people to discuss the benefits of attending another church, they talk about the benefits of their church. Likewise, the Pastor wants to grow his church not someone else's church.

 

[joshzz]

Getting back to my original point. A church is not very likely to give huge support to a radio station that allows all churches to air their sermons on the station. This is reality.

I own a radio station network & we have many churches that broadcast their sermons on our stations but there is not one that is the main supporter. They all support fairly equally.

If you can raise the capital to get on the air then you can easily reach out to all churches and gain support.

 

[Talk_Dude]

YOU SAID, "Any pastor who regards himself as in competition with any other pastor is a false pastor, not a servant of the Lord, and someone to totally avoid. If a pastor doesn't place the Lord's mission and ministry ahead of his personal fame of cult of popularity, he's fraud and a charlatan who has no business pretending to do God's work"




I don't agree with that. He may find the teachings of other churches not compatible with his OR and this most likely scenario, the Pastor is using the radio station as part of his outreach to grow his ministry. When churches do "meet and greets" they don't go visiting people to discuss the benefits of attending another church, they talk about the benefits of their church. Likewise, the Pastor wants to grow his church not someone else's church.

You miss the point. If a pastor is concerned about people attending a different church where the message of God is the same because he want to "grow his church not someone else's church", then he's not in God's business. Any pastor who thinks it's "his" church and not "His" church isn't a pastor running a church, he's a con man running a business.

 

[radioboy]

To the original poster, Jimmy James:

I've been in touch with the gentleman and am researching possibilities for them now.

He has a great idea, and his vision makes the discussion of a "church" or pastor trying to grow a church a moot point. His vision really is different - and that's why I'm working to help him.

Our area has a bunch of the church-run/satellite/brokered Christian stations, one of which was off the air for DAYS before anyone even noticed. That's not effective radio.

 

[bturner]

The fact is the Pastors of churches are much like the various football teams in the NFL. They might know one another, get along outside the workplace, but when it comes to their work, the church they are responsible for, the game is played to win.

There are as many beliefs as there are people, almost. It is rare for two Pastors to really see eye to eye even in their own denomination. They are all trying to raise up their congregations and most have one or two little things that are so important to them personally, there is always a tiny spark of conflict. They might agree on 999 things but there is virtually always one issue that causes this conflict.

When we sold to local church pastors, we had a "no fighting" policy. No cutting down anybody on the air. When you have one guy on saying the King James version is the best and most accurate, then the next Pastor says the version of the Bible you will read is the best, you have a spark between two pastors that can grow from there. Most were good enough to be kind to all at the station and put forward a good image but when you sat down to talk as people, issues always arose.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

This is a topic that has interested me for years. From my observation, I would suggest that none of the observations in this thread so far is totally correct, and none is totally flawed.

A number of years ago I went to work for a station that was doing Christian programming as a commercial venture. (We were among a handful nationwide at that time.) The lead partner in our ownership was Jewish, and this was not a mission project but a business project.

The experience was an eye-opener for me. And I have watched from the sidelines ever since as far as broadcasting goes. (When it comes to church I have always been on the playing field.)

Going back to the original question that started this post: I will be surprised if we learn that any organizations are poised to make grants (in the traditional sense of grants) for the establishment of a Christian programmed station. My vision of "traditional grants" is that they come with minimal strings attached regarding specific content. If a grant-giver is funding something that meets their concept of a "Christian project" they are likely to expect well established fences around the doctrinal view of the programming.

Grants for "social projects" such as feeding the hungry, housing for battered women, tutoring of children are not typically viewed as activities that "must be doctrinally pure" in the eyes of the grantor. Christian radio programming, however, tends to be more in the "must be doctrinally pure" category of projects. Thus, the advice to find a sponsoring church, or compatible group of churches.

We have had a few very large churches going way, way back.... but the proliferation of mega-churches is rather new. It usually takes a very dynamic leader, sometimes a leader with a few personality flaws hiding in the shadows, to create a mega-church in one lifetime. So far the supply and demand seem reasonably balance. I assume many mega-churches are still under the guidance of their founding pastor. In the near future many of these large churches will make their transition from founding-pastor to new pastor. That will go smoothly as some founding pastors have groomed their replacement. When all these new, big churches get to their third and fourth pastor searches, and a significant number of the replacement pastors find they don't have the special traits needed to hold the group together, we may all have to rethink: What are the traits of GOOD pastor? When is he/she like a corporate CEO, totally focused on MY church, and when is he/she like the traditional "parson of old" interested first in The Kingdom of God, and SECOND... what is good for MY church.

If you plan to approach a pastor or a church to fund a "grant" for a radio station, learn to recognize what kind of pastor you are dealing with, and what kind of church you are dealing with. Paraphrasing the food manufacturer.... They come in 57 varieties.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

While I was composing my last post, bturner nailed it well with his NFL Coaches analogy.

 

[Prais]

GRC, I've written over a million in grants, and have been a broadcaster (in every sense of the word) for over 40 years. YOU and bturner have great advice.

 

[Talk_Dude]

The fact is the Pastors of churches are much like the various football teams in the NFL. They might know one another, get along outside the workplace, but when it comes to their work, the church they are responsible for, the game is played to win.

What religion are you talking about? That doesn't describe any religion I've ever heard of. There is only one "church", and all the separate congregations with different names on their signs are just outlets of the one church. And the only winning is against Satan. There is no winning and losing between different congregations or pastors. That is a totally secular concept, and has no place in any enterprise operating under the word of God.

There are as many beliefs as there are people, almost. It is rare for two Pastors to really see eye to eye even in their own denomination. They are all trying to raise up their congregations and most have one or two little things that are so important to them personally, there is always a tiny spark of conflict. They might agree on 999 things but there is virtually always one issue that causes this conflict.

When we sold to local church pastors, we had a "no fighting" policy. No cutting down anybody on the air. When you have one guy on saying the King James version is the best and most accurate, then the next Pastor says the version of the Bible you will read is the best, you have a spark between two pastors that can grow from there. Most were good enough to be kind to all at the station and put forward a good image but when you sat down to talk as people, issues always arose.

Issues will arise. They will require prayerful consideration to resolve. But one doesn't automatically assume from the get-go that such issues can't and won't be peacefully resolved.

 

[bturner]

Talk_Dude, I agree with what you say. This is the way things SHOULD work. In my years of managing a Christian station that sold to local churches and national ministries, I could count all the pastors that shared our views on one hand and not even use all my fingers.

Pastors are regular people. I've come across pastors I feel are the most exceptional people I've ever met. I've come across bullies and deadbeats (like the guy that tried to have me arrested for trying to collect his past bill...the cop wouldn't arrest me and told me to take him to court). These pastors have all the flaws we do and try to rise above it.

And in reality, lots of churches preach they are right and all the other Christian denominations are wrong.

Personally I don't sweat the details, it is where the heart is. One great guy I know is very, very charismatic and knows I'm not. In my opinion he's just as much a Christian as I am. He asked me one time if I thought he was crazy or if I thought God was working through him. My answer (after very careful thought) was I considered him more like Thomas and that was not a bad thing. I said Thomas just needed a little more convincing so Jesus gave Thomas just enough justification for Thomas to believe. I could imagine this happening today with Jesus saying "Hey Tom, check this out! Go ahead and examine these wounds, it's cool.". My friend developed his faith thanks to seeing 'signs'. My personality didn't require as much to believe but I'm not better a believer than he is. The commonality is we both believe.

 

[Goat Rodeo Cowboy]

What religion are you talking about? That doesn't describe any religion I've ever heard of. There is only one "church", and all the separate congregations with different names on their signs are just outlets of the one church. And the only winning is against Satan. There is no winning and losing between different congregations or pastors. That is a totally secular concept, and has no place in any enterprise operating under the word of God.

We are at the edge of getting off-the-track in this conversation, but understanding the central theme of this thread requires that maybe we face this side-track head-on.

You are expressing theoretical Christianity. You are talking about the ultimate goal as many of us see it.

The street-version of Christianity which is readily available to all of us is chock-full of conflict, secular style competition, and divisive arguments over what the Bible says and what the Bible meant to say.

Here is the "skinny" on teach-and-preach radio and why I walked away from it and have little interest in ever returning to it. To be successful in teach-and-preach it helps to have the heart of a battlefield warrior. Your customers are those people who know they are right and they spend a lot of time telling you about the failed portion of the church that you must flee and come join with them. The basic underlying message heard in much of teach-and-preach radio is: We are right, the rest of the church is wrong, and if you know what is good for you, you will join our side.

Name for me a significant denomination in America today that is not caught up in some kind of internal strife over who can and cannot be ordained, a denomination that is not caught up in a fight over how much to fund evangelism missions vs. how much to fund social missions. A denomination that is not caught up in trying to get some seminary professors fired because they encourage heresy.

If you don't already have your own money and the money of supporters who agree with you to start or acquire your own station, the minute you step out on the sidewalk and begin approaching people with the idea they might want to invest in your station project for Christian programming or they might want to "grant some underwriting" and they set about to vet your proposal, you will quickly be asked questions that will make it clear that God's people are not all one big happy family sitting under the Chestnut tree singing KumByeYah while holding hands.

I don't propose that we spend energy pursing this side-track issue, but if someone is inclined to do so, I suggest you cogitate on the story about those in Babel who proposed to build a tower and see if it fits into the side-track conversation.