Many Americans assume that the most common way of experiencing the Christian faith is by attending a church service. A new nationwide survey by the Barna Research Group, of Ventura, California, reports a different conclusion. A greater number of adults experience the Christian faith through Christian media, such as radio, television or books, than attend Christian churches.

The new study states that slightly more than six out of ten American adults (63%) attended a church service during the past month. In contrast, two out of every three adults (67%) used at least one of three forms of religious media – radio, television or books – for a dose of the Christian faith in the past month. In raw numbers, about 132 million adults have been to a church service compared to 141 million using Christian media.

Christian Radio

Overall, slightly more than half of the nation’s adults said they had tuned in to a Christian radio program of some type during the past month. The most prolific Christian programming is teaching, preaching and talk shows. Just less than four out of ten adults (38%) had tuned in to hear such programming during the previous month. In contrast, the fastest-growing type of Christian broadcasting – Christian music – has already surpassed the talk-driven formats. Just more than two out of five adults – 43% – said they had listened to a station airing Christian music during the past month. The expansion in both the number of radio stations adopting a Christian music format and in the size of the listening audience helps to explain why the Christian music genre has been one of the fastest-growing categories in the music industry during the past two years.

When both Christian radio formats are combined, all Christian radio programming reached 52% of the nation’s adults in the prior month. That translates into 109 million adults exposed to Christian radio content. Both formats skewed older, downscale, black, Protestant, and politically conservative.