Impact of Decisions about Media Ministries Begins to Surface
by AT News Team
Adventist Today has previously reported that the board of the Adventist Media Center (AMC) voted on April 3 to allow Faith for Today, It is Written, Voice of Prophecy, Breath of Life and La Voz de Esperanza to relocate from the Simi Valley facility to less costly areas. The board asked each media ministry to submit a business plan to the North American Division (NAD) administration by June 3. The AMC board will then consider the viability of each proposal.
NAD president Dan Jackson, who serves as the AMC board chair, stated that as of the middle of April, none of the ministries had decided whether they will remain at the present location or move to another area. The action and the comments and rumors that resulted from it raise questions about the cost and effectiveness of these media ministries as well as those operated as independent, parachurch organizations aligned with the Adventist movement.
Adventist Today has continued to follow this story, talking to a number of individuals who have knowledge of the Media Center and related ministries. Adventist Today has been told that preliminary studies by It Is Written suggest this ministry alone could save $1 million a year if it relocated to Tennessee. If La Voz moved to property it now owns in central Florida, the savings could be in the neighborhood of $600,000 a year. At this point, the Voice of Prophecy (VOP) has decided to remain in California, although this decision may change when a new director is selected.
Sources have told Adventist Today that the AMC board was not satisfied with the direction former VOP director Fred Kinsey was taking the ministry. His decision to live in the Washington DC area rather than relocate to Simi Valley may not have helped him, either. He was not on site to counter those who said he was too out of touch with what was taking place at the VOP offices and did not understand the details of operating a media production, despite the fact that he has a PhD in media.
Future plans for Faith for Today are still up in the air. The director lives in Texas. Will his location have some effect on where this ministry may locate? That remains to be seen. If one or more ministries do relocate, it will have a significant impact on the 125 employees of the Media Center.
In talking with media sources, Adventist Today has learned that under the present structure, the NAD contributes some $6 million a year to the operations of the Media Center. These monies pay for media overhead and its production and support staff. These funds are not distributed to the ministries themselves. In fact, each ministry is charged rent and production fees. Each ministry is responsible for raising these production costs as well as the salaries of its own staff and the cost of purchasing time on broadcasting stations and cable channels.
These developments come nearly a year after church officials in North America participated in a “media summit” with producers, interested local church leaders and consultants to review the effectiveness of the denomination’s outreach on radio, television and the Internet. At that meeting Pastor Jackson said public awareness of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in North America did not match the money that has been spent on media ministries and this requires re-evaluation.
Pastor Jackson’s statement has far-reaching implications. Sources close to the Media Center report that staff members wonder if denominational administrators have concluded that the support staff is no longer needed and that the ministries themselves no longer effectively fulfill their intended purpose. “What that purpose is may be the conundrum,” one veteran pastor points out. “Is the purpose, as Jackson seems to imply, to acquaint the public at large with the Adventist church? If so, Jackson’s statement that after millions of dollars spent on media outreach the Adventist faith is still not widely known points out an obvious concern.” On the other hand, those who produce the programs question whether the purpose is to inform people about the church and its beliefs. They focus on “soul winning,” bringing individuals to accept Christ and join the Adventist Church.
Is each ministry to serve as an evangelistic outreach? Many local church pastors say that they are hard pressed to support claims that significant numbers of people join the Adventist Church because of media productions. Although media ministries are promoted with stories that leave the impression that there is a flood of converts, research conducted for the NAD shows that only nine percent of the active members in the pews have observed new members join their local church because of a media ministry. “Ask your pastor about the reality in your local church,” one pastor urged.
Sources have told Adventist Today that the Adventist media productions, both those sponsored by the denomination and the so-called “supporting ministries,” are largely viewed, listened to and supported by Adventists, not the public at large. “What is the point for the Adventist Church to spend the millions needed to keep the productions on the air?” Others say, “One cannot put a value on a human soul. If one soul is in the kingdom as a result of hearing the gospel via television or radio, this is money well spent.”
Another approach to measure effectiveness would be to define specific objectives for each ministry, establish verifiable benchmarks and evaluate how the program or process achieves those marks. “If a ministry is shown to fall short, pull the plug,” says one source. “If it succeeds, provide more resources. This process may not generate the heart-warming stories we hear when the media promoters speak to Adventist audiences, encouraging people to donate money. It is more effective to make decisions on pragmatic data than emotional response.” This may be the change that the NAD administration is seeking to generate in the denomination’s media ministries.
Thanks again for the update. Just to clarify, although Elder Jackson has expressed concern over name recognition for the Seventh-day Adventist Church, the media ministries have never been given that mandate. In fact, since I've been with Faith For Today (April of 2004), no mandate has ever been given! When I came to this ministry I asked for a mandate and was told that I was to direct the ministry as an entrepeneur – to make programs, make sure the ministry was financially viable, and use the programs for evangelism. No mention has ever been made of name recognition.
It would be equally fair to say, "We have 6000 churches in North America and yet no one knows who we are." Or, it would be fair to say "We have an extensive hospital system and yet no one knows who we are." Since our churches and our hospital system have not been issued the mandate of increasing name recognition for the church, it is unfair to hold them accountable for this.
As to whether or not people are listening to or watching the programs, any suggestion that people are not watching or that the only people paying attention to the programs is easily proven wrong. Lifestyle Magazine airs on stations and networks that subscribe to Neilsen ratings. These ratings tell station managers and owners how many people watch our programs. Since Lifestyle Magazine is carried on 250 stations/networks across the globe without charges for airtime, you'd better believe these stations know whether or not people are watching! They carry our programs because they know people watch. If no one was watching, they wouldn't carry the programs. It is easy for a station to cancel Lifestyle Magazine since we don't pay for the airtime.
Baptism? Media is rarely solely responsible for baptisms. Television programs help change opinions, attitudes and thoughts. Baptisms today are almost always the result of personal relationships which can only be formed at the level of the local church. While television programs can awaken interest and open hearts and minds – all of which is a work or seed-sowing – the reaping happens in local congregations. Television, if used correctly, can bring people to meetins or can cause them to visit churches, but baptisms require a personal touch that cannot be achieved through television.
Faith For Today, It Is Written, La Voz de la Esperanza, Breath of Life, and the Voice of Prophecy, are all using our media opportunities to bring people to live events that connect them to local churches. We also use our media opportunities to direct people to our Bible School, a school that has graduated over 1,000,000 students!
The Division places very little money directly into the five ministries it owns. By contrast, the Division makes a much larger investment in the Adventist Media Center. It is my view that the latest vote which could allow the ministries to relocate is an attempt to determine whether the investment in a Media Center is still of value. While I do not have the answer to that question, I have every confidence that the leadership of the Division will make the right decision.
Mike Tucker
Speaker/Director
Faith For Today
“One cannot put a value on a human soul."
But we each are responsible for the money we have and we DO put a value on how it is used. Each time we purchase something, we evalute if it is worth the price that is charged and if we feel we are getting out money's worth. That is simply good money management. We have been entrusted with what we have to use it wisely which is why there must be an accounting for the media ministries. All organizations should furnish regular statements of how money is expended and what has been purchased with those monies. What is the media ministry's mission? If that is hazy then a proper accounting cannot be determined. Are there any set goals? Could the programs be run more efficiently with less employees? Who makes those appraisals?
Elaine, I'm happy to make the finances of FFT available to public scrutiny. I've never been asked to do anything other than to be audited every year. The vision of Faith For Today has always been to make television programs (and now to create Internet content) that is designed to reach a more secular audience. Our annual revenues (from donations) run about 500 to 600 thousand dollars per year. We get a small amount from the NAD and some comes in through maturities (trusts and wills). During the 8 years I've been at Faith For Today we have made nearly 400 television programs and a great deal of content for the Internet and mobile apps. We also conduct live events (marriage seminars, revivals, etc) to link the television programs with local churches. These events help bring unchurched and churched people to local churches in order that relationships might be formed through met needs.
We have 4 full time employees including my wife and me. Those employees host the television shows and Internet content, hold the seminars, handle follow-up, and keep our data-base up to date.
Our programs win awards at secular film festivals. Most recently we submitted two programs to WorldFest Houston Film Festival, one of the oldest and largest film festivals in North America. Those two programs went up against over 230 other entries (secular programs with larger budgets than we have) and we won the top two awards (Platinum and Gold.)
We are proud of the quality programs we produce for minimal dollars. Truthfully, we could produce them even more cheaply if we didn't use the studios in Simi Valley. Even though those studios belong to the North American Division, we pay more to use them than we would pay at most secular studios in other parts of the country. This reason alone makes the possibility of moving an inviting one.
Mike Tucker
Faith For Today
It seems the media ministries may have a better idea of why they exist than the church does. At all levels we have a tendency to evaluate enitities and programs by criteria other than those that the people involved would use. If a media ministry was set up to reach unchurched people, then their success at doing that is how they should be evaluated. If it was set up to provide information and encouragement to church members, then it should be evaluated on how well it does that. If it was set up primarily as a PR exercise (and I doubt any actually was), then it would be appropriate to use name recognition as a valid criteria for evaluation.
The failure of the SDA church in many areas, not just NAD, to have any impact on the community in terms of name recognition is a failure of the church as a whole, and the blame should not be passed on to any entity that was set up for a different purpose. Shouldn't the local church be the main way of making contact with the community – perhaps with some help from the PR departments at each level of the church? If every local church was active in its community, wouldn't that do more for name recognition than anything else?
Why not, across the Division; conduct on-line town halls to gain insight from Pastors and members whose voices are never heard? Why does the AMC board believe they can speak for the Division membership? There are new solutions and approaches to create vibrant media ministries, found only in collective conservations.
I suggest that an audited financial account be released, which would open up dialog as to ways to conserve and improve operations. Release AMC board members and minutes pertinent to operations and practices. This would start a new day for media ministries. If Harris Pine Mills had involved division wide participation as to company operations, they would still be in business.
David IJB,
Why not just trust that the leadership of the ministries is being guided by the Holy Spirit and let them follow God's leading?
As for Harris Pine Mills, the cause of their demise was church administrators with a pastoral background being put in control when they did not know how to run a business.
If there is nothing to hide, why not be transparent, since we are the light of the world? “All their business transactions, whether with believers or unbelievers, should be as transparent as the sunlight.” EGW, 20MR 384
As for Harris Pine Mills, did we not just trust these pastors to be led by the Holy
Spirit and thus do the right thing?
Move The Voice of Prophecy or one of the other Ministries to Collegedale or Chattanooga or better yet to Dunlap, Tennessee.