BTGH Supports New Pop-Radio Strategy

A Christian Reformed congregation in New Hampshire is using advertising to spread the gospel via the Web site of a popular, Top-40 radio station, with support from The Back to God Hour, the media ministry of the Christian Reformed Church in North America.

Visitors to the Web site of WJYY in Manchester, N.H., encounter the image of a notepad and hear the start of a 15-second Christian message paid for by Manchester LIFE CRC. The ad hit the Web about two months ago. BTGH is helping to fund the effort as part of a pilot project.

“Do you hear the voice of God in your life? What keeps you from following?” are the first words that a visitor hears. This is followed by singing: “If you lead, Lord, I will follow.”

Then it is over. Music from the radio station takes over.

Visitors can learn more by clicking on an area at the top of the screen that leads directly to Manchester’s LIFE’s Web page and a YouTube video featuring Ryan Bradley, pastor of the congregation.

Bradley is bearded and wears a T-shirt with the name of his church on the front. He is standing in what looks like a living room.

“I’m talking to you today because I think Christianity has been drastically misunderstood,” he says. “It is like a jewel that has been cluttered and buried and put down for so long that people don’t see its true beauty.”

BTGH decided to help launch the effort to see if it can help Manchester LIFE connect with teens and young adults who may otherwise have no interest in organized religion, says Jerod Clark, public relations and outreach media consultant for BTGH.

“Manchester LIFE is an emergent church and believes in building authentic relationships.  The pastor there wants to challenge people by asking them if they hear the voice of God in their lives.  He's also trying to promote that everyone is welcome at his church,” says Clark.

The church has had nearly 100 visitors to its Web site since the project began. A second advertisement is in the works to replace the one that has been running so far.

 “They're hoping to develop some way to better connect with people.  There will probably be some place where people can post questions and the pastor will answer them.  The hope is to start some sort of dialog,” says Clark.

The BTGH provided a grant to help pay for the ad.  The agency has also been consulting with them on how to make the ad work with the resources they have. “We see ourselves as an agency that can help churches be a catalyst in their communities to start conversations about the bigness of God,” says Clark.

Clark says that the move to bolster the media ministry of the CRC in Manchester is part of a pilot program that BTGH plans to broaden and hopes to launch later this year.

Manchester LIFE, which meets in a storefront in a shopping plaza, mall, is just finishing up its second year of doing ministry in New Hampshire’s largest city. They have taken on the mission of trying to reach people who “have a very jaded view of church,” says Bradley.

“We want to let them know that the church may not be what their pre-conceived notions tell them that it is. We want to bring them back to basics and talk about how Christianity is all about relationships,” says Bradley.