To Christian Media Professionals: This Moment Needs You

Last month, a Christian broadcaster told me something that stuck with me.

He said, "I know something has shifted. I just don't know what role we're supposed to play in it anymore."

That conversation is stuck in my mind because I'm having versions of it everywhere I go. Broadcasters, publishers, and ministry leaders all sense it: something fundamental has changed.

Christian media isn't losing relevance. It's gaining it.

Christian Media Is Thriving

Last year's Barna study showed something remarkable. Troy Miller, NRB's president and CEO, put it this way: "People aren't just tuning in—they're relying on Christian content to shape their worldview, strengthen their faith, and find direction in a world flooded with noise and uncertainty."

I know the story of The Chosen is old news to some of you. But ignoring its success is to ignore one of the standout examples of the phenomenon we’re still witnessing. The Chosen has 280 million viewers across 175 countries. The Bible Recap hit #1—not among Christian podcasts, but all podcasts in America. YouVersion just celebrated its billionth install - and those are just a few examples.

This isn't marginal content anymore. This is cultural influence at scale.

The "front door" to faith is often a story, not a service. A person is free to encounter and explore a video, reel, or podcast before deciding whether to visit an in-person gathering. Christian media is creating pathways to faith that didn't exist a generation ago.

People Are Increasingly Hungry for Jesus

Something else is happening too.  According to 2025 Barna research, commitment levels to Jesus are increasing, particularly among young men. Spiritual curiosity is appearing in unexpected places.

But the picture is complex. Church attendance patterns are shifting, especially among younger generations. Young women are disaffiliating at alarming rates. Volunteerism has cratered. And 75% of church leaders say they feel unprepared to adapt to rapid cultural and technological change.

At the same time, Christianity remains consistently underrepresented in mainstream media outlets. The formation spaces that shape public consciousness—streaming platforms, podcasts, social media—often lack Christian voices entirely.

AI Is Altering the Landscape of Trust

Then there’s AI.

When AI and cybersecurity expert Ben Buchanan told the New York Times, "We are on the cusp of an era in human history that is unlike any of the eras we have experienced before," he wasn't being dramatic. AI researchers—the people actually building these systems—are saying the post-AI world will look more different from today than today looks from the 1500s.

Even if they're only half right, everything changes.

People are already living in an AI world. It's reshaping how we work, how our kids learn, how we process news, how we find entertainment—and yes, how we engage faith. From Bible study to sermon prep to life's deepest questions, people are turning to artificial intelligence.

Harvard Business Review's top AI use cases for 2025 make this clear. AI has moved beyond productivity into deeply personal territory: therapy, companionship, purpose-finding, spiritual exploration, and life guidance.

And here's the uncomfortable truth: AI is becoming a formative authority.

It offers instant, personalized, nonjudgmental guidance. It doesn't rebuke. It doesn't challenge. It doesn't require accountability or community. It offers spiritual dialogue without embodiment, without a theology of suffering, without a vision for redemption.

For people wounded by church or disillusioned by institutions, that's dangerously appealing.

So We're Stuck. Or At Least It Feels That Way.

Here's the tension for Christian media leaders:

The same world can be simultaneously (1) hungry for Jesus, (2) suspicious of institutions, and (3) saturated in content that makes it harder to discern what's true.

People are looking for guidance. They're turning to screens, audio, and AI for it. And they're finding something -but not always something that leads them toward Christ.

This is where Christian media becomes essential.

You are no longer just distributing content. You are helping shape formation.

Christian media will form people no matter what. The choice is whether you do it with theological seriousness, relational empathy, and truthfulness in an era of synthetic media.

Christian Broadcasters Can Lead - If  You Choose To

This is where I'm hopeful.

In an age of collapsing trust and accelerating change, Christian broadcasters remain among the few institutions with credibility, reach, and theological depth at scale.

You carry something desperately needed right now: a coherent vision of human flourishing rooted in dignity, truth, responsibility, and hope. You understand formation not as optimization, but as becoming who God created us to be. You know the irreplaceable power of embodied community—even when mediated through modern platforms.

But wisdom that isn't present in modern spaces can't shape modern lives.

The data shows it - Christian media is thriving. The question now is whether we will use that influence with the theological clarity and cultural courage this moment demands.

What Broadcast and Media Leaders Can Do

1. Focus on Authentic Humanness, Not Just Production Value

As AI-generated content floods every channel, authenticity becomes your competitive advantage. Build "trust signals" into your content: cite sources, show behind-the-scenes process, include theological review, and maintain clear authorship. Let audiences see the real humans—with their questions, struggles, and faith-behind the microphone and camera.

2. Measure Discipleship, Not Just Audience Share

Reach matters, but formation matters more. Pair your big media moments with clear next steps: local church connections, small-group guides, pastoral Q&A sessions, follow-on cohorts. You're not just creating viewers, you're creating disciples. Track whether people are moving deeper, not just watching more.

3. Create World-Class Storytelling Grounded in Scriptural Truth

The Bible is the most relatable story of all time. Tell human stories with spiritual gravity, emotional honesty, and craft-worthy mainstream comparison. Excellence in storytelling isn't vanity, it's stewardship. When Christian content matches the quality of secular media, people pay attention.

4. Use AI Responsibly

AI can extend your distribution and strengthen your stewardship. Automation and agentic workflows can accelerate localization, improve metadata and search, enhance captioning, and streamline workflow automation. AI can shorten production timelines and accelerate language translation, helping you reach more people more quickly.

But avoid AI where it counterfeits relationships: synthetic "pastoral" authority, fake testimonies, manipulative personalization, or anything that blurs truth. When AI becomes the voice instead of amplifying human voices, you've crossed a line.

5. Let Data Inform Without Letting It Drive

Data doesn't define values—but it can reveal whether they're taking root. I've watched ministries discover shocking gaps between what they assumed about their audiences and what people were actually experiencing. One church appeared healthy by every traditional metric until they looked closer and found nearly half their people felt deeply lonely. Another assumed marriage was the primary pressure point when financial stress was actually crushing families.

You can't shepherd what you can't see. Know your audience, beyond just demographics. Used humbly, data becomes a mirror that helps you serve more faithfully.

An Opportunity for the Church

Here's the paradox: as AI delivers media that's increasingly synthetic, the natural human response will be to seek out genuine connection and community.

This is a massive opportunity for the “Big C” Church, including Christian media.

Every day, millions of people turn to screens for answers to life's deepest questions—often from systems that don't know them, don't love them, and can't point them toward redemption.

When Christian broadcasters show up with clarity, conviction, and care for the human soul, formation changes. When media aligns with faith, people flourish.

Forward-looking leaders should build trustworthy, beautiful, theologically faithful media that meets real people in their real questions, and then guides them toward embodied community and true flourishing.

The world needs Christian broadcasting.

The world needs media that shapes transformation.

And Christian broadcasters are no longer on the sidelines of formation. You are central to it.

The question isn't whether technology will shape people.

The question is whether Christian media will help shape technology in service of human flourishing.

I don't know if we're ready for this. Some days I think we're not. But I know we can't afford to sit this one out.

So we learn. We build. We figure it out together.

What other choice do we have?