Adjacent Possibilities

The US Surgeon General released a real attention-grabber recently – the risk of premature death from being socially disconnected is equivalent to smoking 15 cigarettes a day and represents an even higher mortality impact than a lack of physical activity and obesity. In a recent advisory, he warned that being alone too long presents “profound threats” to our health. Yet, our culture continues to drift toward more isolation and carefully curated digital-only “relationships”. 

As media companies with the calling of leading people to the hope of Jesus, we have always known that people were meant to be together, to live in community and in connection with one another. This theme is a thread the runs through all of the Scripture. 

Throughout COVID, Christian radio did as good if not better job than any other radio format in building a sense of community – listeners who were either new to the format, or casual fans at best prior to COVID, gravitated towards our stations because we felt like home, something good and decent and normal in the midst of an enormous sea of far less than all that. We all knew even though we couldn’t actually BE TOGETHER, others who shared our values, and hopes, and dreams, and fears were listening TOO… that alone united us despite being socially distanced. 

Now, life is back to normal- albeit a new normal – and masks, outdoor only dining, and lines for vaccines are tiny dots in the rearview mirror. Yet, loneliness and isolation are the new pandemic. To be fair, loneliness was a huge problem before COVID – time spent with friends nationally fell by 20 hours a month from 2003 – 2020. It’s far worse now. 

As a societal ill, loneliness and isolation is ravaging to a person on multiple fronts at the same time – physical, emotional, mental, spiritual. To make it even worse, the flood of AI EVERYTHING is pushing our psyches into being less trusting, partaking in even less in person communication, and having less interaction with other humans with a soul and a heartbeat. But the longing for connection, to have friends, and to do life in community grows deeper. 

While this all feels heavy and burdensome and dark, there exists an opportunity for us as Christian broadcasters. Creating a sense of community among listeners on our stations and on our digital properties is a given, but what else? What adjacent possibilities are there at our fingertips to create connection between our listeners, in person?

Concerts and events are a good start, and the shared experience of worship is absolutely a community builder, but it is difficult to make meaningful connections with other humans when the music is playing at 110 decibels. What other environments and/or moments for human connection can we create for listeners, most of whom are getting a little lonelier every day? 

Here’s a quick shot at a few ideas – 

• Could your station open a coffee shop in your town where people could congregate? (I mean, depending on the part of the country you’re in, coffee shops can be money machines!)
• Can your extra office space be used for community events? 
• Could your station launch a series of community meet-ups where listeners get together over shared interests, hobbies, or life circumstances? (or, at the very least, offer free promotion to other organizations that are already hosting them.)
• I co-hosted a morning show way back where once a week on the show we declared “We’re having a morning show meeting at 12” at some local restaurant and invited listeners to come “join the meeting”. (In all honesty, we only did it to give a shout out to whichever restaurant we wanted to try in hopes of getting our lunch comped. Eventually, we had to stop doing it because the restaurants were getting slammed with over 100 customers at once!)

At this point, we could both be thinking the same thing – isn’t this really what the churches in our community should be doing? Hopefully some church leaders will see the same advisory from the Surgeon General and begin to brainstorm ways to combat the drift into loneliness of America. But what about the gazillions of others who are listening to our stations, but are resistant to church-y stuff? It could be our moment.  

Here’s the thing – I am now more convinced than ever that more of the new, future cume and fans of our stations will come from communities that we grow to draw in “not-yet” listeners who are seeking connection and relationship, rather than super-slick marketing campaigns and digital ad spends. 

What other adjacent possibilities for using our platforms to create in-person connection and relationship for our listeners come to mind for you? 

And, if you’re interested, here’s the link to the US Surgeon General study for your light reading enjoyment.
https://www.hhs.gov/sites/default/files/surgeon-general-social-connection-advisory.pdf