Why TBN Is Offering a Broader Mix of Christian Content

Why TBN Is Offering a Broader Mix of Christian Content
January 20, 2020

Think that the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) is exclusively the domain of preachers such as Joel Osteen, Steven Furtick, and Joyce Meyer?

Think again.

Oh, sure, the preachers are there. In fact, the typical weekday broadcast schedule at TBN is primarily 30-minute teaching and preaching shows, along with standbys such as The 700 Club with Pat Robertson. But other content – even edgy, dramatic content – is starting to appear on the venerable Christian network.

Here’s the synopsis of the dramatic series Smoketown, which airs only on TBN: “In the wake of a mysterious and shocking murder, three unique people – an Assistant Chief of Police, a reporter, and a teenage girl – are supernaturally empowered to fight for the city’s poorest and most racially diverse neighborhood.”

Providing More Diverse Programming for a Christian Audience
“TBN is in the midst of an exciting season,” says Shane Sooter, who created and directed Smoketown. While TBN continues to honor the teaching and preaching shows that have been its foundation, the network also is “breaking new creative ground” and “adding a variety of drama and reality programming to its traditional shows, all designed to reach a wider Christian audience,” says Sooter.

“TBN has built a faithful following through its teaching content.” says Sooter. “And those who aren’t yet TBN viewers might be attracted to the sort of dramas and reality TV they enjoy on other networks, but infused with Christian values. With Smoketown, we set out to make something genuinely gripping on a dramatic level but also rich in meaning and Biblical teaching.”

Championing “Spirit Contemporary”
Another goal of Smoketown was to show real-world examples of “spirit contemporary”, which TBN champions. The term “spirit contemporary” was coined by Leon Fontaine, a megachurch pastor in Calgary who also runs a Christian television network in Canada.

Fontaine comes from a Pentecostal background and believes strongly in the role of the Holy Spirit to anoint and to gift, but he feels that divisions in the church over the nature of these giftings has done tremendous harm. He says that, for every mile of road – representing the church today – you have two miles of ditch. On one side of the road, you have the ditch of charismatics, and on the other side of the road you have the ditch of contemporary, “relevant” evangelicals.

Charismatics, says Fontaine, believe in the supernatural gifting and power of the Holy Spirit but all too often exercise those gifts in ways that are full of showmanship, with drama and theatricality that can be a turn-off for others. Those others often include today’s “relevant” evangelicals. Fontaine believes that many evangelicals have been so turned off by what they have seen in charismatics that they have walked away from the Holy Spirit, denying the power and presence and gifting of that Spirit.

Presenting “Spirit Contemporary” through Drama
The line in the center of the road, Fontaine believes, is spirit contemporary Christians. These Christians seek to embody the giftings of the Holy Spirit under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, ideally in a way that is sensitive to modern sensibilities and within the context of relationships.

“When you watch Smoketown, you are drawn to the spirit contemporary Christians,” says Sooter. “If these people were in your life, then you would sense that there is something different about them, and that something different is attractive. Through their love and respect and sensitivity, they have earned the right to be heard. Their exercise of the spiritual gifts brings insight and power to bear on contemporary life situations.”

Sooter recognized that not every viewer would agree with Fontaine’s, or TBN’s, view of spirit contemporary. “We presented living a supernatural life as normal, the way life ought to be,” he says. “We wanted to be Scripturally accurate while not being offputting and while not restricting our audience to viewers who agree with our point of view.”

More Than Just Drama: Reality Shows and Docudramas
In addition to dramatic series such as Smoketown, TBN is investing in other types of mainstream television programming, such as docudramas and reality television series.

An example of a recent documentary series on TBN is Inexplicable: How Christianity Spread to the Ends of the Earth. The six-episode series, hosted by Dennis Haysbert (featured on Allstate commercials and in the series 24), reveals how Christianity expanded from a few thousand believers in and around Jerusalem to a worldwide faith of over two billion people. TBN used six different production companies to create the six episodes, and the result is a series with stunning visuals and high production quality.

Other mainstream programming on TBN includes:

Huckabee, a music and talk show, hosted by former Arkansas governor and popular conservative commentator Mike Huckabee, which TBN calls “a down-home slice of wholesome Americana in all of its patriotic, God-honoring, and family-friendly glory”
Somebody’s Gotta Do It, where Mike Rowe, star of Discovery Channel’s Dirty Jobs, finds what the network describes as people from all walks of life “with a passion and a calling to making our world a little bit brighter, a little bit bigger, a little bit better.”
When the Light Comes, a reality TV series – also created by Sooter – that shares both the heartache and the joys experienced by CCM stars Big Daddy Weave, as the band members live the touring life on the road with their families.

A Disney+ Competitor, and a Publishing House
TBN recently launched Yippee.tv, a streaming service featuring Christian shows for kids. The centerpiece of the service is VeggieTales, the animated video series created in 1993 by Phil Vischer and Mike Nawrocki. Through a partnership with NBCUniversal – specifically the Universal Pictures Home Entertainment Content Group, which owns the rights to VeggieTales – TBN now has “the rights to the characters” and the ability to create new content and translate that content “into multiple languages.” New content will include The VeggieTales Show, with 26 episodes in the first season and “more to come”. In addition to everyone’s favorite vegetables, Yippee.tv promises “more than 1,000 safe, God-honoring, character-building, Jesus-glorifying programs”, primarily animated shows but also some live action programs.

TBN also is promoting a relatively new subsidiary called Trilogy Christian Publishing. When you spend $4,500 to have Trilogy publish your book, Trilogy provides “powerful promotional opportunities via the TBN Family of Networks”. Books are promoted on the TBN Facebook page (1.2 million followers), Instagram page (133,000 followers), and Twitter feed (80,000 followers). For an additional cost, your book can be featured The Hillsong Channel, a broadcast partnership between TBN and Hillsong Church that reaches 55 million U.S. homes and 100 million more in Australia, the UK, and other parts of the world.

The Challenges of Targeting a Christian Audience
Are other television networks eager to go after a Christian audience? Can we expect to see Christian programming or even values-oriented programming, such as Seventh Heaven, that espouses Christian values and portrays Christian characters attractively, outside of Christian networks such as TBN?

“That will be a real challenge, for two reasons,” Sooter explains. “The first is that the values of the entertainment industry, like those of the general culture, have turned further away from Christian values.”

And the second? The Christian audience is a difficult one to serve effectively.

“When you create Christian content specifically for a Christian audience, you have to exercise a lot of sensitivity,” says Sooter. “All Christians would love to have entertainment that more effectively represents their lives and beliefs. But, at the same time, there a lot of land mines, areas where today’s church is not in unity. Crafting content that creatively steers a course through Christian common ground without touching on divisive matters – that’s a challenging task.

“If a secular network wanted to take on that challenge, it would need strong believers guiding the effort. But with God, all things are possible!”

Chris Bolinger is the author of Daily Strength for Men, a 365-day daily devotional from BroadStreet Publishing. The book is available at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, ChristianBook.com,, DailyStrengthForMen.com, and other retailers.