With An Eye On Free Expression Without Censorship, Young Southern California Minister Creates His Own Multi-Channel Digital Platforms
Sees 600% Increase in Viewership Since Pandemic, over 60% are Ages 18-35
Dec 15, 2020, 09:07 ET
CERRITOS, Calif., Dec. 15, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Long before the 2020 political campaigns considered creating their own messaging platforms in response to the risks of censorship from major social media platforms – following the example of social networking services like Parler – David Hernandez Ministries (DHM) headquartered in Los Angeles County was busy creating its own communications channels.
Central to their modern, multi-platform ethos is a television and recording studio producing nearly a dozen different online programs each season for the ministry's Encounter TV Network (ETV) – including ETV Interviews, Viral Revival and ambient, instrumental Christian music called Soaking. DHM's team of 10 full time employees and about a dozen part time employees also run its own APP and produces a podcast, newsletters, blogs, live events in various states and countries and sophisticated social media messaging.
The channels must be working. Ministry founder, David Diga Hernandez, says they have seen a 600% increase in viewership since the 2020 pandemic. He adds that 60 to 70% of the viewers on any of their given platforms are ages 18 to 35, underscoring the fact that teens and young adults respond to the multi-platform message of this charismatic ministry which emphasizes a Jesus and Bible-centric message, the holy spirit, healing and at times speaking in tongues.
One of the key themes of Hernandez' ministry is How God Acts in Your Life Now and he sincerely believes he is acting under God's personal direction. This sincere, thirtysomething, first-generation Latino American leader from a family of ministers describes being saved at 13 after "supernatural warfare over my life starting at age 7." He says God gave him insight early on that building his own communications platforms would be the way of the future. He estimates that with their multi-platform approach, they reach between 8 and 10 million people a month. They are now focusing on building their own DHM servers to host their own technologies.
"Facebook, Instagram or YouTube can change an algorithm and choose to censor their users," Hernandez explains. "It just makes sense to build a network to bypass outside censorship and not be under the control of a big tech company with their own goals. Sure, we're on all those platforms but we have multiple points of contact. We ask our followers to share their Emails and contact info so we can syndicate our programs and reach out to them to join us in multiple ways."
DHM's employees and volunteers work out of a 6,000 square foot headquarters -- which includes offices, a distribution studio and meeting rooms – and their 1,800 square foot ETV Production Studio in Cerritos, CA, that regularly produces original content. DHM is currently launching a fundraising campaign to build a new, much larger studio to feature many more programs on their channels – and even other ministries.
Some of the largest media ministries in the world have come to the team at DHM for insight on ways to grow their own online presence. And DHM often produces content for other churches and ministries as well.
"We tour them through, we share the full blueprint, we don't view them as competition," says Hernandez, a husband and father of a one-year-old. "Our Board of Directors includes brilliant business minds, and we trust their guidance. But our strategy is all based on one word, 'faith.'"
DHM also has an online ministry leadership training program called The Holy Spirit School, which offers free e-courses to help train believers and spiritual leaders for communities, ministry and the home.
Hernandez has come a long way from passing out tracts, praying for fellow students (who afterwards sometimes claimed to be healed) and ministering to them on his lunch break in the Hispanic neighborhood he grew up in in Los Angeles County. He remembers vividly when he was 14 years old that God gave him the idea in prayer that traditional cable programming would become obsolete. What he didn't know then was that in a few short years, he would be creating and starring in programs on his own channels – all to spread the message that continues to inspire him.
SOURCE David Hernandez Ministries
