About six years ago, HCJB in Ecuador launched an online streaming channel called “ControlZ.fm.” ControlZ streams music and Christian content for Spanish-speaking teens and twenty-somethings around the world. Two million teens from 45 countries listened to ControlZ this year. The venture not only impacts the next generation of the Latin American Church, but also how Reach Beyond will do digital outreach in the future.

Matt Parker, a missionary with Reach Beyond, is on staff at HCJB and started ControlZ.fm along with Larry Castro. “My first real use in ministry for new media was ControlZ which was really fun, because no one had done it. No one knew how to do it, so I got to experiment and see,” he says.

Originally, the Center for Christian Communicators (CCC) in Ecuador intended to operate the radio stream for HCJB. But before ControlZ launched, the CCC closed. So, HCJB hired two young Ecuadorians, Fernanda Quezada and Bryan Rubio, to coordinate the volunteers and content instead.

Fernanda, Bryan and Matt choose the programming for ControlZ. Fernanda works with volunteers to create videos, while Bryan and Matt oversee the radio spots and write devotionals for the website. The other key member of ControlZ, Jimmy Sarango, appears in many of the videos and hosts a show on ControlZ. While the Parkers are on their home ministry assignment, Fernanda is running ControlZ.

“She does a really good job of connecting with teens and finding volunteers to come help with video,” Matt says.

Everyone on the ControlZ team besides Fernanda are volunteers. A guy from Panama writes contributing articles. Another guy from Argentina creates videos and other web content. The entire ControlZ team is less than 10 people.

In the beginning Matt kept HCJB’s name away from ControlZ, because he felt that HCJB’s religious reputation would not appeal to teenage non-believers.

ControlZ does something that most Christian radio stations in Latin America will not do—they play secular pop songs along with Christian songs to reflect a typical teenager’s playlist. While many churches support ControlZ, some criticize the decision to incorporate non-Christian music. But Matt is satisfied with the teens’ positive responses to ControlZ.

“Sometimes you have to use something they like to get them to listen to something different” he says. “Our strategy with ControlZ has been exactly that—using relatable content that is of interest to them with a twist.”

ControlZ features short spots called “microprograms” between songs. These microprograms cover topics such as dating, love, addictions and other relatable struggles. The tone is conversational, presenting Christian voices with diverse opinions. In a recent series, Matt and another contributor gave opposite perspectives on teen dating.

Other ControlZ features include keeping New Year’s resolutions, resolving conflict with parents and a message about whether or not Christians are intolerant. Their piece about singleness, called “#foreveralone,” was more directly evangelistic, affirming that Jesus wants to satisfy the loneliness in our hearts. That video reached 1.2 million.

“We’ve noticed that lately we’ve been more direct with Christianity,” Matt says. “We’ll say, ‘You know what? Jesus loves you.’ And we’re getting more responses that way.”

One girl commented on Facebook, “I was literally about to commit suicide, but your post about suicide really touched me and kept me from making a bad decision, and I want to thank you.”

Others post comments such as, “Oh, man, I never thought about it like that” or “I thought I was the only one who had this issue.” Matt is encouraged to read these comments because written responses show an exceptional level of engagement, especially from a teenager.

Some people ask questions about doctrine, but most of the listeners don’t have much background in theology. Matt says that his theological training from Moody doesn’t help him much when he writes content, because he has to keep the language as light as possible so that it’s relatable.

Matt avoids putting verses in the devotions he writes. He will discuss an issue through a biblical lens, and may use a biblical term or phrase, but the point is to create a discussion that non-Christians could follow. “Sometimes I will say, ‘And that comes from the Bible,’ which can surprise them because they have one idea of what Christians are and to see a different perspective helps them to open their minds a little more.”

Last year, Fernanda, Bryan, Jimmy and Matt sat down to plan a ControlZ conference, but they didn’t know how it would work out. They realized that 80 percent of teens in Ecuador—and Latin America as a whole—have already had sex. The Church preaches abstinence but not as much about grace when someone makes a mistake.

The team wanted to answer questions like: “What happens after this?”; “How should I be feeling about this?”; “What should I do?” They knew that any conference about sexual purity had to be light-hearted and unthreatening, since their message was basically about boundaries.

“When you say ‘boundaries,’ teens will back off, but if you say it in a light manner, they will actually listen,” Matt says. “We wanted to let them know, ‘Okay, it happened, but you can be forgiven, and you can be restored. Just because it happened that doesn’t make you any less valuable.’”

The team along with HCJB held their conference “We Made Out. Now What?” last year and “We Made Out. Now What? Part 2” in April. For the second conference, they brought in three Christian comedians as speakers. One comedian talked about sexual purity and abstinence. Another told his story and about how he resisted temptation as a teenager. And the last one addressed the issue: “So, what happens now?”

After the conference, many of the teens said they thoroughly enjoyed the conference and asked when the next one would be. The ControlZ team plans to hold these conferences annually, maybe even twice a year if their team grows.

The success of ControlZ opens discussion for how to replicate its success in other parts of the world. While teens from 45 different countries are tuning in to the digital broadcast from Ecuador, how can this format be used successfully to reach other languages and people groups? Reach Beyond will continue to explore those questions and invest in digital ideas as we seek to bring the gospel to the least reached.