Whew!
Yeah...started a blog, then abandoned it. I'm lucky it didn't die. But seriously, after the birth of a beautiful daughter and a transition into a new position (I'm now the Preaching Minister, not the college minister) I'm ready to do it for real.
I was just introduced to the website www.churchmarketingsucks.com. First of all: HA! Second of all, it's actually a great site! If you know me, you know I bristle at the thought of evangelism done through sales tactics, treating the gospel as if it were a set of steak knives ("As seen on TV: Jesus") that people will own if they just say yes. But on the other hand, marketing is happening whether we know it or not. Our attitudes about coming to worship show people what we think of our church. Our worship shows what we think of God (uh oh...). Marketing is a constant, whether we recognize what we are saying or not. My church's website markets us as out-of-touch and satisfied with the most minimal effort (sorry...). We are always marketing our churches.
But we have to be sure our churches are worth marketing. For so many years we've lived with the notion that having a church building to sit in and a few people meeting in it on Sundays made us a "church." But I'm not so sure. You may have an institution...but is it part of the Lord's Church (having "Church of Christ" or "church of Christ" on your sign doesn't fix it either...)? Are you doing the Lord's work? Or talking about it? Is it a place where everyone is welcome to come meet the Savior? Or are you busy figuring out who you can "biblically" exclude? Let's make our churches worth marketing...then market them well.
"The greatest challenge the church faces today is to be authentic disciples of Jesus ... That's one reason why the statistics on Christians generally don't differ from the statistics on non-Christians. We're not living a different life." -Dallas Willard
I was just introduced to the website www.churchmarketingsucks.com. First of all: HA! Second of all, it's actually a great site! If you know me, you know I bristle at the thought of evangelism done through sales tactics, treating the gospel as if it were a set of steak knives ("As seen on TV: Jesus") that people will own if they just say yes. But on the other hand, marketing is happening whether we know it or not. Our attitudes about coming to worship show people what we think of our church. Our worship shows what we think of God (uh oh...). Marketing is a constant, whether we recognize what we are saying or not. My church's website markets us as out-of-touch and satisfied with the most minimal effort (sorry...). We are always marketing our churches.
But we have to be sure our churches are worth marketing. For so many years we've lived with the notion that having a church building to sit in and a few people meeting in it on Sundays made us a "church." But I'm not so sure. You may have an institution...but is it part of the Lord's Church (having "Church of Christ" or "church of Christ" on your sign doesn't fix it either...)? Are you doing the Lord's work? Or talking about it? Is it a place where everyone is welcome to come meet the Savior? Or are you busy figuring out who you can "biblically" exclude? Let's make our churches worth marketing...then market them well.
"The greatest challenge the church faces today is to be authentic disciples of Jesus ... That's one reason why the statistics on Christians generally don't differ from the statistics on non-Christians. We're not living a different life." -Dallas Willard
posted by Neal | 2:00 PM
1 Comments:
I have a book called "Addicted to Mediocrity" which talks about Christianity and art... modern art.. which now days has a lot to do with marketing and design.
The book basically rails on the junk that is put out there that is sooooooo stereotypical and corny that it turns people OFF to God entirely. (i.e. praying hands, a cross, etc.)
it's interesting. I'm actually re-reading it.
P.S. I started a blog on here.
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