Church Marketing: Toward a scriptural understanding...

I have a feeling this has been discussed before, but I'm just wondering if I could get some of your thoughts on a scriptural understanding of marketing and a resulting philosophy of implementation at your church. I've thought about it a lot, but I'm sure many of you have thought about it longer.

I'm really just thinking about a paradigm from which churches approach marketing...something that drives the way you implement it in your ministry.

I've recently read Marketing the Church by George Barna and really found a lot of his applications lacking in...well...spirituality.

And I don't mean to open up a can of worms...I'm just wondering your thoughts. It's something I'm still wrestling with as I enter a new ministry with a HUGE challenge in front of us...where the results ride heavily on what I do in the PR department.

[sempei13]

If I didn't know you were at some sort of grad school or university, I would by that title. It sounds like every title for every paper I had to write in seminary (before I started doing videos in lieu of papers that is ).

What about this, 1 Corinthians 9:22 "To the weak I became weak, to win the weak. I have become all things to all men so that by all possible means I might save some." Or how about 1 Corinthians 14:19 "But in the church I would rather speak five intelligible words to instruct others than ten thousand words in a tongue." It sound like marketing to me...oh wait it's my namesake, the apostle Paul.

Paul

Originally posted by doycaveiii
I'm really just thinking about a paradigm from which churches approach marketing...something that drives the way you implement it in your ministry.

I've recently read Marketing the Church by George Barna and really found a lot of his applications lacking in...well...spirituality.

And I don't mean to open up a can of worms...I'm just wondering your thoughts. It's something I'm still wrestling with as I enter a new ministry with a HUGE challenge in front of us...where the results ride heavily on what I do in the PR department.

Warning - Long Diatribe...

Welcome Doy! I've been around for a little while, but the topic hasn't really been hashed out in depth as far as I know. There have been a couple of allusions to it in different threads. Most of the conversations I've had on this topic were off line or in PM's.

I haven't read Barna's book - though I'd like to get my hands on a copy. I would like to see what he says about this topic.

My PERSONAL feeling is that the church as a whole does a pretty poor job of marketing. Sure there are a few exceptions out there, but they are rare albeit rather successful. (Of course they should be - if they are marketing themselves well, they should be attracting folks to come through their doors)

For a short answer, Pauls scripture above is a good starting place. But, look at the underlying "marketing" message in those verses: First - I have become all things to all people... what message does that convey? Could be negative - wishy washy, self satisfying, conniving, even "used car salesman" if you will. But, it can be positive as well - We offer to meet your needs, Moms day out, childcare, aerobics, spiritual guidance, food, safe haven.... It all depends on HOW you market it. What you say is as important as how you say it, to whom you say it! That takes us to Marketing 101... the 4 P's, branding, niche vs. global markets etc...

I think every church right from the start should do some basic marketing. Understand what your call is, 1. who you want to reach, 2, how those people can be reached, and 3. how you will implement a marketing strategy to reach those people. - Does "Marketing God" make you nervous? I don't think it should. I think it's exactly what the apostle's did in their day with the most effective methods of communication that they possessed. This I believe is a fundamental lack in the church as a whole: We don't "Market God". Or we do it so poorly that most are indifferent to our words, some are outright turned away by them, and a tiny few tenths of a percent are actually drawn by what little effectual marketing is produced.

1. Who do you want to reach? Determine your niche - what subset of the population in your area do you want to reach? (Jesus went primarily to the Jews, though He did interact and touch a few Gentiles. It wasn't until after His death that the call was given to reach out to a different "niche" - the gentiles) Do you think you can reach them all? From 8 year olds to 80 year olds? IF so, then you will have to find a unifying theme that can be divided into separate marketing campaigns for niches... (teens won't be affected by the same strategies that touch seniors) More likely you will need to identfy a niche and strike out at it.

2. How do you reach your niche market? First and foremost, you have to understand them! This is usually the failing point of most marketing campaigns. Most marketers never come to understand the true thoughts and desires of those they are trying to reach. You need to understand your niche so that you can design your media and communications specifically to their needs. (Acts 2 specifically comes to mind... "they each heard in their own language"... this today could be both "language" and communication style - written, music, video, speach etc.)

3. How will you implement a strategy to reach those people... Here is where the rubber meets the road... You've identified your niche, you understand them, now you need to communicate 1. the need to come to your church, and 2. their need for the Gospel message. Here we could get into a long case study... but I won't. Let's just say you decide to use relationship evangelism to achieve #1 and your guest comes. Then to achieve #2 the service must be designed to be RELEVANT to that niche (Youth, GenX, Bridger Generation, Boomers, Seniors etc.), proclaim the truth, the message must be effectively administered, and the Holy Spirit must do His work in the heart of the individual.

As you can see, I feel pretty strongly about this. I know some find it offensive to put worldly business principles to work in the church, others find it ridiculous. Still others are indifferent, or stagnant, or firmly entrenched in their ways. I've left this as short as I feel comfortable with.

I hope that helps, and spurs some further discussion.

[David Reddel]

David, Paul and Tone have covered it very well. "Marketing" the church in America truly is a unique phenomenon as Tone mentioned. We are a well-to-do people (from a world perspective). We expect and want instant gratification and we want to see concrete results immediately. Unfortunately, that is true within the Body of Christ as it is outside of it. Our fast food- get rich quick pace of life here can and does permeate our lives from a physical, mental, emotional, financial and spiritual aspect. How we use God's word and our task in the Great Commission to smash through all of that is vital. Media and "marketing" can and does have a role to play.

But in many parts of the world, there is no such need to "market" the Word of God in the same fashion. I know Brian Busch on this forum addressed this briefly in a prior thread. People in many poor, strife-riddled third world countries are clamoring for the Word with a passion that we do not see very often in America. Having worked with missionaries from my church (local and national body) in East Africa and other places around the world, the pure power of the Word is enough for many. There are more than DOUBLE the number of Lutheran Christians in Kenya alone than there are in America. That explosive growth has happened over the last 10 years with denominations of all kinds. Marketing the Word is a different concept in countries like this as opposed to people in North America. But media plays an important supportive role in those situations by bringing those people in other countries to life in your congregation through pictures and video. It helps fuel passion in others that the Great Commission is a "world" thing and we are all connected on that journey.

My two cents.

I would like to get my hands on Barna's book as well.

Hey Guys, you've all covered the subject so well. Before this thread was started, I noticed some books in my Dad's office (Pastor) about the subject. It just so happens to turn out that they are "Marketing for Dummies," "Marketing The Church" (Barna's first book on the subject in which at the time he did not get a great response, I believe), and his most recent in '92 titled "A Step-by-Step Guide to Church Marketing - Breaking Ground for the Harvest" (phew, long name!) that covered more and is most complete. I'm glad my dad has been able to get his hands on them, and believes the same way - that the church must be marketed to today's generations. Of the little I've read so far (time restraints), I'd highly recommend 'em, but for the most part, they're still sitting on my computers table waiting to be thoroughly read. There's still hope!

Regards,
Zack

[KeithM]

One of the thoughts that keeps hitting me is whether marketing is truly effective in communicating who we are as Christians, especially when many of the younger demographic segments are so jaded when it comes to marketing.
While marketing can be a helpful tool when it comes to churches reaching out to a post-Christian culture; far, far, far more effective is building a passion within our congregations to build true, authentic relationships with the unchurched around us.



Keith

Guys,
I clearly agree with all that has been said in this thread.... but, I think Doy's request for discussion was on the THEOLOGICAL imperatives in support of marketing. Paul quoted his namesake well in supporting a theological discussion on church marketing.

I think one of the reasons that Barna's first book "Marketing the Church" wasn't as well accepted as it could have been is because he neglected this issue. The main problem in this discussion, however, is that there are very few scriptural imperatives that directly address the subject.

If you will, then, allow me, I would like to suggest a few scriptural inferrences to the subject of marketing the message (as opposed to marketing the church).

First, the whole concept of the collected canon of Scripture is a form of marketing the message. God saw the benefit of inspiring those who wrote the 66 books of the Bible to do so, because He understood that a collection of written narratives, histories, wisdom, poetry and epistles (to name a few of the genre included in the Bible) would do much to communicate the will, way and message of the good news provided through His son, Jesus Christ. So, in a manner of thinking, the collected scripture is, in itself, an inferrence that we are to use the predominant media tools of the day to communicate the Gospel. (The media should NEVER, however, replace the WORD of GOD!)

Second (and I could go on and on, but I will conclude with this one for right now), we must study the actions and the words of Jesus as they might apply to the subject. He used the parable as his main tool of "marketing the message." Short stories designed to carry a principle, a message, a product, if you will, from one point to a mass audience (sound familiar??? reminds me of a spot announcement).

These, as I said are just two INFERRENCES from scripture, and as such, can not properly be used to develop a THEOLOGY of marketing, but they can be a beginning of a Biblical basis FOR church marketing. We can discuss the proper manners of marketing, and the effective use of such, but without the proper Biblical basis, it is, in my opinion, simply Madison Avenue redux.

What say you?

Phillip Swindall

[Charlie Brown]

Or maybe we are just letting you THINK that it is your propaganda, when really, the Canadians are secretly controlling the world.

Seriously though, even though Canada and the US are more similar than different, I would have to say that the marketing/media side of Canadian culture is quite different from the US perspective. Because you Americans aren't really exposed to our media, it is difficult for you to make a comparison, but we Canadians get both, and there is a difference.

You fight a different marketing battle in Canada compared to the States because there is a strong sense of apathy in Canadians compared to the States. To me it seems that in the States in terms of marketing, you simply need to display your "product" in a way that people think it is the best. In Canada, you have to get people to care before you can prove your product. That is one thing that I really admire about Americans is the greater general passion for just about everything.

[kerwin kanago]

Interesting thread... All of it. Though I think Brother Phil hit a key point for me. I think the question for me is "What are you selling?" even if there is a word like "Christian" somewhere in the ad.

There is a lot of advertising done for Churches. One person speaking to another, High Tech TV stuff, billboards, newspapers. And as you filter through it you notice some very different messages coming through. Some seem to be selling "the world", a persons image, secrets of personal wealth, a social club, a "come to my church not his". Some are clearly offering The Word. Plain or flashy, personal or broadcast you can still see either the Word or the World behind it.

Rom 10:17 So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Doy asked for a paradigm. Ours has been that if your motives are clearly in line with this (and/or a hundred other scriptures) and its clear to the audience that you are talking abou the word, great. If you have to stop and ask wonder about your motives or what people will think you are offering... you probably already know the answer.

On the other hand, if you are clear in your mission and that mission is clear in your message then...

Rom 10:14 How then shall they call on him in whom they have not believed? and how shall they believe in him of whom they have not heard? and how shall they hear without a preacher?

... seems like a mandate to use whatever tools get that message across. And have the congregation ready to deal with the influx of people.

------

I just love to quote Paul. Any Paul

Originally posted by Charlie Brown
You fight a different marketing battle in Canada compared to the States because there is a strong sense of apathy in Canadians compared to the States. To me it seems that in the States in terms of marketing, you simply need to display your "product" in a way that people think it is the best. In Canada, you have to get people to care before you can prove your product. That is one thing that I really admire about Americans is the greater general passion for just about everything.

Charlie Brown brings up a great point which I've seen as a trend in secular marketing circles, and I think it has a spiritual angle that begs exploring here: QUALITY.

The dot-com era left all of us thinking that we could just come up with a strong product name (which bore product name consultants, if you can believe it), brand statement, some hot and often funny advertising and our product would sell without any further effort. Now, the trend says you have to have a good product, which people actually care about before you can even begin to think about catchy names and branding strategies.

I find this interesting because I think the "cutting edge" view of marketing the church is similar to the dot-com mindset. In other words, "Brand your church in such a way as to appeal to your target market and they will come!!"

I just don't find it that simple anymore...and I wrestle with the materialism in that. I mean if that's true, doesn't that mean that non-Christians can grow a church? All it would really take is marketing savvy, wouldn't it?

That's where I think quality comes in. The best representative of quality in marketing circles is "viral marketing" or word of mouth. Word of mouth marketing doesn't happen from the infrastructure end, it happens from the user end...and it says, "You've got something worth having here."

When I read the book of Acts and study the first church, I realize that this is exactly the way they "marketed God," as David noted. They put all of their resources into people: feeding them, clothing them, loving them, eating with them, knowing themand inviting them to see the life change that happened in others...basically servant evangelism, when you get right down to it. What would happen if we piggybacked some print and media on a "people campaign" where Christians were obedient in their servanthood?

I mean, we're asking people to leave their homes on Sunday, come to our church (where they may or may not know a soul) and share the most intimate part of themselves with strangers, and hear piercing words about their life, and the hopelessness of it without Christ.

That's way too important to leave to a piece of paper with four-color process graphics on it.

I guess that's why I'm trying to see things through a paradigm. I want to make sure I've thought through the biblical model first, and made it modern only to the point that necessitates technology...and, frankly, I don't see tech as a necessity for what the first church did. Does that mean we don't use technology? Of course not. The Bible calls us to be good stewards of what we have (including mass communication), and we'd be sorely remiss if we neglected that.

I think our use of tech, though, should come from a biblical understanding of it. That is, the church's most valuable marketing asset is first the Holy Spirit and then people moved by the Spirit and then, and only after, media, marketing, technology and the like (if God leads you in that direction) -- and, I should add, all of that should only come on the foundation that is vision without which, the Bible says, "the people cast off restraint (or 'perish')."

I don't think anyone would tell me that a marketing campaign ever equaled the power of a life poured into another.

I guess that's the kind of thing I've been thinking about.

Thanks so much for all your thoughtful replies!!

[Charlie Brown]

First of all welcome to the community Doy, it is always good to have another Canuck kicking around. Now maybe I have somebody to back me up when everyone (especially Tim) starts picking on me. We are even pretty close to each other. I drove through Cochrane on the weekend on my way to Banff.

The quality issue is a big one because a lot of the time I find that things get automatically stereotyped based on where they are produced. If something is "Canadian" it is often viewed as being a lower standard to "American" produced media. While this has been true in the past, I don't believe the gap is there like it used to be. Canadian content is becoming higher quality and more innovative all of the time. Even though it is getting better, we will live under that stigma for a very long time. Add the term "Canadian Christian" content, and people expect the worst. On one hand it makes my job a little easier because people aren't expecting much, but it is sad because doing media well is no longer as restricted by a budget like it once was, with the emerging technology and availability it is now being dictated by creativity.

Like I said before, the problem I face is that I have to get people interested in church before I can "sell" them on a particular church.

Originally posted by Charlie Brown
First of all welcome to the community Doy, it is always good to have another Canuck kicking around. Now maybe I have somebody to back me up when everyone (especially Tim) starts picking on me. We are even pretty close to each other. I drove through Cochrane on the weekend on my way to Banff.

How cool is that!! So close! I hope to run into you one day. We're actually in Georgia at the moment, but will be up there around August 1st for the start of the semester...I'll let you know...

Like I said before, the problem I face is that I have to get people interested in church before I can "sell" them on a particular church.

I agree with you totally here...and would even go a step further in what you're saying. Before you can get a person interested in church, you have to show them somehow that a relationship with Jesus is relevant to their life.

I read an article recently...I think I have the link...here it is, where a secular journalist coined the phrase, "apatheist." It's basically someone who may or may not know the importance of being a Christian, but really don't care enough to let it affect them one way or the other.

I think an increasing number of Americans and certainly Canadians fall into this category. We're battling apathy to the message itself, where people will say, "Well...that's fine for you, but I'm not that jazzed about it."

Now, it's at this point that I ask the question, "What can the church do to reach this person?" I honestly don't think it starts with marketing and media (thought I think in some instances media can play a part), because those tools allow people to be simple and aloof spectators.

Being in this person's community, however -- being a part of this person's life where they live, meeting their physical needs (as Jesus always did), investing ourselves in serving them, and the like -- is a demonstration of relevance...faith in practice, or, to look at it in marketing terms you could see it as "point of sale" interaction with living, breathing, Spirit-empowered Christians.

After that, I think it would be great to invite media into their lives, especially for the process of renewing their minds!! How amazing a tool we have for that kind of discipleship and encouragement!

I don't question media and marketing's usefulness...I question it's priority as a place to start. I don't think the ascent to true ministry happens on the staircase of technology, I think it happens on the staircase of vision from God: God's plan for a church and maybe marketing and media are two steps in the vision, but they're not the staircase.