Comments on: Church Advertising is a Waste of Time

By: church advertising

church advertising — Sun, 15 Nov 2009 12:02:20 +0000

Well I do agree on some points. I think we have the thought of advertising all wrong. It is not about being sly… it is about bringing people to God. The thing is we should do that in every way we can.

By: Pudge

Pudge — Thu, 22 Feb 2007 06:50:09 +0000

People want to be amazed and in awe of things. The church has to do this to attract them to it.
Does this mean only marketing? No.
Does this mean we throw church marketing out the window? No.
The best marketing tool is the body reaching the body. However, to say we want churches of 20 and no more seems insecure and shallow. Not to mention “a personal agenda” and not God’s. Remember, the church is HIS bride, not ours. We don’t get to chose.
I do believe that the larger a church gets we must find ways to make it smaller. This is why we must implement some sort of “GROUP” structure. We have to build the community and the community will reach the community.
However, I also believe that we must create BUZZ about our church and our vision! And believe that in the BUZZ we must make sure that our approach is excellent in graphics, video, communication, etc.
If “the world” is our competitor…why would we let the enemy do a better job at reaching people than the churches?
Also, I believe this formula works:
Create buzz that casts vision.
Motivate the church to reach/invite community to church.
People know about church due to buzz.
People give it a shot.
People are awed and amazed when they come (by our love, creativity, relevance and excellence)
People come back.
Side Note: To everyone that thinks this means “we don’t preach the word of God”…STOP! All the while I mean preaching the WORD OF GOD. Both can be done excellently & Biblically.

By: Dai Thao

Dai Thao — Wed, 21 Feb 2007 20:45:00 +0000

i hope you folks understand marketing is about bringing the audience to your doorstep, it doesn’t mean you will sell Jesus. Marketing does not sell.. what sell is the experience your church promised in your advertising message. if you promise community, worhship, blah, blah, and if you can’t deliver my friend, your marketing campaign is wasted, in fact it’ll have the reverse effect. True and effective marketing starts from within your church, the people, the sermon, the program, the diversity, the community, the MEANINGFUL EXPERIENCES with GOD becomes so powerful and wonderful that it ripples to the outside the church – marketing’s job is to share the experience with the outside world incase the outside world might be longing for the same powerful and wonderful experience.
if you think marketing will bring people to God, keep praying my friend. but if your church has a wonderful & successful relationship/story with God and you want to share it with others and you want to shout it from the mountain top – marketing help you shout louder.

By: Anthony Ingram

Anthony Ingram — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 15:58:22 +0000

Correction: the Scripture reference should be Romans 14:14

By: Anthony Ingram

Anthony Ingram — Tue, 02 Jan 2007 15:57:05 +0000

I do volunteer marketing for my church and I do not beleive that it is wrong for a church to engage in advertising or marketing.
The Word says that “there is nothing unclean of itself….”.(Romans 14:4) In this case, advertising or marketing is not wrong – IF – our hearts and methods are not wrong.
I well imagine that “word of mouth” advertising helped to let people know about Jesus and His ministry….people telling other people about His teachings and about the signs and miracles.
What we must watch against is 1)relying on marketing/advertising to the exclusion of the presence and power of the Holy Ghost, 2)using less than scrupulous messages or methods, 3)not being excellent in what we do, and 4)being mere copycats of what the world does.

By: Chuck Donald

Chuck Donald — Mon, 25 Dec 2006 18:12:23 +0000

I suggest that Ryan go back and read the book of Acts. The early church met in small groups and large groups –where Luke explicitedly reveals attendence numbers. Also, The Apostle Paul –fanatical about traininng –exhorted Timothy to equip from what Timothy learned in the presence of “many witnesses”.
Why do Christian leaders tend to absolutize their experience for everyone else? The fact is –God can use churches of all sizes -and He does.

By: Drew

Drew — Sat, 23 Dec 2006 15:36:02 +0000

All I can say is: The guy who wrote this 1. Doesnt know how to evangelize. and 2. Never has.
No matter how much you love people in your own church more people will come to your church from buying a few commercials. Doesnt mean to stop loving or stop helping others… But Marketing brings people to all kind of bad thigns, why not draw people to christ instead… And dont dare me it doesnt work, because you obviously havent done it/done it right…

By: shawn

shawn — Fri, 20 Oct 2006 08:30:35 +0000

I think you are merely stating the obvious. If the church is not being the church then marketing is a waste of money.
But….. My wife came to church because she saw a mailer about Patience. She gave her life to the Lord that very weekend.
I think the tendancy is to throw the baby out with the bathwater.
As for your view of the church….. Well it seems you are more of a reactionist that a realist. If I were to base my experience with home church’s the same way you do with larger churches I would have to say that “House churches in America are for burned out Christians who just want to hide from the world. I have not seen much evangelistic fruit from them. They are usually people who are pissed off at the corperate church.”
Now I know that is not entirely true and I say that to make a point. When you make assumptions based soley on experience you can tend to be jaded.

By: Matt Larson

Matt Larson — Thu, 15 Jun 2006 04:35:39 +0000

True, if we try to “Madison Avenue” people in the doors, they will go right back out, but that isn’t an indictment of marketing as a whole, just of those who don’t understand what marketing is.
“nuff” was right on in his comment.
Successful marketing is about creating a dialogue to find out how we may best serve the market. Slick ads are not dialogue. Successful marketing morphs into sales and the two become entwined. Yes, we do have a market, customers, and sales – it’s just the world, people, and souls to heaven.
The weekend message and main church activities are a delivery system to get a message consistent with God’s word thrown into the “hopper” of small groups to then be distributed and worked out.
Nearly every one of those “big church gripe pieces” really comes down to them having ineffective small groups, not an ineffective “big church” or “hollow marketing”.
Last comment on Dan’s comment (“Let HIM do the marketing”)
Lazy thinking! Of course God will get them to the right place, but did the servant with the talent bury it because he knew that God would end up blessing his master if he really deserved it? Nope!
Can’t walk and chew gum at the same time (market and serve)? Quit both! Marketing is dialogue with the customer to find out what they need. Sometimes you need some evil ads to engage the customer. Without engaging the customer, we’re just serving ourselves.

By: Dan Brinson

Dan Brinson — Sun, 04 Jun 2006 13:25:53 +0000

Here’s a radical thought to throw in the mix: if God is the author of our little or big ‘church’ communities, small groups, home-grown church groups, and the like, then let HIM do the advertising. No one can come to the Father unless the Spirit draw him, and so perhaps trying to coerce people to come to our events is the actual waste – however we may go about it. If God wants to prosper in numbers whatever we are doing, perhaps we should step aside and let Him be the Draw.