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April 22, 2005

Marketing the Church is like Marketing the Pope

When some people think of church marketing, I think they're closer to the peddling of trinkets and other lame aspects of marketing. Like this story about the sales of new pope merchandise.

Of all the marketing that goes into the whole process of installing a new pope—the event planning, the public relations, the design and printing of programs, the organization of the whole thing, etc.—the photos and trinkets hocked by street vendors are one of the least important marketing components, and in most cases not something controlled by the Vatican. A pope keychain is church marketing that sucks.

Some folks miss that point and think we're condemning all church marketing. Not a chance. That would mean wagging a finger at things like planning and clear communication and having a vision. We want to encourage those things. It makes me wonder if we're not communicating clearly enough, if our own marketing sucks.

(Update: This Maine columnist complains about the marketing of Jesus, and this guy agrees offering the historical perspective of Charles Spurgeon. That's great, but you're forgetting authenticity. Any marketing that lacks authenticity, that sacrifices the Gospel, that seeks to make a buck from Christ—well, it sucks.)

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at April 22, 2005 2:20 PM

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