January 22, 2010

Designers vs. Pastors

by Erik Germesin, guest blogger

Let me begin with a confession. I'm a pastor, I am not a designer. In fact, I have to admit that I actually suck at design. But, my saving grace is that I have a huge amount of respect for people with God-given gifts in graphic design. I recognize the blessings to have been privileged to work with some of best designers in the context of the local church.

Recently, a comment made by a designer friend prompted me to seriously consider many of the issues that seem to face designers in the church. She said the worst part about being a designer is when people don't like your work.

That got me reflecting about how often the designers in the churches that I have known talk about the issues they have dealing with church leadership and senior pastors. I wonder if this is simply an issue of communication glitches, because we have more in common than we realize. These are, I believe, three big issues we have in common:

It sucks when people don't like your work.

Designer: You put your heart and soul into a design, and it hurts when people don't “get” it.

Pastor: You pour yourself into your sermons, and sometimes people just don't get it. It hurts for you, too.

Continue reading "Designers vs. Pastors"

Posted by Guest Blogger at 8:18 AM
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November 30, 2009

Church Marketing Gurus

Recently we mentioned that our own Brad Abare and CFCC board member Phil Cooke were appearing on a livestream from Conversant Life. You can now watch the archived video online:

Check it out for the engaging conversation between Brad and Phil. As a bonus, watch to see Brad use the word "funner." Though he does redeem himself with this definition of church marketing: "How we can tell the story of what God is doing and what people will do as a result of hearing that story." He also adds that "everything communicates." Watch the 60-minute video yourself to find your own nuggets.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 5:31 PM
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November 5, 2009

Familiar Story

The Covent Garden district in London traces its roots back to Roman times. For most of its history, Covent Garden has been a cultural center including shopping, dining and the arts. In the 1960s and 70s, the Greater London Council wanted to flatten and rebuild the district because it had become impractical for modern life. At first, it seemed the plan would happen until residents of the district came to their senses and began to seek historical classification for many of the buildings, ultimately thwarting the plan to raze and rebuild. Familiarity had caused residents to lose site of the sacred story that is Covent Garden.

Misplaced familiarity also plays out in 1 Samuel with Eli’s wicked sons Hophni and Phineas. Their despicable disregard for the sacred story they had witnessed in their father’s life ultimately cost them their lives. I don’t ever want to get too familiar with the Story! Luke 7 tells about the centurion’s sick servant and the widow of Nain’s dead son. When the servant was healed and the son was raised from the dead, both the centurion and the widow were amazed, as were the people who witnessed both miracles. In my opinion, grandmas are the only people who will tolerate listening to a storyteller who has lost their passion and curiosity for the story.

Posted by Brad Abare at 6:53 AM
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September 30, 2009

Purpose, Values, Vision & Mission

If you're like me, whenever you hear words like "vision," "values," "purpose" and "mission," your eyes start to glaze over. Then your ears start ringing with all of the vision/mission/purpose/values statements you've heard. And finally, the books you've read about these topics become even more confusing because you can't remember who said what, what comes first, and why exactly it all matters in the first place. For what it's worth, I think the reason these words/concepts are so abundant is directly connected to the significance these hold for our life and the organizations we serve.

In an effort to sort through all of the noise, here is how I define these often ominous terms, taking them from wall art in the conference room to tangible realities.

I believe there are two categories we should be thinking in. The first is purpose and values. The second is vision and mission.

Purpose and Values
Purpose and values should never change. They are with you from the beginning of your organization's existence and they should be with you until the end. They don’t contextualize or change with culture. They should always remain. Jim Collins’ research shows that a relentless commitment to purpose and values is the one and only difference between organizations that are built to last and those that are not. It’s not vision, mission, strategy, inventions or money in the bank that makes organizations last, it’s a relentless commitment to purpose and values.

Purpose is the reason why you exist. It's not your vision or mission, or the values that guide you. It's the big idea for why you do what you do. For church communities, I've found this often comes directly from Scripture. It's the reason you're regularly bringing everybody together. It's not how you bring them together or what you're doing when you're together or how often you come together. It's why you come together. And again, purpose should never change.

Values should guide everything you do. They are the glue that hold everything together. Words like "integrity," "honesty," and "humility" are often found in value statements. Values should inform every decision, every strategy, every employee hire and fire, every marketing campaign and every relationship with a vendor. And again, values should never change.

Continue reading "Purpose, Values, Vision & Mission"

Posted by Brad Abare at 3:59 PM
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July 30, 2009

Echo, God As Second Banana

“Christianity is a demanding and serious religion. When it is delivered as easy and amusing, it is another kind of religion altogether.” —Neil Postman

The second annual Echo Church Media Conference is underway this week in Dallas. I was there last year and had a great time. I really like the folks who make Echo happen and from the presenters to the participants, I consider many of these people friends.

But I'm a little concerned.

While I appreciate the nobility of Echo's intent—"A conference for church leaders that love using media, technology, and the Internet to be more effective in sharing God's story"—I'm concerned about the premise.

Lovers of media, technology and the Internet are not necessarily the first people I would go to hear or see more about the greatest love story of all time.

My concern is that what we love is getting blurred with who we love.

Gatherings like Echo should be first and foremost fixated on the who of the story. We need storytellers that love the story. Artists who love their creator.

Continue reading "Echo, God As Second Banana"

Posted by Brad Abare at 6:20 AM
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July 15, 2009

The Episcopal Church: Come Watch Us Argue Over Gay People

Forget I Am Episcopalian. The Episcopal Church has a new marketing slogan: "Come watch us argue over gay people."

OK, not really. But wouldn't it be funny? I came across this nugget of a marketing statement in the midst of an NPR story on the continuing battle in the Episcopal Church over gay bishops. The statement comes at the end of the article and isn't actually a potential new slogan, but a bit of frustration over the conflict. But I think it presents an important marketing insight.

Susan Russell, a liberal priest in California, thinks it is time the Episcopal Church moves forward:

"A church that is obsessed with fighting over whether or not gay and lesbian people can be bishops is not real attractive. I mean, 'Come watch us argue over gay people' is not a great marketing scheme. And I'm of the mind the decisions we're making are going to encourage church growth rather than decline."

Continue reading "The Episcopal Church: Come Watch Us Argue Over Gay People"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 11:35 AM
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June 29, 2009

We Are Evangelists

A recent U.S. World News & Report article we already covered included a quote I'd glossed over. It comes from the director of communications for the Episcopal Church, Anne Rudig, and is a sentiment I'd guess a lot of us share:

"I'm an evangelist, too."

It's a simple and powerful statement that church marketing is evangelism.

It reminds me of the first chapter of Meredith Gould's The Word Made Fresh: Communicating Church and Faith Today, which argues that church communication is ministry.

What we do is not just some business skill for the church. The work you do is not mere work. It is a vital ministry of the church, seeking and saving the lost. We marketers and communicators, designers and editors, volunteers and assistants--we are evangelists.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:01 AM
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June 23, 2009

Quotes on Church Marketing

The Star Tribune recently offered a take on religious marketing, exploring whether or not religious groups are going overboard. The article has a token quote talking about consumerism and the "slippery slope of theological compromise," but the bulk of the article is money quotes in support of marketing. There's even a shout out to yours truly (though the bulk of our work is described as offering "tips on designing eye-catching web pages").

But let's get to those money quotes from folks smarter than us:

"People see it as too worldly or gimmicky for the church to be marketing itself. But most of the same people who say it is sacrilegious also expect their church to have a website, a listing in the phone book or an ad in the phone book. To me, this is marketing." -John Mayer, executive director of City Vision, an organization that tracks religious demographics.

"They used to look at me as if I'd just said a four-letter word." -Hayim Herring, former rabbi and now executive director of STAR (Synagogues: Transformation and Renewal), on the response he used to get to suggesting synagogues use new technologies.

Continue reading "Quotes on Church Marketing"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 5:44 AM
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June 18, 2009

Marketing Myths

Recently, Kem Meyer mentioned an article from Chief Marketer entitled 7 Marketing Myths CMOs (and Their Bosses) Gotta Stop Buying.

I think myth numbers five and six hit the closest to home for churches:

Myth #5 - "I don't care what it takes, just get it done!"
Myth #6 - "We can't spare a dime to invest in research."

All too often, we get so connected with an idea (a song, a service type, a TV show, etc.) that we'll stop at nothing to make it a reality. I think the church loses a lot of resources this way, and it's a fine line we have to walk.

And how many times have churches overlooked the value of research? Polls, surveys and research take a back-seat because of their up-front cost, in spite of their long-term benefits.

Make sure to read the full article for even more myths.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 9:48 AM
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May 21, 2009

Homeless Marriage, Church Marketing and Simplicity

Somewhere along the way down this road of the church in America, we picked up some buzzwords. Then, those buzzwords picked up some baggage. Things started one way, but they turned into a whole different monster. I'm thinking of two words in particular, and we'll take a quick look at them.

Relevant became an excuse to borrow ideas wholesale and call them your own. And Extraordinary became an excuse to push the envelope and go one step further than anyone before.

We ended up with church copycats, church campuses that rival the Vatican and churches who focus more on their laser light show than the great commission.

The Swerve blog recently explored this same subject, and they're looking for you to chime in on how to undo some of what has been done.

I think the example of one church is a great reminder of how to take those words--relevant and extraordinary--and live them to the fullest. We'll take a look at their story as well as these two words, and we'll take a look at the press that ensues.

Continue reading "Homeless Marriage, Church Marketing and Simplicity"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:25 AM
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May 13, 2009

Church Copycats

Recently, I came across Godwitter.com via the xpirimental blog. My palms became sweaty, my heart sped up, my stomach twisted and my mind went back to the service formerly known as GodTube.

Then I thought of the 68 threads with "copyright" in their title in the Church Marketing Lab. Next was the 44% of churches who don't give a rip about copyright. After that, the proliferation of iGod series, Survivor retreats and logo ripoffs. Lastly was Joshua Blankenship's post from a few years ago with a hefty focus on creativity.

We do this under the guise of "redeeming our culture" or "being relevant." And I have nothing wrong with either of those things. But seriously, a Christian version of Twitter? 28.3 million search results for Christian social network?

Continue reading "Church Copycats"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 9:34 AM
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May 12, 2009

Advertising Age Explores Church Marketing

The fundamental principles of church marketing have been explored here exhaustively. But it's always good to keep getting back to the basics and exploring the building blocks of church marketing. A recent Advertising Age article does that, complete with marketing-terminology to get on the nerves of church jargon purists.

They cover the CNN article about changing religions that we recently discussed, the decline of brand loyalty, the United Methodist Church's Rethink Church campaign and a quote from our own Brad Abare.

So if you have 10 minutes to spare, visit the article for a quick church marketing challenge.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:10 AM
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May 11, 2009

The Failure of Church Marketing

In a recent article published on wrecked.org, Jonathan Foster takes some shorts at church marketing. The article is entitled The Failure of Church Marketing, and he goes through a fairly common criticism of church marketing.

He argues that laser light shows and whizz-bang web sites have become the primary goal of some churches rather than life change. He goes through the medium-message argument that we have discussed before here and here. In the end, he concludes that church marketing is failing because too many churches are choosing to have incredible media, leaving the message by the wayside.

We couldn't agree more.

Stop only doing marketing. Stop not doing marketing. Marketing sucks when it's the primary focus of churches and when it's not even on the radar.

Simply develop your message, and ask yourself the best way to communicate it without compromising.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:42 AM
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April 22, 2009

Marketing the Church or Your Church?

Marketing guru Seth Godin has an interesting post (as usual) about whether you should be marketing for your category in general or for your specific product over the competition:

Confusion sets in, though, when you compare a pitch designed to get someone to buy any product in the category (you need an mp3 player because you can listen to music) vs. buying your product instead of the competition (ours is cheaper and bigger and better).

Are you trying to make the market bigger, or just grow your share?

This strikes me as an especially sticky question for the church (not only because it uses plenty of market lingo that makes some people uneasy). Most Christians want to say we're promoting our category in general (Jesus!), not just my local church (First Community Church of Your City).

Continue reading "Marketing the Church or Your Church?"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 5:00 AM
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April 16, 2009

This Isn't What I Ordered

I love a menu with lots of pictures, I'm much more apt to order what looks good than what sounds good. I'm a visual guy, that's just how I'm wired. But when I order that steak that looks so good on the menu and you bring me something that looks like something just short of a hamburger ... big fail. (here are some great examples) I think there's something for the church to learn here.

I'm a big advocate of setting expectations that you can achieve and better yet, go way above. So often marketing fails to set up a realistic expectation, which leaves nothing but a bad taste in your mouth (pun intended).

Continue reading "This Isn't What I Ordered"

Posted by Michael Buckingham at 6:47 AM
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March 3, 2009

Mark Batterson on Church Growth

The lion-wrestling, wild goose-chasing, Church Marketing Sucks-supporting Mark Batterson had some insightful comments to add to our recent discussion on church growth.

He talked about outcomes vs inputs in a recent blog post:

"I'm at a place in my life where I don't care about outcomes. I'm focused on inputs. I don't care about extrinsics. I'm focused on intrinsics. If we simply do the right things, God is going to bless it. Period."

He went on to add:

"I'm not concerned about church growth. I'm concerned about personal growth. And if you're experiencing personal growth, church growth will take care of itself."

Another perspective to add to the mix. Whatever you take away from the post, I especially liked his closing remarks, which could be summarized as: do less, pray more.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:27 AM
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February 23, 2009

Seth Godin Asks: Is Marketing Evil

Marketing guru Seth Godin asks the question "Is Marketing Evil?" in one of his latest posts. Seth starts by saying that marketing, done well (aka that doesn't suck), will:

1. Tell a story that spreads. 2. Influence people. 3. Change actions.

Oh yeah, I'm definitely on board with that.

"Marketing is powerful when it sells a product to someone who discovers more joy or more productivity because he bought it. Marketing is magic when it elects someone who changes the community for the better."

Those who think the church should never be involved in marketing by saying we aren't "selling" a product etc. should let that sentence marinate. While I understand the word "sell" is tough to swallow isn't selling about consuming and don't we want people to consume the Word and who Christ is? Once we get past that little word and look at the outcome--wow.

So when does Seth think marketing is Evil? Read for yourself.

Posted by Michael Buckingham at 8:27 PM
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Dallas Willard on Church Growth

In a post last week we tried to generate some thinking and discussion on church growth. Ryan Guard offered this nugget from Dallas Willard's The Divine Conspiracy:

"We may not soon have bigger crowds around us--and in fact they may for a while even get smaller--but we will soon have bigger Christians for sure. This is what I call 'Church growth for those who hate it.' And bigger crowds are sure to follow, for the simple reason that human beings desperately need what we bring to them, the word and reality of The Kingdom Among Us."

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 12:38 PM
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Lights Out

Three years ago this month, I wrote a post about experiencing church, stripped down. I included the hypothetical scenario of lights going out to suggest that what we as the church have without power is really the only "power" worth having. I've used this analogy many times since, including a brief presentation I made to an Internet/marketing class at a local college last week.

It was a pleasant surprise to learn that Jerry Hendrix, a pastor in Abilene, Texas, is in the middle of just such an experiment. "Crosspoint Fellowship is eschewing electricity, save for the children's class, this February and devoting the money it saves to mission work. No heat, no lights, not even coffee," says Scott Kirk, in his online report of the story.

I'm always encouraged to see church communities that are concerned more with church taking place rather than church just being a place.

Posted by Brad Abare at 6:51 AM
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February 19, 2009

Are All Healthy Churches Growing?

So earlier this week Tony Morgan got all a twitter about a quick little post from the Out of Ur blog that poked fun at megachurches:

"Is this helpful to the Kingdom? Don't you just love it when Christianity Today blogs attack churches?"

Christianity Today even tried to distance themselves from the Out of Ur post.

Really? Over-reacting much?

Believe it or not, this all reignites that age old discussion on church growth.

Continue reading "Are All Healthy Churches Growing?"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 12:06 PM
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February 5, 2009

Seth Says Marketing Should Come Before Product

I completely disagree with the wise sage Mr. Seth Godin in his recent post that asks, "Which comes first, the product or the marketing?"

Seth says "...it's pretty clear that the marketing has to come before the product, not after."

Pointing to the Toyota Prius and Jones Soda as examples of products that came after the marketing, Seth suggests that "just about every successful product or service is the result of smart marketing thinking first, followed by a great product that makes the marketing story come true."

I don't disagree with Seth that this trend of marketing coming before a product exists, but I take issue with the approach. When it comes to church marketing, we would do well to avoid this becoming a trend.

Marketing is how you tell the story of who you are. If you figure out how to tell your story and then attempt to pursue making that story real, you've got things backwards.

Very backwards.

Posted by Brad Abare at 6:45 AM
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January 6, 2009

Jesus is Not a Brand: The Good

This is part two of a two-part post discussing the recent Christianity Today article Jesus is Not a Brand, by Tyler Wigg Stevenson, the author of Brand Jesus: Christianity in a Consumer Age.

Recently we discussed the shortcomings of Tyler Wigg Stevenson's views in "Jesus is Not a Brand." But he also has some wonderful insights to challenge churches in their marketing, and I'd like to look specifically at three of them.

Marketing is full of segmentation.
Wigg-Stevenson mentions Ford vs. Chevy and Mac vs. PC. Kem Meyer captured the essence of our spirit of debate succinctly recently on Twitter:

Here's an idea: How about this in 2009? Respective Apple & PC fans stop gloating and wishing for the other to fail. It's annoying.

Continue reading "Jesus is Not a Brand: The Good"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:03 AM
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January 5, 2009

Jesus is Not a Brand: The Bad

This is part one of a two-part post discussing the recent Christianity Today article Jesus is Not a Brand, by Tyler Wigg Stevenson, the author of Brand Christianity. We mentioned the article last week and generated some initial discussion.

"Jesus is Not a Brand" is well-written, and I think the author would find himself largely in agreement with us here at Church Marketing Sucks. I certainly recommend the entirety of his long article for intelligent discourse on some of the inherent problems with brands and the traps that churches can fall into.

He has arguments that are inspirational, eloquent and mostly spot-on, but I'd like to address a few of the article's fundamental flaws. This is neither an attack on him or Christianity Today, it is simply our addition to a great conversation surrounding church marketing. And moreover, judging by his article, it is largely a discussion in semantics.

All that said, let's get to his arguments and a few basic misinterpretations.

Continue reading "Jesus is Not a Brand: The Bad"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:02 AM
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November 18, 2008

Tony Morgan Thinks Churches Should Stop Marketing

Tony Morgan, chief strategic officer at NewSpring Church in Anderson, S.C., co-author of the Simply Strategic Series, former pastor at Granger Community Church and author of the soon-to-be-released Killing Cockroaches (and we've interviewed Tony and linked to him on dozens of occasions), says that marketing is evil and your church should stop.

So what is Tony talking about? Essentially, he says ministry trumps marketing. If we try to fix the church's problems with marketing, we're going to fail:

"Direct mail won’t fix your problem. Billboards won’t fix your problem. Neither will platform announcements or bulletin ads or bumper stickers. At some point marketing may be a good option, but until you answer the right questions, marketing could be what’s preventing your success.

If your church has stopped growing, marketing is not your solution. If you have stopped seeing life change, marketing is not the answer."

And to that, we say amen.

But as much as we love Tony, he's a little off base.

Continue reading "Tony Morgan Thinks Churches Should Stop Marketing"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:42 AM
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November 12, 2008

Thinking About Churches

Overheard on a local college campus:

Person 1: Are churches really non-profits?

Person 2: They aren't taxed, I'm pretty sure they are.

Person 1: Hmm... I guess I don't ever really think about churches.

Too often, we misdiagnose our church's problem of not reaching more people as something wrong with them, something wrong with our church or something wrong with our attenders. But there's a much more likely scenario.

Most people just don't think about church.

I don't really think about mosques or temples in my city. You probably don't think much about the penguins in Antarctica. And Average Joe doesn't really think about the churches in their area. It's not a felt need outside of life's more difficult services.

People don't wake up on Sunday and think, "I'll go to church today!" They don't spend Monday through Saturday in anticipation of Sunday. Church never crosses their mind, and when it does, it likely seems irrelevant.

As a church marketer, that's your task: get people thinking about church, and convince them that it matters to them.

How are you going to do that?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:21 AM
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November 10, 2008

The Illusion of Community, Part 4

This is part four in a series about the illusion of community. Part one was about online community networks. Part two was about how we're doing at building community in our weekend gatherings. Part three discussed why community 'online' and 'offline' might be an old school way to think. Today, let's talk about why our value proposition is a little backwards when it comes to building community.

I am keenly aware that this entire series on the illusion of community has been written from a very American, very Western, perspective. Our lack of community is embarrassing compared to how the rest of the world relates. My trip to Haiti earlier this year, and to Israel and Turkey last year was no exception.

My wife and I recently watched the movie Body of Lies. It's a great example of the differences between how we in America view community and how the majority of the world approaches community. There are several scenes in the movie with the head of Jordanian Intelligence, Hani Salaam, that contrast the difference between East and West. People may be mean, but they're not means to an end. I regret the number of times I have "used" people as a way to advance my agenda, regardless of how well-intentioned I may have been.

Continue reading "The Illusion of Community, Part 4"

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:27 AM
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November 3, 2008

The Illusion of Community, Part 3

This is part three in a series about the illusion of community. Part one was about online community networks. Part two was about how we're doing at building community in our weekend gatherings. Today, let's talk about why community 'online' and 'offline' might be an old school way to think.

I recently spoke at a conference about online marketing and communication. The audience for this particular event was centered around doing ministry on the web so you can imagine their surprise when I suggested that perhaps they shouldn't be online in the first place. What if you came to this internet ministry conference to learn that you shouldn't be doing ministry online? What if your ministry online--or attempt at ministry--is actually a distraction from real world, face-to-face relationship and community?

A gentleman in the back raised his hand and suggested that we stop thinking about online and offline as mutually exclusive terms. The reality, he suggested, is that there is little distinction between the two. The worlds are converging and life online and offline is becoming more synchronous and synonymous. Kids under 10 years old will never understand the difference between having friends (or contacts) online and having them offline. Just like they'll lack understanding for what it means to do their banking offline or listening to music on CDs.

Continue reading "The Illusion of Community, Part 3"

Posted by Brad Abare at 6:38 AM
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September 30, 2008

Church Marketing Rocks

I pointed out something on Twitter recently, and I never could really put my finger on what aggravated me so much. And today I heard a radio ad for SportsCenter where a God-like voice spoke something to the effect of, "It's all the latest breaking sports news. You need to tune in to SportsCenter from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m."

Hmm. I asked myself what I was going to be doing tonight. And I realized, "I need to be at community group tonight." Why is this voice telling me what I need to be doing? And shouldn't it be ashamed that it's wrong?

Then I realized the lesson from my earlier observation of Best Buy's "You, Happier" campaign: These marketers are liars. They're telling us a thousand little lies every day so we will buy their crap. This is why marketing sucks, and this is why people think church marketing sucks.

But it just ain't so. We're the marketers who don't have to pander worthless junk. We're the ones who get to market the truth, and how great is that? Church marketing is not only unoffensive, it's incredible. It's a privilege that in a world full of broken marketing and blatant lies, we get to sell the truth. A church marketer--what a great thing to be.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:47 AM
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August 12, 2008

Be Your Own Church

This week Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv is talking about his journey to "find his voice" as a leader:

"Many leaders lack originality. One reason is that they’re learning from other great leaders, but often trying to reproduce what they see. ... I’d suggest you study great spiritual leaders, read anointed authors, and talk with gifted friends. But don’t try to be them. God made them to do what they are doing. You’re created to do something else!

These are good words for leaders and I think they're good words for churches, too. It's so easy as we read about the cool things other churches are doing to simply follow in their footsteps. As we borrow ideas from other churches or even businesses, repurposing them for ourselves, we rarely realize that we're no longer being our own church. We're somebody else's church.

So as Groeschel says, learn from other leaders and get inspiration from other churches, but in the end you've got to be your own church. Be the church God wants you to be, not the church down the street.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:42 AM
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July 17, 2008

Nit-Picking Marketing Motivation

All right, the practical ramifications of this article aren't huge. Christianity Today's Our of Ur blog examines the theological basis for felt-needs marketing. It's a well-thought out post that looks at marketing from a perspective most of us overlook, and at Church Marketing Sucks, we aren't afraid to ask if marketing is in the Bible.

Here's the bare bones of it all, and make sure to head over for a more eloquent version:

Jesus addressed felt-needs through miracles. If someone was blind, he spat on them. If someone was dead, he prayed for them. They felt a need, and he addressed it. But why?

Continue reading "Nit-Picking Marketing Motivation"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 9:14 AM
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June 25, 2008

Inspiration or Invitation?

by Brian Gaffney, Guest Blogger

In churches, marketing efforts seem to go one of two ways--internally inspiring those who attend your church or externally inviting those who don't yet attend.

In what direction should your ministry’s marketing face? Inspiration or Invitation?

The correct answer is a conditional both ... but first you must determine to whom you are speaking.

Continue reading "Inspiration or Invitation?"

Posted by Guest Blogger at 8:16 AM
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June 9, 2008

The Medium is Not the Message

This week's Monday Morning Memo (you can also listen to it) from Roy H. Williams takes issue with Marshall McLuhan’s famous line, “The medium is the message." I, too, have been at odds with this oft-used McLuhanism, especially when guys I respect are so high on it. Branding Faith author Phil Cooke and recent Q conference presenter Shane Hipps are two recent examples of people I've run into that echo McLuhan.

Roy H. Williams says that McLuhan's "the medium is the message" is at best a Japanese koan. In other words, "a silly attempt to sound profound."

Williams says "Enough. The medium is the medium. The message is the message. Ad campaigns don't fail because someone chose the wrong media. Ad campaigns fail because someone chose the wrong message. The job of the media is to deliver your message. Your job is to give the media a message worth delivering."

Although I've tried, I couldn't have said it better myself.

Free bonus: The rest of the Monday Morning Memo from Williams is a comparison of nine different mediums. Good stuff.

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:16 AM
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May 16, 2008

Communication: Lifechurch.tv Style

Craig Groeschel has been tackling communications techniques on the Swerve blog lately. So far, he's looked at The Question and The Visual.

Just to whet your appetite...

Great teachers and communicators know the power of a well-timed question ... Asking a direct question and giving your audience time to answer can open the door for a life changing moment ...

Most studies show people forget most of what they hear within 72 hours. Their retention rate jumps dramatically when other senses are engaged. When preparing a message, ask how I can show instead of just tell.

Check out the Swerve blog for examples of questions and visuals Craig has used and made a difference with.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 12:12 PM
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January 15, 2008

Mission, Vision, People

I blogged an entry recently on Personality's site about knowing the mission, doing the vision and treating people really well.

It's an approach I learned a few years ago from Jared Roth, a former vice president at Foursquare. These three steps have helped me most when it comes to working with my staff and volunteers. The challenge is to keep the simplicity of this approach from overshadowing the significance of the outcome.

I hope it helps you like it has me!

Posted by Brad Abare at 8:05 AM
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January 9, 2008

Pray for Competition

As we pursue the unique calling that God has for each one of us individually and collectively, both as ministers and as ministries, we are foolish if we care not for competition. If you don't want competition, you must not care enough about the people you are trying to reach. Many think that without competition they are in the perfect position to realize success. I think without competition we're in the perfect position to never realize success because it means that no one else cares about what we care about. And if no one else is sharing the same cares I have, maybe I am caring about the wrong things.

If another church across town starts a college ministry like yours, great! It must mean college students need to be reached in your community. If the after-school program you host is busting at the seams, wouldn't it be great to know a church nearby is also starting one?

This is not about competing with other churches for buildings, budgets or behinds. Friends, this is about competing for the hearts and minds of people that want to know, need to know and don't know Jesus.

So who is your competition? Do you care?

Posted by Brad Abare at 6:51 AM
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January 8, 2008

You Get What You Preach For

When you preach salvation, people come to know Jesus.
When you preach about loving Jesus, people become better lovers of Jesus.
When you preach prosperity, people want to be prosperous.
When you preach about the second coming, people get ready.
When you preach healing, people will be healed.
When you preach hope, people are more hopeful.
When you preach about tithing, people tithe.

What you talk about is what people are going to respond to. In other words, you get what you preach for.

This is not about communication manipulation. This is about communication transformation.

So, friends, what are you preaching for?
What are you communicating for?

Posted by Brad Abare at 6:31 AM
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December 18, 2007

Year-End Zeitgeist

Zeitgeist (n.) - A German term meaning "spirit of the time." It refers to the moral and intellectual trends of a given era.

Unless you're a fan of the Smashing Pumpkins, the term isn't exactly in most of our vernaculars, so I thought we would get the definition in there. In the midst of taking over the world, recently Google released its annual year-end Zeitgeist. It's essentially a function for taking the pulse of trends via what folks Googled.

For example, in 2007 we saw the rise of "iphone," "facebook" and "second life." We saw the fall of "world cup," "kazaa" and "shakira."

Continue reading "Year-End Zeitgeist"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 10:55 AM
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November 1, 2007

Marketing Without Trying

Seth Godin offers us a simple and succinct lesson in marketing:

Even when you don't try, you're telling a story.

That's why church marketing often sucks. We don't want to admit we're marketing, because then we don't have to try. The trouble is marketing happens whether you try or not.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:23 AM
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October 30, 2007

Lessons In Not Sucking

This week begins a little series I'm doing that I've titled "Lessons In Not Sucking." Much of the content has culminated and been cultivated over the years here at Church Marketing Sucks and through the larger work with the Center for Church Communication. When I spoke at the National New Church Conference this past April, I presented a lot of this stuff then. Here are some of the topics you have to look forward to (or skip if you already know it all!):

• Communication: Online
• Communication: In Print
• Common Communication Mistakes
• Cheap Marketing Ideas for Church Planters
• Building an Ideation Team
• Know Your Audience
• Working With Volunteers
• Working With Firms & Freelancers
• 9 Must-Read Books

Before we dive into the first lesson (sounds like we're about to break to hear a word from our sponsor!), I wanted to share a few Bible verses I've been ruminating on as it relates to church marketing in general and what Jesus might say about it.

Continue reading "Lessons In Not Sucking"

Posted by Brad Abare at 12:27 PM
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October 25, 2007

Willow Creek's 30-Year Apology

Christianity Today's blog, Out of Ur, posted last week about Willow Creek's big apology as it relates to how Willow has been wrong in their approach to church for the last 30 years. In response to the experience-based environment of programs and participation so prevalent at Willow, Bill Hybels said, "We made a mistake. What we should have done when people crossed the line of faith and become Christians, we should have started telling people and teaching people that they have to take responsibility to become ‘self feeders.’ We should have ... taught people, how to read their bible between service, how to do the spiritual practices much more aggressively on their own."

Time will tell how Willow comes to terms with this posture of repentance, and how their future behavior aligns with their updated belief. As I hold back my wagging finger that says "see I told you so" (I know I'm not alone), I am quick to evaluate my own life and ministry.

How do the projects I process and the people I pastor align with biblical discipleship? How does the mind of Christ influence every communication and marketing decision I make? How is my team spending their time? If we know that church marketing is not about buildings, budgets and big, why does so much of our time seem to be spent working towards that?

Maybe I need to repent too.

Posted by Brad Abare at 6:23 AM
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October 23, 2007

Does Marketing the Church Suck?

Throw down the gloves. Hide the women and children. Have an ambulance in the vicinity. Christianity Today is looking for a fight. All right, only kidding. But they recently posted a piece asking why Jesus didn't say, "And you shall be my marketers unto the ends of the earth." So we thought we'd do a point-counterpoint for just a moment. Not to be smart alecks, but to illustrate the trouble with terminology.

But there's a reason Jesus said "You shall be my witnesses," and not "You shall be my marketers."
True. Jesus was speaking Aramaic. My research shows they didn't have a word for marketing.

Continue reading "Does Marketing the Church Suck?"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:10 AM
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October 6, 2007

Church Marketing Lessons from a Women's Homemaking Course

So Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is offering college-level coursework in homemaking--sewing, cooking, parenting. It's part of a humanities degree with a concentration in homemaking, and it's only for women.

While jaws are dropping and eyebrows are raising, my own included, I'm not so interested in their doctrinal beliefs. I think it's an interesting marketing lesson.

Everything is Marketing
On a very basic level what they're doing says volumes about who they are. Offering a women's only program in homemaking sends a very clear message about what you believe. It's one more proof that marketing happens no matter what. Even if you don't spend a dollar on marketing, something as simple as the sermon topic is doing plenty of communicating for you.

Continue reading "Church Marketing Lessons from a Women's Homemaking Course"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 1:36 PM
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October 1, 2007

Church Marketing Moderation

A lot of times, we talk about (obviously) how church marketing sucks. What churches have done wrong, what they could do better, how they could go farther, or where they missed the forest for the trees. If you read between the lines, you'll hear a subtle undertone of "Go farther" and "Reach more."

A reader e-mailed us a YouTube video that shows exactly what happens when you keep on going further and reaching more.

Continue reading "Church Marketing Moderation"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:27 AM
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August 16, 2007

Bigger Churches vs. Bigger People

In the July/August 2007 issue of Ministry Today, Jack Hayford had a great column about contemporary communication and its effect on the church today. Having known "Pastor Jack" for the last few years, this subject is something dear to his heart but frustratingly difficult for him to communicate given his obvious seniority among church leadership. I am grateful that he does opine on this subject every once in a while even though he runs the risk of looking irrelevant.

"We're within frightening reach of being able to grow bigger churches while failing to grow bigger people," Hayford says in his column. He warns of the growing number of "enhancements" available to churches today and says that in and of themselves these are not evil, "but it's no substitute for leading believers to take up the disciple's cross and be shaped as his true followers."

"In our version of the bride 'trimming to be pretty,' are we ending with lightweight believers?" Hayford goes on to outline four examples of common service components (music, drama, style and charisma) and instead of damning them, he asks "what do they weight?"

Although the Ministry Today article is only an excerpt, a full version is available on Hayford's quasi blog/news site at Foursquare where he serves as president.

Full disclosure: For those that don't know, I am the director of communications for Foursquare.

Posted by Brad Abare at 6:57 AM
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June 4, 2007

Gee, I Should Go To Church Today

It's time to go back to the basics.

I don't know any non-Christian who wakes up and thinks, "Gee, I should go to church today." Churches need to find ways to make people think that very thought--whether it's through billboards or outreach events or the incredible example of their members (or all three and more--my point, don't get hung up on the method). If churches aren't getting people to think that, then what are they doing?

Unfortunately, too many churches have settled for the status quo, the steady stream of Christians who do wake up thinking they should go to church, and for some churches that's good enough. Those churches are social clubs, and useless. Sadly, many Christians are that way too.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 5:05 PM
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May 31, 2007

3 Fundamental Rules of Church Marketing

Kent Shaffer of Church Relevance, in the February 2007 edition of their newsletter, covered the 3 Fundamental Rules of Church Marketing. Here's a sampling of what he said, and head on over to read the rest.

Rule 1: Don't begin with marketing.

First, determine if your church is marketable. Ask yourself if there are things you need to change. Do you have a church that people will want to return to if they come?

Rule 2: Map it out.

Have a starting point, a destination, and a route. Effectively determine the specifics of all three of these.

Rule 3: Cost does not always equal quality.

Just because a medium is expensive does not mean it is effective. Consider your target audience and the cost efficiency of a marketing method before you go ahead with it.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 9:15 AM
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May 30, 2007

A Visionless Church

Over at the nakedpastor blog, there's a two-part post entitled "My Vision is to Have No Vision." Any feathers ruffled yet?

He argues that vision is actually a killer. It crushes the natural growth and flow of things, and it inhibits the exponential, New Testament growth and love evident in the book of Acts. (Please note that I'm taking a bit of liberty in describing his position--connecting the dots instead of citing verbatim, if you will.)

Continue reading "A Visionless Church"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 6:35 AM
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May 15, 2007

MacRumors Thread 500

I'm an Apple nerd. I've mentioned it before. And there's something Apple-related I've been sitting on for awhile now.

MacRumors is where I get my Apple updates and info. Around their forums, there's a famous thread. It's referred to by its number, thread 500.

I'm not going to say too much about it here. Just go over and check out a few of the comments about this "gimmick," "toy," and "not exactly revolutionary" device. Today, over 100 million have been sold.

Not many people in this world truly think outside the box. Not many people can see a truly revolutionary thing when it is in front of them. What are you doing that the majority of people think is crazy? How is your church risking looking foolish because you know you'll change the world?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:27 AM
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May 3, 2007

Environmental Ethics And Church Marketing

Creation care. Environmental ethics. Going green. All right, go ahead and pull your jaw off of the floor and calm the smoke from your ears. Many evangelical Christians hate the idea of acknowledging environmental issues. They believe there are much more pressing issues of moral decadence where we ought to be doing battle instead. Some churches, however, disagree.

Many Christians have joined the environmental movement. Some have even apologized for their initial reaction. (Now if we could only lead the way in culture instead of shunning it to finally give up and apologize.) The growing minority of environmentally-minded Christians is growing--slowly, but surely.

Continue reading "Environmental Ethics And Church Marketing"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:10 AM
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April 26, 2007

When Church Members Leave

It seems that everyone has been talking lately about leaving churches and how to be graceful in doing so. And if it's not how to leave a church, it's how to take in someone who left another church or fire someone from your own church.

It's a marketing nightmare. Churches are playing tug of war over staff members, pouting over laypeople leaving, and pointing the finger at everyone else for stealing people. Maybe this isn't how it is everywhere, maybe I'm reading too much into it. I don't think so. I would imagine that everything we see played out is only a fraction of what goes on in the hearts of church leadership.

Continue reading "When Church Members Leave"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 5:21 AM
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April 24, 2007

The Marketing Challenge of Limbo

Today, we heard the words "Marketing Challenge," and immediately sprang into action. (It's kind of like the bat symbol for us.) Then, as we read on, we found that we were even called out. Advertising Age asked what we would think of the Catholic church's position paper on Limbo. And how do we feel about this?

First things first. Theology precedes marketing. I trust the Catholic Church put a lot of effort into understanding this matter theologically, and that's paramount to all the marketing in the world. If we're marketing the wrong message, we ought not be marketing at all. For quite some time, the Catholic Church has abandoned the idea of Limbo--this is just pointing out the elephant in the closet.

The principle to be drawn here? Never change what you believe for marketing's sake. If you believe that all babies are going to hell, then defend yourself. Don't shy away from that because it won't go over well. I'm pretty sure that there's no free passes on Judgment Day for sweet marketing ideas. Don't live like there is.

Continue reading "The Marketing Challenge of Limbo"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:17 AM
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April 18, 2007

Updating Your Furniture

"The problem is not how to get new, innovative thoughts into your mind, but how to get old ones out. Every mind is a building filled with archaic furniture. Clean out a corner of your mind, and creativity will instantly fill it." -Dee Hock, Visa founder

What old thoughts are in your mind? When you think Sunday mornings, do you start out by thinking "What do we want to change from last Sunday?" or "What do we want to try this Sunday?"

When evangelizing and marketing, maybe we should stop arranging the same archaic furniture in different ways. Maybe we should see every day as a new world and ask ourselves what we furniture we can build to make this world a better place.

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:13 AM
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April 13, 2007

Andy Crouch on Culture

Andy Crouch of The Christian Vision Project was recently interviewed on the Catalyst podcast. He made some interesting points which I'll summarize for our loyal CMS readers. Essentially, Andy presents a picture of the way we, the church, relate with the world around us (keep in mind that these are his ideas in my words).

There are two basic ways we present ourselves to the world as believers: gestures and postures. Gestures are the things we do, and postures are the way we carry ourselves. For example, bending over might be an appropriate gesture, but it's not an appropriate posture, as it's not good for everything.

Continue reading "Andy Crouch on Culture"

Posted by Joshua Cody at 9:14 AM
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March 29, 2007

Remarkable

I was watching a talk delivered by Seth Godin at Google, and he said something that was profoundly self evident.

"[Remarkable] doesn't mean beautiful or ideal or perfect. It only means one thing: Worth making a remark about."

Fundamentally, Christianity is viral. Aside from some extraordinary conversion experiences, it's Jesus Christ doing something that was worth talking about. Then His disciples were exposed to Him, and they did things worth talking about.

Is your church presenting Christ in a remarkable way? You don't have to be perfect. You don't have to be ideal. You don't have to be beautiful. But are you doing things that get the community talking? The world? Or are you just running aimlessly or yelling upwards into the sky?

Posted by Joshua Cody at 7:58 AM
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March 6, 2007

End of the Series on Innovative Churches

Today we've officially wrapped up our series on Innovative Churches, featuring the Squidoo-powered and user-submitted list of innovative churches (currently at 65 churches) and our own Brad Abare's responses to questions on innovation from Outreach and Tony Morgan. Not everybody likes the lists, and admittedly they won't get you very far, but it is an opportunity to explore what it means to be innovative and how that can help the church.

So check out the past entries, keep on adding churches to the list (something tells me there are a lot more than 65 innovative churches in the world) and learn a thing or two about innovation.

• Part 1: The Most Innovative Churches
• Part 2: Innovative Churches: Definition & Is It Biblical?
• Part 3: Innovative Churches: Ingredients
• Part 4: Innovative Churches: Opportunities & Influence
• Part 5: Innovative Churches: Obstacles & Dangers
• Part 6: Innovative Churches: Leadership & the Next Generation
• Part 7: Innovative Churches: Technology
• Part 8: Innovative Churches: Community
• Part 9: Innovative Churches: Does Size Matter?
• Part 10: Innovative Churches: Measures & the Future

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:33 AM
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Innovative Churches: Measures & the Future

Part 10 in a series on Innovative Churches. Be sure to contribute to the Most Innovative Churches list.

How will we know if innovation is working? How should we measure the impact? What does success look like?

Our impact should be measured against becoming the Church that Jesus is returning for. Is my church increasing with people who look more like Christ? Are more people being drawn unto Jesus through the church? Are families strengthened? Are marriages stronger? Are people passionately pursuing their purpose? This is what success looks like.

Continue reading "Innovative Churches: Measures & the Future"

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:32 AM
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March 5, 2007

Presentation Matters

Relevant has an interesting online article on The Commercial Church. It argues for pretty much the opposite of what we say here, but I always find these articles interesting and valuable.

Part of me wants to agree. Yes, Sunday morning should not be "show-time". Churches shouldn't be focused on fluff and mere entertainment. But they're not. The author is blowing things out of proportion, much like those who say all megachurches have sold out.

The gospel should be the church's central and most powerful draw. But how you present the gospel still matters, and that means paying attention to the world around us. If presentation didn't matter I could just stand on the corner and read the Bible and everyone would come to Jesus. It might happen--God does some crazy stuff. But it's not likely.

In the end it's always balance. The church must care about presentation, but not to the point that we lose the message for all the wrappings.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:32 AM
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February 27, 2007

Innovative Churches: Does Size Matter?

Part 9 in a series on Innovative Churches. Be sure to contribute to the Most Innovative Churches list.

Does size matter? What about smaller churches and those with limited financial resources? Or, is innovation more difficult for larger, more established churches?

Innovation is difficult for every church because it is not natural for groups to be innovative. By nature we're drawn to the lowest common denominator of a group, so innovation can sometimes be squelched for the sake of unity. History is riddled with individuals who are known for innovation. It’s been only recently that companies have started to provide outlets for innovation, realizing that some people need to be alone and others want to be in groups. Either way, innovation is always a challenge because it takes time, commitment, resources and failure.

Yep, failure is typically a huge part of the innovation process. And what churches are OK with failing? I am encouraged by the increasing amount of church cultures that do foster innovation, but the size of these churches has run the gamut.

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:23 AM
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February 22, 2007

Innovative Churches: Community

Part 8 in a series on Innovative Churches. Be sure to contribute to the Most Innovative Churches list.

How are innovative churches trying to engage and impact their communities outside the walls of the church building? Does innovation look differently in communities with diverse cultures and races?

Innovative churches are impacting their communities outside of the walls of their church buildings by being intentional about how to connect their message with their audience. Innovation does not always equal high tech! Concerts in the park, street clean-ups, partnerships with the mayor’s office, school assemblies, coffee shops and the hundreds of other ways churches are connecting with their communities can be very innovative! Innovation always looks different because communities are different. Latin American culture is big on family holidays. Urban (city) churches are big on community impact. Suburban churches have the challenge of fostering relationships because three-car garages separate them during the week.

Posted by Brad Abare at 5:58 AM
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February 19, 2007

Churches Should Not Just Do What Works

Last week Kevin wrote an entry about something Craig Groeschel of LifeChurch.tv said regarding sticking to what works. While I appreciate the intentionality of getting rid of unnecessary activity, there is a slippery slope here if we're not careful. Your comments are already indicating so.

I trust Groeschel's heart in what they're doing. My worry is that some people will take this concept and run the wrong way with it. We can't be eliminating the very things churches should be doing! The very Message we're all communicating is always going to be at odds with our selfish, lazy, indulgent, and passive human nature.

Getting rid of church-sponsored softball teams (let's continue clearing out the Christian ghetto people!) is one thing. Getting rid of biblically-condoned ministry contexts is quite another.

The church is not always going to be doing things that people naturally want to respond to. From discipleship and caring for the poor, to teaching the fundamentals of faith and being a hospital for sinners, not everything we do as a church is going to appear like it's working, or even that it always matters. This doesn't mean we should stop doing it.

The measure for success is not just about how many people respond or attend. It's also about how well we're being Christ's hands and feet so that we can truly be called beautiful for communicating the Good News!

Posted by Brad Abare at 8:34 AM
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February 13, 2007

Church Marketing Lessons from PETA

So today I stumbled across this little pornographic video from PETA and blogged about it on my personal site. Don't worry, I'm linking to my blog post and not the video, both to deny PETA the link love and to keep us one step removed from the controversy (if that means anything).

The video features a woman proclaiming the great things PETA has done this year in a 'state of the union' style, while she strips. Yes strips. By the end of it she's sportin' the Eve look, sans cleverly placed leaves.

As I pondered the whole thing and wrote about it for my personal blog, lessons for church marketing came to mind. It's a stretch, I know, but bear with me.

Continue reading "Church Marketing Lessons from PETA"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:26 PM
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February 9, 2007

Don't Cause Unnecessary Offense

Yesterday I tried to talk about some ways to avoid and address criticism and in the end I was debating with myself about whether or not we should care about image. My answer didn't fully satisfy even myself, but then I came across this article from Books and Culture, On Slippery Slopes, the Blogosphere, and (oh, yes) Women.

The article is basically author Susan Wise Bauer's defense for her support of John Stackhouse's Finally Feminist: A Pragmatic Christian Understanding of Gender. That support caused her quite a bit of grief from folks who consider things like the ordination of women starting a direct slide to homosexual marriage which we all know is what triggers the apocalypse. But we're not here to argue about gender roles or homosexuality, so let's not.

What I am here to do is talk about how her exploration of Stackhouse's arguments seem to apply to things like marketing and image and give me a slightly more satisfactory answer to my question.

Continue reading "Don't Cause Unnecessary Offense"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 5:26 AM
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February 7, 2007

Innovative Churches: Leadership & the Next Generation

Part 6 in a series on Innovative Churches. Be sure to contribute to the Most Innovative Churches list.

How can leaders help create a culture of innovation?

Leadership can help create a culture of innovation by stepping aside. Unless you have been hired or appointed chief innovation officer, chances are pretty good you were hired or appointed to be doing something else. This doesn’t mean you are not needed or wanted in the process, it simply means you need to step aside and let others champion this cause.

Continue reading "Innovative Churches: Leadership & the Next Generation"

Posted by Brad Abare at 9:22 AM
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February 5, 2007

Visitors, Beer and Sex--Oh My!

Yet again the links have piled up around me faster than I can blog them, so it's time to blow the dam and just let you have them. Here we go...

• The Visitor's Card - The most potentially interesting of the new Outreach Magazine blogs, it's written by a non-Christian describing her experiences visiting church (via Dan Ohlerking)
• Beer and the Bible - Interesting news article about a church outreach that unfortunately draws too much attention to the alcohol. The pastor of the church in question offers some explanation in a comment on this blog post (via Brenton Balvin).
• Does Size Matter? - Swerve, the new blog from lifechurch.tv, has an interesting series on church size.
• My Dad Went to Church. Yay! - A video of a son taking his dad to church for the first time in 20 years--this is what it's all about. It's also so raw and quirky that it almost seems made up, but that's just the Internet hoaxist in me. (via Tony Morgan)

Don't worry, there's much, much more after the jump ...

Continue reading "Visitors, Beer and Sex--Oh My!"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 4:29 PM
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January 31, 2007

Innovative Churches: Obstacles & Dangers

Part 5 in a series on Innovative Churches. Be sure to contribute to the Most Innovative Churches list.

Here are more of the Q&As from the Outreach/Tony Morgan questionnaire:

What are the enemies of innovation in churches? What are the challenges churches will have to overcome to experience innovation?

Enemies of innovation include any attempt to minimize or marginalize the ability to create new ways of telling the story. My opinion is that people are the biggest hurdle to innovation. We wouldn’t have the automobile today if we would have listened to all the people that thought going more than five miles per hour was too fast.

Continue reading "Innovative Churches: Obstacles & Dangers"

Posted by Brad Abare at 12:19 PM
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January 26, 2007

Innovative Churches: Opportunities & Influence

Part 4 in a series on Innovative Churches. Be sure to contribute to the Most Innovative Churches list.

Here's the continuing Q&As from the Outreach/Tony Morgan questionnaire:

What’s happening outside the church that should influence innovation inside local churches?

The biggest thing happening outside the church is that most people are not looking to the church for anything. Because of this, any attempt at being innovative may very well be seen as the second grader who didn’t get chosen by the red team or the blue team, so he’s showing off his cool moves on the side of the field, hoping someone sees.

What we need is to be communicating the message in ways our communities understand. This is a critical component of understanding where the church fits in a culture full of innovation. Any innovative influences from the "outside" should be studied from the perspective of impact, not impression. What is working and why? Not what is cool and how can I use that in my church. Just because blogs are cool doesn’t mean everyone should have one.

Continue reading "Innovative Churches: Opportunities & Influence"

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:56 AM
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January 24, 2007

Innovative Churches: Ingredients

Part 3 in a series on Innovative Churches. Be sure to contribute to the Most Innovative Churches list.

Here's the next Q&A from the Outreach/Tony Morgan questionnaire:

What does innovation look like in today’s churches? What are the ingredients for innovation in the local church?

Assuming the basic premise that the church has the greatest story ever told, today’s churches must first understand the communities within which we are communicating. Innovation for its own sake is ineffectual. Innovation that understands the context for its contribution to telling the story is explosive.

The ingredients for innovation in the local church include eliminating assumptions, raising expectations and inviting the right people to the conversation. The right people are not typically the ones you think. Make a list of all the people you would never want to speak into anything the church would do, and then appoint someone from that group to lead the conversation. Put forth a few ground rules and cast some vision. The story is already set--it has been for two thousand years. Your church’s involvement in communicating that story should already be figured out, too (if not, you don’t need innovation just yet, you need direction). What you don’t have figured out is how. This is where innovation comes in. But quit trying to do it all yourself.

Posted by Brad Abare at 9:43 AM
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January 22, 2007

Innovative Churches: Definition & Is It Biblical?

Part 2 in a series on Innovative Churches. Be sure to contribute to the Most Innovative Churches list.

As a part of Outreach's Most Innovative Churches list, I answered a questionnaire for Tony Morgan about what it really means to be innovative. Here's the first of those Q&A's:

How would you define innovation?

Innovation is the ability to look forward, leverage potential and lead change.

Is innovation biblical? Does God want churches to innovate? Did innovation happen in the first-century Church? Should the Church embrace innovation today? Why?

Yes, innovation is biblical to the extent that it fosters and facilitates God’s agenda. God is all about being innovative! He’s used things like a burning bush, a talking donkey and a huge boat to get his point across. God is all about getting our attention and using whatever means necessary to build his kingdom.

Acts 1:7-8 is a great example of strategic innovation in practice. Here, Jesus helps the apostles look forward (I’m coming back but you don’t know when), leverage potential (you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on you), and lead change (start here with Jerusalem, and work your way out to Judea, Samaria and to the ends of the earth). This innovative approach was Jesus’ way of saying take my gospel to the people; don’t wait for them to come to you. That’s innovative!

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:48 AM
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January 19, 2007

The Most Innovative Churches

Part 1 in a series on Innovative Churches

Outreach magazine recently released a list of America's most innovative churches. Outreach magazine and Simply Strategic guy Tony Morgan came up with the list, with the help of a panel of experts.

But what do experts know? We put together Outreach's list and now want to hear your opinion. Are these the most innovative churches? How would you rank them? What churches would you add to the list? Thanks to some handy Squidoo-fueled technology, we offer the Most Innovative Churches list, voted on by you the people.

Click through and sign in with Squidoo to vote or make additions to the list. Remember that this isn't about whose church is more innovative and earning bragging rights. This is a chance to learn from some cool examples. Get some ideas. Be inspired. Let the innovative cream rise to the top. We're not here to stroke egos.

In addition to our interactive innovation list, we also want to explore what makes a church innovative. Included on the panel that came up with the original list was our own Brad Abare. Along with recommending some innovative churches for the list, Brad answered a questionnaire for Tony Morgan about what it really means to be innovative. We'll share some of Brad's answers on innovation over the next few weeks.

Continue reading "The Most Innovative Churches"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:54 AM
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January 18, 2007

Salt-Seasoning for a Full House

When our success at communicating is measured against the contemporary, creative, and controversial, we're missing it. Like a dieter eating Milk Duds on a treadmill, we must not forget why we're communicating this greatest story ever told in the first place.

Not to be contemporary for the sake of relevance.
Not to be creative for the sake of recognition.
Not to be controversial for the sake of climax.

May we be the salt-seasoning that brings out the God-flavors of the earth (Matthew 5:13), so that the house of God will be full (Luke 14:23)!

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:53 AM
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January 16, 2007

Beautiful Basics

Everybody's been talking about the amazing new iPhone this past week. As you can imagine, it holds a few lessons for the church.

But first comes 37signals' prediction for the iPhone, posted hours before the iPhone debuted:

Apple makes history not by leapfrogging everyone in terms of functionality and bells and whistles, they do it through elegance, simplification, clarity, and practicality.

I see no reason why they won’t follow that strategy with their phone. It will change the game, but not because it does more than everyone else’s phone. I think we’ll see just the opposite.

Apple will execute on the basics beautifully.

And while Apple has crammed all sorts of stuff into their phone (video, music, Internet), they did do a massive simplification (no buttons?!) and come June we'll see just how beautiful it is.

Continue reading "Beautiful Basics"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 11:07 AM
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January 9, 2007

Irrelevant Social Clubs: Martin Luther King Jr. on the Church

This coming Monday in the United States, we will celebrate Martin Luther King Jr. Day. It's a federal holiday and, as of the year 2000, every state recognizes it. Established in 1983, it is the newest addition to the annual holiday lineup. King is the only American besides George Washington recognized with a national holiday. For many, it's the day off we've been looking forward to ever since our Christmas and New Year's extended absences.

This holiday should be a big deal for churches. In my opinion, outside of Christmas and Easter, no other holiday represents the heart of God so much. Unfortunately, I think the pace of Christmas and New Year's is just too much for churches to recover from in order to swing back around for Martin Luther King Jr. Day a few weeks later.

Continue reading "Irrelevant Social Clubs: Martin Luther King Jr. on the Church"

Posted by Brad Abare at 10:15 AM
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October 2, 2006

Seth Godin on Church Marketing

Simply strategic guy Tony Morgan interviews marketing guru Seth Godin. Here's a quick excerpt:

Nearly everyone who markets something suffers from the following conceit: other people do marketing, but my product is so amazing and magical and important that marketing isn't necessary.

Nowhere is this idea easier to embrace than in a church. After all, marketing seems contrived or selfish or callous. If you really and truly believe that your faith is the one and only right faith, how dare you market!

But I don't think the "one and only right faith" is accurate. No one is particularly chosen or blessed or better. A look at history makes that really clear. So you need to get over that if you're going to grow.

So, yes, if you want to grow, you need to market.

Of course then Godin finishes with this, when Morgan asked him what insights church leaders could gain from his latest book, Small is the New Big: "I have no business at all telling church leaders much of anything. I hope they'll find a nugget that resonates, especially if their goal is to spread kindness and openness. We need more of that."

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:35 PM
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June 27, 2006

Most Important 9-Word Sentence in Marketing History

How's that for a teaser? Scott Aughtmon offers this 9-word doozie from elite copywriter Gary Bencivenga and applies it to the church.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:03 PM
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June 5, 2006

Church Marketing Philosophy & Free Gas

Another church is giving away free gas. This time it's the Crossing Community Church in Chandler, Ariz. The church isn't shy about marketing, even including a section on their web site that explains why they do marketing:

It is astonishing to me the lengths secular corporations will go in order to market relatively insignificant products like deodorant or nail polish. It is equally astonishing to me that while the church has the most important, most compelling message ever – Jesus Christ and His atoning work – that we have done so little to "market" His message. We need to get that message out using every means possible so that every life possible may be positively changed forever. Therefore we advertise The Crossing through many different avenues.

To those who scoff at church marketing, Lead Pastor Mike Harper says:

"It comes down to your vantage point of how you view the Gospel," Harper says. "If you think it's the best product out there, you need to get that message out using every means possible."

They even mentioned little old us as a source of ideas and resources. Aw, shucks.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:22 PM
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May 10, 2006

The Church & Money: Plasma TV or Feed the Poor?

by Anne Jackson, Guest Blogger

It's an age old debate–where to spend the church's money. Is our money better suited going to the poor or to a new website? The AIDS crisis or a coffee bar?

Let's take a look at a story in Matthew 26:

When Jesus was at Bethany, a guest of Simon the Leper, a woman came up to him as he was eating dinner and anointed him with a bottle of very expensive perfume. When the disciples saw what was happening, they were furious. "That's criminal! This could have been sold for a lot and the money handed out to the poor."

When Jesus realized what was going on, he intervened. "Why are you giving this woman a hard time? She has just done something wonderfully significant for me." (Matthew 26:6-10 The Message)

Does the disciples' response sound familiar? So often we look at the money churches spend and think, "What if we used that money for orphans, or the poor, or the homeless...? Do we really need another plasma screen/coffee bar/glossy brochure?"

But that's not the issue for Jesus. And that's where I have often failed to understand Christ's perspective. Creating an appealing environment that includes things like comfy—and possibly pricey—chairs or designing marketing pieces that hit their mark—and don't come cheap—can be very similar to what this woman did for Jesus. Now, before you start sending hate mail or screaming blasphemy, let me explain.

Continue reading "The Church & Money: Plasma TV or Feed the Poor?"

Posted by Guest Blogger at 5:18 PM
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May 9, 2006

Authentic Not Slick

Mike Sares, pastor and founder of Scum of the Earth church in Denver--a church full of mohawks, piercings and the kind of alternative crowd not usually sighted in church--nicely summed up the attitude many have toward marketing:

"The slicker something appears, the less we trust it."

That can be a problem for communicators. How do you do something good (you can't accuse Scum of the Earth of shoddy communication) without appearing slick?

The answer, I think, is authenticity. Slick happens when your communication doesn't match your community. Slick happens when people feel targeted instead of served. Slick happens when people think marketing is something sinister.

Authenticity, on the other hand, generates trust, which is half the battle. And, of course, you can't fake that.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:36 AM
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April 3, 2006

Church Advertising is a Waste of Time

by Ryan Stauffer, Guest Blogger

Here's a confession: I'm not a fan of big churches, and by "big churches" I mean weekly attendance over 20. I think that churches should meet in homes and that "ministry" means helping a guy replace his broken water heater. Also, I think church advertising is a waste of time.

I recognize this is narrow and even a little hypocritical since I currently do communications full-time for a church of 700. I'm always butting my head against my own lack of enthusiasm for big events and organized ministries. But every few weeks I hear about something that gets me really pumped (usually a bunch of guys fixing cars for widows and single moms) and reminds me of a concept I consider to be at the root of church marketing:

The most powerful apologetic for Christianity is a local church body living the way it should.

Continue reading "Church Advertising is a Waste of Time"

Posted by Guest Blogger at 9:38 AM
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March 22, 2006

Why We Do This

I always love those reminders from God that help me get perspective on why in the world I'm busy about his business in the first place. Today's reminder came from Brennan Manning in his book, The Importance of Being Foolish:

Heightened by what someone has called "the agnosticism of inattention"--the lack of personal discipline to overcome media bombardment, sterile conversation, and utilitarian relationships--our self-awareness grows dim, the presence of a loving God fades into the distance and the possibility of trust and intimacy seems less plausible.

...But so many of the things we do in our solitary moments have nothing to do with the Spirit or with the living will of God. Bothered by this dichotomy, we plunge into spiritual activities and get involved in church-related organizations and events in an effort to fill the empty space we know needs filling. Disciplined to renounce managerial control of our lives and unwilling to run the risk of living in union with Yahweh, we seek personal security and reassurance in rituals, devotions, liturgies, and prayer meetings. These structures provide a modicum of peace and promise that the comfortable piety and material possessions that constitute the sense of self will not be disturbed. But something is missing.

In the midst of our strategic thinking, creative planning, and momentous momentum, my prayer is that we replace that empty space Manning refers to not with the self-moved or self-motivated, but with the Spirit-led mind of Christ. Surrendering our big ideas, our best intentions, and our brilliant plans is perhaps what Paul was referring to in Galatians 2:20 when he said, "it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me..."

May Christ live in you today.

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:44 AM
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February 16, 2006

Experience Church, Stripped Down

I am often asked by pastors how far is too far. From big screens and big hair to modern worship and candlelight services, there are so many ways to do, have, and present "church." From the mini to the mega, from the old-fashioned steeples to the churches who lease space in night clubs, the experiences are virtually endless. Quiet and sincere. Loud and glorious. Seeker sensitive. Evangelistic. Dancin' in the aisles. Liturgy. Laughter. Multi-media. Cup holders. You name it and there is a good chance it is available or been tried.

Yet the questions remain: How much should I do? What should I avoid? What is cool? What works?

Here's a simple approach I've learned...

Continue reading "Experience Church, Stripped Down"

Posted by Brad Abare at 5:59 AM
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February 8, 2006

What's Working in Churches

Jordon Cooper has an intersting blog entry about wanting to rediscover stories. He's tired of talking about what's wrong with the church and wants to hear more stories of what's working:

Church watching and complaining is as old as Jesus' disciples wondering aloud about what Jesus was doing with those pesky kids. As I read church history, it is rarely full of the complainers and deconstructers. That is the easy part. History is full of the builders. Someone I know once told me that he felt called to change the church. How has the church been changed before? Would there be a Willow Creek Association if Bill Hybels had just sat in his class and talked about the need for a Acts 2 church and decided not to plant Willow Creek? Writing is important but until someone can prove to me that they know what they are talking about, do we ever pay attention? The reason that I want to hear from builders is not because they are necessarily successful but because they have stories to share from their journey. They might not have mighty morphin mega churches but they have stories that I can learn from.

During my frustration with all of this, I started reading more and more weblogs of local communities of faith. Instead of talking about what was wrong with the church, they were quietly articulating the vision of what it could look like and not only that but they were living it out. Instead of just ideas, they were showing me what the church does look like when it is striving to be faithful.

I resonate with Jordon's call. Despite our negative name, I hope Church Marketing Sucks can be more about what's working in church. I'm much more interested in cup holders and swimming pools and Xboxes and reaching teen moms than I am in comic sans.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:13 PM
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January 10, 2006

Aslan vs. Hobbes: A Marketing Comparison

Christianity Today has an interesting article comparing the marketing of two cats: Aslan the lion from The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe and Hobbes the tiger from Calvin & Hobbes. While Aslan and the rest of the Narnia characters have been given the full Hollywood merchandising treatment, Calvin & Hobbes stands as the rare example of no merchandising (so yeah, all those peeing Calvin window stickers are unauthorized). Creator Bill Watterson refused to license his characters, arguing that it would diminish the value of the strip. A stuffed animal of Hobbes would certainly take the fun out of the question of his reality.

It's not like the church has the opportunity to create marketing tie-ins like a happy meal, but it does raise questions about how far we take our marketing. I've always thought the no-licensing stance of Watterson was pretty cool (of course I'd still love a Calvin & Hobbes T-shirt). It's also worth pointing out that Watterson's decision not to license his characters is just as much a marketing decision as Disney's to license Narnia to death. Marketing is just a tool--it's what you do with it that matters.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:08 AM
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December 9, 2005

This Sermon Brought To You By Narnia

The much-hyped Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe opens in theaters today and for every bit of Narnia marketing you come across it seems you'll also find a corresponding article in the media.

The CT Weblog offers some broad coverage and specifically explores the question, did Disney pay for your sermon? Sermon Central is offering a Narnia sermon contest where you can win a trip to London and $1,000 cash. They're not outright bribing pastors to mention Narnia in a sermon since pastors only need to submit a transcript or outline and it is just a random drawing.

But it is a very small step away from simply handing Pastor Joe a check in exchange for mentioning Faith-Based Movie X in his sermon. It's like those oh-so-sublte Sears placements in Extreme Makeover: Home Edition.

And that doesn't make me feel good. Though it could be a solution to the perpetual church problem of the budgeted and actual income lines never matching up.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 12:22 PM
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November 16, 2005

Do It Yourself Church Marketing

Ah. You gotta love this cartoon from CartoonChurch.com. Right on the money.

If you haven't been to Cartoon Church (we've plugged it before) you should check it out. They've got great cartoons you can easily purchase for use in church publications. I like the Make Poverty History cartoon and the cartoon version of the Windsor Report. (Which isn't technically a Cartoon Church offering, but it's still by Dave Walker and it's still funny. At least for someone who attends an Episcopal church like me.)

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:29 AM
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November 15, 2005

Priest Idol: Church as Reality TV

A dying church in a small British town. A young American priest. A mission to revitalize a congregation of less than ten. It doesn't exactly sound like the basis for a reality TV show, but Priest Idol will air as a three-part series in November on the UK's Channel 4. James McCaskill was that priest, stepping in to revitalize the parish of St. Mary Magdalene while the TV cameras rolled. Christianity Today talked with McCaskill about his experience.

As part of the show a marketing firm came in to help relaunch the church—and suddenly it's clear why we're talking about it. A church taking part in a reality show is another topic entirely, but the role of church marketing in the project is interesting.

Continue reading "Priest Idol: Church as Reality TV"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:44 AM
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October 31, 2005

No Sunday Service, Sports Instead

It appears New Zealand is still adjusting to all the attention that came with its Lord of the Rings fame. Whether or not the beloved Kiwis are seeking more attention is unclear, but this story from the NZ Herald is certainly sporting echoes of strategic swagger.

Greerton Bible Church is replacing its Sunday morning services with Sunday morning sports, beginning November 6. So as not to eliminate all of the religious underpinnings the church holds to, its religious, um... errr... regular, service will be moved to Friday nights. "A lot of people are going to watch the [games] on Sunday morning, so we figured if we can't beat 'em, join 'em," said senior pastor Russell Embling.

The cool thing about this approach is that the church has invited sports celebrities to come and share their story. Says Embling, "Each of our guest speakers will also share their story of how their faith has influenced their rugby careers and life."

I like this idea as a way for churches to reach out and attract more people. I only have one concern, and its a concern I have with nearly all of these kinds of approaches.

Continue reading "No Sunday Service, Sports Instead"

Posted by Brad Abare at 1:04 PM
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October 5, 2005

Church Growth Fallout

Mark Oestreicher from Youth Specialties has an interesting post using a Raymond Chandler quote to talk about the state of the church:

From thirty feet away she looked like a lot of class. From ten feet away she looked like something made up to be seen from thirty feet away.

While Oestreicher says a lot of good has come from the church lately, there's also been a lot of stuff that sucks (his words, not mine):

• Focus on programming over people.
• Obsession with numbers.
• Re-introduction of the idea that the building is the church.
• Franchised youth ministries.
• Church marketing.
• Acceptance and affirmation of consumerism.

Unfortunately, he doesn't explain what he means by church marketing. I'll just say what I always say—church marketing is just a tool.

But he's still right. These are examples of what we mean when we say church marketing sucks, right along with the crummy clip art and bad design. But the goal of good church marketing should be to overcome these failures. The goal of good church marketing is to look good from a distance, and still look good up close, and actually be good on the inside. Authenticity. That's what we're after.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:46 AM
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September 22, 2005

Church Marketing is Not Easy

Churches are terrible at communicating. We know that.

But I find a small measure of comfort in the fact that we're dealing with a difficult message. God is amazing and mysterious and enormous and frustrating. It's not like selling sugar-water ("Mmm... tastes good... hot girls notice me...") or cars ("Mmm... car go fast... hot girls notice me...").

Telling people about Jesus is not an easy task.

If a professional marketing expert admits he's rarely had a job as rough as marketing the church, well, that's at least reassuring. It's not like we're drowning in the kiddie pool.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 12:02 PM
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August 31, 2005

Making Sense Without Sense

While on the treadmill the other day at my local gym, a TV in the distance captivated me. I usually don't care to watch the "devil box" (as my mother used to call it) when I am working out, so I didn't have one of the wireless headphones that pipe in the audio from any of the TVs in sight.

What struck me were the visuals that held my attention without even being able to hear what was going on. It started with a "got milk" ad, then a Verizon cell phone spot, and then back to the local news.

Continue reading "Making Sense Without Sense"

Posted by Brad Abare at 5:58 AM
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August 29, 2005

Many Ways of Doing Church

You know what I love about the church? There's no one right way of doing it. No where in the Bible do we find an order of service telling us how to conduct church. No where does it say how long the sermon has to be, or even that there has to be a sermon. It never says whether we have to sing traditional or contemporary music. It doesn't mandate a specific version of the Bible to read outloud. We're never told what our building should look like or whether we should sit in a circle or sit in rows, sit in pews or sit on the floor.

There's no single right way of doing church. There may be some wrong ways and some bad ideas, but when it comes to doing it right you can have a lot of different solutions.

And the same goes for marketing. The right answer doesn't always look the same. You'll find ideas and methods and principles that are the same, but the final product can be radically diverse. The cookie-cutter approach isn't recommended.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 10:22 AM
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Real Live Preacher on Church Marketing

Real Live Preacher, the quasi-famous blogging pastor who recently published his first book, RealLivePreacher.com, ranted about church marketing recently. He complains about both churches doing marketing and businesses that market to churches. For the examples he gives, I can certainly feel his pain.

But it sounds oddly familiar, ragging on the very idea of marketing based on the examples of people who do it poorly. Wait—isn't that what people do with Christianity all the time? Write it off thanks to a hypocrite who doesn't practice what they preach? Or even an entire system that doesn't seem to be doing it right?

I've said it before and I'll say it again (and again and again...): Marketing is a tool. It all depends on how you use it. But don't condemn the idea based on a poor example.

At the end he yearns for a pure and authentic church, and I'm right there with him. He speaks of his own church as messy, and I like that image. It goes along with my favorite image of the broken church. But you know what? It's still marketing. Who ever said marketing had to be impure and disingenuous? It's not a bad word, marketing. It's just executed poorly, and as often as the business world screws it up, the church screws it up even more.

But that doesn't mean it can't be done right.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:40 AM
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August 24, 2005

The Message Drives the Marketing

A recent article touts the high demand of marketing skills in church leaders, but unfortunately the article doesn't entirely get it. On several fronts.

Civil Rights and Marketing
The article quotes a professor about the potential downsides of church marketing:

Thinking in terms of customers and markets, however, might not always bring out the best in a church leader, according to Jackson Carroll, a professor emeritus of religion and society and former director of research at the Pulpit & Pew Project at Duke University in Durham, N.C. He cites the example of Southern preachers who took up the cause of civil rights in the 1960s despite vehement local resistance.

"It didn't help marketing at all," Professor Carroll says. "People left churches in droves when pastors or leaders in the congregation took a strong stand in favor of integration, [but] they did it anyway."

Today, he says, pastors who make marketing a top priority run the risk of fostering "a congregation that refuses to deal with issues of individual or social justice because it might offend someone."

I hate to correct a professor, but Professor Carroll is a bit confused.

Continue reading "The Message Drives the Marketing"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:05 PM
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August 9, 2005

The $88 Billion Church

The 350,000 churches, synagogues and mosques in the U.S. raked in an estimated $88.3 billion last year. That's a lot of money. That makes religion a bigger business than say, movies, music, video games and books combined. Not too shabby.

So why do churches have such a hard time making an impact on society?

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 5:18 PM
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July 27, 2005

Mega Churches: Act of God or Marketing?

A recent article looks at mega churches and asks why they're growing. Is it God, as most of the churches would say, or is it marketing, like the academics say? While the article never gives much of an answer, it does spend most of the time looking at mega church marketing efforts.

Too bad the article never suggests that marketing could be one of any number of tools God could use to grow the church.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:23 PM
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July 26, 2005

Marketing without Marketing

I came across this interview with David A. Anderson, Senior Pastor of Bridgeway Community Church in Columbia, Md., in Church Executive magazine in an article focusing on racial unity. This line about church marketing jumped out at me:

How did you market yourself to your community and surrounding area to let people know that you were there? Actually, we didn't do much marketing. We didn't have the dollars for marketing when we first planted. We didn't start from another church. I started with a diverse team of people that I met in the community. The rest were people that I had built relationships with. So when we began we had a multicultural core and then we created an environment where everyone felt it was home and that they could go here and invite their friends, neighbors, family and associates. It was more about making the soil to receive the seed than it was about getting the seed.

What strikes me is Anderson's insistence that they couldn't afford to do marketing, and thus didn't. It's a sentiment shared by most pastors, yet it's wrong.

Continue reading "Marketing without Marketing"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 5:03 PM
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July 25, 2005

Telling Stories

It's no secret that Jesus' use of parables in the New Testament continues to draw parallels to present day story telling. Using the arts—theater, photography, movies, books, and more—generation after generation have continued to take the lead from the Master Storyteller who walked the earth over two thousand years ago. It frustrates me greatly how only recently (within the last one hundred years) Christians—"little christs"—have lost the lead in the use of communication mediums. While I do believe this will only be a short blip on the historical timeline of "Christianity screw-ups," I do think its implications are calamitous.

Yogi Berra once said, "When you come to a fork in the road, take it." If only Yogi's instruction would have been on billboards in the first half of the 1900s. Christians not only came to a fork in the road, they came right up to it and turned around! They were only one letter away from getting “holywood” and missed it on their drive back to church planting in the suburbs (did urban life have too much culture already?) and catching flights overseas for missionary work as the dawn of aviation became the answer to "go into all the world."

Man did we miss it.

Continue reading "Telling Stories"

Posted by Brad Abare at 9:43 AM
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June 20, 2005

Barna's State of the Church

The Next-Wave online magazine has an interesting article on George Barna's State of the Church 2005. The piece dives into Barna's latest findings about the church, compares them with his 2002 findings and gives a sorry picture of the church (the author also beats a poor restaurant metaphor to death).

In 2002, Barna suggested that there are greater than 300,000 Protestant and 20,000 Catholic churches in the U.S. He contrasts this with the 50,000 post offices and 15,000 McDonald's that serve our nation. He writes, "the church has less impact on our culture than any of those less prolific entities, despite missions that are much less significant or compelling."

...When your franchise's performance is benchmarked against the U.S. postal service and your outfit comes out on the short-end, perhaps it’s time for a change.

At one point the article says that churches have "changed the ambiance, the music, the lighting, added video screens, pastors, elders, and websites, embraced bigger buildings with different architectural features, turned to new delivery systems, serving up their products via seminars, books cds, dvds, live television and training by subscription satellite broadcasts," and yet none of it seems to work.

If it's really as bad as that (is it?) what is the church to do? Marketing alone isn't the answer, but it seems marketing should help us get to the answer (good marketing won't save a crappy product, it'll send you back to the drawing board).

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:16 PM
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June 6, 2005

Churches are like a Velvet Elvis

The Detroit Free Press profiled Rob Bell, pastor of Mars Hill Bible Church in Grandville, Mich. and his upcoming book, Velvet Elvis, came up as a metaphor for out of date churches. So of course Mars Hill is all about reaching people where traditional churches have failed. And the church is mostly comprised of twentysomethings, the one demographic missing from most congregations.

Bell's approach is to get back to the basics:

"This journey we're on at Mars Hill isn't about numbers," Bell said. "You'll never catch me selling 'Seven Steps to a Mars Hill Model.' What we're interested in is real people stepping forward to tell how their lives are being transformed and how they're building healthy communities.

"Remember what Jesus always wanted to know?" he asked. "What's the fruit we're producing? Is justice being done? Are people sharing their possessions? Are the oppressed being set free? Are relationships being healed? To me, that's the point. Everything else is just chatter." ...

"My theory of church growth is simple," said Bell, leaning across the table to deliver the coup de grace. "People drive a long way to see a fire."

(link via CT's weblog)

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:44 AM
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April 24, 2005

Barbara Boxer on Being Authentic

If you've been a part of the Church Marketing Sucks conversation for any amount of time, you know a basic tenet of good marketing philosophy comes down to churches being authentic.

It appears even the political elite are understanding what it means to be authentic. In Time's "10 Questions For..." column, Perry Bacon Jr. asked California Senator Barbara Boxer "What does your party need to do to win more elections?"

"I think we should be authentic, and I think we should allow our candidates to be who they are. We should be a big tent, and we're pretty much tied together to be the party of hope, opportunity and fairness. But I think authenticity is the key; I think that's what people want more than everything."

Thanks Barbara for giving us a picture of what the church should be. A "big tent" where a church is who it is and "authenticity is the key" to hope.

Posted by Brad Abare at 2:12 PM
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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 2:20 PM
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April 1, 2005

Pope John Paul II on Communications

I don't know much about the Pope. But I am learning quickly. Despite growing up Baptist where we didn't give much heed to the Pope, I do respect his love of life and defense of the Church.

Admittedly lame research methods (i.e. Google) found the following quotes from the late Pope John Paul II:

"The question confronting the Church today is not any longer whether the man in the street can grasp a religious message, but how to employ the communications media so as to let him have the full impact of the Gospel message." (World Communications Day, January 24, 1989)

I know he was talking about media like television and radio, but essentially he was getting at the importance of using modern methods to spread the Gospel. The church utilizing marketing is no different.

"Young people are threatened... by the evil use of advertising techniques that stimulate the natural inclination to avoid hard work by promising the immediate satisfaction of every desire."

Even the Pope recognized the dangers of dishonest marketing. As churches begin using marketing and advertising techniques we need to avoid any dishonest, manipulative or, as the Pope said, evil methods.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 2:15 PM
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February 17, 2005

A Cool Jesus Sucks

Don Miller, author of Blue Like Jazz and Searching For God Knows What, hits the nail on the head in this interview with the Wittenburg Door. Trying to make Jesus hip or cool is not good marketing. Distorting who or what you are is dishonest, inauthentic--and it sucks.

DOOR: How do you react to evangelicals that present Christianity as being cool and hip?

MILLER: I think the Gospel is the message that Jesus wants us to present, and we don't need to be God's marketing machine. We need to present the Gospel accurately because that's what God has asked us to do. I think if somebody passes from this life thinking that Jesus was cool, that's not very helpful. They need to know that Jesus was the Son of God who died to forgive them of their sins, and enter into a relationship with God. I think the church has bought into this idea that if we make Jesus look cool we win. But what these fellows are trying to do is make themselves look cool, not Jesus. They're looking at a culture that rejects the idea of Jesus, they say "But I want to be a Christian and I also want to be cool so I'll try to make Jesus cool." That's about you, not Jesus. We certainly need to repent of that.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 6:26 AM
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November 29, 2004

Think Young(er)

In the December 2004 issue of Fast Company magazine, staff writer Ryan Underwood does a "Fast Talk" with Zean Nielsen, director of marketing for Bang & Olufsen America, the way-too-expensive for me store with gadgets way-too-cool for me.

Zean (pronounced Shawn) is from Denmark. He was recruited by a marketing group that used some major filtering criteria (eight hours of exams, IQ tests, English and Math placement, etc.) before making a recommendation to B&O. Zean got the job. He was 23 years old.

Two years later, at age 25, B&O would recruit him to lead the way in opening 60 stores in the Unites States and Canada. Zean is now 26 years old and 43 of the 60 stores are already up and running.

John A. Byrne, editor of Fast Company, was so impressed he wrote this in his editor's column in the same issue: "The fact that [Zean has] been given such responsibility so young says a lot about Bang & Olufsen. It is an organization that encourages and supports creativity, a flat and lean company where young, talented people are empowered to make a difference."

What would happen if pastors appointed a young adult in their twenties (inside the church) to lead a creative team made up of individuals inside and outside the church? This team could meet regularly and dream up new ways to reach the community, enfranchise the disenfranchised, and build loyalty. The team would be fully empowered to function within the context set out by senior leadership.

I can only imagine what would happen in our churches...

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:00 AM
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November 16, 2004

What is Marketing?

by Andy Havens, Guest Blogger

Ask most people about marketing and they’ll talk about advertising. Why? Because advertising is the end result of a long marketing process and the only part that is actually observed by the general public. Behind the scenes, though, there are hundreds of people and thousands of hours of marketing work involved in every product you see advertised.

This becomes problematic when consumers of advertising become creators of marketing, as they assume they should start with advertising. That’s like assuming that building a house begins with picking out paint and wallpaper because that’s the part that’s most visible and that you’re most familiar with.

So what is marketing?

Continue reading "What is Marketing?"

Posted by Guest Blogger at 9:21 AM
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October 25, 2004

Marketing Happens

"To some degree all that marketing means is communication. If we're communicating in public, I suppose that could be called marketing. Is it being done intentionally, or accidentally, wisely or foolishly? The fact that when a non-Christian in America hears 'Christian' their first thought is anti-homosexual, that's not a mistake. ... Whatever you think about homosexuality, that shouldn't be the first thing people think of when they think of Christians. Sadly, when the brand identity suggests Christians are judgmental, too often that's accurate. That's a consequence of our communication." –Brian McLaren (see our interview)

Some people like to bad mouth marketing and pretend they're above such a crass form of commercialization. But just as not deciding is a kind of decision, not marketing is a form of marketing (albeit a bad one).

The church has an image, whether we want to think about it or not. Right now that image sucks, more so than it probably should.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:28 AM
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October 15, 2004

A Generous Orthodoxy

Christianity today is incredibly fragmented, with Baptists and Lutherans and Presbyterians and Methodists and Pentecostals and Catholics and every other group. Some are liberal, some are conservative, and we just can't get along.

But as eras change people are crossing boundaries and adding all sorts of adjectives. I could call myself a Baptist Episcopalian, which just sounds ludicrous, but the reality is that I've found elements of both denominations that I appreciate.

That's a generous orthodoxy, one that's willing to look at all the competing ideas and give them love and respect, not just scorn because we disagree. That's the idea in a nutshell, but it has far reaching implications when we consider evangelism, missions, church, even how we relate to other religions. It's not simply a wishy-washy relativism, but a philosophy that's able to differentiate between love and approval (as any good parent knows how to do).

Brian McLaren's A Generous Orthodoxy says very little directly about marketing, but in general it has a lot of implications for how the church communicates. In our interview, McLaren commented on the brand of Christianity and how it's perceived. Are we presenting an image of Christianity as judgmental, dogmatic and intolerant? Or do we present a Christianity that's loving, forgiving and peaceful?

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 2:50 PM
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October 1, 2004

Evangelism & Marketing

"Any religion that believes in evangelism at its core believes in marketing," notes the Rev. Dan Webster, spokesman for the Episcopal Diocese of Utah.

Wow. Couldn't have said it better myself. The Deseret Morning News (which quoted Rev. Webster) covers church marketing in a balanced and thorough article. They say a lot of what we've said, but why listen to just us?

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 7:27 AM
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September 24, 2004

They Should Lash Us To Our Pews

Some thoughts on the ridiculousness of our efforts in church from the Annie Dillard essay "An Expedition to the Pole," which can be found in the book Teaching a Stone to Talk.

She's not talking about church marketing, but she could be.

Continue reading "They Should Lash Us To Our Pews"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 12:45 PM
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September 16, 2004

Old and Boring with a Big Future

I just spent the last hour on a conference call with a development team I am a part of for a ministry organization that has been around over 125 years. For the last several years, they have been trying to find, focus, and forecast a future that is contextualized within a past that is perhaps bigger than any other movement among young people I am aware of.

How does an organization so old, with a history so rich, position itself to last another 125 years? What can a terrific past teach us that would not otherwise be learned as we grow our churches?

The past smells while the future is odorless. Looking back helps as you look ahead but looking ahead while looking back can be costly.

After being around for so long, the tendency to think that marketing will work itself out is natural. After all, the longer you exist, the more people that know you, the more people will "buy" into you, right?

Unfortunately, that doesn't work. Anybody remember Montgomery Ward? If your church has been on the same corner for the last 50 years, don't assume everybody in the neighborhood is aware of your church, not to mention what you're all about.

What would it look like if older churches promoted/marketed themselves as vibrant, thriving, healthy churches with a passion for God and a zest for seeking and connecting community? What if the history of the church came through in the rich stories of the people that make up the church and not etched in nameplates, smelly pews, and fall-asleep preaching?

Maybe history was meant to be discovered. Not treasured.

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:58 AM
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September 15, 2004

Unmarketing the Church

Texas blogger Rob Stewart mentioned us in a recent post, noting that we take issue with marketing the church.

While I love the post, I did want to point out that we don’t have an issue with marketing itself. Marketing happens. We have an issue with crappy marketing.

Both Stewart and commenter Chris Green suggested better approaches for helping the church connect with people:

Stewart: "What if people in need came to know the Church not by its place (the four walls on a street corner) but by Christians' effectual presence in their lives?"

Green: "I wonder what it would be like if we took our marketing money and made it mission money. Like putting cash into an after school day care program for single parent families that can’t afford day care. Or putting our creativity to work on solving housing issues, or recovery for addicts, or helping teen moms."

While those approaches aren’t traditionally what we think of as marketing, they’re still marketing. These are the kind of ideas that are gaining steam in the business world as traditional media advertising becomes less and less effective. This is marketing that no longer sucks.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 10:56 AM
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September 10, 2004

Is Marketing a Dirty Word?

Marketing gets a bad rap. With telemarketers, pushy sales people, and lousy marketing tactics it’s no wonder people bristle at the word. But the concept itself isn’t the problem. Marketing happens whether you plan it or not.

It gets especially tricky when you start talking about the church and marketing. People tend to get up in the arms at the idea of a pastor as salesman. Perhaps it’s a bit too close to home.

Maybe you think the church shouldn’t market itself. And if by that you mean the church shouldn’t use deceptive tactics, shouldn’t use dishonest methods, shouldn’t misrepresent itself to get people in the door, then you really mean the church shouldn’t use poor marketing efforts.

Continue reading "Is Marketing a Dirty Word?"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 1:55 PM
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Church Marketing Needs Authenticity

There's a new approach: church buildings that match church people – broken. Hurricane Frances tore the steeple off the First Baptist Church in Cocoa Beach, Fla, only to impale it in the roof of the church.

Why do churches continually project the image of smiling, happy, joyful people? Perfection will not be found in the roster of a church. It's okay to be hurting, it's okay to be healing, it's okay to be broken because that's what we all are.

"What shall we conclude then? Are we any better? Not at all! ... As it is written, 'There is no one righteous, not even one.'" (Romans 3:9-10 NIV)

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 8:01 AM
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September 5, 2004

Newsflash: Church is for Sinners; Pamela Anderson Teaches Sunday School

Christianity Today's weblog is linking to an interesting item about former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson teaching Sunday school. A potentially risky Google search reveals that it's old news, a story that appeared as early as December 2002, resurfaced in November 2003, and has come up again this past week.

Apparently it's hard to believe that someone who appeared on the cover of Playboy a record 12 times would be teaching Sunday school. You can just hear the zingers coming. There's so many things that could be said about church marketing and a former Playboy model teaching Sunday school. But let's not go there. Church marketing isn't so bad that we need to take a cue from the Hooters' book of marketing.

What's most intriguing about this story is that despite a past that would cause a few raised eyebrows in the pew, this mother of two is not letting her past hinder what God can do today. Celebrity spirituality can come and go like the popularity of boy bands (or be as clear as mud -- a 2003 story claims her latest project is an animated series with Stan Lee called "Striperella"), but the Bible is pretty clear that past sins and a lifetime of mistakes will not hinder God. Church marketing should reflect as much, never giving the impression that pews are reserved for the polished and perfect.

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 10:15 PM
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August 19, 2004

Church: Why Bother?

Philip Yancey asks the question we're all wondering in his booklet Church: Why Bother? My Personal Pilgrimage. The first chapter starts with this quote from J.F. Powers' Wheat That Springeth Green that summarizes the whole conundrum of the church:

"This is a big old ship, Bill. She creaks, she rocks, she rolls, and at times she makes you want to throw up. But she gets where she's going. Always has, always will, until the end of time. With or without you."

Having grown up in a racist, fundamentalist church in the Deep South, Yancey has every reason to abandon the church. But he's found that the Christian faith can only be lived in community. "Perhaps for this reason, I have never given up on church. At a deep level I sense that church contains something I desperately need." (23)

Continue reading "Church: Why Bother?"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 12:58 PM
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August 11, 2004

No Need to Impress

"That's why it's so wonderful to have a home church. We get to mess up in front of them. Have fun with them. Experiment with them. Try things that work, and others that don't. It's nice to have a community of people where you don't really need to impress anybody. They become your 'soundboard' and a little bit of a testing ground where you can explore things together." -Eric Owyoung, vocalist for the worship band Something Like Silas, which despite releasing a national album is sticking with its San Diego church home (Source: Christian Music Today).

Church is supposed to be a place of acceptance and love where there's no need to impress. Perfection should be checked at the door. Which makes clamoring for excellence in church marketing a sticky proposition.

Continue reading "No Need to Impress"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 9:52 AM
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August 10, 2004

Don't Tell the Truth, Realize It

"Truth we are told is truth we may not accept; the truth we have realized is the only truth we own." - Roy H. Williams

In his book The Wizard of Ads, ad man Roy H. Williams writes about truth in advertising in a one-page chapter titled "When the Truth Is Not Persuasive." His profound simplicity on the subject is worth a second look as it applies to the context of how a church can promote itself and the Truth it represents.

Continue reading "Don't Tell the Truth, Realize It"

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:03 AM
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August 3, 2004

Emergent Church Marketing Sucks, Too!

Reimagining Spiritual Formation isn't exactly a title that makes you sit up and pay attention. But the subtitle should get you: "A week in the life of an experimental church." This book explores a week at Solomon's Porch, an emergent church in Minneapolis, through the eyes of Pastor Doug Pagitt and several members of the community. While Pagitt isn’t trying to add to the church marketing discussion, there's plenty to chew on.

"We join with the many people, professional and lay, who have suggested in writings, conversations, prayers, and pleadings that the Christian Church has not lived up to its potential or calling in the post-industrialized world, but that it could." (page 23)

Continue reading "Emergent Church Marketing Sucks, Too!"

Posted by Kevin D. Hendricks at 4:08 PM
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Is Marketing In the Bible?

For all of the wisdom in the book of Proverbs, the word "marketing" is not found. Furthermore, a key word search through 18 different Bible translations returns just one finding with the word "marketing." In The Message version, 2 Corinthians 10:4 says, "The tools of our trade aren't for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture." While I am not going to insert or extract a certain theology from this one verse (not to mention one translation), it does make for some interesting arguments, especially given its context.

The bigger picture here is the word "marketing" and how it relates to today, given its non-existence in word-form (at least how we understand it now) centuries ago.

Continue reading "Is Marketing In the Bible?"

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:10 AM
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July 26, 2004

It’s Your Church, Now Act Like It

The building where I work is two miles from the heart of downtown Los Angeles, and from the windows in my office, I can see the entire city skyline. This is especially unimpressive after living in the Chicago area and being to New York City on many occasions, not to mention several other large cities around the world. Los Angeles just doesn’t compare to the grandness of urban planning like most of the world cities in its class. This is not a new conversation or frustration; many have opined for many years on this issue.

My reaction to the criticism of downtown Los Angeles was met with a mixture of anticipation and exhilaration. Old buildings are being renovated into apartments, once famous hotels are now upscale condos. Los Angeles is on the path to becoming...

That’s just it; what is it becoming? In a city where “wannabe” and “just like” are the modus operandi for a culture drowning in its own self-interest, what will a new downtown really do?

I think we’re too busy trying to be something we are not.

When it comes to telling others about your church, what are you saying? Do you tell people what you wish your church would be? Do you tell people what they wish your church would be? When will the tag line on your bulletin actually reflect what your church is about? If your church regularly has a special anointing for the Holy Spirit to move – with all its messiness and uncomfortable spirituality – quit toning it down to reach someone who won’t understand. People know genuineness when they see it. If your church does drama and media presentations really well, but people are not responding, quit wasting precious resources on methods that might not work for your church. Just because you can get a good deal on a video projector with cool vignettes to show in your services, doesn’t mean more people will respond.

Be who you are. Let the church be who it should be. And don’t try and promote the church until you’ve figured that out. KFC recently learned this same lesson and it would behoove you to do the same.

As for me, I’m going to continue watching out my window as Los Angeles learns an expensive lesson in becoming and being something it is not.

Posted by Brad Abare at 7:00 AM
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