Church Marketing Sucks: Philosophy Archives

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!):

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.

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