Like a fire

Is Church Marketing Useless?

I just read an interesting article by Tony Morgan that had me wondering about the question posed in the title of this post. Is marketing useless for the church? Tony sure thinks so (even though he confesses that they still use it sometimes).

I do agree with Tony that church marketing on one hand is not about marketing. Though I would take exception to the idea that marketing is not about minstry growth. I would say that it doesn’t always have to be about growth, but why be limited to that?

Tony gives the singular objective to church marketing as:

“The objective is to help people enter into a relationship with Jesus and take steps in their walk with Christ. When life change happens, people talk.”

The objective can be only helping people meet Jesus. It also may be many other things. It might be to show people that they are not alone in their struggles. Or it might be to let them know that their is help for them. Or it might be just to let them know that their are things that they have no idea are happening.The point is, why limit your church to that one message?

As far as the point that people communicate their life change thus eliminating the need for marketing, well it just doesn’t happen that way. While I see the reason in that, I don’t always or often see it is practice. It just doesn’t happen as often as it could (probably less than half). Where I am, people rarely tell about big life change. It’s embarrassing to a lot of people to acknowledge that they were messed up and sinful.

Marketing doesn’t have to be the old ineffectual ways of the past (mailers, postcards, ads, etc.). Many new ways have come up in the past ten years that are way more effective and show the real need for communication. Seth Godin could teach most churches a lot about getting a message out. Traditional marketing just won’t do it.

For my culture, and probably many others, the objective isn’t to “help people enter into a relationship with Jesus and take steps in their walk with Christ.” It is many other things. We might try to let people know they aren’t alone in their struggles, or let them know there are resources and people who can help them, or that there are things happening that they have no idea about. This idea of there being one very limited objective is… well very limiting.

To those who read this, please don’t lump marketing in general together with failed attempts. The two don’t always go together. I can only think of the message this post sends to some people and wonder what the results will be.

Sure, there are some churches out there who have no idea what message they are trying to send, yet know they should market themselves. Hopefully, they will stop sending useless messages out in mass. Also, hopefully, some people won’t use this article to give up on communicating the gospel in all it’s forms to those within reach.

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One Comment

1. 

   Great commentary. I so wholeheartedly agree. I struggled with the article Tony wrote, when I first read it. I believe that marketing for the church is about bringing others to Christ, building strong relationships, and effectively communicating the Vision God has given to the Pastor of that church for that gathering. In urban churches - we are behind the times with even sending out direct mail or using any technology. So we can't even in most cases qualify for Tony's gripe on marketing. It is my goal to reach as many as I can, with whatever gift, resources, and assets that God has given me. And teach those around me how to do the same. Your Urban Church Marketing Specialist

   J. Richard Byrd / 17 Nov 2008 / 10:38 AM