Church Marketing Myth No. 1

I've been overwhelmed and humbled with the generosity of many people from all over the world taking the time to tweet or email their thoughts through about church marketing myths.

Throughout this week I'll be posting many different church marketing myths.

The aim of this series is to create debate. Find the truth. You may strongly agree or disagree. Get vocal. But be nice.

I've combined similar thoughts into a mega-myth to start the series.

Myth #1: Church Marketing is evil. It degrades God. It isn't biblical. Marketing is for business, not the church.

My thanks to Kerry Bural, Ron Edmondson, Brett Borders, DavidLermy and to Tom Harper from ChurchCentral, and Jeff Hook from FellowshipOne for their ideas. (You'll hear more from Brett Borders and Jeff Hook later in the week.)

Jeff explains his thought on the myth, that church marketing degrades God. He writes:

Some people believe that "Church marketing" is not "God marketing." In a sense, God's marketing is controlled by God and has been since Genesis 1. Thought of another way, God is the same at every church. A church cannot differentiate God. People do not go to a certain church because it's God is better. With church marketing, a church is attempting to communicate to its target what it is trying to be. The community then decides whether the church's mission is valid and that it's execution of it's mission is being successful towards the brand by attendance and eventually giving to its purpose.

What do you think? Remember, get vocal. Be nice.

Is church marketing evil?

Does it degrade God?

Is it not biblical or not?

Should marketing only be for business and not the church?

Get commenting below and start the debate.

Related posts
Church Marketing Myth No. 2
Church Marketing Myth No. 3
Church Marketing Myth No. 4
Church Marketing Myth No. 5
Church Marketing Everything

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Comments

[Michael Buckingham]

Right on.

If you church marketing, as a concept, is evil then we need to not just stop creating logos, great print material, exciting websites but also take down the church signs and tear down the church building. It's all marketing.

Can people do stupid, and even evil, things with their marketing? Of course. But marketing happens...the only question is does it happen well or will you accept mediocrity.

[Gail]

This little light of mine, I'm gonna let it shine...

As a church marketer, I'm just a tool God uses to market himself. I try to always keep in mind that I'm marketing Him, not my church specifically. If my church offers something that helps someone hear that message, glory be to God, not us!

Hide it under a bushel, NO! I'm gonna let it shine...

[Eric Seiberling]

It is interesting that everyone keeps getting focused on the "tool" and not the "why" behind it. Tactics are just that...tactics.

Let's remember that many effective evangelism techniques came from marketing or vice versa...

Biblical Examples
1. Miracles (advertising)
2. Jesus left the temple and taught on hillsides (go to your target)
3. Feeding the 5,000 (sampling)
4. Disciples (creating a direct sales force and a Multi-level marketing program)
5. Paul debating philosophers (the county fair or market (of ideas not goods))
6. Paul's letters (direct mail)

More "recent" examples
1. Door-to-Door Visitation or Evangelism (door-to-door salesman)
2. Tent Revivals (event marketing)
3. Luther's pamphlets (early serial books)
4. Church signs (billboards and commercial signage)

...and so on.

The MESSAGE is always the same, but the potential MEDIUMs have changed. We are CALLED to use all mediums to spread God’s universal message of love.

Marketing should not overwhelm our call to make disciples, it should EMPOWER it.

[Gordon Marcy]

Church marketing isn't evil. But, church marketing done poorly might be.

"So whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God." 1 Corinthians 10:31

Wrong motives can also get us off track. God knows if we're using media tools to build up a personal brand instead of His purposes.

Church marketing degrading God? God created the processes. Not using them to communicate a church's unique God-given vision and The Greatest Story ever told seems wrong to me.

[David Tonen]

Marketing is simply storytelling. We (the church) have the best story on the planet to tell, yet sadly are some of the worst storytellers I know.

As Michael notes above - all churches are marketing. I would advocate that we abandon mediocrity for excellence and do everything we can to tell the good news of Jesus with clarity, effectiveness, and integrity!

[Steven Fogg]

Michael, How do you identify mediocrity in marketing? What does it look like, and where could it occur?

Eric, Marketing should not overwhelm our call to make disciples, it should EMPOWER it.

Thats brilliant!

Gordon, "Church marketing isn't evil. But, church marketing done poorly might be." That is so true.

David, "Marketing is simply storytelling." right on! What does good storytelling look like vs bad storytelling?

[David Tonen]

Good storytelling is always compelling. It makes the listener lean in. It captivates their attention because they relate to the plot the character is in. For the church, the listener if told the story well, is drawn in because the main character (Jesus) has done everything for them! It is not fiction, but truth!

So, good church marketing helps the non-Christian realize that Jesus did all he did for them. He offers them eternal life. He offers them love, hope, peace, and purpose...starting now. Good church storytelling is about the need of the listener, not the purpose of religion.

Bad storytelling looks like a church focusing inward on itself. Being an institution. Good storytelling focuses in on purpose and community.

For the purpose of developing a technical definition of church marketing I wrote this post last year:

http://navigateyourmarketing.com/2009/06/24/church-marketing-definition/

What do you think? Hope it helps.

[Michael Buckingham]

@stevenfogg Mediocre marketing is communication that isn't compelling, doesn't tell a story, that's all about me and not enough about you...to name a few. Marketing can't be just a vehicle and just a list of to-do's to check off.

[Rich Blakemore]

There once was a church that did no marketing. It's people did no work in the community, no-one invited their friends, and they even let their telephone number slip out of the phone book. No-one knew who they were or what they stood for, and when it died for lack of interest, no-one attended the funeral. And a developer bought the site for a new building project. The funny thing is that they turned the church into an apartment complex and more people lived there in community than the church ever had. The bible is full of people talking to people about God. That is marketing at it's simplest. Fail to do that, and the church will die. Fail to communicate a message/story that is relevant and you get the same results.

[Laura Click]

Wow. I didn't realize that some believe church marketing to be evil. In my opinion, the 12 disciples were the first marketers for the church. I think spreading the word of Christ is a good thing, whether you do it face-to-face as the disciples did, or on a billboard/TV/newspaper, etc. I agree with Gail - it's about the message, not the medium. Marketing is just another way to spread the Good News.

[JehoshuaKilen]

Marketing = Communication
Branding = Identity

Pray, receive, and decide who this entity will be (church), then communicate that effectively to the people in your area, your target audience. The most effective communication is through storytelling and narrative. Same goes for a church.

Problems come (seen this time and time again) when a church focuses too much on the communication and the identity slips away. People get lost and hurt. The "feel" of a church becomes cold, and wrong, and fake.

It's not just marketing, it's the branding, the identity, that needs to be taken care of as well. Communicating (marketing) is not wrong, but identity (branding) is sacrificed for more communication, churches run into problems. Does that make sense?

[Sarah Holbrook]

Church marketing makes the message of Jesus Christ stronger.

[Paul Steinbrueck]

I think some people think marketing is evil is because in some circles it's gained the reputation of being manipulative, superficial, embarrassingly bad, or annoying. I wrote about that a couple years ago in this article:

http://churchmarketingonline.com/2008/05/is-marketing-evil/

[delicia kennedy]

Thanks for the much needed info.