I hate the way many churches do church marketing. Too many ministries look at what they do from a business model. The way we do it now, my belief is that Christ would look at our model of church and turn around to go somewhere else. I have my views of how many churches are inappropriately marketing their church along with some ideals that I would love to see implemented nation and worldwide. Please do dialogue and debate with this because we need to see a church that is more Christ centered.
What I Have Seen In Church Marketing
These are the unfortunate situations that I have seen churches in their marketing goals to this point. Note that some of them have come from consultation visits while others have been me shifting in my theological orientation as I see the selfish nature of the Church come out.
- What is the goal of marketing your church?
The hope is that we get more bodies into the church. It could be very “selfless” reasons like we want more Christians or volunteers for our events, but SO MANY times the motivation is money driven. More bodies means more tithing. No one would ever come right out and say something like that, but the hidden agenda is there. - How do you get more people into your church?
Say wild statements, put up billboards with sermons on sex or heave, and make sure people know how cool of a culture your hutch is. My dream of the perfect marketing for a church lies in the service to the people. Unethical marketing tactics like “bait-and-switch” is perfectly appropriate if it is “for Jesus” (even though it serves us more than God) - How much money should we devote to marketing?
I have seen some church budgets and what they are willing to spend on marketing is truly amazing. We are talking five and six figures some years. Of course, the social justice and discipleships might have to suffer a little.
I Have A Dream That God Shines Through The Church
This section is going to come off strong and in some ways, counter cultural to what I have seen from churches. Yet, I which to see a church that longs to love completely instead of be comfortable.
- What if our marketing goal was instead to service?
No tricks here. All we do is be the hands and feet of Jesus completely. This can have so many different models. Fight pornography in your city through newspaper articles, push back on what means to give to missionaries and the poor in your sermon (even giving up a week’s worth of tithing), train the homeless with skills and then have business owners hire them, support the elderly and widowed with projects. This does not require newspaper advertisements, expensive electronic billboards, or high budget online marketing campaigns. - Could you handle Christians who MUST serve?
This would require that you have volunteers that would do the marketing themselves. You would need to find people via word of mouth, share their own Facebook statuses, take their own pictures, and overall give the time, energy, and money that comes with a marketing campaign like this. But it is not that hard. Partner with another church to get the necessary hands. Ask to join with the local Boy Scouts to know what projects need done. Work with the community and homeless shelters to know what are the biggest needs in your area. - What if your church had NO marketing budget?
This might cause some issues, but what if your church did NO marketing budget for your church and instead for six months spent ALL of that money on homeless projects or even spent it on building a half-way house to ministry to those that are seriously hurting? I say this, knowing that if every church EVER did not spend money on marketing, I would never make a dime off of my Blogging and Social Media Consultation for ministries. Yet allowing for our actions of love, grace, compassion, and passions that speak through our words and actions of service, devotion, and strength in the Word and Holy Spirit could be world changing.
My church is already taking many of these steps to reach out to our community, but we the Church can do so much more together.
What would you personally add to this list of having a church that shines Jesus first?
Speak your mind...