Church.  Marketing.

Two words that should never be in the same sentence, some would say (unless that sentence reads: “the church should never be involved in marketing”).  Marketing the gospel, the argument goes, treating it like another product to be sold, is an affront to God and the ways He builds His kingdom.  Others, however, would disagree, claiming that marketing is an essential part of evangelism, communicating the gospel in a clear and attractive way that brings people into the church and into a relationship with God. 

What do you think?  More importantly, what does God think about the concept of church marketing?

These past two weeks, I’ve been looking at some of the benefits and dangers of using seeker-sensitive methods in church.  I think that marketing is one of those methods that is worth reflecting upon.  Is it wise to spend time learning from the world’s methods of advertising in order to promote church and the gospel?  Should churches spend time studying how Starbucks creates atmosphere, how top hotels provide extraordinary service to their guests, how Apple uses advertising in order to promote its product, in order to make the church more hospitable and attractive, in order to create a “wow” factor, as some church leaders teach?  Or is borrowing from the corporations of the world in order to improve the church antithetical to the spirit of the gospel? 

These are tough questions.  On the one hand, there is the sense that the gospel should be enough.  Churches for centuries have relied on prayer, ministry, and evangelism to build the kingdom of God.  When church leaders listen more to the marketers of the world, using billboards and mass mailings and gifts at the door for visitors to their church, are they not telling God that He needs help advertising His “product,” that the gospel is not enough?  Are their marketing methods communicating to the world that the gospel is just another life-improvement philosophy being peddled alongside countless others in the marketplace?  Or, on the other hand, are these church leaders to be commended for their conviction that the greatest message ever told deserves to be communicated in the most creative and effective way possible, that finding innovative ways to share the gospel and bring people to church is indeed worship unto the Lord?

One truth that is worth pondering as we think through this issue is that, intentionally or unintentionally, the church is always marketing itself, if we see marketing as simply communicating a message to the world.  Even if a church chooses not to put an ad in the Yellow Pages or put a sign out in front of its church, it is communicating something about the church or the gospel or God Himself to the world.  Perhaps the church that intentionally tries not to market itself is unwittingly communicating to its community that they are not looking for anyone to visit their church, that they prefer to remain isolated and unknown.  Would not that message contradict the spirit of the gospel, where Jesus tells his followers that they are the light of the world, a city on a hill (Matthew 5:13-16)?  It may be that, even if you try, it is impossible to escape the reality that you are marketing yourself. 

A church is always marketing itself, whether or not it does so intentionally.  It is communicating something about the gospel and its God by how it spends its money, by the kind of building it meets in, by its level of involvement in its community, and by the missionaries they support.  A church communicates something about the gospel and its God by the way its members treat each other, and by how they act towards their neighbors.  You may choose to call it by its more spiritual term “witness” or by the more secular term “marketing”; either way, the church is always communicating positively or negatively about Jesus and His gospel.

So perhaps the question is not “to market or not to market.”  Perhaps the question is, what are you communicating about God, church, and the gospel by the way you are living and “doing church”?  Thinking specifically of NewLife, what do we communicate by meeting in a Masonic Lodge?  What are we communicating by the events we have done, or by the service projects we have done or haven’t done in the community?  Look at how we use our money and the missionaries we support – what are these communicating about our values and our message?  What are we communicating by the website we have created, by the blog posts I write, or by the ads we have put in the paper?  And do these messages we are communicating accurately reflect the witness we are trying to have in our community?

I don’t think you can escape the fact that, as a church, we are marketing yourself, giving a witness, or communicating a message to those around you.  But sometimes trying to copy the marketing strategies of the world can lead you to communicate a gospel different than that of Jesus.   Let me share four messages I would hope we don’t communicate; if you have other ideas of messages to avoid, I would encourage you to share them in the comments:

1) The Christian life is all about YOU.  I want to communicate that the Christian life is all about GOD, and that by making our lives all about knowing and worshiping God, in the end we find the life we’ve been looking for.  Jesus said in Matthew 16:24-26, “Then Jesus said to his disciples, ‘If anyone would come after me, he must deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever wants to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for me will find it. What good will it be for a man if he gains the whole world, yet forfeits his soul?’” One danger when the church thinks in marketing terms is that most of the world’s ads and messages are trying to pander to people’s self-centeredness.  When Christians write books and communicate messages about how God can give you your best life and make you happy and prosperous, they may be creating a church of self-serving Christians who will follow God as long as it works for them instead of disciples who love God with all their heart and are satisfied with Him above all else.
2) God is just another product to enhance your life.  Similarly, I don’t want to communicate that God is just one of the choices out there that will enrich your life, like joining a wellness company or buying an iPhone.  God has to be all or He is nothing; the center or else not in the picture.  He will not have any gods, any idols, above Himself, and is not an accessory to make you feel better when you’re down or when you need spiritual inspiration.  On the contrary, following God will often wreck your life, taking your dreams and dashing them, and often only later showing you that His way was better all along.
3) Salvation is repeating a prayer in order to receive a get-out-of-Hell free card.  I have often seen salvation and a relationship with God reduced to an escape from Hell, and I don’t think that is Biblical.  I used to take my youth group to an event where the gospel message was communicated something like this:  (1) We’re all sinners – even if you’ve only lied once, you’ve sinned.  (2) All sinners are going to Hell.  (3) Jesus died to get you out of Hell.  (4) Repeat this prayer after me and you will go to heaven instead of Hell.  Do you really believe that this is all the Bible is about, the totality of the Christian message?  Pray a prayer so you can go to heaven?  All this approach does is create a lot of people convinced they’re saved because they prayed a prayer, even though their lives are never changed.  I would hope that our church does not communicate that this is the extent of the Christian message.
4) We have to bribe people to come to church or become Christians.  There’s a fine line between being an attractive, hospitable church and trying to bribe people to come to or return to your church.  I’ve heard people advocate giving out gifts to newcomers, like Starbucks cards, free books, etc., and I’m not sure whether this is radical generosity or shamelessly bribing people to come to your church.  I remember one youth ministry training seminar where youth pastors were promised a method that would double the size of their group in three months.  The method, called the Great Commission Competition, went like this:  divide your youth group into three teams.  Whichever team can get the largest amount of friends to come to youth group over the next three months wins an all-expenses paid trip to Six Flags.  And during those three months, of course, the youth pastor would preach evangelistic methods aimed at converting people to Christianity.   I almost tried it until I realized how shameless a method it was.

In the end, I don’t believe the church can escape marketing, even if they call it by the more spiritual term “witness”.  We are always communicating a message to the world by what we do and how we live our lives.  To that end, we need to carefully examine the messages we are sending in order to ensure that we are not communicating something contrary to the gospel and the values of God’s Kingdom. 

Write a comment