The Irony of Church Marketing

by Chris Seay

Each day we are bombarded with thousands of advertisements. The language of the culture is one steeped in consumerist ideology. The church is called to be counter to this world, so what is our response in this milieu? Do we mimic the language of culture in order to save it, or are we to offer something different? Chris Seay is Pastor of Ecclesia Houston where he leads a unique congregation that is living out the gospel faithfully in an urban environment. Their winsome approach to church has offered something the community has found compelling.

Comments

steve ker

Sad to say that much of the organized church has bought into the culture of consumerism. Makes me want to leave the organized church and stick with our home group. There is much good that theorganized church supports, but much that is not right . We must take a stand and stop supporting what we don't believe in.

That which is given to the church is to be used to feed the hungr, give water to the thirsty, provide shelter to the homeless,and give healing to the sick.

Lets get back to being the church Christ started, not the church of comercialism.

Bill Catchings

I think our problem is that we are marketing The Church when we should be marketing Jesus. The best marketing tool is a friend. Wii give aways and such do not bring people to Christ. People show up but are seldom (if ever) brought to faith. We have been facing a church that gives away iPods and such and it drags kids to their events, but does nothing to instill a love of Christ, but rather a love of IPod.

Caleb Gordon

GOOD STUFF!

Thought I'd share a blog i did on this:

http://calebgordon.com/?p=1750

Aleem Ali

Timely, challenging, engaging and well delivered message - thank you.

The best marketing that a church can do is to serve the community around it and share the stories that come from it.

http://www.vimeo.com/23143502

John

You know, I don't think I've ever seen churches giving away that

many wiis, plasma tv's etc. - maybe I haven't gotten around enough,

but I haven't seen it ..

So you don't use fear or greed, but pride and vanity are ok?

Look, I won't say who I am, but this stuff goes in circles ..

20 years ago they were telling us we need to 'engage the culture'

(because most churches were counter culture at the time) ..

And now they are saying the church needs to be 'counter culture'

again - it just goes in circles ..

Why don't we engage the culture while being counter culture? :)

Unfortunately this is really hard on poor, small churches, and also

wealthier folks that mean well, but don't know what to do (those

would be your wii people) ..

People in general tend to condemn these two groups ..

What they don't understand is that the poor, smaller churches do

not have the resources to keep dialing in their marketing so that

everyone will love them (yes, that's what the the guy above does) ..

A close friend of mine is a pastor at a small church, and he just

doesn't have the money to fix his weird marketing. I told him to shut it

down, but he said the people wouldn't like it etc. Eventually we plan

on fixing it, but neither one of us has the money or the know how, so

there it stays. I'm just glad I'm not the pastor!

What they simply don't understand is that the wealthier folks with

the wiis mean well, but don't know what to do (they probably hired

a secular marketing company because they couldn't find a church

marketing company that would help them - happened to me in the

past) ..

So what's going on here? Well, I grew up with this kind of stuff - it's

what I call 'Pride-Based Ministry,' and I really, really despise it ..

These guys have literally nothing to say, so they just do a few good

deeds (and advertise it) and then bash the other guys. A pastor at a

large church in my town called himself an 'Albatross' for the other

pastors - what a nice guy, not.

The truth is, most pastors and churches mean well. They work hard.

They help people. And most of them don't advertise it. Life is tough. It's

tough on all of us. We just do what we can with what we have ..

I am now guilty of this, but we need to quit picking on each other, and

just get back to teaching the Word and living it out.

John

You know, I don't think I've ever seen churches giving away that many wiis, plasma tv's etc. - maybe I haven't gotten around enough, but I haven't seen it ..

So you don't use fear or greed, but pride and vanity are ok?

Look, I won't say who I am, but this stuff goes in circles ..

20 years ago they were telling us we need to 'engage the culture' (because most churches were counter culture at the time) ..

And now they are saying the church needs to be 'counter culture' again - it just goes in circles ..

Why don't we engage the culture while being counter culture? :)

Unfortunately this is really hard on poor, small churches, and also wealthier folks that mean well, but don't know what to do (those would be your wii people) ..

People in general tend to condemn these two groups ..

What they don't understand is that the poor, smaller churches do not have the resources to keep dialing in their marketing so that everyone will love them (yes, that's what the the guy above does) ..

A close friend of mine is a pastor at a small church, and he just doesn't have the money to fix his weird marketing. I told him to shut it down, but he said the people wouldn't like it etc. Eventually we plan on fixing it, but neither one of us has the money or the know how, so there it stays. I'm just glad I'm not the pastor!

What they simply don't understand is that the wealthier folks with the wiis mean well, but don't know what to do (they probably hired a secular marketing company because they couldn't find a church marketing company that would help them - happened to me in the past) ..

So what's going on here? Well, I grew up with this kind of stuff - it's what I call 'Pride-Based Ministry,' and I really, really despise it ..

These guys have literally nothing to say, so they just do a few good deeds (and advertise it) and then bash the other guys. A pastor at a large church in my town called himself an 'Albatross' for the other pastors - what a nice guy, not.

The truth is, most pastors and churches mean well. They work hard. They help people. And most of them don't advertise it. Life is tough. It's tough on all of us. We just do what we can with what we have ..

I am now guilty of this, but we need to quit picking on each other, and just get back to teaching the Word and living it out.

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