marketing
At our recent council of great chiefs retreat, we discussed the prickly issue of marketing. In the past, our church has not particularly marketed itself to the community other than in the standard ways - notes in the local paper about holiday services and special events, real estate agents signs to advertise particular services etc.
People have come either by word of mouth, or by random chance. Like Laura, who ended up as a part of one of our congregations because after 4 years of not attending anywhere, she looked up churches in the phone book and our church building was the closest geographically to her flat.
The question is - what about the Lauras who don’t look up the phone book? What do we do about them?
A whole range of issues were raised in discussion:
- how comfortable do we feel with the idea of the church advertising as if it were marketing a product?
- many of the churches which currently “market” themselves are fairly evangelically agressive, theologically conservative, traditional institutional churches - how do we communicate our own identity?
- how do we justify the expense of marketing?
Northern particularly believes it has something to offer to people who believe in God and want to explore that but have barriers or issues with the traditional or institutional church. How do we communiate a message to these people?
Our first idea to investigate is the possibility of advertising postcards, to be placed in cafes and restaurants in the local area. A full colour picture on the front (haven’t decided what yet) with the words “community, compassion, spirituality” which are the church’s three core values. On the back, the church name, logo, telephone number and email address together with a general statement such as the following:
Northern Community is a church which connects with diverse people in a variety of ways and places in Darebin [our council area].
We are children, adults, seniors, young adults and teenagers.
We meet in cafes, restaurants, halls, lounge-rooms and chapels.
We engage in prayer, music, discussion, meditation, and service to others.
We work for justice, peace, reconciliation, healing and love.
This is a work in progress. My thought at the moment is that I would like to be more explicit about our “church”ness, but I don’t know how to do that without setting the bible-basher bells ringing.
Anyway, this is all still on the drawing board, although we have decided that we would like to do something proactive to communicate about what we are doing.
July 29th, 2003 at 5:32 pm
“Marketing” is the part of today’s culture where an organisation tells others about what it has to offer. If we in the church are to be effective in today’s society, why would we not use today’s tools to tell others. It seems to me that “telling others” is central to the Great Commission and we should use the tools available to us.
How do you justify the expense of marketing? Surely all justification of expenses of the church has to do with reaching others - especially those who have no other way of hearing the Good News (pardon the very 70s term!!!). Tell your bean counters at the end of the financial year, that the Kingdom of God gained x number of people per marketing dollar!!!! - What price should we spend to see others come into relationship with the King of Kings.
I wonder how humbling it would be to each year measure how much of the church’s budget was spent on sustaining those who were already convinved - inward looking - and how much was spent on reaching those outside the Kingdom of God (outward looking)
Actually - after that little rant - what I believe a Church should conduct is a Public Relations campaign - not a marketing campaign. Marketing means matching a product with a customer - and convincing them to purchase it. Public Relations means a “deliberate and sustained effort for an organisation to establish and maintain a relationship with it’s ‘publics’ ” (as opposed with the popular notion that public relations is conducting a snow job on a gullible public)
July 31st, 2003 at 2:29 pm
I like that definition of PR as it applies to the church. My concern about marketing is the prospect that it lends itself to the commodification of faith. Secondly, I think it runs the risk of leading us to be falsely self-congratulatory - we are doing heaps of mission because we are putting up posters and sending out postcards.
Having said that, we have decided that we need to do something along this line, however we do it with a consciousness of the pitfalls.
August 27th, 2004 at 12:41 pm
Hello, im Ben Mclean from Riverside church (Riverside ROCKS) in Nowra NSW Australia,
Using the language of the day to reach the public is common sense.
Im a first year University of Wollongong student (studying Marketing next year- should of done it early)
Our Church is approuching the point of establishing ourselves in our city, i have gladly accepted the honour of helping others in our church reach our community affectively
Im wondering?
With a tight church budget, what could be the most affect possiblities! anybody qualified in this area?
August 27th, 2004 at 1:14 pm
Oh i sense there is a debat going on here, well here’s a short story,
Steve and Laura were living life to the fullest. Each had a great job that paid well. They had a four thousand square foot house, a dog, and two happy children. They were members of various country clubs and fitness centers and vacationed regularly at ski resorts throughout the country. Life was unfolding nicely, but Steve and Laura had little use for church.
Then during one doctor’s appointment Steve was diagnosed, after a series of tests, with a brain tumor. God got Steve and Laura’s attention. They became interested in spiritual things and remembered receiving post cards from a new church. Laura remembered seeing banners outside a school on Sunday morning identifying the church’s location. Steve and Laura showed up for church one Sunday morning, found Jesus, were baptized into Christ, and experienced the love of that community of faith.
Six months later Steve died. His funeral was a celebration of Steve’s graduation into a Christ-filled eternity. Where would Steve and Laura have been without the church marketing of one new church that cared enough to reach their community through a marketing plan? Marketing is all about reaching people like Steve and Laura. There are millions of individuals and families in all walks of life still out there waiting to hear the Good News of Jesus Christ. Don’t they deserve to be reached through a well thought out, creative marketing plan or whatever else it takes to communicate Christ? We believe they do.