Church Marketing Sucks!

 

Many years ago, while I was still an ordained minister, I came across a church marketing website called Church Marketing Sucks. Despite the name, the content was really church marketing related stuff. Kind of like the Marvel superhero Deadpool, who is a hero by convention only (really an anti-hero), this site pitted an anti-marketing demeanor against its own marketing considerations. In a frustrated or polarizing way, church marketing was made neutral, with bad marketing being cancelled out by trendy marketing strategies. 

Now, the aim of this article isn't to critique church marketing principles, per se. In a way, in our media saturated western society, marketing is virtually inescapable for most businesses and organizations. Trends translate into attraction, which means participation and numbers. For businesses, capitalizing on what's hip means that products and services will be purchased. Numbers is money. For religious organizations and non-profits, capitalizing on trends is done to grow the organizations numerically, which will hopefully increase budgets and perpetuate offerings to the public. It's still a numbers game, despite the lack of profits. 

The church my family and I have been attending is a significantly trendy church. It sells itself on its visuals. The main meeting space or auditorium is darkly painted and the stage has a new set design to accompany each new sermon series. During the musical sessions of church services, smoke machines and emotive lighting is used to create ambiance. And, the whole church is decorated in a contemporary Starbucksesque sort of vibe. This is a church that markets itself on its looks.

This church markets its sound(s) too. The worship music is heavy guitar driven and rocking. The church even sells its worship music on CD. Then, the sermons are well crafted, emotive, and full of the appropriate balances between relevant truth, self-help, humor, and other devices that captivate a person's attention. Surely we don't want church to be boring. Lastly, the core of the worship band also makes up a contemporary Christian hard rock/metal band called Bayless. This is an attractant to the unchurched and non-churched, who may not mesh with the hymns of old and are probably not keyed-in on most of the last several decades of contemporary Christian music and worship. 

This church is made to be super-comfy and accommodating. There's plenty of kids programs, so that's also a sales point. Plus, nobody wears suits and ties and people are welcome to bring their coffee cups into service. An attendee can even use their cell phone Bible app in service without getting any disagreeing glares. 

When I was a younger minister, the emerging church movement was gaining traction. This movement was itself a trend and sought creativity as a key component of church services. At that time, I had been leading a church young adults/college age ministry called "The Rooftop." I soon led the group in trying to form a church within a church (rebranded as "The Sacred") in an emerging church fashion. I too bought into the latest trends. For the emerging church, the trend was a postmodern disregard of traditional style church and an embrace of older mystical forms, cast through the lens of trendy art and modern esoteric music. This movement died, but its trend-loving traits have been taken up by younger churches, blended with a traditional Protestant core. 

I have grown weary of trends. Trends aim at filling churches, but they don't secure the back doors of the church. Growth is often temporary, so long as the product remains relevant for the purchaser. Once Coke became New Coke, people switched to Pepsi. In the same way, if the trendiness is the foundation of a church, as soon as a better product is presented elsewhere or the familiar product changes significantly, those not loyal to the brand will leave. 

What this tells me is that keeping up with the ecclesial Joneses is not tenable for Christianity. It also tells me that the true mission of a trend following or setting church is not worship or communion with God and one another, but it's about ownership and the buy-in of a product. This has happened before.

In Exodus 32, Aaron leads the Israelites in building a golden calf. They were not building a pagan idol, but giving God a body. Only this was not God's body and it was a device of control and satiation, as was the case in pagan idols. When people look at the marketed church, it's about them and their control, not purely God. Surely, God may be a consideration, but when we get down to brass tacks, it remains largely about the parishioner, their comfort and preferences. This holds true for denominations as well. If someone doesn't agree with any number of theological or practical tenets of group, they find the one that matches their bent or they start their own church.   

To close, I love variety. I like trying new foods, menu items, soda flavors, beers, and so forth. I love the vastness of products that tempt me when I go shopping. It is enjoyable to explore, be that a product or experience. While we don't want to be bored at church, it is still not about our kicks, but about communing with God and his holy Body. Church is not a commodity. What we bring into the service matters as much as what we take out.

Just food for thought.