Marketing the church

[Vic VDB]

I have been looking at some issues regarding making Church more relevant, accessible and known. To this end I have been dealing with marketing  - what's your take on this subject?

Here's some food for thought on it:

http://bit.ly/9jDahx

[3 Gen Rev]

Interesting take, I'm also convinced that more than advertising events we need to be our own adverts, ministers and congregation alike.
Interesting little chain of events..
I got given a new camera for my birthday and went out looking for "interesting" things to take pictures of.
Saw some graffiti on the wall of a Shrewsbury walkway and thought it might be interesting.
Local radio asked for pictures of good & bad bits of Shrewsbury so I sent in a pic of the graffiti.
BBC local radio ask to talk about the picture... and I end up talking to the chief exec of the town council on Midlands today!!
Local paper see news clip and ring up to get quote and end up wanting to cover what church is doing locally...
And we will see what comes from that!

[Vic VDB]

Back from all the stuff and continued thinking about image and advertising:

http://bit.ly/aMkm8c

Photo sounds good - here, about to start having local radio show (I hope) - hopefully be able to market loads of stuff (church and non-church) and raise people's awareness and questioning of life as a whole!

V

[clockman]

good luck with that...

[paul]

I don't see that 'marketing' is inherently any more spiritual than anything else that makes up part of the culture - such as football, beer, computers or the Internet. Essentially, its 'neutral' - and can thus be used for good - or ill - depending on how it is used.

We've actually got a bundle of money from the Diocesan 'New Initiatives' Fund to run a quality marketing initiative to a new-build estate in our parish. The only reason it hasn't happened yet is that since I have taken on the next door parish we need to 'tweak it' to make it a collaborative effort (The estate in question straddles the two parishes!)

But I definitely agree with Mark that we also need to remember that the best marketing is 'us' i.e lives changed and transformed by Jesus.

Marketing isn't a substitute for witness, but a supplement to it. It's actually been quite hard to get that point across to some people - its quite easy for people to think that the campaign 'excuses' them from having to actually talk about their faith. That's something that needs to be constantly re-affirmed!

[Vic VDB]

Totally agree Paul - that's a concern I have with ALPHA. So many people think that having an ALPHA in their church abrogates them from the responsibility of actually doing evangelism themselves.

"Oh our church does Alpha!" Nuff said - job done

[AndyHB]

Totally agree Paul - that's a concern I have with ALPHA. So many people think that having an ALPHA in their church abrogates them from the responsibility of actually doing evangelism themselves.

But is this a concern about the programme itself, or about those practising it?

[Vic VDB]

It's obviously more about the people who do it.

Mind you - as much as I enjoy Alpha, I do think it might well be reaching its sell by date and find it a little pretentious and unbalanced if you were to use the video talks. Most of those in Tamworth think 'Euripades' is something to do with school uniform trousers.

Euripades - you're in trouble my lad

[Dave C.]

There is a fellow, Craig Groeschel, who lives in the same area as I do who could be regarded as a marketing genius in attracting people to his church:

In 1996, Groeschel and a handful of people started Life Covenant Church in a two-car garage. Groeschel later told Business Week that he started by performing market research of non-churchgoers, and designed his church in response to what he learned.[4] Groeschel’s non-traditional style was successful and attendance of Life Covenant grew rapidly, eventually evolving to become (as of December 2009) the second largest church in the United States with thirteen LifeChurch.tv campuses[5]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Craig_Groeschel

I'm not suggesting that anyone should or even could duplicate everything he has been able to do.  Still, he must be doing something right, from a marketing standpoint.  The church's website also allows free use of some of its material. http://www.lifechurch.tv/

His theology does not send up the red flags that many US megachurches do.  There is no prosperity gospel or other obvious heterodox views that I am aware of.

[Vic VDB]

I've been thinking about how we 'sell the image' in my blog over the past few weeks and reading the outline of the two-car garage start, I'm interested in looking further into who and what this man and the church he pastors are.

In my Missioner role I am keen to see how I can encourage people to think about how we come across (good and bad)  and not only make a difference but also be the difference.

Thanks for the post - extremely useful!