Church marketing. It’s a term that sends chills down the spines of some and puts warm fuzzies in the heart of this blog. Love it or hate it, it’s something that is, and it’s something that is going to be.
The New York Times reports on the U.S. Religion Landscape Survey that more than 25% of adults have left their childhood faith for either a different religion or no religion. People are switching congregations, denominations and faiths at an unprecedented rate in a culture of short attention spans and mass boredom.
Both the NYT article and the original survey provide too many insights to cover here–from a decline in Catholicism to guesses at why megachurches succeed and everything in between. It’s incredibly insightful, and it could spur some great conversation about how to market your church. Maybe even a great staff read.
Either way, folks are moving around out there, and unless they know your church exists and what you believe, they won’t be able to get on board. So go out there and market your church for the sake of the Church.
Roland Thomas Gilbert
March 3, 2008
Thanks, Joshua, for linking directly to the U.S. Religion Landscape Survey. I had heard bits and pieces about it’s findings, but hadn’t tracked it down to read it in its entirety. Looking forward to learning more.
Mark Cork
March 3, 2008
This continues to beg the questions, “Who are we reaching? Are church goers just moving from church to church?” If so then what’s the point? That’s not really fulfilling the great commission it’s just playing musical chairs.
Tim Cote
March 3, 2008
An old expression comes to mind that if you always do what you have always done you will always get what you have already got. I have not posted here before and do not pretend to have the ministerial background most of you guys do. I am a marketing VP for a retail company. I have been working with my current pastors to refocus their vision on how to attract new church goers, on how to make church more relevant to 20 and 30 somethings. This has been a huge challenge. Elders hate cutting edge ideas. I could go on, but I do not want to over step my bounds here as a newbie (though I have been a reader for a long time).
If it is appropriate for this site to get into a discussion about how a retailer would reinvent how we “do” church, let me know and I will engage you guys. If not, no problem.
The TuneHead
April 7, 2008
Tim — Are you kidding? There’s no place on the web for “newbies” anymore, because at this point, very few of us actually ARE newbies. Your input is INDEED welcome, especially given your credentials in MARKETING!! But I love the expression you gave, and it is so very, very true, especially in churches. This is why I swore to myself that I would never become a member of a church that had an “eldership” or similar group calling the shots where everyone was over the age of 50. I’m on the executive team in my church, and I’m the youngest at 32, so it’s nice to know my pastor is pushing the envelope enough to take a chance on someone with my mindset.