Church Marketing Sucks

There’s nothing people love more than events (or so it seems judging by the hashtag-laden chatter). We ask our panel of experts about their favorite events of 2011. You can also check out our Events Calendar for a full list of church marketing events in 2011.

What’s the best church marketing event to attend this year?

Katie Strandlund: I’m a big fan of the Echo Conference because it covers such a wide array of topics. Love being able to get a wide variety of pieces for the puzzle.

Brian Gaffney: My suggestion as to the best church marketing event to attend this year is not a marketing event at all, but a church and culture event, the Q Gathering, founded by Gabe Lyons in 2007. This year, Q will take place in Portland, Ore., from April 27-29, 2011.  The concept behind Q is to “create a place where church and cultural leaders could come together to collaborate and explore ideas about how the gospel can be expressed within our cultural context. Our method of learning is simple: exposure, conversation and collaboration.”  It is this commitment to “exploring ideas about how the gospel can be expressed within our cultural context” that, for me, makes Q’s concept so compelling.

Cleve Persinger: I don’t know the best church marketing event this year. Several conferences I try to attend semi-regularly, that aren’t necessarily church marketing specific, are Catalyst, Cultivate, Echo, Q and Story.

Danielle Hartland: Cultivate.

Paul Armstrong: Having never attended one (I know, I’m a hypocrite, but things cost money) I can’t recommend any on personal experience, but I hear great things about the Dirt Conference as well as Catalyst.

Shawn Wood: I think the best thing a church marketing person could do this year is really ask a question: “Why am I attending all of these events?” I find that often people are there to stare rather than share. They stare at what other churches are doing and they stare at the supposed “stars” of church marketing. What if we could all just get together and share best practices and struggles and stop pretending we have a clue. The communications world has changed (read: is changing) so quickly that no one is an expert.  The closest thing that I have seen to this is what my friends Dawn Nicole Baldwin and Tim Schraeder have done with Cultivate.