Church Marketing Sucks

Listening to the news today (I love talk radio), I learn that McDonald’s is re-thinking their approach to the drive-thru. Instead of having orders radioed a few feet ahead to the minimum wage communicationally-challenged employee, MickeyDees gurus are thinking about collecting their fast-food requests in a call center located potentially thousands of miles away. The order then gets beamed electronically back to the employee at the window who presumably can read as well as the call center can listen.

After further research, I learn McDonald’s says that professionals “with ‘very strong communication skills’ could help boost order accuracy and ultimately speed up the time it takes customers to get in and out of the drive-thrus.”

What’s next? Churches offer local counseling services that are powered by call centers in India?

Although I assume churches are intelligent in their approach to what to outsource and what not to outsource, this does bring up a good lesson.

Churches that are not outsourcing are missing out on some major benefits. Namely, the cost savings and value-added expertise available from outside providers can mean the difference between churches that reach out and churches that reach in.

Churches that reach out to professional providers (designers, printers, IT, marketing planners, architects, etc.) understand good outreach. Churches that “reach in” to staff on hand or well meaning volunteers understand “in reach,” which is basically going to take you as far as you’ve gotten until now.

While I obviously have a bias in outsourcing (I own companies that thrive off of churches and organizations who outsource their business/projects to us), I am a big believer in tapping into people who are smarter than me in their areas of expertise. Not only does it mean better churches with better communication, it means better pastors with more time for spending with people which is what you’re supposed to be about anyway, right?

How about you? Are you looking inside your church because of your limited budget or are you looking outside your church because of your vision and unlimited potential?

I’m amazed at how many times God meets us when we think big and think beyond.