Church Marketing Sucks

You’ve probably heard about the emergent church movement. It’s a collective of ideas that loosely fall under the postmodern label and draw nods or scowls, depending on the crowd (Brian McLaren? nod. Chuck Colson? Scowl.) Stories of Emergence is a collection of first-person accounts of exploring postmodernism and new ways of doing church.

Whether or not you jump on the emergent train and no matter how you feel about postmodernism, this book offers ideas and perspectives worth considering.

I love hearing church stories. I like hearing about how church works and the different ways it happens. Sometimes church doesn’t work, but grace pervades. That’s what Stories of Emergence offers.

But what gets tiring is the constant bashing of ‘church that doesn’t appeal to me.’ I know emergent writers don’t intend to come across that way—and many of them even apologize for having that attitude at one point in time—but the book can still feel like a constant assault on evangelical church. Brian McLaren acknowledges that: “These stories could—but shouldn’t—be considered a slap in the face, a rejection, a repudiation. … But if you interpret those emotions graciously, you will conclude (I believe) that people like the storytellers in this book have come not to bury modern evangelicalism, but to continue it in a new era, under new conditions, in new ways.” (224)

James F. Engel: Where’s the Transformation?
One of the more interesting stories came from James F. Engel who has a background in marketing and consumer research. He initially applied that wisdom to his faith, but soon became disillusioned by a number of things he saw, among them an emphasis on salvation as mere soul winning:

“I was taught in the early part of my Christian life that Christ established his church on earth for just one reason—to seek and win the lost in a dying world. Given this conviction, it naturally followed that success in soul winning was established as the primary criterion of Christian vitality and fruitfulness. Radical moral and social transformation was viewed either as an impossibility in a dying world or as an outcome of conversion, but not as an end in itself. To me this grossly distorted Christ’s command to make disciples who would follow all that he taught and modeled.” (121-122)

That approach to evangelism as a mere numbers game resulted in a sharp comparison to the business world:

“I contrasted this biblical perspective [actions over words] with prevailing practices that reduced the gospel to methods that communicated propositional truth (the plan of salvation) followed by persuasion to ‘receive Christ.’ I began to wonder: How is this different from marketing methods designed to promote consumer products? I couldn’t help but conclude that we had engaged in serious biblical reductionism in which the gospel becomes little more than a consumer product marketed internationally with an abundant life message ‘dreams will come true’ as our competitive distinctive. Our strategy called for advertising (gospel media) to generate consumer interest and personal selling (personal witness) to close the sale accompanied by public accolades for individuals and expanded donor support for organizations with the highest sales numbers.” (123)

For Engel, this sort of numbers approach fell apart when the actual people weren’t transformed. His example is Rwanda, a country that had been “reached” with 80% of its population Christian, yet the 1994 genocide still happened. The country had been reached, but not transformed.

Engel makes a powerful point. I don’t think it entirely condemns the use of marketing or communications strategies, but rather it points to the fact that our motivations and goals must be in the right place. Numbers and growth are not wrong, but seeking numbers and in the process forgetting people is a tragedy.

Parush R. Parushev: Evangelism by Community
Another interesting story came from Parush R. Parushev, who grew up in Communist Bulgaria and began to see the flaws in communism: “Right teaching could not guarantee nor even launch right living in the community. Unfortunately, this sad lesson can be learned from the history of the Christian church, too.” (209). What changed his mind was the witness of a group of Polish Christians: “But what really impresses us and takes us by surprise is a community with integrity of character.” (209)

Parushev came to the U.S. to study theology and saw many churches, though rarely saw that kind of transformational community: “We saw big churches functioning much like a theater. Entertainment and emotional stimulation mattered more than fellowship and involvement. We went to small churches, which were completely preoccupied with doctrinal purity and internal fights and slowly dying.” (214)

Other Note-worthy Quotes

“To authentically connect with people who don’t attend church requires us to make more than superficial changes in our external forms. We must undergo the painful process of changing our ways of thinking, our deep-set attitudes, and our mental paradigms. An old codger with a face-lift is still an old codger with a face-lift.” (Church Smith, Jr., 95)

“We have turned God into a consumer commodity, and religious leaders are the vendors.” (Brad Cecil, 178)