Church Marketing Sucks

As a church marketer, I often read articles questioning whether or not the church is relevant, a copycat or not original. I read these because it’s my job to represent my local church body with excellence and originality, but, more importantly, I have a responsibility as a Christian to represent Christ with the utmost integrity because I am fully aware that a jaded world is watching.

What I’ve discovered this past week is that even though relevance in the form of communications, art and presentation of the gospel are all important, the truest form of relevance is expressed when the spirit of God within us is compelled to help others who are hurting.

In the past few days, we’ve all witnessed one of the greatest natural disasters in our lifetimes. An entire country ripped apart by a massive earthquake, thousands dead and millions without basic communications, food, medical attention and water. However, we’ve also witnessed an outpouring of response through aide, prayer and awareness from the church that the jaded world is also watching.

I looked up the definition of relevant and this is what I found, “bearing upon or connected with the matter in hand; pertinent.” Personally, I think as Christians and as church bodies we’ve more than lived up to the truest definition of being relevant in the past few days. And, even though we can’t forget our responsibility on the communications side of relevance, we must give credit where credit is due and, when it comes to helping those in need, Christian organizations and the church deserve an A+.