Church Marketing Sucks

We’ve been promoting it all week and it’s finally here: Outspoken: Conversations on Church Communication is now available. Grab your copy over at Amazon in print or digital.

We talked about the creators and contributors on Monday, offered some snippets on Tuesday and gave you an excerpt on Wednesday. You can also download a free preview if you want to take a closer look.

Today we just want to tell you what this book is all about (if you haven’t figured that out). The church has the greatest story ever told. So let’s tell it well. This book is a ground-breaking resource featuring over 60 church communication experts. We hope there’s enough advice, encouragement and wisdom in this book to move you down the path towards better communication. We hope you’ll check it out and tell your pastor.

This book is also all about furthering the mission. It says it right up there in the header, that we’re here to frustrate, educate and motivate the church to communicate the truth of Jesus. We hope this book is a huge leap in doing just that. But the book also helps to further that mission because the proceeds benefit our nonprofit parent, the Center for Church Communication (CFCC), as well as Creative Missions, a missions trip for creatives that we’re proud to support. So buying Outspoken can help your church and that purchase can also help other churches. Double win!

So please check out Outspoken, tell your friends and join us in celebrating this landmark achievement.

If you’re in the Chicago area we hope you’ll join us for the release party and don’t forget to Show Us Your Outspoken! A huge thank you to everyone who helped make this book happen (and wow are there a lot of you!).

Some more Outspoken links:

• Check out OutspokenBook.com for the full list of contributors, graphics you can use to spread the word and all the latest updates.
• Check out the official press release from CFCC. If you have friends in the media who might be interested, please pass it along.
• Tim Schraeder shares his thoughts on pursing the idea for this book and encourages everyone to act now on their ideas.
• Jon Rogers put together a review and said, “A resource like this should be in the hands of every communicator in the church from receptionist to lead pastor.”
• #chsocm interviews Tim Schraeder about liturgical and mainline denominations.
• Chuck Scoggins calls it “fresh air in my daily grind.”
• OurChurch.com is giving away a few copies and says: “This is a book every person that does church communications, web design, or marketing should read and keep within arm’s reach at their desk.”
• Steve Fogg is giving away a copy.
• Josh Burns is also giving away a copy.
• Colin Haas has a review and recommends the book for a small group study with church leaders.
• Benji Zimmerman has a write-up and reminds churches to get over their marketing hangups: “Running a successful anything requires marketing.”
• Tim Schraeder wrote a little something for Pastors.com and Catalyst.
• Pamela Hunter offers this review: “My favorite thing about this book is that it is like a D-I-Y book for churches and their leadership.”
• ChurchMag says “Never has there been such a rich pool of thinkers bound together.”
• Patrick Sprague has an honest review with a few complaints (they can’t all be raves), but still recommends picking it up.
• Amy Bishop is giving away a copy.
• The Willow Creek Association blog interviews Tim Schraeder.

See our poll results: Do you think your church needs a conversation about communication?