Rant about The Anti-Church Marketing Folk
1) they either assume all church marketers are marketing people preying on the sensibilties of christians or are christians who have cast aside their morals in a quest to make a buck. Some where in the world both of those people may exist. no doubt. but to assume that all church marketers fall into those categories is wholly and sinfully judgemental. the church marketers that i know have left major corporate careers, and huge salaries to boot, to help churches reach their communities. explain to me how assisting a new church in sending out a mass mailing to 10 thousand, 15 thousand, 20 thousand households is a bad thing? at the end of the day 20 thousand families now know that there is a church thats there for them.
2) the "A.C.M.F." have this idea that church marketers are bringing in LOADS of cash by doing what they do. i can tell you this is FAR from the truth. I've had a printer out of ink for 4 months. 4 MONTHS! does that sound like a million dollar operation to you? and believe me, its not out of ink because i'm to lazy to buy it. its out of ink because $150 for all the cartridges is to much to spend right now. we can make do without large printed signs for awhile.
3) they also believe that church marketing means more fluff, less truth. you might get the fire and brimstone that some churches give you. And you might not find long winded preachers tieing together Old Testament Prophecy to the story of Jesus. but i can guarantee you, you're going to get the truth. i've been a christian long enough to know when someone is just preaching "Warm and Fuzzies". I wouldn't be there if we weren't communicating to people the redemptive power of Jesus Christ. it may not be exactly your cup of tea, but it is no less a church than any other. its no less spreading the gospel than any other.
let me conclude with this. "Church Marketing" is simple a term we use to say "we're trying to reach our community for Christ and we're thinking a new ways to do it". its called marketing because there really isn't another fitting term to use. i know that word can scare people because it sounds like we're using deceptive means to convey a message. we aren't creating ads with shirtless buff guys to attract a young female demographic. we aren't creating super hyped media extravaganzas to attract young techie guys. we're not marketing like an Abercrombie & Fitch. its just not the same thing. we aren't advertising like beer commercials, "Come to our church and hot chicks will dig you." Christ never singled out one group of people to reach and neither are we. what really irritates me about these people is what appears to be their severe lack of information. they don't investigate to see if their suspicions are justified. they just state their suspicions as fact. they don't bother to find out if a church marketing firm is the large corporate goliath that they believe it to be or a couple of people working out leased space with office equipment bought at garage sales. it sickens me to no end that these people have the audacity to look down their noses at us.
i'm done!