Don't Market Me

Let's take a moment and think about the world around us. We wake up in the morning and we turn on either the radio, the tv, or pick up our iphone and check to see what the weather is going to be like that day.

If you turn on your radio you hear an advertisement for how you can cure you hair loss, if you turn on the tv you hear an advertisement how you can better clean your house, or if you pick up your iphone then you see an advertisement for a new gadget that has come out. While all these things are great in some form or fashion they are marketing ploys that run deeper than you or I could ever imagine.

Most advertising try to fix the humanistic element of "how do I effect what others think of me" or "how do I make people like me better". If you're listening to the radio you probably are a male on the way to work and you want people in your office to think you are younger and respect you more and all your problems will be swept away with this product. If you are a homewife and are at home with your kids, sure your house needs to be clean, but the advertisement is probably telling you it matters what people think of you when they come in your house - not just for sanity's sake. If you are checking your weather on your iphone chances are you are into technology and are a "young adult" and whether or not you have the latest gadget speaks to whether or not what others will think of you - they will admire you more if you have the latest and greatest. And this is just the beginning of the day - by the end of the day through the radio, television, your phone, and the internet each human is exposed to well over 3000 ads a day! Does this shape and fashion who we are and how we react? OF COURSE! We become convinced that what people are marketing is truth, when in fact they only desire our monetary value and not our well being.

This introduction raises the question for me, if the world is so great at marketing, and we have bought into it so much that it has become a part of us, is the Church guilty of the same thing?

I'm not talking about Lifeway or Family Christian Stores - that is a whole other set of Christian Marketing issues - I am talking about the Church, You know the one that meets on Saturday Nights, Sunday Mornings, Sunday Evenings, and Wednesdays? How are we marking on the church level?

Let's talk about some of the ways that the church markets its consumers...er...patrons...Let's start with the parking lot.

When you pull up to the church what do you see or what do you hear? When you pull into a church is it trendy and in a shopping strip, or is a huge facility the size of six flags that has banners on all the light poles, or is it a small country church where there are men outside in flannels and blue jeans welcoming you as you come inside? What does the church look like when you pull up? This is the first place that marketing takes place - the church that is marketing will take this opportunity to tell you "who they are" as the church. For example have you ever been to one of those churches where they have the "singing rocks" all the way from the parking lot to the door to "prepare you for worship"? This just screams out 1. our church has a lot of money, 2. Our church is hip and cool, 3. this is a place that you need to dump out all your problems and join in our calm and collected atmosphere where your problems dissolve before you worship a Holy God. I don't know about you but I have problems and I don't want to check them at the door and pretend I have none when I go to church, I also want to see my church give sacrificially and not spend money on singing rocks. However marketing begins in the parking lot but it doesn't stop there.

What does the church look like when you enter in? There is an informational booth right? With all types of pamphlets and cool slick graphics on the ministries of the church that you can be involved in and accepted there. You might also see some cool and trendy graphics or posters on the current sermon series that just happens to be the name of a TV show that was popular half a decade ago - what is this marketing taking place here? What are you being told to think? First when you see an information booth you are being told to think I have to be involved to be accepted - which in itself is not bad, but what about if you were just told because I'm here I'm accepted? The information booth almost resembles one of those old "visitor centers" that states uses to have, or a hotel lobby in which you can see the answer to the question of "what is there to do here?". I thought this was a church right? Maybe it should be written we're here to worship God not to have ministries that make US feel accepted. Just from entering the door I see that this church is marketing to me so they must be concerned with my feelings and opinions and acceptance. The Gospel after all is about us right? More on that later. What about this sermon series on an antiquated TV Show that is on late night reruns now? Wasn't that a show that I wasn't particularity fond of my children watching? What does that have to do with the gospel? What does that have to do with what Jesus has said. Right there maybe you're being marketed to because you may say "I loved that show, I'll love to hear this pastor speak"; whichever response that you have, My question is since when has the gospel been popular? Since when has someone telling you that you are a sinner and there is nothing that you can do to pull yourself out of rebellion to God been something that you market, apparently it is now.

Next we step into the Sanctuary/Worship Center/Throne Room/Auditorium/High School Cafeteria/Movie Theatre. What do you see when you walk in? Are there comfortable seats that are cushy and comfortable? Are there MORE slick graphics on banners hanging down? Are there lights and a sound board that resemble that of a U2 Concert? What about the stage? Is there an organ that cost more than you'll make in a lifetime? Are there more guitars, mikes, and keyboards then you see when you walk in guitar center? What does all this mean? Here's a hint its more marketing that has causes a serious problem. Oh you need a squishy seat so you're comfortable for the 15 minute sermon? - here you go; oh you’re not comfortable with everyone seeing you worship? here are some lights that are on the stage so you are in the dark during the music portion so no one will think bad of you if you raise your hands, we want you to be comfortable doing so; oh you like the pipe organ? - we have the best one in the state so you're comfortable listening to its gorgeous sounds; or oh you love the band sound? - we have the best equipment and band around - come see, it will make you comfortable as you worship. Is the church a dying person and we're just trying to make her comfortable as possible why she dies? Another marketing ploy of the church to say that our comfort and preferences somehow matter. THE CHURCH IS NOT ABOUT US.

Lets skip now to the actual church service. I think back to a video that was made popular a few months ago called "Typical Sunday", have we marketed the church so much that we know what the service will look like every time we come in the door? There will be unapproachable pastors who will kindly tell us what’s going on in our lives who we couldn’t even talk to if we wanted to? Are there trendy music people who lead us to have some type of emotional experience that may or may not include God? Is there a video that makes us take a moment to think about how people in other countries are worse off than us so we need to give our Starbucks money for a day and forget about it the rest of the year?

So what is my point? The church is a market that is just as large as societies markets. It preaches the same gospel as society - It is all about our comfort & what others think about us. The only difference between the churches market is that instead of marketing to gain monetarily value, we market to gain numerical value of people that are "Christians".

Now what I described is not every church in America, there are some amazing churches that are preaching the gospel according to the bible and preaching a Gospel that is about the Glory of God and not ourselves, however they are becoming more and more rare.

Would you join me in praying for the church as well as refusing to be marketed? Humbly go to your ministers, ask them why they do what they do and how it ultimately points back to God, challenge them, let them know your concern is for the glory of God and not in attracting a certain marketed people into the church. My intention is not to ridicule any specific church, or any church culture, but yet to point into the realities that we as a church society are becoming one with secular society, only using Christian lingo to separate us.