All this, at the same time as Britons (and I’m sure others) are feeling more lonely than ever before.

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I received this response via email the next day, from a reader of Communicate Jesus:

Hi Steve,

When I read your email of the post ‘No Excuses for Ugly Duckling Marketing‘ I cried and cried. With both joy, and regret. Joy to finally hear a support for marketing in churches and regret that I expect it to be criticised.

I’ve been in marketing professionally for 25 years and attending and serving my church for 36 of the 38 years since I came to know Jesus.

Most of those years I have been trying to serve the Lord in my church with my marketing expertise and sometimes I’ve been allowed some scope to do that, but for a lot of those years my skills have been treated with a component of suspicion – there has been the suspicion that marketing is “of the devil” (I’ve actually sat in a meeting where one of the ministers said that) and as soon as something looks aesthetically good or a communication strategy is too “deliberate” the accusation comes – never overtly, always subtly – that’s manipulation.

In many minds marketing seems linked so strongly with worldliness and a grab for money some can’t see it could possibly be used for the gospel – they only see it as being against what the Bible teaches.

In recent years I’ve felt less and less confident that I have anything to offer, and more worried that my efforts to use my know-how in a church context has perhaps not been pleasing to God.  There is never any money for marketing as a priority and while that means we need to be creative, it also makes one feel largely unvalued.  The approval for parting with church funds for a plumber when the toilets get blocked comes far more quickly (and more comfortably for decision-makers) than paying for marketing expertise, but marketing is my trade, but that trade is not well respected – in my church anyway.

I’m really thankful that these comments are out there to stimulate comment, but don’t be surprised if you get shot down. God bless.”

I felt sad reading this email. However, the experience of this person is not a one-off – I’ve have heard it before, and I’ve have heard similar negative sentiments expressed by pastors and other church leaders about marketing. This attitude seems to be limited to marketing. For example:

• If you have gifts in financial management, your church wants you to be a treasurer.
• If you have gifts in plumbing, your church wants you to help when the toilet is blocked.
• If you have gifts in computing, your church wants to you help when the network goes down.
• If you have gifts in singing, your church wants you to serve on the music team.

So why are people with skills in marketing so frequently maligned? I’m keen to hear from pastors (and anyone else who’d like to share their considered thoughts) – what role do you think marketing and marketers have in the life of the local church? Is marketing ‘of the devil’, or can it be done in a way that is pleasing to God? How would you respond to this email I received?

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She was searching online.

I suggested she check out Roses Only.

Her response: “I thought they only sold roses”.

They don’t, but with a name like Roses Only, you’d be forgiven for thinking this.

A good reminder to think before you name, to ensure that your name doesn’t confuse or alienate future customers – or, in the case of Christian ministries, the people we are promoting our ministries to.

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“What drove me nuts more was not the crackly music – but the spelling error (‘whats your God’ instead of ‘what’s your God’).  It made me not want to use it.  I suppose it brings home how even small glitches can ruin a whole good work – or that I’m a huge pedant!”

It’s a good insight.

That video would have taken hours to put together. Yet, the lack of attention to detail in a couple of areas impacts how many people would be willing to use it. It’s a shame, but you don’t want people only remembering the video for the poor punctuation. Its a shame, because it’s so easily avoided.

I, like my friend, am a pedant when it comes to detail like this (and I’ve written about poor spelling and punctuation several times before – see links below). Are you also a pedant, or do you think it doesn’t really matter?

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Her tweets during the Logies have resulted in her being sacked by The Age (where she was a columnist). news.com.au sums up the worst of her tweets:

“Deveny drew the most criticism for writing that she hoped 11-year-old TV star Bindi Irwin “gets laid” and that former TV host Rove McManus’ wife Tasma “didn’t die too” – referring to the loss of his first wife Belinda Emmett to cancer in 2006.”

According to The Age, Deveny justifies her comments:

“It was just passing notes in class, but suddenly these notes are being projected into the sky and taken out of context,” she said.

It’s hard for 140 character tweets to be taken out of context. She also seems blissfully unaware of the power of the medium – did she think that no one was listening? If she thought no one was listening, why was she speaking?

Is she sorry?

“I meant every single word,” she said.

It’s a shame she can’t see the hurt she caused.

You can do a lot of damage in 140 characters. The tongue truly is a fire – and Christians can be just as guilty of using harmful words, and need to be just as careful with how we use our tongue – literally, and virtually.

Let’s not be ignorant of the power and influence of social media – what you say can be read, re-tweeted and will remain online forever.

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Don’t want to go to Bible study? Just send a text message – “Can’t come tonight. Sorry.”

Got something hard to say? Send an email. “Sermon on Sunday was terrible. I’ll be praying for you.”

Can’t be bothered to call someone to wish them a happy birthday? Post on their Facebook wall instead! (Too harsh?!)

Upset with someone at church? Listen to a podcast and avoid the need to come to church and resolve your issues with them.

Slydial is another tool to facilitate avoidance. It allows you to speak directly to a person’s voicemail – i.e. you don’t need to worry about whether or not they will pick up and you’d have to speak to them. Jump straight to leaving a message instead.

Here’s the example promoted on its website:

“You go to a week long convention for work in Las Vegas and blow $5,000 the first night at the roulette table. You need to call your wife and tell her why she should hold off on making the monthly mortgage payment. Her voicemail will be much more understanding than she will.”

I’ll be honest. There are times when I’ve been very relieved that a call has gone through to voicemail and I’ve been able to simply leave a message. But that’s because I was cowardly (and still am).

But it’s difficult to see how Slydial is a tool that will help faciliate authentic, honest, loving relationships. Yet these are precisely the relationships that we all long for.

(Thanks to @nttd for the heads up on Slydial)

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As I’ve been conducting the reviews, I’ve looked at over 30 websites. I’ve noticed that different websites evoke different feelings in me, and in return, my desires to either continue exploring, or leave as soon as I can.

There’s this site, for the Alterian SM2 product. How do you feel when you visit its website?

I feel stressed. The homepage is busy, the background is novel but confusing, and I don’t know where to look, or where to start. It might be a great product, but the homepage is a real turn-off and I’m not interested in exploring further.

On the other hand, Social Mention evokes an entirely different response. How do you feel when you visit its website?

I feel calm. It’s uncluttered. There’s lot of white space. The messages are clear. The value is obvious.

Alterian could be a superior product. But its website has pushed me away, rather than drawn me in.

How do visitors feel when they visit your church or ministry website? What impact does it have on them? Do they want to stay or flee?

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Last year I shared the blog commenting guidelines on the Desiring God blog.

Justin Taylor at the Gospel Coalition has published another list:

• Is this comment gracious? (Col. 4:6)
• Is this comment seasoned with salt? (Col. 4:6)
• Is this comment corrupting? (Eph. 4:29)
• Is this comment seeking to build up the church for good? (Eph. 4:29)
• Is this comment intended to give grace to those who read it? (Eph. 4:29)
• Is this comment fitting and appropriate? (Eph. 4:29)
• Is this comment true? Is this comment written in love? (Eph. 4:15, 25)

Anything you’d add to this list?

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It appears that more and more people would benefit from this illustration.

Take for example this advertisement on Google:

Or the author of this Slideshare presentation on ‘15 learnings from the top 50 brands in Facebook‘:

The problem extends to television, with this series of advertisements on Australian television:

And on a related note, check your spacing too! In the same presentation I read this slide over and over again to understand what it meant – until I realised it should be ‘may be’ not ‘maybe’:

Simple stuff that that impacts how you are perceived, and how effective your communication is.

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“Dear Steven,

Thanks for your email, but at this point I have NOT actually received your message because I have implemented a challenge-response anti-spam system.

Before I can receive your message you must respond as outlined below.

Once you have done this once I will receive your ORIGINAL and all FUTURE messages.

Just reply to this email message – just make sure that the subject of your reply contains the subject of this message.

If you do not respond within 7 days, your message will be DELETED and I will not be able to receive messages from you in the future.

I apologize for this one-time inconvenience, but I have been forced to implement this challenge-response anti-spam solution due to the amount of spam I am receiving.

Thank you,

Sales”

If you’re having problems with spam, use Gmail (on its own, or as part of the suite of Google Apps). It’s got a lot of tools to keep spam out of your inbox. This is a much better (i.e. customer-friendly) solution to requiring potential customers to re-send messages.

From where I’m sitting there are two options:

1. Receive no spam, but stop receiving emails from some potential clients/customers/visitors.
2. Receive spam, but receive emails from all potential clients/customer/visitors.

Seems like an easy choice to me. Thankfully, this is the first time I’ve come across this ‘anti-spam’ procedure. But if your church or ministry uses this (or something similar), please turn it off!

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