A friend of mine was hosting his 30th birthday party, and he invited many of his friends on Facebook. Only half of them responded. That’s just responded - half of the people who were invited never got back to him to say whether or not they would attend his birthday party.

People from previous generations would rightly say that this is rude. And it’s not just a Facebook thing – when my fiancee and I sent out invitations to our wedding last year, there were people we had to chase to confirm if they were attending. Recent generations are hopeless at responding to invitations.

This has implications for the activities that take place at our churches. The ‘last minute RSVP’ (if indeed there is an RSVP at all) makes it very difficult for event organisers to plan, cater, assign rooms etc. More than the logistical issues this behaviour creates, personal relationships suffer and people feel (rightly) hurt. Let’s face it – no one wants to send out invitations to an event and have only half the people respond.

Why do we do this to each other? The behaviour is rude and unloving, but I don’t think anyone is actively seeking to act like this. So what’s going on? I think there are a couple of factors at play:

1. We’re a generation that has been taught to keep our options open.

Never before have we been exposed to so much choice and opportunity. Many young Australians can study any subject they wish, get a job in any country, live in any city, attend any church, take up any hobby – the list goes on. We’ve been fed the line that the world is our oyster, and we can be what we want to be.  But this becomes paralysing – if I move to New York, that means I miss out on London. We’re always wondering ‘what if…?’. And this can be applied to social situations – if I accept an invitation to this birthday party, what am I missing out on? So I wait until the last moment.

2. Social media has enabled us to be bombarded with ‘invitations’ every day.

It doesn’t take long to create a nice looking, albeit electronic invitation, and send it off to all of our friends and acquaintances - past and present, for any type of event you can think of. Some invitations are very important (my friend’s 30th), others are less important (Friday night drinks), still others are completely irrelevant (from a friend I haven’t seen or spoken to since year 10, living in a different city, to an event I have absolutely no interest in attending!). We receive so many invitations of such varying degrees of relevance and importance, our inboxes become chocked, and it’s difficult to sort the wheat from the chaff. When you receive one invitation a day, it’s not a big effort to respond. However, when that list continues to grow, and when so many of the invitations bear very little relevance, it becomes easy to ignore them. This is what I do to my peril – and invitations from good friends become lost amongst the chaff.

3. Invitations are now perceived as being less unique and personal – even when this may not actually be the case.

In a blog post entitled ‘Why don’t people respond to invitations anymore?‘, the author made this point:

“[In the past] If someone has invited you to something, it’s because they’ve thought carefully about who they would like to have there, and you’ve made the list as being special to them. They’re going to the trouble of organising something, so you should have the courtesy of letting them know if you can make it – soon after you receive the invitation.”

As times change, the answer isn’t necessarily to return to the way things were. But we do need to consider our ways – here are four considerations:

1. Clearly (and not just on Facebook), we need to be more considerate as we think through how our actions impact others, and what it means to love others as we send and respond to invitations. If there’s an RSVP date, respond by that date. Don’t wait for a better offer – it’s terribly unloving.
2. We need to be intentional (and express our intentions) in why we are using social media for events. Are you creating an event on Facebook simply to generate awareness? Or, are you expecting each person you invite to respond? Make it clear why you are inviting people, and what you want them to do with that invitation.
3. We need to be less ‘catch-all’ in our approach. Facebook makes it easy to invite hundreds of people – but how many of these people are likely to attend? Only invite those who are likely to attend – this will reduce the glut of irrelevant invites, and help us all from being inundated and overwhelmed.
4. Finally, let’s use a variety of mediums. While it’s easy, let’s not only use Facebook to invite people to events – this will exclude people who don’t use it. There’s nothing like a good old fashioned phone call to let someone know you’d really like them to attend!

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The advertisement is almost correct – there’s one person who is good enough for heaven, and praise God – he makes it possible for the rest of us no-hopers to make it in the front door. What sentiment do you think that advertisement is picking up on? I’m not sure where those ads were displayed – but how do you think they would have been received by Australians? There are a couple of other advertisements in the series that you can see on the Ads of the World website.

Advertising intrigues me. When done well, advertising is well researched and taps into the thoughts, attitudes and desires of a cross-section of the community. Some ads grab my attention because of what they reveal about the people they are seeking to connect with, and how they seek to motivate their audience to respond. Here are a couple of ads that have caught my attention. What ads have caught yours?

• Envy – a powerful motivator
• The strange omission from Australia Day advertising
• Lilydale – ‘it’ll have you saying grace again’
• Loyalty in marriage strikes a cord

I was also interested to see recently that Alpha is using Bear Grylls to advertise its courses on Sydney Buses.

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It’s encouraging to see how other churches are exploring different print formats for their communication. Here’s one from Kirk Place:

Have you got any examples from your church’s promotion?

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The first was with Compassion (‘Uncomfortable about child sponsorship‘). The second I came across today, courtesy of Children International. This was the ad I saw on the Bible Gateway website:

If I sponsor Maria, I’ll get a free copy of Rick Warren’s ‘The Purpose Driven Life‘.

Here’s what I said last time I saw this technique being used:

“I’m all for getting more child sponsors, but something about this promotion made me feel a little uncomfortable. Perhaps I feel uncomfortable because this kind of promotion is so common in our world (e.g. “buy two pizzas, get a free coke and garlic bread”). Perhaps I feel uncomfortable because the intrinsic value of the children themselves should be a good enough incentive to sponsor a child. I can’t put my finger on it, but it just doesn’t sit well with me as a marketing strategy.”

I don’t feel any more comfortable with it 7 months on. How about you?

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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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At Communicate Jesus we continue to explore good (and bad) marketing techniques – all with the desire of making Jesus known. Today, a guest post from Duncan Robinson on this very topic. A little about Duncan:

Duncan Robinson is the Pastor of Small Groups Ministry in Maricopa Arizona at Church of Celebration. Prior to that he served as the Youth Pastor for Macquarie Chapel in Eastwood. This is the second Church Plant I have been a part of, we have seen the ministry grow to over 800 people in 4 short years. I have been the guest speaker at a number of Youth Conferences in both the USA and Australia most recently speaking on an Arizona Youth Camp. Blogger, Techno Geek, I love being a Pastor and think about church stuff a lot!

Over to you Duncan…

For many pastors, marketing is not a skill that we are trained in. Yet when it comes to promotion of your church it is vital. Many of us don’t know where to start or what constitutes marketing. Some of us have bought the lie that marketing is not important when communicating Jesus because Jesus doesn’t need slick marketing. I agree with that statement in part – God’s word is sharper than any two-edged sword – Hebrews teaches me that. But your logo made up of a dove and a rainbow hasn’t been popular for over a decade. That embarrassing PowerPoint slide promoting your up-coming series looks trashy, and people who aren’t churched are turned off by it.

So why hinder yourself anymore? Four years ago we started Church of Celebration in the hardest hit town in America after the property crash. Housing prices dropped by 60%, people moved out in droves and we elected to throw up a church because God called us there. We realized marketing and design was important, and we didn’t have a big budget so we invested money where it counted, advertised creatively and paid a designer to create a slick logo.

Marketing matters, but you market to women. Then you do Sunday church to men.

Put simply, wives can be relentless naggers. When it comes to getting their man into church they can plug it until they fold and get that guy into the building. Just realize that the husband doesn’t want to be there – as he sits there with his arms folded he is ust waiting to run out of there at the last song. So you speak “blue”, masculine colors, dark lighting, slick marketing and invest time and energy into making Sunday look good. He’ll come back if he feels like church is speaking to him personally.

Church population is roughly a 60/40 split of women to men. Women can get men into the church, marketing Sunday church for men will bring them back. Men are marketing savvy whether they know it or not. TV teaches them what they like and what they don’t, so early on in the church plant, we spoke blue, we did church blue, but we marketed pink.

Crisis breeds innovation. When you church plant there isn’t a bunch of money so you get creative with your marketing. We have bumper stickers, T-Shirts (that look good!), a good looking website, we advertise in local papers, have local TV/radio spots and just recently we bought a billboard. We have promoted sermon series with yard signs, websites, mass mailers and personal invite cards. The majority of this stuff we ripped off from other much larger churches.

These websites offer great designs and inspiration:

• CreativeMYK
• Elevation Church Resources
• Open Lifechurch
• Church Marketing Lab (this group will even give you feedback on your designs!)

Even websites like Church Marketing Sucks will give you some simple insights to the value of marketing.

Good marketing will cost you money. When we started the church we invested in a designer to develop our stationary and website. Communicate Jesus mentions this often but a good website will drive bodies to your church! Think about it  this way – if you spend $1000 on a website (for example, with Clover Sites) and you pick up one member who gives $20 a week, you pay for that investment in one year…oh and they get eternal life and get to go to heaven.

Bad marketing is no longer an excuse, incredible resources for churches are out there and they are free. We are even bold enough to call Churches for series that we like and ask blatantly for all their materials, most of them give them up for free! Kingdom-minded ministries want to see people come to know Jesus, so if it worked for them they are typically excited to share it with you. Don’t be afraid to ask the question.

Marketing is your face to the community, I’d prefer to look good and represent Jesus in a slick, bold, creative manner. I want people to come to know Christ, and I want them to see I care about this ministry/church. There is no excuse for allowing your church to look like an ugly duckling.

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Churches have mission statements too.

• College Park Church has the mission: “Igniting a passion to follow Jesus”.
• Church by the Bridge has the mission: “Living for Jesus. Loving like Jesus”.
• Redeemer Presbyterian has the mission: “Seeking to renew the City Socially, Spiritually and Culturally”.
• Covenant Life Church has the mission: “to build a community of gospel-centered people.”
• Emmanuel Church has the three-fold mission: “to glorify God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit by listening and responding to God’s word obediently;
  loving one another practically; and proclaiming Christ boldly”.
• St Andrew’s Cathedral has a slightly longer mission: “To glorify God by proclaiming our Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ in prayerful dependence on the Holy Spirit, so that everyone will hear his call to repent, trust and serve Christ in love, and be established in the fellowship of his disciples while we await his return”.

These are mission statements set big expectations.

What’s the mission statement for your church?

The challenge for us (and for Avis) when we set and then promote these mission statements is to actually live up to them.

Too often, corporate mission statements are dreamt up in board-room meeting of the marketing executive, who forgot to tell the staff that they should actually try harder. (Avis – this hasn’t been my experience with you – you just have a mission that’s easy to use as an example!)

My point is, too often the behaviour doesn’t come close to matching the mission – there is a disconnect between the bold mission of the company, and the people who have face-to-face contact with the customers (i.e. the people who actually need to implement the mission).

And as a result we cause harm to our brand, or more importantly in our case, tarnish the reputation of our God.

We need God’s help to live out these missions. We really need God’s help. But, by God’s grace and with his power at work within us, we can live up to these bold missions.

And when we miraculously do, all the glory goes to God.

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This got me thinking – what emotions do we tap into in church marketing to encourage people to come along to church? We might not have multi-million dollar advertising budgets, but our marketing materials usually try to connect with our neighbours on an emotional level.

Mitsubishi Outlander

Ford Territory

Mitsubishi Triton

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• standing at the base of Niagra Falls?
• scenic helicopter flights over Antarctica?
• a dishwashing detergent that washes the dishes for you?!

‘Experience the wonder’ is a bold invitation.

And my guess is that you wouldn’t imagine this invitation to be to ‘experience the wonder’ of paying for flights using PayPal. But this is the campaign that Webjet has launched.

It comes complete with a television advertisement with grandiose music suitable for a Presidential address or the climactic scene of a Hollywood blockbuster.

It strikes me as an over-dramatic over-sell. Big claims should be saved for equally big (innovative/one-of-a-kind/life-changing) products, events or services.

The difference with Christianity, is that the message really is life-changing. Any Christian can testify to the life-changing message that the gospel of Jesus Christ is. However, I don’t think this opens the doors for us to use ‘experience the wonder’ in our church promotion. Sure, we could do:

• ‘Experience the wonder of carols this Christmas’
• ‘Experience the wonder of Jesus – sign up for a Simply Christianity course’
• ‘Experience the wonder of fair trade. Visit our fair trade market this weekend’

But in a world of big claims (where many aren’t half as big as they claim to be), I’m not sure how effective this kind of promotion would be. What do you think? Is it time to ‘experience the wonder’ in our promotion of Christian events?

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and:

The artwork isn’t particularly cutting-edge – we’re used to seeing images of starving people.

However, I’m feeling increasingly convicted that Christians need to be on the front foot, at the forefront of caring for the poor, the marginalised, those who have been the victims of injustice and oppression. You can’t read Amos and not feel uncomfortable.

Should we have posters like this out the front of our churches, encouraging the people in our church and community to remember the poor and oppressed? Why or why not?

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