All the Difference

As part of my Monday morning routine, I surfed over to the Church Marketing Sucks webiste and hit on an interesting post here.

To summarize:

Most people don't think about church.

Why market a church? Because most people don't think about church. Ah, you may be thinking, "Of course they think about church. How could they NOT think about church?" Okay, maybe you're not thinking that - but for me, and for most people I know, well, we think about church. But that's because most people I know GO to church - it's part of us, part of who we are.

I don't think about hair care products. I mean, really, have you seen my hair? I got it cut over the weekend and decided to do something different. Set the clippers on 4 instead of 3. Well, it is winter and that extra 1/8th of an inch might just keep me warmer.

But I don't think about conditioners and gels and...paste? Really? Volumizers, restructurizers, um...what? I Googled hair products a moment ago...and was taken into a very alien landscape.

So, of course people don't think about church. Why was that a surprise for me? Yeah, they pass them on their way to the hair salon, but, really, they're part of the scenery.

But here's the kicker for me - I don't think about hair care products, yet I'm pretty sure they're advertised during shows I watch. I say "pretty sure" because as I'm sitting here I can't think of a single one - no, wait, I think maybe...um, I think some kind of hair coloring...I don't know.

So, maybe marketing doesn't really work as well as we want it to. At least not the kind of forced marketing that slaps an idea in front of you hoping it will stick. But if somebody told me about a shampoo that changed their lives (um...is that even possible?) well, I would sit up and listen.

A friend said one time he went to a gas station right beside the church where he pastored and asked if the cashier knew where the church was. She had no idea (of course it doesn't help that that particular church looks like a bank instead of a church...).

People don't think about church. Or a lot of other stuff. Until someone they know and trust says they care about church...and that makes all the difference...

NOTE - after I posted this I was continuing on the CMS website and found this link about the United Methodist Church as a whole taking a new "advertising" approach - RETHINK CHURCH - what if we started thinking of chruch as a verb instead of a noun? Hmmm

THE LINK.