‘Marketing’ the Gospel
By Mark Kelly
One of the most ironic criticisms made of Rick Warren is that he has used “secular marketing ploys” to create a large congregation and sell a mountain of books.
The irony is that the critics use the same marketing strategies to communicate their criticism. Our friend Chris Forbes, on his Ministry Marketing Coach blog site, points out that some of the most effective Christian marketers are the people who criticize the use of marketing in ministry!
Critics use the word ‘marketing’ like it is evil, unspiritual, and manipulative. But if marketing is so evil, why do they do it themselves?
They do it because otherwise the message would never get out.
Anyone who has an important message to share inevitably does marketing, even when they are only talking to one other person. Marketing is nothing more than understanding your audience, creating a message that will connect with them, and using the right media to convey the message. Marketing does not compromise the message. Actually, marketing is all about effectively conveying an accurate message.
There are two things you need to know about “marketing” the Gospel:
– Marketing is based on biblical principles. As Chris Forbes points out, the foundation of modern advertising was laid in a book, The Man Nobody Knows, which studied Jesus’ approach to communication. Where “secular” marketing works, it is because it is based on principles of understanding your audience and creating a message that connects with them that can be found in the Bible.
In The Purpose Driven Church, Pastor Rick points out that Jesus targeted a specific audience in his early ministry, saying he “was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew 15:21-28) When he taught, he used illustrations and analogies from people’s everyday lives to open the door of understanding for God’s truth. The Gospel writers told their stories in a way that would connect with their specific audience. Paul engaged the Greeks on Mars Hill in a different way than he approached Jews in the synagogue. (Acts 17:16-34)
Criticizers accuse Pastor Rick and other church leaders for using “marketing” when all they are doing is understanding their audience, looking for the ways God has prepared them to hear the Gospel, and using the appropriate means of communication to convey that message. Marketing does not compromise the Gospel; it merely finds the most effective way to communicate it.
– The Church is an organism, not an organization. In The Purpose Driven Church, Pastor Rick says some church leaders “try to manufacture the wave of God’s spirit, using gimmicks, programs, or marketing techniques to create growth. But growth cannot be produced by man! Only God makes the church grow.” (p.13) “The church is a body, not a business. It is an organism, not an organization.” (p.16)
Any Christian who wants to communicate the Gospel to others needs to understand them and select the best way to connect with them. But long before you get to that point, you need to have connected with God and let him show you where he is moving so you can join him there. Some church efforts fail because our old ways of communicating no longer connect with people in our changing culture, but much of it fails because we have neglected to seek God’s leadership about “who, what, and when.”
When ministry marketing works, it is not just because we have done a good job of connecting with the audience. With the Church, there is the more fundamental reality of God working in the hearts of people around us. Our first job is to follow Jesus’ example and limit ourselves to doing only what we see the Father doing. (John 5:19)
Saddleback did not become a large congregation because Rick Warren used an ungodly scheme to sell people in Orange County a bill of goods. The Purpose Driven Life did not sell 30 million copies just because of some marketing expert’s know how.
God blessed those efforts because they were in sync with what he wanted to do.
