Marketing in God’s Kingdom

Marcus Sanford

Strategic Marketing MBA 850

David Morgan

April 14, 2013

“As I develop in mind, body, and spirit, I pledge on my honor that I have not given, received, witnessed, nor have knowledge of unauthorized aid on this or any [assignment, quiz, paper, test].”

Marketing In the Christian Church

Marketing in the Christian church takes many forms as do the levels at which the church’s

message must be communicated. Just as the church itself is perceived both at an overall level and a local

level, so do the communications needs change at each level. At the highest level, the church itself

competes in a “market” with faiths of all different kinds all over the world and also, importantly,

competes with secularism and the decision to not attend church of any kind at all. Each denomination

and local church has to communicate their unique propositions to potential churchgoers within the

framework of the overarching perceptions of the Christian church as a whole and of the individual’s

subjective feelings formed from their own experiences with religion. The individual denomination must

develop a way to communicate its attributes and perspectives on Christianity as both different in some

ways but also part of the overall body of Christ at a high level to attract new followers. At the church

level, marketing communications efforts must be undertaken to promote the distinct qualities of that

church within the denomination it belongs to, the local community’s characteristics, and other

attributes. Above all, the church must undergo these activities to continue to grow and fulfill its mission

of spreading the word of Jesus Christ, sustain itself and bring new followers into the fold. In this paper, I

will attempt to provide a survey of the issues facing the church from a marketing perspective, what

research has to say, and some possibilities for moving forward and growing church membership.

One question many in the church may be tempted to ask is whether applying marketing

techniques is appropriate at all. An article in Outreach Magazine argues in favor of the need for church

marketing efforts with a biblical argument, stating “We’re familiar with Jesus’ “Great Commission”

mandate found in Matthew 28:19-20:“Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in

the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I

have commanded you” (Outreach Magazine). This first-century command still applies. God wants us to

actively live and speak His truth today—in ways that communicate to our 21st century culture.”

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Therefore, since this mandate has been put forward, it is important to build marketing efforts for the

church that fit with this instruction.

So, if it has been established that marketing is in fact an imperative for the church, then how

should churches and denominations go about doing so? Churches have become much more

sophisticated in the past several decades, in some cases mimicking the same techniques as secular

companies and to great effect. One example of this would be the Willow Creek Community Church in

South Barrington, Illinois. Greg Hawkins, a Stanford MBA and formerly worked for consulting firm

McKinsey & Company, started working for Willow Creek in 1991 and has helped to guide it to what

would be considered explosive growth by any standards (Symonds). Some of the most interesting recent

developments at Willow Creek have revolved around the use of in-depth marketing research to

determine what church members’ real needs were, and then acting on that data. The survey program,

called “Reveal,” exposed that Willow Creek, while a huge church at over 23,000 people attending church

each week, was actually not serving its members effectively enough (Symonds). Using the Reveal survey

results, “Hybels and Hawkins realized they had to customize their offerings to better meet members at

various stages of the spiritual journey. For example, for 30 years, Willow offered a midweek service for

all believers. Everyone received the same teaching. Now, after a brief worship service, members

disperse to attend one of 15 to 20 courses, ranging from those for new Christians to demanding

theology courses taught by seminary professors. Similarly, Willow’s thousands of small groups dropped

the one-size-fits-all model (Symonds).” In other words, the actual methods of communicating with

churchgoers had to modernize and evolve to be more customized for the needs of each person. Since

the church is part of a network of several hundred churches, the ideas like Reveal that start at Willow

Creek quickly spread to across the country.

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One person that might be in attendance at a local event broadcast by Willow Creek is Deacon

Manny Torres, Business Manager of the Howard, Wisconsin Catholic parish in the Diocese of Green Bay.

Mr. Torres has attended several events put on by the Illinois mega church through remote broadcast to

other local churches, discussing the Reveal program and other communications issues. The typical

Catholic parish, however, has vastly different priorities than a large evangelical church would. While his

local parish does do some advertising, the budget for paid activity is miniscule – about $2,000 annually,

or 0.08% of the parish’s $2.5 million yearly budget (Torres, 2013). According to Torres, the focus for

Catholic parishes is usually on serving existing members, not necessarily reaching out to grow the flock

from outside. “Most of our growth comes from ‘cradle Catholics,’ Deacon Torres said, or “children and

friends of existing members.” When not considering growth from sources such as the population growth

of the Howard, Wisconsin area his parish serves, the other major source of growth in adult members is

simply “word of mouth” – friends inviting friends. For Catholic churches, the focus on growth is from the

bottom up, not the top down. What the Catholic parishes really want is a “lifelong commitment” from

their members, while Torres states that the goal of evangelical mega-churches is “something more like

3-5 years of membership.” As Torres stated, “we probably spend peanuts compared to other

organizations but we concentrate our audience down to our registered members - not necessarily used

to gain new members but used to bring existing members to more functions, activities going on inside

the parish (Torres, 2013).”

The wider-scale campaigns that Catholic parishes do execute generally occur as part of national

campaigns. An example of this would be the “Catholic Comes Home” program. This nationwide

campaign was used by approximately 90% of United States diocese, according to Deacon Torres. As in

Torres’ earlier explanations, even this wide-scale integrated campaign had a focus on increasing the

involvement of low-attendance churchgoers in the parish, not on reaching those outside Catholicism.

The target for this particular effort was the lower third of church attendees. The program consisted of

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many different tactics in order to achieve its aims. To reach those already at church, there were in-

person presentations and DVD videos played before and after mass. Other tactics included direct mail to

the target audience along with communications via email and social media. Regionally, a top layer of

coverage was supplied by television advertising (Torres, 2013).

A similar campaign was undertaken by Torres’ parish to increase attendance at reconciliation

(confession) periods. This effort, called “Leave the Light On,” also used online and offline means in an

integrated fashion. As part of the campaign, an extra night of confession was added at every parish

across the United States. Direct mail, email, television and social media efforts were layered to get the

message communicated to the entire parish audience (Torres, 2013).

For general marketing efforts, the parish uses the basics of modern tools. The youth ministry

and social concerns have associated Facebook pages. As a general news and information source, a

website suffices. Outside of these, some advertising in local newspapers is done for fundraising efforts,

and an annual school auction employs radio ads to not only obtain donations of auction items but

increase attendance at the event itself. “We probably depend much more on digital media than most

people think,” Torres stated. Weekly, around half of the parish families – nearly 1,000 – receive emails

from the parish office about one activity or another. “These days, we can reach around 90 percent of the

parish by electronic means rather than paper. For the other ten percent, we still send standard

announcements by mail (Torres, 2013).”

So for churches that are trying to reach out and bring in the unchurched and not just grow as

the Catholic parish just discussed, how can it be done? Is there some sort of “secret marketing formula”

for bringing in new members who were either former churchgoers but now lapsed, or never grew up

going to church? It turns out that there are, in fact, a few things to keep in mind. George Barna of the

Barna Group, a research firm that dedicates its work to exploring issues around Christianity, has several

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studies that would-be church marketers should keep in mind. In a 2010 study of unchurched adults, the

Barna Group found that 61% of individuals who do not attend church still identify as Christians (The

Barna Group, 2010). This finding is a clear sign that something in the church experience has been

unsatisfactory or unfulfilling. In fact, the research found that one or many negative past experiences

with church were the driving factor for 37% of the group’s decision to avoid attending (The Barna Group,

2010). Clearly, churches wishing to attract membership from this group should keep in mind that a large

portion of would-be attendees need to have attention paid to their pain from these past experiences. In

addition, the church environment from members to programs to leadership should all keep this in mind

as well. It could be possible for some churches to build welcoming programs specifically around the

message of addressing past grievances or pain points.

Additional Barna research focuses on bringing younger members into the church. Millennials, or

what Barna calls ‘Mosaics,’ are a key group that churches must be able to draw in to ensure their future

relevance and success. So far, it has not been as easy to reach this generation as previous ones. As the

Barna Group explains, “The faith journeys of teens and young adults are often challenging for many

parents and faith leaders, who often misunderstand how and why young people become disconnected

(The Barna Group, 2011).” In their research, no single “magic bullet” reason exists for why the Mosaic

generation has become less interested in following in the footsteps of their elders. Instead, in Six

Reasons Young Christians Leave Church, Barna identifies some major themes. Interestingly, the

supposed conflict between Christianity comes to the fore as one of the major ideas, with a high

percentage of teens believing that the church is hostile to scientific thinking. As might be expected

among young adults, sexual beliefs also came to the fore in Barna’s research: “One-sixth of young

Christians (17%) said they “have made mistakes and feel judged in church because of them (The Barna

Group, 2011).” The issue of sexuality is particularly salient among 18- to 29-year-old Catholics, among

whom two out of five (40%) said the church’s “teachings on sexuality and birth control are out of date

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(The Barna Group, 2011).” Clearly, the church has some major challenges when it comes to reaching this

generation. However, the views of Millennials will likely change over time. It will be interesting to see

how much answers to questions like these change in five or ten years.

Atlanta pastor Shaun King had an interesting thought to share when it comes to enticing young

families to attend a particular church regularly – pay attention to how children are treated at the church,

possibly more than how adults are treated. As he stated in an article titled The Outside View of a Former

Church Insider: 10 Honest Observations, “In my church training, I always learned that parents will go to a

church that they like just a little bit if the kids LOVE it, but that parents will leave a church they like a lot

if the kids don’t like it. It’s true. I preferred one church in New York personally but the kids didn’t like it

at all. We went back one time. The kids didn’t like it again. I love it. We never went back. DOUBLE

DOWN ON WHAT YOU DO FOR KIDS. Make it even bigger and better than what you do for adults!!”

(King, 2013). This could actually be key to creating a way to push adults to come back to church and

make it a habit in their lives again or for the first time. If an activity is enjoyable to their children, it is

certainly more likely that the adults (and whole families, for that matter) will return again and again.

Once a visitor has come in the door to a church for the first time, what else can be done to

increase the chances of them coming back? Some churches have focused on the changing the styles of

their services to be more contemporary, offering niceties such as espresso and upscale coffee lounges,

changing the music to be more modern, and so on, but does merely changing the “window dressing”

work? Since conversion is a very personal choice and the truly best way to grow the church is through

conversion growth, it seems that more than just appearances may need to change. This is, instead, a

complex process, not a simple one. However, one theme that has appeared is a focus on making visitors

feel welcome and attending to what they really desire in their church visit – which is also a partial aim of

the “contemporary” church experience. According to a study by Barna reported in the Associated

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Baptist Press, church visitors want to be treated as guests and receive courteous behavior from other

churchgoers but not too much attention – they don’t want to be singled out by having to wear any

special name badges or other identifiers. In addition, research has shown that they do not necessarily

want add-ons such as gifts sent to their home; a simple thank-you note suffices (Winfrey). In other

words, new church visitors want the space to actually experience a new church and see what it is

authentically like, not be given a show and special treatment. Churches should be aware of this and

attempt to tune the experience they craft for new visitors accordingly.

When facing such a personal issue as religion and doing so in our increasingly secular culture, it

makes sense that an intensely personal approach could work better than a mass-market one. Writing in

Ministry Magazine, Peter Roennfeldt describes an effort called the “Alpha Initiative” which could offer a

possible way forward. Instead of having curious or even doubtful individuals come directly to the church,

the Alpha Initiative works around personal invitations to a friend’s home. As Roennfeldt describes, “It is

built around the idea of inviting unchurched people to a friend's home for food, fellowship, fun, and

spiritual/Bible discovery in small groups” (Roennfeldt, 2001). In other words, this is partially a personal

selling effort. Intensely personal, the system works on allowing people to openly express their doubts

and concerns, have questions answered, and get a basic education on Christianity in a more comfortable

and anxiety-free environment than an event at church would probably be. While the initiative itself does

have mass marketing support in the form of television, outdoor and print advertisements, the actual

effort is based on reaching the unchurched at an individual level.

While marketing at the church is more difficult in some ways than marketing commercial

products and services, there are many similarities. Often, churches use mass media from national or

regional campaigns to support their local activities. However, there does seem to be much more

impetus being put into personalization of the church experience than there typically would be for

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commercial marketing. Making a decision to join a church, especially if one is not already a practicing

Christian or has lapsed from churchgoing, is intensely personal. These kinds of decisions are not to be

taken lightly, and the marketing approach for churches must match the intensity of the decision.

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WORKS CITED

King, S. (2013, March 30). The Outside View of a Former Church Insider :: 10 Honest Observations.

Retrieved from Shaun In The City: http://www.shauninthecity.com/2013/03/the-outside-view-

of-a-former-church-insider-10-honest-observations.html

Outreach Magazine. (n.d.). Is Church Marketing Biblical? Retrieved from ChurchLeaders.com:

http://www.churchleaders.com/outreach-missions/outreach-missions-articles/139683-is-

church-marketing-biblical.html

Roennfeldt, P. (2001, June). Reaching the unchurched. Retrieved from Ministry Magazine:

https://www.ministrymagazine.org/archive/2001/06/reaching-the-unchurched.html

Symonds, W. C. (n.d.). Marketing God's Word. Retrieved from Stanford Graduate School of Business:

http://www.gsb.stanford.edu/news/bmag/sbsm0902/feature-marketingword.html

The Barna Group. (2010). Millions of Unchurched Adults Are Christians Hurt by Churches But Can Be

Healed of the Pain. Retrieved from The Barna Group:

http://www.barna.org/faith-spirituality/362-millions-of-unchurched-adults-are-christians-hurt-

by-churches-but-can-be-healed-of-the-pain?q=unchurched

The Barna Group. (2011, September 28). Six Reasons Young Christians Leave Church. Retrieved from The

Barna Group: http://www.barna.org/teens-next-gen-articles/528-six-reasons-young-christians-

leave-church

The Barna Group. (2011). Top Trends of 2011: Millennials Rethink Christianity. Retrieved from The Barna

Group: http://www.barna.org/teens-next-gen-articles/545-top-trends-of-2011-millennials-

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rethink-christianity

Torres, M. (2013, 04 10). Business Manager. (M. Sanford, Interviewer)

Winfrey, D. (n.d.). Barna shows how churches reach the unchurched. Retrieved from American Baptist

Press.

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