sonrise Comes to Calvary!

Beginning May 25, Calvary will be launching a new worship service at 7:45 a.m. Yeah, it's early, but we're banking on the fact that people who normally skip church for the golf course might make time before leisure begins. Here's what we've got so far:

Church Marketing 2

I feel the same way about attaching business lingo to ministry. Yes it feels awkward to talk about putting together a marketing strategy to expand the kingdom of God. No, Jesus doesn't need an ad agency to make him important.

If marketing really consists of many of the things we already do, and strategy just means thinking about a thing, then a marketing strategy is really just "thinking about many of the things we already do." Put that way, it's not such a bad idea. But sometimes organizations just don't do it.

Take this church sign. I should point out that some very good-hearted, well-intentioned person dreamed up this sign, probably as a way to appeal to people in my generation.

Trouble is, this sign does the opposite. Ignore for a moment that the word "donwload" is spelled wrong and that the phrase "get-on-line" is strangely hyphenated. I don't have to explain too much why a 20-something like myself wouldn't feel more inclined to enter this building after reading this sign.

Take-Away 2
When you're trying to reach a 24-year-old, ask a 24-year-old. If at any point the sign committee had consulted a member of their target audience, someone would have had the audacity to say, "No, that's not appealing." The quote here was not the bad idea - the bad idea was the assumption that they knew the audience better than the audience knew itself.

This principle fits for youth, parents, men, women, and senior citizens. Never assume you know your target audience. Ask.

Church Marketing 1

I just finished reading an interesting book - All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin, all about the nature of marketing in a modern world. The bulk of the book dealt with marketing in the commercial sector, but I had quite a few ministry take-aways as well. Here's the first one.

Take-Away 1
Many church people consider the term marketing to be a bad word - they're just against the idea of trying to sell the church the same way Irish Spring sells soap. But that's because many people still equate marketing to television commercials. In essence, commercials make up a tiny (and increasingly smaller) segment of marketing. The following were all marketing decisions, whether or not the decision-makers realized it.

• A group of people in Hell, Michigan deciding not to name their church "Hell's Baptist Church." ("I don't care if you're tired! It's Sunday morning, and the whole family is going to Hell together! Now get out of bed and get your church clothes on!")
  
• The Catholic church in Beverly Hills deciding to go with brick rather than a sided pole-barn. (Think about the kind of statement that would make.)
  
• Our decision at Calvary to include more pictures of people than pictures of the building on the website. (We wanted it to be about the people, not the bricks.)

Taken individually, these decisions seem tame and acceptable. The fact that they seem like obvious decisions doesn't change the fact that they are obvious marketing decisions. When more churches think through their marketing, they'll still be doing the same things that they already do, just better.

And that's definitely not a bad thing.