One Reason I Love Oklahoma: Tornadoes!

I just got through blogging about this on my website, but I got to see a tornado in the making today as a funnel cloud passed by my house! It was awesome and exciting - yet scary to know that it came so fast that we were never in a tornado warning. The tornado touched down a couple miles from here and I think it hit close to the church we used to attend many years ago. Well, I gotta get back to the news. Freakish as it sounds, many people in Oklahoma are mesmerized with watching clouds that can reduce big homes into tiny splinters in a fraction of a second.

May 7, 2008 · Filed Under Church Marketing

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Has church become too commercialized?

There has been a growing trend in the church market. There are more books, websites, and programs for church leaders and their teams than ever before. Church growth, Gen X services, post modernism, authentic communities, emerging movements, worship experiences, and planting missional churches have all been the buzzwords over the last decade and has led to many of the fore mentioned products. It seems that Christianity is a big business. You can even bling out your dog now in the latest JC apparel.

I recently asked a pastor about how the Exponential Conference went last week and before he replied the word jumped into my head - commercialized. He said the conference was more about speakers promoting their books and agendas than church planting. I won’t go into my personal experience with the National New Church Conference but I can totally see my friend’s point of view.

Christianity has become too commercialized in some aspects and I think we need to get a reign on it.

It appears in some circles that selling books, CD’s, sermon series, speaking gigs, metrosexual identities, and being the top blogger is the “in thing”. This has really been observed in the church planting world and evident by the groupies who continually blog about stalking their idol at conferences or who market their personal blog more than their church…all the while wearing long sleeve black shirts with big collars unbuttoned to their chest with faded jeans, Doc Martens, and a soul patch or frosted hair to match.

You know what I would like to hear more about and see?

Jesus Christ, biblical inerrancy, small guys in the trenches, life transformation, spiritual discipline, serving and washing feet, becoming the least, humility, toned down church marketing and advertising, and the realization that people NOT in church or our faith see what’s happening but many Christians don’t.

Please know that I have personally struggled with these issues myself and I thank Jesus every day that I see in a new perspective. I’m jacked up too, but friends, we have to start looking at Christianity in America through a new lenses or we will reap what we have sown.

April 30, 2008 · Filed Under Church Branding, Church Leadership, Church Marketing, Church Planting

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Free E-Book from Ministry Marketing Coach

Our good friend and fellow Okie Chris Forbes at Ministry Marketing Coach has a new book available called Facebook for Pastors and you can get it now for absolutely free! I just downloaded my copy and look forward to the insight that Chris has provided.

April 29, 2008 · Filed Under Church Leadership, Church Marketing, Web 2.0

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Is Church Marketing Dead?

There is something going on but I quite can’t put my finger on it. It’s a gut feeling that’s right more often than not. I think the church landscape is drastically changing and that church as we know it now is going to evolve (no, I am not supporting Darwin) into something much different. It’s just a hypothesis or idea I’m working on, whatever that’s worth.

One thing I do know in many conversations I’ve had lately with church leaders and church planters is that some of the media tools we have used over the last few years is losing their effectiveness or not working at all anymore. Are people fed up with advertising and marketing? Or could it be the message isn’t clear enough or that possibly the product, service, or dare I say it, the church just stinks?

I think it’s a combination of all of them.

People are tired of getting spammed or hordes of junk mail. I see and get stuff from churches that are atrocious! They say too much, don’t communicate clearly, make unchurched people feel judged, or look like somebody hurled on the paper and attached a logo. Some of the marketing tools observed from churches I have visited over-promises and under-delivers. They try to be something they are not.

Even though I believe that many churches still need to catch up with the 21^st century, I think by the time they do, it will be too late. So what do we do, or better yet, what’s my buzz word for the day?

“Realationships”

Yes, it’s misspelled but notice it says real. You know what’s going to build your church and the Kingdom? Forming real relationships! Not those cheesy types of friendships where it’s surface level or fake. You can’t pretend to care or be interested – it has to be true and authentic – or you might as well stay in a cardboard box. And building “realationships” is going to take work… a dirty, four letter word! There’s no magical kool-aid, pill or Three Minute Program to do it for us. We have to go in this messy world and love people. It’s a simple but difficult to follow solution.

Church marketing is dying. Throwing a slick advertising piece or website at the public isn’t going to cut it much longer. The church of tomorrow will require more than a campaign. It will require investing personally and hanging out in people’s jacked up lives.

April 22, 2008 · Filed Under Church Leadership, Church Marketing, Church Media

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Our Church Magazine: Quail Family

quail church magazine Over the last couple of months, I’ve been working on a 16-page, full-color, glossy magazine that was created to be an outreach tool to introduce our church family to our community for Quail Springs Baptist Church.

We’ve called this magazine Quail Family. In the magazine, we wrote feature-style articles on each of our main ministries, focusing on individuals within those areas in order to put a “face to our church.” Instead of doing another direct-mail piece, or advertisement, we wanted to make something that was personal and inviting.

We printed 15,000 copies and this week mailed 5,000 to homes and apartments in a mile-radius of our church. We’ll also be asking our members to put them on their coffee tables, or in their businesses, and to use it as a tool to invite their friends, family, and neighbors to church.

Because of this, I worked hard to exclude time-sensitive information, such as events. I think the only thing that dates the magazine is the cover issue of “Winter 2007.”

If you’d like to download a copy of the magazine in PDF-format, click here (almost 2MB)

November 29, 2007 · Filed Under Church Marketing, Media

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My New ‘Free Stuff’ Category

The past two weeks I’ve been just delighted to be able to offer various coupons for great free resources, so I’m now starting the Free Stuff category here at CCP.

Bookmark that category and come back … I’m hoping more and more people will offer great free stuff that I can giveaway here.

By the way … if you’re a content creator of (most) any resource a church, ministry or pastoral staff can use, send me an email with your free offer. This would include, but not necessarily limited to, things like videos, worship backgrounds, photos, etc.

October 15, 2007 · Filed Under Church Marketing, Free Stuff

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