The Undifferentiated Church
Somewhere between my birth and the present day (a LOOONNNNGGGGGG time if you ask my kids), churches started to adopt marketing disciplines. Now, I have nothing against applying wisdom and truth to church administration, and I believe that all truth is God’s truth, whether it’s written in scripture or discerned through scientific method. Finally, to be completely honest, I tend to like marketing. It’s a powerful instrument, but like any tool: it can be misused; it can be applied to promote good; and it can be used for bad purposes. So having a little bit of knowledge, I’ve observed a few things over the years and have developed some opinions about what happens when churches apply marketing principals.
Now any organization that has not matured in its marketing practices tends to be internally focused, and when it’s a congregation, it can be rather cliquish. However, as an organization starts to understand marketing, it becomes “market driven”. The organization promotes activities and programs that will be attractive to the market, specifically reaching out to those demographics that are most desirable to develop the organization. As part of this process, successful businesses create plans to set themselves apart from the competition and then communicate the value of that difference to prospective clients. This is called “differentiation” and “positioning”.
Now any organization that has not matured in its marketing practices tends to be internally focused, and when it’s a congregation, it can be rather cliquish. However, as an organization starts to understand marketing, it becomes “market driven”. The organization promotes activities and programs that will be attractive to the market, specifically reaching out to those demographics that are most desirable to develop the organization. As part of this process, successful businesses create plans to set themselves apart from the competition and then communicate the value of that difference to prospective clients. This is called “differentiation” and “positioning”.
Differentiation is the act of designing a set of meaningful differences to distinguish the company's offering from competitor's offerings.
Positioning is the result of differentiation decisions… The end result of positioning is the creation of a market-focused value proposition, a simple clear statement of why the target market should buy the product.
~ http://knol.google.com/k/marketing-strategy-differentiating-and-positioning-the-market-offering
So a powerful tool called Marketing becomes increasingly applied in business, and unsurprisingly it becomes more prevalent in the business of church. Progressive church leaders differentiated themselves with culturally relevant messages and offerings. Traditional churches started to observe a mass exodus of patrons, especially among the younger generation, and they began to apply techniques to retain or even increase the numbers of their congregations. Contemporary services became more common place to reflect the preferences of the church-shopping market place.
Ironically, rather than being differentiated, churches started to look alike, promoting contemporary Christian music and a variety of good coffee. Now, the most mature marketing organizations grow out of the “market driven” stage and ultimately find an ability to “drive the market”. This is no different in church. This church marketing machine, in an attempt to differentiate itself from its competitors in the religious services market, started becoming more and more program-centric. The organization with the better programs became more attractive to the church shoppers, but programs are expensive, requiring more of the time, talents and financial contributions of church members.
And then, in my opinion, a funny thing happened: the church forgot what it was marketing. It became so busy “doing” that it left its First Love (Jesus)… and its Second Love (People). People became a means to supplying a program rather than an end in themselves. The most tragic thing about this trend is that no one in the church thought it would lead to this. The church marketers wanted to reach people with life-saving messages. The church shoppers wanted to find a place that brought them life. But instead of streams of living water, they found themselves in a barren desert. Now I don’t think that every church is lifeless or barren, but Barna studies as well as personal experience have convinced me that the church in America is trending downward. It’s a trend that impacts pastors, lay leaders and even people outside the church.
So I don’t pretend to have all the answers, and I still don’t think that marketing practices are a bad thing, but I believe it’s important to understand where the church is different from a business to then grasp how marketing can be useful to advance Christ’s kingdom and reverse the current trend.
First, we need to understand that God’s economy is all about giving. Somehow, we receive more when we give. I don’t understand this principal, and even though I’ve walked through it many times, I confess it’s often a scary path. Still, I often wonder what would happen if businesses started operating from this principal instead of the profit-focus we have. Would God enter into that business with greater blessings than could ever be gained through conventional wisdom? So the fundamental question of conventional business (i.e. – “what’s in it for me?”) is in opposition to the fundamental question of authentic ministry: “How can I help?”
Second, churches need to stop competing with each other; we should be looking for opportunities to collaborate in kingdom work. We are supposed to be known for our love for each other. (John 13 and John 15) That love should reflect the sacrificial love of Jesus and not the self-seeking love of the world. I have been saddened to hear pastors express a concern about intermingling with other congregations for fear that their members would leave. I’ve also heard pastors echo the “what’s in it for me?” question far too often, and while I understand the motivation and concerns, it does not reflect a Christ-like perspective.
Again, there is a core difference between the way the business world thinks and the way we’re called to think. The world only understands a transactional love: giving with the expectation of something in return. Unfortunately, the program-centric church expects that ministry recipients will participate in or support the program, and therefore more effort is expended on reaching the people who will enable the ministry. The less attractive members are left by the wayside: the poor, the hurting, the ugly, the sinners, etc. But wasn’t this the demographic that Jesus spent His time ministering to?
Third, the church is called to influence the culture rather than allowing itself to become part of a corrupt world. My great concern for the Church in America is that we’ve gone native… we’ve adopted a belief system that is counter-kingdom, and then we are surprised when we don’t see God moving in our lives. So bottom line (no pun intended!) is that we need to skip the “Market Driven” stage and advance to “Driving the Market”.
It’s easy for us to understand how the world thinks: we are sinners by nature and the old man in us still fights the new creation we’ve become. But the wisdom of God doesn’t make sense to the world; Scripture says that a Christian world view seems like foolishness in the eyes of the world. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25) Understanding this difference is a key strength that every believer must draw upon. We aren’t called to deliberately make fools of ourselves, but we need to stand firm in our dedication to Christ, especially when it stands in opposition to conventional wisdom. (See 1 Corinthians 4:10) When the world repeatedly sees our “foolish dedication” followed by inexplicable consequences, it bears greater witness than any evangelization technique man can conceive.
So while so many churches have spent considerable energy trying to differentiate themselves, the authentic Body is differentiated by its very nature. The uniqueness of any congregation’s members combined with an authentic dedication to ministry sets it apart from all others. And when that body of believers is open to and intentionally intermingling with other Christ-centric congregations to love and serve each other as well as the world around them, the Kingdom of God is advanced. Those who are perishing will ridicule this approach, but it will be more attractive to the ones God has predestined for glory… more attractive than any program, not matter how excellent or praiseworthy it may be.
Make no mistake, we are reaching a point of division in the body of believers, and each individual is called to lead from where they are: speaking truth in love while worshipping in truth and spirit.
Ironically, rather than being differentiated, churches started to look alike, promoting contemporary Christian music and a variety of good coffee. Now, the most mature marketing organizations grow out of the “market driven” stage and ultimately find an ability to “drive the market”. This is no different in church. This church marketing machine, in an attempt to differentiate itself from its competitors in the religious services market, started becoming more and more program-centric. The organization with the better programs became more attractive to the church shoppers, but programs are expensive, requiring more of the time, talents and financial contributions of church members.
And then, in my opinion, a funny thing happened: the church forgot what it was marketing. It became so busy “doing” that it left its First Love (Jesus)… and its Second Love (People). People became a means to supplying a program rather than an end in themselves. The most tragic thing about this trend is that no one in the church thought it would lead to this. The church marketers wanted to reach people with life-saving messages. The church shoppers wanted to find a place that brought them life. But instead of streams of living water, they found themselves in a barren desert. Now I don’t think that every church is lifeless or barren, but Barna studies as well as personal experience have convinced me that the church in America is trending downward. It’s a trend that impacts pastors, lay leaders and even people outside the church.
So I don’t pretend to have all the answers, and I still don’t think that marketing practices are a bad thing, but I believe it’s important to understand where the church is different from a business to then grasp how marketing can be useful to advance Christ’s kingdom and reverse the current trend.
First, we need to understand that God’s economy is all about giving. Somehow, we receive more when we give. I don’t understand this principal, and even though I’ve walked through it many times, I confess it’s often a scary path. Still, I often wonder what would happen if businesses started operating from this principal instead of the profit-focus we have. Would God enter into that business with greater blessings than could ever be gained through conventional wisdom? So the fundamental question of conventional business (i.e. – “what’s in it for me?”) is in opposition to the fundamental question of authentic ministry: “How can I help?”
Second, churches need to stop competing with each other; we should be looking for opportunities to collaborate in kingdom work. We are supposed to be known for our love for each other. (John 13 and John 15) That love should reflect the sacrificial love of Jesus and not the self-seeking love of the world. I have been saddened to hear pastors express a concern about intermingling with other congregations for fear that their members would leave. I’ve also heard pastors echo the “what’s in it for me?” question far too often, and while I understand the motivation and concerns, it does not reflect a Christ-like perspective.
Again, there is a core difference between the way the business world thinks and the way we’re called to think. The world only understands a transactional love: giving with the expectation of something in return. Unfortunately, the program-centric church expects that ministry recipients will participate in or support the program, and therefore more effort is expended on reaching the people who will enable the ministry. The less attractive members are left by the wayside: the poor, the hurting, the ugly, the sinners, etc. But wasn’t this the demographic that Jesus spent His time ministering to?
Third, the church is called to influence the culture rather than allowing itself to become part of a corrupt world. My great concern for the Church in America is that we’ve gone native… we’ve adopted a belief system that is counter-kingdom, and then we are surprised when we don’t see God moving in our lives. So bottom line (no pun intended!) is that we need to skip the “Market Driven” stage and advance to “Driving the Market”.
It’s easy for us to understand how the world thinks: we are sinners by nature and the old man in us still fights the new creation we’ve become. But the wisdom of God doesn’t make sense to the world; Scripture says that a Christian world view seems like foolishness in the eyes of the world. (1 Corinthians 1:18-25) Understanding this difference is a key strength that every believer must draw upon. We aren’t called to deliberately make fools of ourselves, but we need to stand firm in our dedication to Christ, especially when it stands in opposition to conventional wisdom. (See 1 Corinthians 4:10) When the world repeatedly sees our “foolish dedication” followed by inexplicable consequences, it bears greater witness than any evangelization technique man can conceive.
So while so many churches have spent considerable energy trying to differentiate themselves, the authentic Body is differentiated by its very nature. The uniqueness of any congregation’s members combined with an authentic dedication to ministry sets it apart from all others. And when that body of believers is open to and intentionally intermingling with other Christ-centric congregations to love and serve each other as well as the world around them, the Kingdom of God is advanced. Those who are perishing will ridicule this approach, but it will be more attractive to the ones God has predestined for glory… more attractive than any program, not matter how excellent or praiseworthy it may be.
Make no mistake, we are reaching a point of division in the body of believers, and each individual is called to lead from where they are: speaking truth in love while worshipping in truth and spirit.
copyright ©2011 Mitchell Malloy (http://mitchellmalloyblogspot.com/)
