Is the church cooler than Jesus?
Do you think the church is cooler than Jesus?
It might sound like a stupid question, but it’s one that we who think about marketing and the church need to ask. This might be a better way to phrase it; are you more excited about promoting your church, or promoting Jesus? Over the past 10 years there have been so many trends pass through the church. We have seen mega churches explode onto the scene, and have seen the revival of the neighborhood community congregation. Messages run the gamut from scripture based to T.V. show parodies, and everything in between. But one constant through all the changes, the church loves to promote itself.
The church has it all.
When dealing with marketing one of the first things you look for are great selling points. The things that make your product unique and better than the competition. Unfortunately, the church is not immune from this way of thinking. Our focus is on the things that make us “better” than that other church. Amazing kids programs, loud music, everyday people, short sermons and the best coffee are the types of phrases that get thrown around. We fight so hard to attract people with our cool features that we can often be in danger of shadowing our message. In Luke, Jesus tells us that the things we are busy talking about are the things we are most excited about. “…out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks…“ We need to take a hard look at what is revealed about the heart of our churches by our communication.
What do people need?
This is the question we really need to be asking. Do people need babysitters, lattes, and rock shows or do they need Jesus? Is the end goal a fun, trendy, comfortable place to hang out, or do we want to see lives transformed? The easy path is to give people what they want, the things they’re asking for; comfort and ease. But our job as the church is not to take the easy route, our responsibility is to give people what they need. Our message must be bigger than us. Bigger than what makes us comfortable. Challenge your church and take a risk. Talk about the man who stood against culture, refused comfort, and suffered for his people. Talk about the man who served those who did not deserve it. And talk about the man who can save this generation.
Do not fear man.
The fear behind saying too much about Jesus or the Gospel in marketing is that we will turn people off to us. If the church can get people to walk through the door, then they’re hooked. The problem is, what are they hooked to? Are they hooked to Jesus or the church? Don’t let the temptation to make much of your church, diminish making much of Jesus. Let Jesus be the attraction and the goal.
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