I've been away from this blog for a while because my wife and I spent two weeks in Germany visiting our daughter who's working as an au pair for a year. She has a great circle of young adult friends but none of them have church backgrounds. One of her friends in a moment of abandon said "I went to a couple of services but the problem was, it was just so #@&%ing boring!!" (Dropping an F-bomb isn't such a big deal in Germany as it is here.) The main churches in Europe are still state supported. People elect to pay a church tax which pays pastors' salaries and helps maintain their 800 year old buildings. In return, they get access to the church for surprisingly resilient Christian services like baptisms, confirmations and weddings -- but don't think it's important to actually go to church on Sunday.
It made me realize how much of our time and energy is spent trying to attract people, to "market our product" so to speak. And if our services are (Bleep Bleep) boring, we end up in big trouble.
What a fine line it is, though, between connecting and pandering. That's the tension I have been experiencing ever since I undertook my affiliates project. (In case you're new to this blog or have forgotten, check out the first postings in the archive.) People say their spiritual need is to find inner peace -- but should the church then play to that expressed need? It's oh so tempting -- and oh so easy to get sidetracked, chasing down every possible means of perhaps attracting a few new folks.
I think what's required in the church today is, above all, the patience that comes with faith. We gotta trust that by faithfully proclaiming and embodying the gospel, and by caring for folks with the heart of Christ, that God's will for the church will (mysteriously) be done. We can find new ways to package it -- but have to be really vigilant that the packaging doesn't start to take over. And that feels like walking along the edge of a cliff with the ground giving way under your feet, but it's what we're called to do.
Showing posts with label advertising. Show all posts
Showing posts with label advertising. Show all posts
Tuesday, March 4, 2008
Sunday, February 17, 2008
Bruxy Cavey is the pastor of The Meeting Place, a cutting edge network of congregations that gather in movie theatres and are making serious inroads into the younger demographic. I read somewhere that Cavey has become a Facebook fan. He uses the social networking website to stay in touch with hundreds of people.
My kids got me on Facebook a while back. I don't use it a lot, but every week one or two new people appear on my computer asking if they can be my "Facebook friends" -- including some of my kids' young adult friends who think my wife and I are really cool. (I'm not kidding.)
And, to my surprise a name popped up on my Facebook wall of an affiliate from my church who has been long gone for several years. I've tried to contact the family several times by old-fashioned methods -- mailed notes, phone messages and e-mails (how outdated!) -- and suddenly, here he is on my Facebook. He's going through some life transitions and apparently wants me to know abou it. There's a pastoral opportunity that I don't think could have come about any other way.
Most congregations still do most of their communicating with photocopied newletters full of all kinds of in house information -- the church version of customer advertising. I wonder whether the cost in time, money and trees is really worth it. Maybe it is for a certain generation.
How come we're not really getting into tools like Facebook. If you want to know where to find young people and how to stay in touch with lots of them quickly, this is it.
My kids got me on Facebook a while back. I don't use it a lot, but every week one or two new people appear on my computer asking if they can be my "Facebook friends" -- including some of my kids' young adult friends who think my wife and I are really cool. (I'm not kidding.)
And, to my surprise a name popped up on my Facebook wall of an affiliate from my church who has been long gone for several years. I've tried to contact the family several times by old-fashioned methods -- mailed notes, phone messages and e-mails (how outdated!) -- and suddenly, here he is on my Facebook. He's going through some life transitions and apparently wants me to know abou it. There's a pastoral opportunity that I don't think could have come about any other way.
Most congregations still do most of their communicating with photocopied newletters full of all kinds of in house information -- the church version of customer advertising. I wonder whether the cost in time, money and trees is really worth it. Maybe it is for a certain generation.
How come we're not really getting into tools like Facebook. If you want to know where to find young people and how to stay in touch with lots of them quickly, this is it.
Emerging Spirit
The United Church of Canada made a splash two years ago with a series of quirky magazine ads designed to connect with socially progressive 25-45 year olds. They followed up with a website called wondercafe which was supposed to attract spiritual seekers who weren't necessarily into church. And, training events to show congregations how to welcome all the new folks who were going to arrive as a result of our efforts. The budget for the whole "Emerging Spirit" program will be $10 million.
It's becoming clear that it hasn't worked. There's been no discernible increase in church attendance. And wondercafe has become a chat room for about 100 regular participants, most of whom are United Church insiders. The word is that once the money runs out, it will be finished.
The intent was good -- but badly misconceived. The church didn't appreciate that there's a huge distance between someone thinking "Gee, that's an interesteing ad" and actually visiting their local United Church -- or even checking out the new website. The ads weren't really selling anything -- except a kind of vague impression of the United Church.
ANd they didn't appreciate that even if you get someone to visit their local United Church, that's a long, long way from getting them to form any kind of meaningful relationship. I have found how hard it is to keep connected with people who are already supposed to be a part of the congregation. There are just so many things these days to interrupt that connection.
The first rule of advertising is that you have to keep it up. Running one newspaper ad is a waste of money. And, in terms of a long-term strategy, even running six months of ads in a selection of magazines is a waste of money because once those ads have stopped, whatever they were about goes off people's radar screen immediately.
Recently I read an article that said that advertising isn't working the way it used to. People have learned to tune out and ignore ads. They have become cynical about their claims. What counts now is that there is something about the product that basically sells itself. The i-Pod is a good example. Apple has advertised it, but that's not why everybody has one. It's because people tell their friends about it and the product is appealing enough that they go out and buy one too.
Here's the basic flaw in the Emerging Spirit approach. It's old thinking. It's promoting something without paying attention to whether the product is any good. In other words, what's going on in our congregations is the problem, not just the fact that we haven't advertised it.
And that goes back to real basics. How many churches have honestly asked themselves why someone who isn't already committed would want to haul their butts out of bed on Sunday and join them, instead of doing something else. The only reason I can see is if people sense that there's something life-transforming that the church has to offer that they can't find anywhere else. And that pretty much lets out "community" or "friendliness" as motivating factors, because people can get that in lots ofother places.
So what is it? Maybe we need to worry less about being friendly and welcoming and more about the content of what we're offering. And then the "product" might start to "sell " itself.
It's becoming clear that it hasn't worked. There's been no discernible increase in church attendance. And wondercafe has become a chat room for about 100 regular participants, most of whom are United Church insiders. The word is that once the money runs out, it will be finished.
The intent was good -- but badly misconceived. The church didn't appreciate that there's a huge distance between someone thinking "Gee, that's an interesteing ad" and actually visiting their local United Church -- or even checking out the new website. The ads weren't really selling anything -- except a kind of vague impression of the United Church.
ANd they didn't appreciate that even if you get someone to visit their local United Church, that's a long, long way from getting them to form any kind of meaningful relationship. I have found how hard it is to keep connected with people who are already supposed to be a part of the congregation. There are just so many things these days to interrupt that connection.
The first rule of advertising is that you have to keep it up. Running one newspaper ad is a waste of money. And, in terms of a long-term strategy, even running six months of ads in a selection of magazines is a waste of money because once those ads have stopped, whatever they were about goes off people's radar screen immediately.
Recently I read an article that said that advertising isn't working the way it used to. People have learned to tune out and ignore ads. They have become cynical about their claims. What counts now is that there is something about the product that basically sells itself. The i-Pod is a good example. Apple has advertised it, but that's not why everybody has one. It's because people tell their friends about it and the product is appealing enough that they go out and buy one too.
Here's the basic flaw in the Emerging Spirit approach. It's old thinking. It's promoting something without paying attention to whether the product is any good. In other words, what's going on in our congregations is the problem, not just the fact that we haven't advertised it.
And that goes back to real basics. How many churches have honestly asked themselves why someone who isn't already committed would want to haul their butts out of bed on Sunday and join them, instead of doing something else. The only reason I can see is if people sense that there's something life-transforming that the church has to offer that they can't find anywhere else. And that pretty much lets out "community" or "friendliness" as motivating factors, because people can get that in lots ofother places.
So what is it? Maybe we need to worry less about being friendly and welcoming and more about the content of what we're offering. And then the "product" might start to "sell " itself.
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