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VISUAL PREACHING

Recently, I saw an interview with the administrative pastor of a large church that gave me pause. Explaining why the senior pastor’s salary was so high, he said, “Let’s talk about the pastor for a second. Let’s talk about the organization he’s built, that wouldn’t even exist if he wasn’t here.” Perhaps a Bible study in humility would be in order. But I have to admit, I have sometimes shared the feelings expressed by King Nebuchadnezzar just before he ate grass: “Is not this the great Babylon I have built…by my mighty power?” (Dan. 4:30).

This month we continue our series on church marketing. Our goal is not to try and shoehorn Kingdom activities into a worldly value system, but to find biblical principles that have been adopted by secular marketing, and redeem those practices for use by the local church.

We have defined church marketing like this:

Church marketing is intentional, Spirit-led action influencing people toward becoming mature disciples of Christ.

Previously, we explored what it means to be intentional. This month, let’s look at church marketing being Spirit-led.

Pursuing God’s Vision
Church marketing is not about pursuing your dreams, your visions, your plans. (And it’s certainly not about building an organization “that wouldn’t even exist without you.”) Scripture says there is “one God and Father, who is over all” (Eph. 4:6), and “Christ is the head of the church” (Eph. 5:23).

Often, the Spirit leads us to follow common sense. But not always, so we can’t just follow common sense. God does plant dreams within us, but that doesn’t mean we pursue our own dreams. And in our planning, we always need to leave room for God to take us someplace else. The Apostle Paul thought it would be a good idea to take the gospel to Asia, but God said, “Not now” (Acts 16:6). Later, God did lead him there, and as a result of his obedience “people throughout the province of Asia—both Jews and Greeks—heard the word of the Lord” (Acts 19:10, 22).

Every great spiritual movement in Christian history started with prayer. Prayer is the breath of the disciple’s soul. In several of his letters Paul wrote that he prayed for the recipient “constantly” (Eph. 1:16; 1 Thes. 1:2; 2 Tim. 1:3). Prayer is the underlying foundation of effective church marketing. “Unless the Lord builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the Lord watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain.” (Psalm 127:1).

While it is always tempting to take credit for our efforts, it seems to be especially true when it come to church marketing and promotional activities. It can feel self-serving, and success can easily lead to pride. But we don’t promote because we want to show off, or because we want to look good, or even because we want a crowd to hear us preach. We promote only as the Spirit leads us, and only in ways that honor God—which will only happen when the entire process is bathed in prayer.

Furthermore, we’ve got to spend time in the Word of God. As we go through the marketing process, we must be grounded in the Word, because it’s easy to be pulled off-center by the needs around us and by the process itself.

So, pray at the beginning, pray in the middle, pray at the end, and everywhere in between. And let the Spirit lead in every aspect of your church marketing.

Unique Ministry Signature
Being intentional and Spirit-led are key parts of our definition of church marketing, because no two churches are alike.

Secular marketers will often talk about “product differentiation”—a fancy way of saying that you need to create something unique and tell people how it’s different. Product marketers spend a great deal of time researching competing products and untapped consumer “needs” to create a unique product offering that people will pay for.

Similarly, your church is unique—but not because some MBAs did a product differentiation analysis. Your church is unique because God Himself called it into existence for a specific purpose.

I appreciate how the Apostle Paul describes a church as a body, especially how God gave each body part unique gifts that result in a healthy body (Eph. 4:16). This obviously applies to a local church, but I believe it can also be applied to the Church as a whole, where the unique areas of giftedness manifested by each local church combine together into a healthy Kingdom of God.

That means your church doesn’t need to try to be all things to all people. It just needs to be what God called it to be—nothing more, and nothing less. So discover the God-print of your church, and embrace your unique ministry signature.

Next month, we’ll look at the interplay between the two components of church marketing known as action: activities and promotion.

Larry Witzel is Vice President for Product Development at SermonView. A former pastor, Larry has 15 years of marketing and public relations experience, and for the last 8 years has used his gifts to help church leaders communicate more effectively. Larry earned his MBA in marketing from the University of Washington, and lives with his wife and daughter in Vancouver, Wash.

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