What if Starbucks marketed like the church?
What do you think?
Wednesday, November 19, 2008
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
skip to main |
skip to sidebar
re•gen•er•a•tion (n)—spiritual renewal or revival
Who we are
We are Regeneration, a community of young believers who gather together at Bear Valley Church in the interest of spiritual growth, Christian fellowship, and change of all kinds. As our name suggests, we never want to leave things the way we find them. We seek to allow ourselves to be changed by the Holy Spirit and then in His power to go out into all spheres of influence and see that power at work in the lives of those around us and even to the ends of the Earth.
We're not special, we're not superstars. We are simply saved and justified by grace through faith in Jesus. Welcome, and feel free to come along with us as we experience regeneration.
We're not special, we're not superstars. We are simply saved and justified by grace through faith in Jesus. Welcome, and feel free to come along with us as we experience regeneration.
Posts
Friends
Topics
- Leviticus (11)
- Reading Round-Up (10)
- "What Christians Believe" series (7)
- 2 Peter (7)
- Redeeming Work (7)
- Missional Model (6)
- Breaking the Missional Code (5)
- Community Group (5)
- 1 Peter (4)
- Malachi (4)
- Missional Living (4)
- The Events at Caesarea Philippi (3)
- relationships (3)
- Downtown Synergy (2)
- dating (2)
- just for fun (2)
- spiritual formation (2)
- Hospitality (1)
- James (1)
- Urban Legends (1)
- theology (1)
Blog Archive
- May 2010 (1)
- Feb 2010 (1)
- Dec 2009 (2)
- Nov 2009 (1)
- Sep 2009 (3)
- Aug 2009 (8)
- Jul 2009 (1)
- Jun 2009 (6)
- May 2009 (5)
- Apr 2009 (3)
- Mar 2009 (8)
- Feb 2009 (5)
- Jan 2009 (7)
- Dec 2008 (4)
- Nov 2008 (6)
- Oct 2008 (5)
- Sep 2008 (6)
- Aug 2008 (5)
- Jul 2008 (3)
- Jun 2008 (2)
- May 2008 (1)
- Apr 2008 (2)
- Feb 2008 (3)
- Jan 2008 (4)
- Dec 2007 (4)
4 comments:
So funny! and horrifying.
They just wanted coffee, man.
I know that feeling.
I think the analogy is flawed in that people aren't coming to church for coffee, so obviously the approach is going to be different. I think I get that they are trying to highlight the weirdness that an unchurched person might experience when they come to church, and to some extent I agree with the critique. But let's be honest; we worship a middle-eastern man who claimed to be God, who somehow died to pay the penalty for our sins, and who supposedly rose from the dead. That is a whole different category of weird (from the perspective of a skeptic) than being asked to fill out a card with your name, phone number, and email address.
So, to move from critique to suggestions for improvement... how should we do marketing for Regen? What is the "product" in search of which someone might wander in?
Richard L. Reising, the creator of the video, says this: “What is marketing all about? Webster’s says that marketing is ‘an aggregate (sum) of functions involved in moving goods from producer to consumer.’ So how does that apply to the church? The sum of everything your church does to connect Christ with your members and the outside world is marketing. Many might wonder why the video is about marketing. It's because marketing (connecting Christ with people) is in your parking lot. It's on the outside of your building. It's in the way you greet me. It's in your members. It's in your message. It's in everything we do that forms the perception of who we are and what we value to the world we are called to reach.”
At beyondrelevance.com, he is doing a series of blog posts as follow up, including:
- “The purpose of the video”
- “Marketing is more than you realize”
- “Real Men Love Java”
- “Reserved for Barista”
Thought-provoking insights, and I think Paul has asked a couple of good questions by way of application to our young adult community at BVC. So, what do you think?
I am horrified too... wow. I have always hated doing anything at church that remotely felt like marketing. To be more specific:
1) Announcing our existence in front of the whole church and giving my "pitch". Because lets face it, that is what it is.
2) Sending out mass flyers in the mail. The only mail I get these days is junk mail for money scams by creeps and businesses desperate for your money. Do we want to be in that pile?
3) Street evangelism with total strangers. Again, like junk mail, the only people that hassle me when I am going about my daily business is peddlers, either the unemployed or the employed. They act like they want to talk to me and begin a friendship, but they really just want my money. (Disclaimer: please don't read into that a lack of concern and compassion for the homeless, I am articulating fake relationships without accountability or context.)
4) Cheesy videos encouraging you to come to some event. Again, they are just really bad commercials in which you feel bad for your friends who embarrassed themselves by being in it.
I realize this is not a "balanced" perspective on church marketing (an oxymoron), but its true. We are not stupid salesmen. We are disciples of Jesus. Its about relationships.
Post a Comment