Church Marketing

I never cease to be amazed at the amount of direct mail I receive from churches. They might as well be nail salons or dry cleaners. Recently I received a drop piece from The Journey. Obviously, The Journey even has a catchy name and clearly a nice Web site. According to the pastor's bio, The Journey is a "children's focused church." Now that is interesting. There are many things a church might focus on, but I am not sure if children is one of them. Do not get me wrong, I know children are critical - but should a church focus on children? I have some stereotypes about what this church might believe, so I wanted to see. Unfortunately, I was unable to find out. However, The Journey - despite the pastor's apparent degress in Bible, does offer "seminars" in parenting, leadership, finances and "Church Stinks." I am wondering if I have a pastor of a life-coach. Fortunately, as if this church needs to baptize any more American business, it offers a "guarantee." I am begging to ask if I can get my offering back if I do not like the sermon.

In addition to The Journey, I get bombarded weekly with direct mail from Prestonwood Baptist Church, which is opening a new franchise near my town. Actually, despite the fact that its pastor, Jack Graham, led the SBC a couple of years ago, the church now is just Prestonwood. Graham is such a good businessman, he actually named his radio show PowerPoint. Come to think of it, Microsoft really has good church names for its software: I am having trouble naming my radio ministry Excel or Word. Do you think radio show about leadership could be called Excel? I am copyrighting this right now! Anyway ...

What might you expect Prestonwood to advertise? Theology? no. Salvation? no. Why should my family attend Prestonwood? Because they "proudly server Starbucks coffee" and offer pre- and post-service buffets. Is this church or Las Vegas? Please do not answer that.

Digression Warning: Okay, I'm reviewing the Web site, and it actually says this: "if God is calling you to join our staff, please view our current employment opportunities." I could get days out of this. This is the token religiosity that we drape our churches in. Do they really think if God called me to work at Prestonwood that I - or God - would need to check employement opportunities? If God called me to work there, why would I need to apply? Please no smarmy comments about some SBC fundamentalist leaders like Jack Graham who act as if they trump God.

In conclusion, you do not have to remind me how easy it is to take pot shots from a distance. I suspect these pastors generally are good guys and are just doing what "works." But at what cost? Did Jesus not teach that His Way is difficult? Did Jesus not teach that following Him is hard? Did Jesus die on the Cross at Calvary so we could enjoy Starbucks before a praise concert?

I suspect this is a weakness in Baptist folk theology: ask Jesus into my heart, and I've purchased my fire insurance. With the premium paid at Golgotha, I can free to play with matches. Surely, this is cheap grace to too easy. An American culture exacerbates this reality. We want our food, our gratification and apparently our faith quick, easy, painless and thoughtless.

How easy it is to build an organization high on promises and easy on committment. How easy to promise people bad (but well marketed) coffee, a better financial situation, and how tos about everything; but is that Gospel? Is that Church?

Isn't it ironic that the SBC's leading fundamentalist church brags about selling a product that uses a pagan idol as its logo? We've brought the pagan back into the church if it means a little better marketing. George Truett and Frank Norris would be rolling over in their graves.