Church Marketing Sucks in the Door

Two potentially offensive organizations came together when the Wittenburg Door covered Church Marketing Sucks. It’s an interview with Brad Abare and I, and I think for the most part it went pretty well.

Being interviewed isn’t easy. Now I know why Bono always says the same thing all the time–he comes up with a good line and sticks with it. Me? I say something like this:

We’ve had the conversation about whether or not to use that word. Brad talked about it being taboo in his household growing up. I don’t feel it was necessarily taboo in my household, in my church, growing up. I’ve always appreciated the word. I guess I’ve never had a problem with it. It’s part of pop culture now. If you’re going to get offended about something, that seemed like the most minor and insignificant thing to ever be concerned about, a little word like that.

Always appreciated the word? What? I make it sound like one of my favorite words. And my mom will probably tell you the word was taboo, and my old church would probably say the same thing. I think I meant that the word just never had any bigtime negative connotations in my mind.

Well, one of these days I’ll figure out how to say witty and impressive things in interviews.

3 thoughts on “Church Marketing Sucks in the Door”

  1. I, for one, thought you both were witty and impressive. I was really proud of the interview — not because of anything I did, but because I thought you guys came off so well.

  2. Great interview! Yeah, I really liked what you guys had to say. I agree there were a few paragraphs where the “babble knob” was turned a tad high, but it still worked.

    Was the interviewer actually cracking those jokes between questions? I admit I actually liked the “valet of the shadow of death” joke.

    You brought up one point that I’ve gone back and forth between, too. The idea that the church should have “no marketing,” versus marketing that doesn’t suck. But if, by “marketing”, you mean any external communication by which people understand who you are, what you’re doing, and why, then it would technically be impossible for the church to have no marketing. Obviously the marketing isn’t what the church believes is the magic elixir that will fix their problems, but that it is part of what we’re called to do: go out, tell people, love them, give them the truth. By the above definition that’s marketing too, because it sends a message. My fear is that churches may some day feel that their only problem is marketing, and that if they just re-packaged Jesus, he’d sell. Well, that’s not the case.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *