Jesus’ Ministry Marketing (3 of 4) :: Why Church Marketing Does Not Measure Up
Why doesn’t church marketing look like Jesus’ ministry marketing?
Quite simply, we aren’t perfect. We have all fallen short of the glory of God (Romans 3:23). Ideally, a church should have the crowds of Jesus. Ideally, a church should impact people’s lives in such a way that that the entire region talks about it. But no church is perfect. We aren’t Christ, but we are trying to become more like Him. And I believe that as a church becomes more Christlike, it will create more word of mouth.
I have yet to hear of a church that generates the kind of sustainable word of mouth that Jesus’ ministry had, which is why advertising, direct marketing, and public relations are valuable tools for many churches.
>> Read part 1 of the series.
>> Read part 2 of the series.
>> Read part four of the series as I share the two biggest lessons I’ve learned from Jesus’ ministry marketing.
Ethan C. Alow Said,
February 18, 2008 @ 3:26 pm
If Jesus’ marketing techniques were so effective why did his ministry on earth end with only a handful of followers?
If his marketing was so successful, why did everyone abandon him when arrested?
If his goal was to draw as many people as possible, why does he make it incredibly hard for would-be followers to come after him? (He tells a man he cannot bury his father first, and another that he cannot look back, and another that he has no place to lay his head.)
If his marketing was so effective, why does he seem to deliberately thin the crowd of thousands who were following him in John 6 by teaching about eating his flesh and drinking his blood–which he knew would be misunderstood by most of his listeners?
If Jesus was most concerned with getting as many followers as possible, why does he demand that the rich young ruler sell all he has–knowing this would prevent him from following?
Could it be that Jesus was most concerned with obeying his Father’s will, whatever the outcome, rather than attracting and keeping a crowd?
Kent Shaffer Said,
February 18, 2008 @ 4:00 pm
Great questions, Ethan.
Jesus was concerned with obeying His Father’s will. He was also concerned with ministering to as many people as possible.
Jesus’ ministry attracted people because of how it served them. That is the marketing principle that I am getting at with these posts. The key being that Christlike behavior attracts crowds to hear the salvation message.
Where the crowds dwindle is with the commitment of living a truly Christian life. Our responsibility is to preach the gospel and disciple believers. Being Christlike will attract people to hear the gospel message, but that does not mean that all of those people will choose to become Christians. For those who do decide to follow Christ, we also have the responsibility to disciple them.
As for why Jesus deliberately tried to thin the crowds, I have heard a few thoughts on this. Since there was such a great demand amongst the people to hear and see Him, I wonder if it was an initial step to dwindle the crowds to those who are willing to invest something to hear Him.
Mike Said,
June 5, 2008 @ 11:05 pm
Ethan, from my perspective, everything prior to the resurrection was prep work. Salting the market with a desire for the product,then thinning the buyers from the lookers.The organization grew 2,000% first day of product launch (a major holiday weekend known as Shavuot - or Pentacost), and has remained strong to this day.