Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The Answer
CT ran a very interesting article a while back on the problems of "marketing the church". Tod Bolsinger linked to it, picking up a pullquote that I agree with completely:
Kruse goes on to say:
My answer to this is a resounding "NO!" - for one, the thought expressed in the quote Bolsinger pulled, Christianity is more than an idea - it is about community and personal transformation. Simply competing in "the marketplace of ideas" reduces Christianity just another lifestyle choice, like Harley-Davidson or Marlboro, or alternately it makes it a philosophy - a set of propositions to which I subscribe. But Christianity is far, far more radical than either of those alternatives.
The other objection is that to compete in a marketplace, one must assume competition. As far as I am concerned there is no competition. Christianity is so radically different than anything else that to presume to compete with something is to give that other thing more credibility than it deserves. For a family of four, a motorcycle cannot compete with a car - to consider them in the same situation is to engage in silliness. If Ford ran a mini-van commercial comparing its products to a Honda motorcycle, most people would laugh or stare incredulously - because there simply is no competition.
If we feel that, as Christians, we have to compete in a marketplace, then we have yet to figure Christianity out for ourselves. Our Christianity has yet to become radical enough in our own lives - we fail to understand its true uniqueness and power.
Maybe that is where we need to start.
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"The problem with implicitly salesy evangelism is bad theology, not bad technique, and it requires more than a simple change in method. If you feel like a used-car salesman talking about Jesus, the solution to the perceived lack of authenticity isn't a smoother pitch—it's a renewal of the church. The potency of personal evangelism is, as it has always been, the simple and earnest retelling of what God has done in the lives of his people. Of course, this requires a community to back up our claims."Kruse Kronicle made some interesting counter-points:
One of the author’s key concerns is consumerism and the way it has harmed the church. With consumerism we try to establish our identity by the nature of the goods we consume. This bleeds over into the church. The concern is valid. But a I confess that I do take exception to some aspects of the author's argument.Kruse is not quite as contrary as this pullquote indicates, he is trying to expand the definition of marketing beyond what the CT article uses, which is technically true, but....
I chafe at the tendency to equate marketing with little more than a tool of consumerism.
Kruse goes on to say:
First, if you are in the marketplace, regardless of how intentional you are about it, you are engaged in marketing. You present yourself with a product and a prospective buyer looks for clues about the nature of your product and about your character. It is impossible to have an economic transaction without marketing. If you are opposed to marketing, then you are opposed to all economic transactions.An idea to which the CT article takes specific exception:
So, unless we completely withdraw from any kind of evangelism, marketing is inevitable. And if marketing is the language of our culture, we might as well be fluent in it, right? After all, if you were a missionary in a foreign country, you would learn the language. Marketing is just the latest incarnation of classic evangelistic models such as persuasion and example.If you break all of this down, the key is to decide whether evangelism really is about entering a marketplace or not. Is Christianity simply an idea in "the marketplace of ideas"?
[...]
The difficulty with the pro-marketing arguments, however, is the failure to recognize that marketing is not a values-neutral language. Marketing unavoidably changes the message—as all media do. Why? Because marketing is the particular vernacular of a consumerist society in which everything has a price tag. To market something is therefore to effectively make it into a branded product to be consumed.
My answer to this is a resounding "NO!" - for one, the thought expressed in the quote Bolsinger pulled, Christianity is more than an idea - it is about community and personal transformation. Simply competing in "the marketplace of ideas" reduces Christianity just another lifestyle choice, like Harley-Davidson or Marlboro, or alternately it makes it a philosophy - a set of propositions to which I subscribe. But Christianity is far, far more radical than either of those alternatives.
The other objection is that to compete in a marketplace, one must assume competition. As far as I am concerned there is no competition. Christianity is so radically different than anything else that to presume to compete with something is to give that other thing more credibility than it deserves. For a family of four, a motorcycle cannot compete with a car - to consider them in the same situation is to engage in silliness. If Ford ran a mini-van commercial comparing its products to a Honda motorcycle, most people would laugh or stare incredulously - because there simply is no competition.
If we feel that, as Christians, we have to compete in a marketplace, then we have yet to figure Christianity out for ourselves. Our Christianity has yet to become radical enough in our own lives - we fail to understand its true uniqueness and power.
Maybe that is where we need to start.
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