Jesus Is Not a Brand

I've read plenty of commentary on marketing and the church, so I didn't expect that this article titled "Jesus Is Not a Brand" would add anything to the conversation. In some ways, I was surprised to see this as the cover story for Christianity Today, since it seems like it's a debate that was hotter in the 90's.

It's a bit on the longer side for an online article, but I think it is a thoughtful and balanced approach, acknowledging the practical realities of the market culture in which we live, yet calling the church to the right kinds of counter-cultural resistance.

Here are a couple of excerpts to whet your appetite. You can read the entire article by following the link above.

The champions of better church marketing say that withdrawal and resistance are not options for a local church that seeks a public presence. We live in a commercialized culture that accepts that virtually everything is for sale. There is simply no way to be in the public arena without engaging in marketing. Even if you do not intend to market your church, that's how consumers are going to perceive your outreach. They will take it in through market-conditioned filters. If we ignore this fact, we will probably wind up doing bad marketing, and that doesn't do anyone any good.

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.

Thus goes the argument.

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There are indeed similarities [between evangelism and a sales pitch]. But evangelism and sales are not the same. And we market the church at our peril if we are blind to the critical and categorical difference between the Truth and a truth you can sell. In a marketing culture, the Truth becomes a product. People will encounter it with the same consumerist worldview with which they encounter every other product in the American marketplace.

Thus our dilemma: The product we are selling isn't like every other product—it isn't even a product at all. But if the gospel is not a product, how can we market it? And if we can't avoid marketing it, how can we keep from turning it into the product it isn't?