There’s a great series of posts underway at Church Marketing Sucks looking at church from a visitor’s perspective (link goes to the first post in the series). Definitely a worthwhile reminder that if you’ve been going to church for years, you may have forgotten what it’s like to visit a church for the first time, not knowing what to expect. Several of the posts hit on the need to avoid putting visitors in potentially embarrassing situations (not knowing where to go, being overwhelmed by “Christian-ese” talk they don’t understand, etc.). Good discussions in the comment section as well.
Your church, from a visitor’s perspective
Thanks for your comments! Comments must be approved by a moderator before
they appear on the site, so be patient if it doesn't show up right away.
To learn how our comment system works and what types of comment are
appropriate, read our discussion
rules and the guidelines at GoodComment.com before commenting.
3 Comments
Sorry, comments for this entry are closed at this time.
Loading ...
September 26, 2007 at 17:42
While I think that the presentation of a church should be kept in mind, I would shy away from the term “marketing”. The church is not a business, it is God’s house.
September 27, 2007 at 13:13
Ahhhh… semantics. What marketing is, in its truest sense, is letting people know about something – trying to grab their attention so they will focus on a particular something (organization, idea, product) long enough for it to register.
True, the church (assuming it’s genuine, of course) is God’s house – but it IS filled with people, who have attention spans, need reminding of things, etc.
So marketing has a place. I think it is incumbent that the “marketing”, though, be different from the norm – just as the church and Christians are to be different from “the norm”.
The difficulty is to be different, high quality, persuasive, and real.
September 28, 2007 at 01:54
All churches should strive to look at themselves from a visitor’s perspective. I’d highly recommend the book, “Jim and Casper Go to Church: Frank Conversation about Faith, Churches, and Well-Meaning Christians,” by Jim Henderson, Matt Casper, and George Barna. Jim (a pastor) and Casper (an atheist) travel to several churches across the country … their comments are eye-opening!