Church Marketing Sucks was recently featured in a series of blogger interviews by Issue Dynamics. They talked with yours truly, CMS Chief Blogger Kevin D. Hendricks. Check out the full interview.
Check out the December 2007 issue of How magazine for a feature on Christian design and marketing. The story includes the Center for Church Communication and our flagship blog, Church Marketing Sucks, with quotes from founder Brad Abare:
“The church is all about spreading the greatest story ever told,” Abare says. “We have a problem when that story is lost to poor communication methods, marketing gimmicks and inauthentic ways of connecting with people. The creation of the blog was a way we could help church leaders, without them having to hire our services. Our mission is to frustrate, educate and motivate the church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the truth of Jesus Christ.”
Abare maintains that marketing isn’t sleazy–it’s just another way of getting the word out. “Marketing is simply thinking through what you do and why you do it,” he says. “It’s being intentional. You can certainly do marketing poorly–either so sloppy it doesn’t work or so slick it turns people off. Both suck, and both are at odds with your religious values.” …
“Understanding the church audience is just like understanding any other audience you’re communicating with,” Abare says. “We’re all people with heads and hearts, bellies and budgets, families and friends.”
And when it comes to spreading the word, there’s a term that churches certainly can embrace: marketing. Says Abare: “Some have argued that marketing is just another word for evangelism, suggesting that it’s a way to spread the good news of the Gospel, just as an evangelist would tell people about Jesus.”
Seth Godin’s Squidoo, Net Squared and Get Active have put together a list of the 59 smartest organizations online and the Center for Church Communication made the list.
These charities were chosen for their excellence in online storytelling and collaboration with their donors. We didn’t play favorites to one cause over another, nor did we look at their fundraising goals or number of members. Instead, these organizations are winners because of their web 2.0 smarts and a willingness to engage their constituents far beyond asking them to dig into their pockets.
These are organizations that give their volunteers and members a voice and get out of the way. They’re pros at mobilizing awareness online. They’re experimentors. Innovators. On a mission. They’re fearless.
And now we’re blushing.
You can also vote for your favorite organization and CFCC is currently ranked 10th. That ranking will likely change, but hey, 10th! (link via Seth Godin)
The writer of the Donor Power Blog, Jeff Brooks, listed Church Marketing Sucks as one of the top five must-read fundraising blogs:
Part of the Center for Church Communications, this blog is, as described in its tag line, “the blog to frustrate, educate and motivate the church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the truth of Jesus Christ.” Brooks says he likes this blog for its edge in critiquing church marketing efforts. “It’s got a real point of view,” he adds.
Outreach magazine recently ran the web exclusive article The Top 20 Web Sites for Church Communicators, written by yours truly. Check it out for more than your daily requirement of webby goodness.
The latest episode of the Creative Synergy Podcast with Greg Atkinson and Anthony Coppedge includes an interview with our very own Brad Abare.
“If the church gets branding and marketing right, more people will come to Jesus.” -Brad Abare
The San Antonio Express-News did a story on churches using MySpace, “Pastor is making MySpace his own”, on November 18, which featured a brief quote from yours truly:
To Kevin Hendricks, chief blogger for Church Marketing Sucks, these Christian alternatives created “yet another Christian ghetto”–just like art, music and books made to respond to secular originals.
“When we as Christians see something cool, we say, ‘Well that involves interaction with the secular world, and that’s scary. It might get dirty and ugly.’ But what happens is you lose this interaction (with the public) if you’re only talking to people in your church.”
Last month our very own Brad Abare was interviewed for the Relevant Leader, the weekly e-mail newsletter of the Relevant Network. Check it out and hear Brad talk about Beethoven’s “Eroica” and a wise move from Robert E. Lee.
The business and technology magazine Red Herring mentioned Church Marketing Sucks in a recent online article about web 2.0 and the church, “Religious Sites Embrace Web 2.0″. The article covered MyChurch.org and eBible, and included a quote from, well, me:
“The church is probably handicapped in the sense that the least likely place you’ll find twenty-somethings is in a church,” said Kevin Hendricks, creator of the 30,000 visitor-strong blog Church Marketing Sucks. “The few of us who are there are stepping up and trying to pull the church kicking and screaming into the 21st century, and it happens in small ways.”
For accuracy’s sake I’m not actually the creator of CMS. That credit goes to Brad Abare. And for humility’s sake, I have to admit how arrogant that quote sounds when I read it now. I can assure you that’s not my heart. A lot of folks are trying to pull the church kicking and screaming into the 21st century, not just a handful of twenty-somethings. There are actually a lot of people older and younger doing it, and most of them smarter than me. But I think you get my drift.
The Pittsburgh Tribune-Review covers church technology in an article called “‘Godcasts’ spread the Gospel.” The piece covers the increasing use of technology for religious purposes, including everything from podcasting sermons to virtual tours of the Vatican to youth group rooms pimped out with video games–which is where we get a comment from our very own Brad Abare:
But the devices used to transmit the gospel could wind up becoming more important than the message, said Brad Abare, founder of the Los Angeles-based Center for Church Communication.
After all, “Jesus didn’t say go into the world and use a soundboard and good lighting,” Abare said. The point is to spread the Gospel, he said.
