Marketing The Church

I'm a casual observer of marketing. In grad school, marketing was one of my favorite courses. I like to analyze commercials and billboards when I see them, trying to determine the target audience based on their design, content, images, music, location, airtime, and so on. For example, I'm pretty sure that TV commercials for degrees in VCR repair are not targeted at me -- and neither are billboards for microsurgical vasectomy reversals. I promise.

My intrigue with church marketing is equally as developed. Whether it's a late-night commercial, a road-side billboard, a logo, or even a church name, I cannot help but think, "Hmmmm ... who are they trying to reach with that? And does it work?"

Therefore, when I stumbled across Church Marketing Sucks in a random Google search, I had to pay a visit. While I have not read every word on every page of their website, I certainly agree in principle with their purpose: to frustrate, educate, and motivate the church to communicate, with uncompromising clarity, the truth of Jesus Christ. From what I can tell, these guys are believers and are simply frustrated with what they've observed.

So, take a look. I would be curious to hear your thoughts. (About the website ... not the billboard above.)

(By the way ... if you're offended by the "S" word used in their name or if your browser blocks that word, you can use their alternate URL -- Church Marketing Stinks. Fair warning, though -- the content on the site is the same.)

Separated at Birth?

Jerry the Bitter Ex-Marine

I went over a railroad track last night a little too "Dukes of Hazard" style. End result? A busted radiator and an overheating car on the way to work this morning. The nearest possible source for help was Knapp Chevrolet (corner of Houston and Washington Avenues) so I pulled in to their service area. The guy at the counter declares, "We're not allowed to work on Fords." Not allowed. I wonder if they had segregated parking lots and water hoses, too.

So I call the car care center where I usually go and they send a tow truck. While waiting, I sit in my car in the middle of the Knapp Chevrolet service bay enduring a breakfast from their vending machines and playing Tetris on my cell phone. An hour later, Jerry the Bitter Ex-Marine shows up with the tow truck. The drive to the car care center was like sitting through a twelve-minute movie written by Eddie Murphy about a conspiracy theorist war veteran. The role of Jerry would be played by Christopher Walken. I would not see that movie again.

To top it all off, I wore my new pink shirt today. I am OK with guys wearing pink, and I received confirmation today at work that it looked good and that I was a very "confident" man to be wearing it. That said, I would not have worn pink for my outing with Jerry the Bitter Ex-Marine. He never mentioned it and I never caught him looking at me funny ... but I have to believe it didn't help matters. At a minimum, it did make me feel even that much more like one of those guys who knows nothing about cars and who is not opposed to a manicure now and then. You know, the type of guy with whom Jerry the Bitter Ex-Marine probably does not play poker.

That type of guy would be somebody more like Dave Bray.

Move over, Tiger

Another old picture, but it gets the point across.

I would like to introduce you to a future star of the PGA -- Kyle, my nephew. He's just shy of 11 years old and recently shot a 98 on 18 holes. He often shoots par on par 3s, and has been known to hit the ball over the green from the tee box. His newest toy? A huge new club that he's curiously named Bob.

Where did he get this from? Not from me. He gets it from all the other men in the family -- his dad, his other uncle, and his grandpa. When I was his age, I was more interested in driving the cart than driving the ball.

I Think They Can

I just took an on-line poll sponsored by Newsweek and Beliefnet that corresponds with this week's Newsweek cover - Spirituality in America. One of the questions asked was:

"Can a good person who isn't of your religious faith go to heaven or attain salvation, or not?"

Here are the answers broken down by how people identified themselves spiritually. The first percentages listed are from the poll conducted for the article; the percentages in parentheses are from the on-line version.

Evangelical Christians

• 68% - Yes (48% on-line)
• 22% - No (30% on-line)
• 10% - Don't know (22% on-line)

Non-Evangelical Christians

• 83% - Yes (63% on-line)
• 10% - No (12% on-line)
• 7% - Don't know (25% on-line)

Catholics

• 91% - Yes (64% on-line)
• 3% - No (7% on-line)
• 6% - Don't know (28% on-line)

Non-Christians

• 73% - Yes (55% on-line)
• 3% - No (10% on-line)
• 24% - Don't know (36% on-line)

Disturbing numbers, if you ask me. However, I believe the question itself is flawed.

As an evangelical Christian, do I believe that a good person not of my religious faith can go to heaven or attain salvation? Absolutely ... if they accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior first. The fact that there was such little agreement among our evangelical brothers and sisters leads me to think (or hope) that they were extending the same grace to the hypothetical "good person" in question.

My assumption, though, is that that interpretation is not what was meant by the pollsters.

Stinkin' Adorable

All this time and not a single picture of Kyle and Kristin yet. So, here's the first. It's about two years old, but it'll do for now. (The woman in the middle? My mom.)

Kyle and Kristin are twins. When they were born in 1994, I was amazed at how many times I had to endure the following conversation:

Me: This is Kyle and Kristin, my niece and nephew. They're twins.
Random person: Oh! They're so cute! Are they identical twins?

Therefore, I can track the journey God has taken me on to develop my gift of mercy back to 1994. You get presented with that question enough times and you pretty much don't have any other choice but to learn how to show mercy.

The journey continues, by the way ...

Pass the SPF 500, please

For those of you going on the tubing trip with HFBC this weekend ... remember to bring your sunscreen.

Home Sweet Home

I am sure that I am not the first one to notice this, but doesn't Bill "Bubba" Clinton's presidential library look like a mobile home? Let's pray for ... oops, I mean against a tornado comin' to town.

My brother Ricky

In India in January 2005, I met Ricky Pannu in a village outside of Amritsar. Ricky's a great guy with a sweet spirit about him, and appears to be a leader among his peers (as they followed him wherever he went). He is a believer, and our team felt that he is a "person of peace" in his community.

Through e-mail, Ricky and I have kept in touch ever since I got back from the trip. In fact, he prayed for me while on the Summit Ministries mission trip to Guatemala in May. He recently finished school and is currently looking for a job. On one interview, he was told that the job was being held for Sikhs or Hindus -- not Christians. In an e-mail to me, he asked, "Is it a sin to be a Christian?" I'm sure that he asked that out of frustration, not out of genuine doubt.

He has another interview on September 5 for another job. He needs work in order to help support his parents and siblings. Ricky and his family are certainly in the minority in India, and especially near Amritsar (the spiritual "capital" of Sikhism). As Ricky faces such adversity, please pray for him to be encouraged, to find hope in Him, and for God to provide for him and his family.

"It's Football Time In Houston ..."

In honor of the Houston Texans' 2005 season, here's a little nostalgia ... a picture from the Texans' season opener of their inaugural season. (Joel ... you may remember this game. It was the first time the Texans beat the Cowboys.)

(l-r) Me, Lane Alexander, and Dan LeNeveu

In honor of the big game, we decided to tailgate. It was a great time, but I'm not sure it was the full tailgating experience. Folks all around us were basing their operations out of F-150 dualies and cooking on full-size Weber grills. And us? We had a 1970s-era Mercedes sedan and a hibachi. But oh well ... the Cowboys lost so it was a perfect day.

New jersey?

At what point (or really, at what age) does it become pathetic for a man to still wear professional sports team jerseys in public? I wear my David Carr replica jersey to all the Houston Texans games (along with many other people, mind you). However, I recall reading somewhere that that might not be such a good look for guys past a certain birthday. So, give it to me straight -- do I need to ditch the jersey?

(For what it's worth, let me give you a little context. My tickets are in the "cheap seats" in the end zone on the upper level. The fans are less ... um ... refined up there than on the lower levels. It's not really a polo-and-khakis crowd.)

First Bites

It's happend to you. You know it has.

You take that first bite and realize you're tasting what very well may be the most delicious food ever placed in your mouth. Never before had you experienced anything like it ... and after you take that last bite, you realize you may never taste anything like it again. (Unless, of course, you fall into a food rut when you go back to the same restaurant over and over and over again because you go through a mini-addiction that lasts for weeks or months on end.)

So ... tell us about your life-changing, wished-you-had-journaled-beforehand first bites ...