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Is Marketing Evil?

I recently attended a few conferences in which significant church leaders berated the concept of church marketing and defamed it as pure evil. I sat there stunned as I had significant respect for these guys. What puzzled me the most is that both of these men of God had great PowerPoint slides. They had sharp websites. Their books were published by giant companies that spent thousands on book cover design, not to mention the PR campaigns and the magazine ads that I witnessed--even the churches they pastored had websites, brochures, logos and a receptionist that answered the phone--yet they stood and denounced "marketing". I sat there more than a little puzzled, simply unable to reason how if marketing was "so evil", it could be apart of everything they were doing.

I pondered. These guys are not bogus. They were the real deal. What I think they were trying to say was really a legitimate issue. They were trying to get at the heart--but I think they might have inadvertently sent much of the crowd away feeling that any effort to reach people for God is impure. It need not be.

Allow me to clarify... Has anyone ever told you that "money is the root of all evil?" They were wrong. It sounds very close to scripture, but it is not scripture. 1 Tim 6:10 tells us that "The love of money is the root of all evil." Get that? "The love of..." is the root. Guess where the root lies? In the heart. You see, money is not evil. Money can be used to spread the Gospel, feed the homeless, and pay the electricity at the church. It is not the use of money that makes it evil, it is the motive behind the money that matters. Money becomes evil when our affections turn toward it and our motives sour--when our hearts are not in check.

So does marketing. Marketing is a matter of the heart. Does God want us to represent Him well--certainly! Does He need us to communicate to reach people with His love right where they live? Of course. Does He want us to manipulate to get there? Does He want us to relentlessly pursue bigger numbers just so we can stroke our egos? How about to ensure that the church down the street does not get larger than ours? No, no and more no. Just like in the analogy above, marketing is the "currency" of communication. To use it is not wrong--to be honest--if it really was, these guys were the biggest hypocrites around. They were not, they just made the mistake of calling out the method instead of the motive. Marketing is not evil, but the motive behind it can be.

That being said, check your motive. Why do you desire to grow your church? Is it really for the love of the lost? Have you laid your life down before Christ and said, "I will do anything you ask, even if I never have a mega-church?" Your worth is not in how many people attend your church. If you are marketing out of the wrong motive, you are in error. May the root of marketing never be about us, but may we use smart communication wisely to capture the eyes and attention of a world that looks on the outside, while God looks on our hearts (1 Sam 16:7).

Published on Tuesday, July 7, 2009 @ 12:24 AM CDT
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