Market

"The good life, the blessed life, is found in living as God's sent people" (Todd D. Hunter).

I have often questioned how much we are influenced by our culture around us. Don't misunderstand me...I don't think we should retreat to our Christian conclaves and withdraw ourselves from the world around us. Quite the opposite, in fact. I think followers of Christ should be engaged and involved in the communities in which we find ourselves...loving and serving neighbor.

I guess I struggle a bit with how often we try to imitate the world around us. I don't know whether we do this to find acceptance or because we think this is the key to "attracting them to us". Very often, our imitation of the society we live in (and the methods that society uses) causes us to come off a bit...weird. It can be an uncomfortable experience when we try to imitate the world rather than imitate Christ.

I've been thinking a lot about evangelism lately, and, to be honest with you, I find our "methods" a bit off-putting -- and I have most of my life. It seems that our methods of evangelism imitate the market-driven culture we find ourselves in. I have grown increasingly distanced from our concepts of "selling the gospel" and "growing our brand".

Many of our methods for evangelism could come right out of the "Marketing 101" textbook: 1) have a product, 2) create a brand, 3) come up with slogans, 4) develop the sales strategy and learn techniques for delivery, 5) engage graphics arts to advertize with t-shirts, bumper stickers, ads, and technology. Marketing is intended to identify the customer, keep the customer, and satisfy the customer.

Uh oh. (Did that last sentence give anyone else the creeps?).

Marketing is a process that companies (or churches) use to create consumer interest in our products (the Gospel) and services (the church). I am not sure why this grieves me as much as it does...

A former pastor of mine is fond of saying, "What you win them with is what you win them to". What are they being "won" to? It's a good question. Consumer entitlement? Brand loyalty ensuring life-long commitment and their dollar? New knowlege or philosophy? I'm afraid that pursuing people in this manner seriously misses the point.

Our market-driven approaches to church growth, I feel, have also left segments of the Body of Christ in arrogant competition with one another. When one church grows, usually another church declines. One wins. One loses. While I agree that churches have natural cycles of life and death, our inner-church competition for customers often resembles the competitive pricing I see between Penny's, Kohl's, and Sears (with each trying to win their "market share"). Since we are but One Body, when one loses, we all lose.

We all lose.

I don't like evangelism when it resembles marketing with the latest slogans, cliches, catch-phrases, and products. Neither do I appreciate evangelism that is nothing but words, whether printed or spoken. When I read the Gospels, I see an evangelism that is lived and embodied in our flesh...through our lives...the Living Christ. Words have never been enough, and to follow the example of Jesus, our hands and feet and flesh are required.

People are not a market. People are people, and they deserve our personal interaction, love, and service. Anything else may be disingenuous.