A New Marketing Strategy

I got a mailing from the Honda dealer yesterday advising me that they could put me in a new Accord for the same monthly payment I have on my old Accord and without a further down payment. I threw the letter away. I’m not in a market for a new Accord.

You and I get pitched for a variety of goods and services everyday. Most of these pitches we ignore because we are not “in the market” for what is being sold. 

I have recently come to the realization that telling folks how great my church is is not unlike the pitch from the Honda dealer. The ones who really need what my church can offer aren’t in the market. They don’t perceive that they have a need for what I am selling.

They are perfectly happy spending their Sunday mornings reading the newspaper, enoying a lazy breakfast or catching some sun at Starbucks. I’m not impressing them by telling them about our great worship, kid’s programs, or fellowship. Most of them have ipods, pads or iphones and can listen to all the music they want any time they want, while playing a game or catching up on the news. There are tons of activities for their children available every day of the week. They have friends and family which they enjoy in a much more comfortable setting than we can every offer on Sunday mornings. 

If we are going to successfully market Jesus we need an new approach. The best marketing plans convince people that they need something they never thought they needed. People desperately need Jesus; they just don’t realize it. It isn’t church they need no matter how slick or attractive we make the programs. 

Our new marketing strategy needs to be a very old strategy. We need to offer folks what they don’t have: real joy, real meaning, real confidence that their life means something and that their future is secure. In a way they are really set up for that pitch. In spite of all they have, they aren’t happy are fulfilled.  They have learned that they can’t put their faith in IRAs or the real estate market. They have tried every shiny new toy that Apple and Madison Avenue can think of. They have sniffed, snorted, eaten and drank more chemicals than there are fish in the sea; but they still wake up empty, thirsty and hungry. 

Instead of pitching your great pastor, your pretty church building, or your rocking music team; try explaining to someone the smile on your face and the joy in your heart. That’s what they are in the market for. You can’t sell that on tv or in the newspaper. You can’t fake it or conjure it up. It’s got to be real to work.

There is a smile on your face and joy in your heart, isn’t there?

Nick