Churches are now looking for pastors with 'marketing skills'
-
Check out this link:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/csm/20050819/ts_csm/apastorcorp
Ridiculous, isn't it?
Wasn't Fugue right when he spoke about pastors who solicit our 'sarport'.
Shocking and abysmal.
I'm a Christian and I'm ashamed.
No wonder Pope Paul VI in 1972 spoke of the 'smoke of Satan entering the house of God, through the cracks in the walls'.
Ben -
no need, just employ mr durian is good more than enuff!
-
WTF...
-
Full text of article below:
By G. Jeffrey MacDonald, Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
Fri Aug 19, 4:00 AM ET
A year ago, the Rev. Scott Schlotfelt was weighing job offers from three churches smitten by what he had to offer.
But they weren't talking about his preaching or counseling skills. What they were seeking, like a number of churches across the United States, was some savvy marketing. And like a growing number of pastors, consultants, and volunteers, Mr. Schlotfelt was eager to do some branding for the Lord.
"I've kind of had a heart for marketing, [and] I think a lot of churches are looking for outreach" specialists, says Schlotfelt, outreach pastor at Mountain Christian Church in Joppa, Md. He received his undergraduate degree in marketing, then studied for the ministry and helped congregations build up their images through advertising in Las Vegas and Amarillo, Texas.
"It's the medium of marketing that's used to get a message across [in today's culture], whether it's an election or you're trying to sell a product," he adds. "But in this case, we're just trying to hear the hope of a new life that is eternal."
To succeed, a number of denominations and local congregations alike are seeking marketing know-how, whether among church staff or from from hired experts.
Churches' outreach to potential members as summer winds down. The United Methodist Church, for instance, will make its largest media buy of the year starting Aug. 30 - a four-week, $4 million effort. To get that marketing know-how, they're turning to those who know how to sell cars, houses, and other commercial products.
"The church in more ways than not is mirroring Wall Street and the world and Madison Avenue," says H. B. London, vice president of pastoral ministries at Focus on the Family, a national resource network for evangelical Christians. "We're [lagging] behind them to a certain degree, but we're using all their techniques."
In the past decade, several firms have honed a niche by providing churches with marketing professionals for hire. Aspire!One, a marketing firm in Sycamore, Ill., has branched out to serve church clients - who might need one mailer or an entire brand identity - alongside its corporate ones. At Church Marketing Solutions, Inc. in Centreville, Va., which offers low-cost marketing, 4 out of 5 staffers have masters in business degrees. At the headquarters of Outreach Inc. in Vista, Calif., 120 employees have brought corporate-style marketing to thousands of congregations.
Seeking a snazzy web site
Meanwhile, some churches with sufficient resources are doing as Mountain did and dedicating in-house staff to marketing. Six-month-old Kinetic Christian Church in Charlotte, N.C. noticed what the Rev. Scott Johnson was doing with lively images on the website of an Indianapolis congregation. On that basis, recruiters hired him away to Charlotte.
"They saw what I'd been doing and said, 'What you've been doing there, we want you to do it here,' " Mr. Johnson says. Now an associate pastor, he uses his graphic-design background to create images for outreach marketing campaigns.
The same visuals - for example, a plug in a socket as a metaphor for prayer - light up the big screen when the congregation gathers for worship in a former movie theater. On the side, he teaches church professionals from as far away as Florida and California to use graphic-design software in their own marketing efforts.
More business background
For many in church leadership, corporate-style marketing is nothing new. Among males enrolled in seminary in 2000, the most common educational background was technical science, including business, communications, and computer science, according to a study by the Center for the Study of Theological Education at Auburn Theological Seminary in New York. (For women, it's social science.)
Another factor: almost 2 in 3 seminarians are over 30 years of age, according to 2003 data from the Association of Theological Schools, which means church leaders often have had business experience.
Thinking in terms of customers and markets, however, might not always bring out the best in a church leader, according to Jackson Carroll, a professor emeritus of religion and society and former director of research at the Pulpit & Pew Project at Duke University in Durham, N.C. He cites the example of Southern preachers who took up the cause of civil rights in the 1960s despite vehement local resistance.
"It didn't help marketing at all," Professor Carroll says. "People left churches in droves when pastors or leaders in the congregation took a strong stand in favor of integration, [but] they did it anyway."
Today, he says, pastors who make marketing a top priority run the risk of fostering "a congregation that refuses to deal with issues of individual or social justice because it might offend someone."
"Go therefore ..."
Others, however, see marketing as a necessary part of Christ Jesus' great commission: "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matt. 28:19, New Revised Standard Version).
"Marketing and the church, they go hand in hand [because] we're called to bring our message to a community," says Kristal Dove, operations manager at Church Marketing Solutions. But she says not all church leaders should be involved.
"We basically make it so ministers can focus on people and not have to worry about this stuff," Ms. Dove says.
But in the opinion of Mr. London of Focus on the Family, any church leader's success depends at least in part on bringing the best of corporate-marketing tactics to bear on a righteous cause.
"Nearly every pastor is a salesman or a marketer of one kind or another because ... we have a philosophy to sell," he says. "The best marketers and best salesmen will have more converts, will have more people, will take in more money.... Evangelicals are marketers because they're really passionate about their product." -
I have sales and marketing experience in membership recruitment.
I also know the bible. Can I apply?
-
got lucky draw or not?
-
Dun have. But I can get Fann Wong to do a Crow dance for you.Originally posted by kingofbeholder:got lucky draw or not? -
controversial sia
-
I don't understand what's so special or controversial about this. Those churches are organizations, and of course they will be structured and do some marketing as well. Im sure they do all sorts of other structural and organizational activities, like having IT people, or even the 'traditional' one, like having janitors, organists, etc, all are just part of being an organization. If u are a big organization with enough resources, what's so special about engaging professional consultants for marketing and stuff? What's so controversial if the church has people who are pastors who also has marketing skills and use those skills?
-
will you have circus acts on TV to raise funds??Originally posted by Honeybunz:Dun have. But I can get Fann Wong to do a Crow dance for you.
btw, I also want fann to do gang guan wu... -
MLM coming into the church?
-
I supposed it ALREADI did!!Originally posted by maggot:MLM coming into the church? -
What's controversial about this, is that so-called 'churches' (Protestant 'churches' really) are hiring pastors mainly on the basis of whether they have 'marketing skills', as the article implied.Originally posted by Li Ka Shing:I don't understand what's so special or controversial about this. Those churches are organizations, and of course they will be structured and do some marketing as well. Im sure they do all sorts of other structural and organizational activities, like having IT people, or even the 'traditional' one, like having janitors, organists, etc, all are just part of being an organization. If u are a big organization with enough resources, what's so special about engaging professional consultants for marketing and stuff? What's so controversial if the church has people who are pastors who also has marketing skills and use those skills?
The Catholic Church at least doesn't tempt Catholics with the prospect of earning a fat pay in its attempt to induce some of them to become priests.
Do you think a hiring policy like this one, is geared towards producing saintly pastors?
Ben -
-
Time is GMT + 8 hours
Posted: 21 August 2005 1936 hrs
Pope criticises 'explosion' of religious consumerism
MARIENFELD SITE, Germany : Pope Benedict XVI criticised an "explosion" in religious consumerism and those profiting from it at a mass attended by at least 800,000 pilgrims celebrating the Catholic World Youth day festival.
The 78-year-old Pope, referring to the growth of new sects, said there was "a kind of new explosion of religion" that if pushed too far, turned religion into "almost a consumer product."
Issuing a staunch defence of the everyday practice of religion, the Pope warned the multi-national crowd of young pilgrims that constructing their religion on a "do-it-yourself" basis would ultimately prove fruitless.
"People choose what they like, and some are even able to make a profit from it. But religion constructed on a 'do-it-yourself' basis cannot ultimately help us."
"It may be comfortable, but at times of crisis we are left to ourselves." - AFP/de
Yay! Well said -
What's that?Originally posted by Mr Fugue:will you have circus acts on TV to raise funds??
btw, I also want fann to do gang guan wu... -
Ask them to headhunt in Singapore lah!
Singapore here got a lot of pastors with great marketing skills and full of charisma to brainwash young & naive ppl one.
Maybe ask them to acquire CHC lor. Maybe the church can go to Nasdaq after the acquisition. -
Seriously, CHC being a good example, is charismatic more harmful than ever? Andn ow they are fusing spirituality with elements of business. Cal me old school, but i dont believe spirituality and business should mix.
-
I know of another who is also very rich. They even invest the $$ collect from their congregation into properties. Their pastors are drawing good salaries too. (scratch head)
-
pole dancing.Originally posted by Honeybunz:What's that? -
No way we will make fann wong do pole dancing. We may end up not able to differentiate which is the pole and which is fann wong.Originally posted by digicharat:pole dancing. -
Uh, I don't see anything in the article that implies that any of the three churches was trying to get Schlotfelt's services by offering a fat paycheck. Second, as far as I can tell, Schlotfelt was already a reverend, rather than being tempted into the role by the promise of money.Originally posted by MrBach:That's controversial about this, is that so-called 'churches' (Protestant 'churches' really) are hiring pastors mainly on the basis of whether they have 'marketing skills', as the article implied.
The Catholic Church at least doesn't tempt Catholics with the prospect of earning a fat pay in its attempt to induce some of them to become priests.
Do you think a hiring policy like this one, is geared towards producing saintly pastors?
Ben
Of course, we've got the Bakkers and Swaggarts out there, but even before I got a quarter way thrrough the article, the "go therefore and make disciples" bit popped into my head.
The fact is that evangelism is marketing applied to religious purposes, and the idea is the same although the scale has gone well out of the Galilee area. I'm not trying to be blasphemous here, but let's face it - raising the dead, turning water into wine and feeding a stadium-sized crowd with five loaves and two fishes was bound to generate some publicity.
Hey, things really took off for the Church when Gutenberg invented the printing press - it's just come full circle now and communications tools are coming back to the Church. -
A priest at my church came up with a logical explanation for the feeding of the multitude. He says the people brought enough food for themselves alone. When the lad offered to share whatever little he had, the others were inspired to do the same.Originally posted by Gedanken:The fact is that evangelism is marketing applied to religious purposes, and the idea is the same although the scale has gone well out of the Galilee area. I'm not trying to be blasphemous here, but let's face it - raising the dead, turning water into wine and feeding a stadium-sized crowd with five loaves and two fishes was bound to generate some publicity.
As for raising the dead, Sai Baba (aka "Paedophile Guru") has also been documented doing so. I doubt he can walk on water, though. -
That's immmaterial, iveco - the point I was making is that the publicity generated got a whole lot of other people to turn up and hear the Word.
-
I think only churches like city harvest does that..