All it takes is to see that my friends are adding to their blogs for me to go back to mine.
Right now I am thinking a lot about this Moth Podcast I heard about a woman who left her church and Mary Kay at the same time because she was tired of looking at people as “lost sheep”. That wasn’t her quote, but that was the essence. She was on the “core executive” committee for her church because she was so good at selling things. She decided to step down (and move to NY) when she heard her pastor say that they needed a five step plan, or something, about salvation with five words to help people remember it. And, he said, all of the steps had to begin with the same letter. This sickened her, as it did me, and made her leave the church.
I’m scared of marketing infiltrating into faith communities, I will admit. It sickens me. The idea of manipulating people to follow Jesus with a good marketing strategy seems about as evil as it gets. It presents Jesus’s love as something to be consumed, rather than something that should consume us. And I do believe love should consume us.
Look at his life. He didn’t use marketing strategies. He just taught what he knew about God. Sometimes it drew people to him. Sometimes it turned them away. Jesus never turned people away, but sometimes he said things that made people throw up their hands and turn around. His goal, clearly, is not to attract masses but to teach about God. What do we make of that?
I’m really asking myself. What do I make of that? There’s a feeling I get from capitalism: obligation. It’s not necessarily a bad thing by itself, I suppose. I don’t want people to feel obligated to believe what I believe or worship where I worship, the way I worship, etc. Whenever someone does something for me and I can tell they feel an obligation, it makes me uncomfortable.
I’m not writing with answers here. I’m trying to work this out.
I share your distaste. Distaste is too weak of a word. Anger, maybe.
I dislike marketing strategies, period. The reason is that I think they are anathema to authenticity. Because much of the work of the gospel, to my mind, is making room for authenticity, marketing strategies do seem particularly insidious in that context. That, and the notion that Jesus doesn’t work with formulas. Marketing seems devoted to discovering and deploying formulas in order to achieve success. But Jesus’ success was in busting out of all the old formulas. We were made in the image of our creator, not according to a formula.
Relevant James Baldwin quotation:
“You know I don’t blame you for making money, but the selling of soap is not really an endeavor worthy of man. Especially when it is accompanied by TV jingles.”
I’ve thought the end of Luke 9 is a good example of Jesus’ “Marketing Strategy” –
[58] And Jesus said to him, “Foxes have holes, and birds of the air have nests; but the Son of man has nowhere to lay his head.”
[59] To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.”
[60] But he said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead; but as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.”
[61] Another said, “I will follow you, Lord; but let me first say farewell to those at my home.”
[62] Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
Nora, thanks for sharing. I write more as a confession, that I often think of church/ministry as “strategy” – especially when you think about the lives of people who you love who are hurting others and themselves. But you’re absolutely right; it’s about God and worship. In today’s view, Jesus’ strategy would’ve had a low google rating and would never have any neatly-packaged 7/10/5/whatever-step programs to a successful anything. He did love pretty well, though.
ps- I just read Gilead and Home, which were really touching stories of redemption or rather, forgiveness and hope. Robinson’s really good at writing endings.
Thanks and BKK misses you!
You have found a truthful train of thought that I have heard some others talk about, people whom I also admire for their faith and their insight, including your Uncle Tom, (who, ironically, has a degree in Marketing). He often says that Jesus had the worst marketing strategies ever (as Ian demonstrates). It makes me love Him all the more. As Lisa says, marketing the gospel is contrary to authenticity, and I believe in our hearts our spirits recognize the polarity of the two [the gospel and marketing]; our revulsion reminds me of, “My sheep hear my voice, and the voice of the stranger they do not recognize.” It just doesn’t ring true; it is vanity; it is Man-made, worldly wisdom that is not Wisdom at all.