Christ Teachings

In 1920s, Herbert Armstrong, a newspaper designer, has changed the church and gave it an unorthodox outlook by spreading his teachings and over some time, it was noticed that a large number of souls have been have joined in till the period of 1986, the time of his death.

He used to claim that the he could speak to Jesus and it was lord himself who has ordered him to spread his teaching in which he was involved in. Not only this, but he also used to claim that although he could not study the wishes of the lord, but with the constant touch and contact, he can understand god more beneficial. So for the self same purpose he started studying Word of God and understands the teachings of the gospel. On the basis of that, he made various different conclusions and developed quite different outlook towards the society and the relationships. Likewise, he used to write the articles on the conclusions drawn from the Christian bible and started publishing it.

It was the time when everyone started believing in his teachings because mortals noticed them more practical. Most of the followers include working youths and the students. Even though early Christians were not in consonance with the Armstrong’s ideology, but with constant re-emphasis and back up stories he tried to make the point that what the other Christian churches are preaching is not correct, instead what he was saying and preaching is correct. In truth, he also challenges various notions and believes of the early Christians and the churches. This has further created doubt on the Armstrong’s doctrine but with the flair of advertising, he used the various forms of mass media like radio and print to spread his message in the entire North America. This has made him popular overnight and the followers kept on adding in his group.

While his study of the Christian bible, he came to quite a number of unusual conclusions and he used to preach the same conclusions to the masses. He likewise started a radio program and a small magazine. Even though it was hard to vary the views of the individuals through face to face interaction, it was comparatively easier for him to influence the psyche of the individuals as he was the advertising guy. He knew the tools of the advertising, which along with the help of effective programming proves successful in transforming the churches. However, when he died in 1986, it was noticed out that virtually of his teachings were not Biblical.

The radio programs like The world tomorrow and The radio church of the God the Father and the magazines like The plain gospel truth, have helped in spreading his teachings about the life and society. All this has proved the importance of advertising and its basic tools in molding the psyche of the people and at the same time bringing the desired effects. Many experts believe that if Armstrong was not aware of the tools of the advertising, he would have not been successful in getting the huge base of followers. It is cause of the actuality that he knew what to say and when, which has helped him in attaining his goals along with tilting the views of the other churches as well.

By: writejbear

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Find out about church advertising ideas from small church advertising com.

How does the purpose of marketing change the purpose of business? Here’s an example. Manufacturers will substitute a less expensive ingredient for a higher quality ingredient. And the marketing department will shift attention away from the disadvantages of such a change by conjuring up some new and improved element of the manufactured product. We are all familiar with this process.

The point to be made is the shift in purpose from function to finance, from performance to appearance, from essentials to periphery, from substance to style. I am not arguing against profit or against marketing or against efficiency or against financial concerns. All I am saying is that when a business shifts its primary purpose from production to marketing, the likelihood of an inferior product increases.

It doesn’t have to, but it usually does. The concerns of marketing take precedence over the concerns of product quality and performance. There is a shift of concern from what is best for the customer to what is best for the business. It is a shift of priorities from other to self. This shift is evidenced in the wide-spread decrease in customer service that has happened across the board over the last fifty years.

So, how does this play out in the church? Worldly wisdom tells us that gospel success means more people in the pews. The emphasis is on the pew rather than on the Lord. Whereas, biblical wisdom tells us that gospel success results from the glorification of God (Shorter Catechism, Question 1). The purity of the church requires the right people in the pews, people who are covered by the righteousness of Christ. The biblical emphasis is on right belief or right values, on the righteousness of Jesus Christ crucified and risen.

The traditional focus of the churches was on Christ. The central focus of worship and evangelism was Jesus Christ. Churches and Christians were concerned about serving the needs and desires of Jesus Christ. Whereas the Church Growth Movement is concerned about serving the needs and desires of the people in the pews. Biblically, worship and evangelism are Christ-centered, and are understood to be byproducts of faithfulness. Biblical worship and evangelism are accomplished through faithfulness to Jesus Christ. They are not accomplished through the mechanics of marketing and advertising (human effort).

Again, marketing and advertising do have legitimate functions in the church. However, they are not to be self-centered, they are to be Christ-centered. Biblical marketing and advertising should not be about the church or about the people in the church. Rather, they should be about Jesus Christ.

Christians should understand that Christianity is not about us, it is about Jesus Christ. We don’t bring salvation, Christ does. We don’t produce sanctification, Christ does. Salvation is not about what we do or who we are, it’s about Jesus Chris — what He has done and who He is!

The Church Growth Movement and virtually all contemporary Christian marketing and advertising, while it pays lip service to Jesus Christ, is actually focused on the people in the pews. It is primarily concerned with noses and nickels related to particular institutions. It understands the purpose of evangelism to be to get people in the pews — and that focus lobbies against preaching or sharing any biblical truth that has a hard edge, that will make people uncomfortable, or that may be difficult to understand. And, like it or not, biblical truth will make us all uncomfortable. Various aspects of biblical truth are hard to understand — faith is required. All growth is painful at times.

Growing, or stretching our limitations, is often uncomfortable. Christian growth — sanctification — requires thinking outside of the box of our spiritual immaturity. It’s hard. It’s painful. And it will take us where we don’t want to go. The Spirit opposes the flesh. “Those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit” (Romans 8:5). “For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do” (Galatians 5:17).

Go to the church page of any newspaper and you can see what I mean. The ads are church-centered rather than Christ-centered. The basic message is “come visit our church,” rather than extolling the excellencies of Jesus Christ. By and large the messages preached are about what Christ can do for you, rather than biblical exposition or extolling the excellencies of Jesus Christ.

As we go through our exegesis of First Corinthians I want you to look for Paul’s invitation to visit the church at Corinth. You won’t find it, but it is important that you see that it is not there. Why? Because this is not an evangelism-centered book. It is a sanctification-centered book. The focus is on the maturity of Christians. And then as now, the focus on maturity will not immediately increase local church membership, it will likely decrease it. Please understand that I am not suggesting that churches initiate programs in order to decrease their membership rolls. Rather, I am simply pointing to what Paul did, and his concern for Christian maturity and growth in grace.

By: Phillip Ross

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Author of many Christian books, Phillip A. Ross has been a pastor for over 25 years. Loaded with information about historic Christianity, Ross founded www.Pilgrim-Platform.org in 1998. Demonstrating the Apostle Paul’s profound opposition to worldly Christianity, he published an exposition First Corinthians in 2008. Paul turned the world upside down and Ross captures the action in Arsy Varsy — Reclaiming the Gospel in First Corinthians.

Church advertisements are generally a kind of the public service announcements where church delivers the messages for the public good. These ads have the messages, which are supposed to help souls to make their lives happier and remind them of their responsibilities from time and again. You get a real feel good message out of advertisments like the ones churches use.

For example, a church ad will not say, if you require to enjoy, come to our church or won’t say something like do not go the Christian church which is across the town, mainly this is cause that does not hold whatever events and does not offer the service of the babysitters. Instead, they will say that we are here for your service and we offer these number and kinds of events, so be a part of them and make yourself comfortable in the presence of God.

All this is the form of the beneficial advertising. In the books of advertisement, a good advertisement is defined as the one that mentions the features or services of their products and encourages people to buy that particular product on the base that its services. Whereas a bad advertising is the one that either does not talk of the positive points of the product that will help in making the buying decision or at times shows the competitors’ products in the bad light.

It reminds me of a radio advertisement of a plumbing company where the announcer talks of the availing the service of the company because their plumbers do not smell. It starts with the line that says – “And the most crucial matter, here plumbers do not smell”. With this line, all the efforts of making an advertisement have gone into vain.

No one of us is going to call a plumber cause he does not smell. If the ceiling of the room is leaking or there is a crack in the bathroom, all I wish is a person who could seal that crack before the house floods away. Not a person who smells of roses or lavender.

Similarly, in event of church advertising, an advertisement that focus more on the loving and caring attitude of the church or the one that tells that we are in service of the society and anybody could be the component of our event, without taking into consideration that he or she is the member or not, considered to be more beneficial and affect more mortals than the one which say that you have to be member to be a component of it.

There are of course, Christian churches for elites, which organise member-only events and exactly to be seen in those glamorous events, some mortals buy the membership of Christian churches. But in such cases, they don’t serve the reason of a Christian church, instead are converted into the some kind of clubs, where individuals or few from the upper class of the society come to be seen and enjoy the events. They do not get involved with the ideology of the Christian church and consider the events of the church like whatever other party.

By: writejbear

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Learn about advertising church at small church advertising com.

Twitter is growing in popularity right along with Facebook. So, why should the church care? Here

The concept of church marketing emerged with the need of the Christian churches across the world to grow their member base and invites a comparatively younger and diverse base of the attendances. There was a time when most of the young generation has lost interest in Christian church and felt repulsive about the preaching of the pope. What they were looking for was a more modern and energetic group were they could share their experiences and get souls of their age groups.

As the result, to sustain their identity and keep the interest of youngsters alive in the foundation called Christian church, churches have desired to portray themselves as something where there could be fun as well, not simply the preaching. To do so, Christian churches have come up with some the fabulous ideas of events. Few of them have organised outdoor events and few have too taken piece in high-energy games like soccer, etc.

The conceptualisation of events was there, so now there was the want of somebody who could portray it to the world outside so that the younger generation could take part in those events and sense like a piece of the institution. Hence, the concept of marketing came into being.

Marketing is larger concept that takes care of the wants to make a product look attractive in the eyes of the audience and ultimately sells it. Here, the product is the Christian church itself. The want was to make it look appealing and an enjoyable place to the people between the age-group of 20-40 and too encourages them to be a piece of a particular Christian church.

So in most of the cases, the youngsters become the target audience of the marketer but at the self same time a marketer has also consider the truth that the advertising are not done in such a manner that it might attract the younger generation but alienate the present members of the Christian church.

For the reason, today a team of professionals are hired to make the Christian church look modern and at the self same time caring in terms of its content and designing. The marketing is mostly done by the website. If one notices, there are a large number of Christian church websites which have come up in the relatively smaller period of time. Church marketing has started from 1960s and by 1990s we had a huge array of the websites which focus on the all strong points of that particular church. Too they have a vast deal of designing on it that is done by much techno-savvy designers who know their job well.

It has no longer remained the personal affair of the clergy and the Christian church staff to spread the reach of their church. They are mostly the souls who with their personal touch and with the words of mouth or notice boards have earned a reputation for the Christian church from the past. But these days, the Christian church marketing has grown into a full blown up profession, which gives bread and butter to some.

By: writejbear

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Learn more about church marketing at small church advertising com.

You ought never begin church advertising without understanding what you need to do first. This is a error I have seen many churches make. Without understanding it they rushed into getting flyers designed or other advertising tools made. The trouble is before you can begin making these advertising tools you have to understand who your audience is.

No Christian church advertising is going to work unless you first of all comprehend this one fact. Have you ever tried to communicate with someone who does not talk your language? It is near not possible. This is how come many church advertising methods fail. You have to talk the language in your advertising of the souls who received it.

The most beneficial way to begin understanding their language is to spend time with. This is done by doing studies on your neighborhoods. You have to find out what form mortals live around you. Are they older or younger, what kind of culture do they have, where do they normally gather, and what is the best way to reach them? These are the queries you have to ask yourself.

Once you have the answers to these questions you can begin getting your advertising ready. What form of advertising tools you use depends on where the individuals gather and what kind of culture they have. For instance the older generation might have a culture that enjoys bluegrass music in picnics used to be the way they spent their dates. In this case ending word out through flyers and postcards in the mail might be your most beneficial bet as long as it is inviting them to a bluegrass gospel singing.

As long as you recollect your audience your Christian church advertising will work out. The marketing you did in the beginning is going to be the base of all of your churches advertising. It will help you know what kind of tools to use and where to use these tools. This way you do not run off without whatever idea how to communicate.

Christian church advertising is all about communication and getting your message across to the mortals. That is why spending time to understand the language of the souls is so significant. They do not all speak Christian lingo and they may not all speak elderly lingo or youth lingo. So try to find out what they are like to get your churches advertising up to par.

This is how Christian church advertising works. After you do your marketing you are going to want your message to be heard, read, or noticed in some way. Some fantastic tips to creating printed advertising are to make it into layers. There should be a large picture in the ad that will catch the eye first of all. It will want to represent the content of the advertisement as well as the kind of person you are trying to communicate with.

Next make a large catchy title. Titles that are catchy get someone thinking. Think on the lines of “would this catch my eye if I glanced at it”? That is going to be the most prominent line of text. You want it visible from 10 feet away. The next line of text ought be seen from 5 feet away. It ought describe a benefit of your church. After this the church advertising ad ought have some other layer of text visible from 3 feet away. This will explain all things you want to. Finally make some other layer visible from about 4 feet that will tell how to get to your church.

By: writejbear

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Learn about advertising church at small church advertising com.

When it comes to your churches advertising I would like to ask you if there is whatever method you feel will work most beneficial for your Christian church? Why is it that advertising method will work for you? The truth is that many churches use the same methods and yet while some succeed others fail. What could cause this?

The way your Christian church uses advertising can give you your answer. The advertisements will also depend on your Christian churches local area. If you go on studying you are going to find a few ideas that will help your Christian churches advertising be more effective.

The pursuing is a list of Christian church advertising ideas that have been used in other churches. I desire to explain them to you. Do not think that any of these are in order. I can not say if item one is more beneficial than two for your church since I do not know your church.

Your Christian church advertising can begin off with a church website. Think about it. Your church service could be viewed online for all to be capable to see and listen to. The only major draw back to a website is the actuality that it gets little credit for anything. You frequently do not know mortals come to your church since of it. Developed cities with souls who go online a lot is the most beneficial type of place to use a Christian church website.

I have seen churches use flyers to get their message out all the time. The great matter about them is that they are more personal. Christian church flyers are so personal cause they should never be posted on windows but instead handed out by people. Never windshield a car with your flyer. Put your Christian churches flyer into the open hands of the people. This form of church advertising is best in whatever environment.

Advertising with simple postcards can be another fantastic Christian church advertising idea. Of all the advertisements there are out there this is the only one you ought ever consider mailing out. These postcards take really little money and can reach a large community. Be sure your postcard design makes you want to take notice of it before you mail or even print it. No one wishes their postcards in the trash can at some ones home after all. It is best to send something like this out to a more quiet town that does not have a lot of advertisements.

Christian churches tend to believe brochures are not for them and are no beneficial. This is only half true. When you use them in welcome baskets your Christian church can get more return visits. Remember that return visits are the ones that count. Your churches brochure is the one item that may bring people back to you.

Business cards are not only for businesses anymore. Christian church advertising must begin getting these cards into the hands of all of their members. It is a really cheap way to get your members involved in advertising the church. Each one should have an invite on them.

This is a really small number of advertising tools you could use in your efforts. While you may be capable to use all of these you have to use them right. Be certain your efforts are focused and determined.

Church advertising is not something to be taken lightly. In truth it is vital to all churches that wish to grow. If a church does not grow you can expect it to be dead in five or so years.

With each of these methods of church advertising mentioned there is one that is still the best. That is word of mouth. Having your members speak to other souls is what will in truth turn the tide for your Christian church.

Advertising is a way to spread the word of The Lord. Do not let it slip through your churches hands. Find out what methods work best for your church. Advertising is more than an art. It is a science.

By: writejbear

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Church advertising services such as this can be found through small church advertising com.

I remember a deacon of a Christian church I once attended had the following to say about Christian church advertising. “If you have the word of God preached you would not require whatever advertising.” It is instead funny to me that the self same church now has signs placed all over town advertising their singings.

I am not saying they do not have the word of The Lord being preached. I just want to show you how souls feel about Christian church advertising. While one person will say you do not require it another will say it is vital. So how come is there such a debate in the first place?

The answer to that is a simple misunderstanding of the word faith I believe. You see one group believes that if a church advertises they are not showing faith in God the Father to bring individuals in. This type of thinking says that The Lord is the one who will grow the church.

I do agree that The Lord will grow His Christian church but I think we forget that He has commissioned us to be the workers to do it. You see faith is not simply believing something. Faith is believing something and behaving accordingly. I trust our business is to go into the highways and byways to invite souls to The Lord. Because of that I act by advertising to those people.

Christian church advertising is not something that is simply done to draw people into a club or to by something. This is one other cause individuals do not like Christian churches advertising. It is because they are used to mortals pushing things on them they do not desire. The difference is that the Christian church is offering eternal life. Who does not want that?

So while we try to not be like everyone else we forget that the bible tells we should be as wise as a serpent and harmless as a dove. This is where church advertising gets tricky. This is because we require to compel people to come to Jesus while not attacking them and pushing them away.

The gospel truth is we have to advertise in this world we live in. No one can discover you without a guide since the church is no longer at the center of every town like it was in days gone by. Cause this is real you should not hesitate to put an advertisement in the telephone book or local paper. Advertising will save your church.

Remember what I told about faith? If you have faith that your church will grow what are you doing to act in accordance with that? Are you a piece of the Christian churches increase or not? This is how come we require everyone in our Christian churches helping to advertise for us.

Think of what would have happened to the Christian church is Paul never advertised. If he never went out and made known he was a Christian and wanted others to be as well where would we be? We want souls who are not afraid to use any entails available to get our message out to the world!

If you hope to see your church thriving in the future then you must begin your Christian church advertising this day. If you expect anyone to yet be visiting your Christian church in the future what are you doing to make for sure they do? Church advertising is how you draw mortals in. If it is nothing more than word of mouth advertising or if it is some grand advertising campaign you still owe it to The Lord to act now.

By: writejbear

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Learn about advertising church at small church advertising com.

Church advertising is not that difficult of a matter to master. The objective is really crystal clear that you are looking for more mortals to visit your Christian church. The method of getting them in may be a little bit more obscure though. Either way your last advertising scheme may have failed.

The causes a Christian churches advertising might not work as well as you would hope could really well be the result of some possibilities. It should not be hard to discover out where you are going incorrect even though if you pursue a step-by-step church advertising plan. Having more than simply $200 a month may help too of course but we will get to that later.

We are going to dive into this Christian church advertising list and I hope you can get some fantastic ideas from it. You see there is a method to the madness of advertising. You do not just go out and start throwing flyers around. Instead you want to get some planning done first of all.

The first matter on your Christian church advertising list is going to be church marketing. This is the foundation of all advertising. Marketing is where you discover out whom your audience is and how to reach them. So before you do any advertising make for certain you know who is going to be affected by it.

I have seen far too some churches just assuming their target is everyone. This might be true in the grand scheme of things but not for each individual church. Instead we ought recall that our churches advertising wants to be different than anyone else. The reason for this is cause your church may be one piece of the body of Jesus that does a certain business reaching certain people.

So take time to survey your community. Get a list united of the sort of individuals around. This will go a long way to the success of your church advertising campaign.

The next step might surprise you. It is not time to get an advertisement ready. Instead it is time to do some inner marketing in your Christian church. You want to get to recognize who is already in your church. It is important cause when you attempt to bring more souls in they want to be able to mix well and stay.

So take note of the type of souls already in your Christian church. Imagine them out in the community and not knowing about your church. What would reach them? Recall your advertisements are not going to go after everyone or even maybe the largest number of individuals in your community. You should concentrate on souls who are like those you already have.

Now you are ready to get your Christian church advertising tools ready. When you did your inner marketing what was the overwhelming way these people already came? I have no doubt they showed up through word of mouth most frequently. That means this form of advertising ought be the first of all you use.

Having each member hand individuals business cards of your church is a tremendous way to get word of mouth advertising going. So I recommend every Christian church use this method as frequently as capable. It may be the best tool to get things rolling.

Now is there anything else you noticed about the mortals who are like them in your community? Perhaps they spend most of their days at home? Perhaps they like to go out to the movies? Wherever they are that is where you want to go.

I would recommend a church website for those communities where souls spend most of their time online. You could use numerous different on the net advertising methods to get their attention. Church advertising flyers might be good for individuals who like to drive around town. Passing them out along side the road can be a tremendous publicity maker.

Exactly recollect to get the marketing done before you do any church advertising. That will help you succeed and not fail.

By: writejbear

Article Directory: http://www.articledashboard.com

Church advertising services such as this can be found through small church advertising com.

We’ve talked about what a podcast is and some reasons why podcasting is relevant for churches, but what exactly should your church do for a podcast. There isn’t one specific answer. Every church has its own identity, its own strengths and weaknesses, and its own budget. So, you will have to decide what kind(s) of podcasting is best for your church, but here are a few ideas to get you going.

1. Sermon Podcasts:

This is probably the bare minimum any church should do if they are going to do any podcasting. A sermon podcast is simply using your weekly sermon as the podcast. One of the great things about the sermon podcast is that it requires NO ADDITIONAL PREP TIME. You’re already going to have a sermon, so why not record it. A lot of churches already record their sermons, so why not podcast it. If your church already records your sermons, then podcasting the sermons will probably only take an additional 5-10 minutes.

2. Recorded Bible Study Or Other Class Podcast:

This is along the same lines as the sermon podcast in that you would simply record something that you are doing already and turn it into a podcast, however, this may require a little more work. Most churches don’t record their Bible studies (or other classes) already, so you would have to figure out the best way to record. You also want to be sure to discuss the idea with all those involved in the class especially if their questions/

Kurt Steinbrueck is the author of the Church Marketing Online blog. He has been providing Christian search engine optimization services including church marketing solutions and private school marketing. Find this article at http://churchmarketingonline.com.

With the rapid increase in the popularity of Twitter, it seems everyone and their uncle are creating Twitter tools and Twitter related websites. Some of these tools and websites are very helpful and can be great resources, while others leave much to be desired. So what tools should you use? What sites are good resources?

Buzzable:

Buzzable allows you to create public or private groups either centered around a specific topic. The groups gather content from a various feeds, such as Twitter, blogs, Google News, Digg, and others. You can setup specific sources for the group and/or you can set up feeds by keyword. The idea is that members of the groups can then discuss the topics of the various feeds.

Buzzable, while an interesting idea, may not be something your church (or anyone) would benefit from as a marketing tool. I think it depends what you want to use it for. If you have a group of people within your church that would like to get info about a topic and discuss it online, then you could setup a Buzzable group for them, but, at least right now, I think that

We’ve talked about what a podcast is and some reasons why podcasting is relevant for churches, but what exactly should your church do for a podcast. There isn’t one specific answer. Every church has its own identity, its own strengths and weaknesses, and its own budget. So, you will have to decide what kind(s) of podcasting is best for your church, but here are a few ideas to get you going.

1. Sermon Podcasts:

This is probably the bare minimum any church should do if they are going to do any podcasting. A sermon podcast is simply using your weekly sermon as the podcast. One of the great things about the sermon podcast is that it requires NO ADDITIONAL PREP TIME. You’re already going to have a sermon, so why not record it. A lot of churches already record their sermons, so why not podcast it. If your church already records your sermons, then podcasting the sermons will probably only take an additional 5-10 minutes.

2. Recorded Bible Study Or Other Class Podcast:

This is along the same lines as the sermon podcast in that you would simply record something that you are doing already and turn it into a podcast, however, this may require a little more work. Most churches don’t record their Bible studies (or other classes) already, so you would have to figure out the best way to record. You also want to be sure to discuss the idea with all those involved in the class especially if their questions/

Kurt Steinbrueck is the author of the Church Marketing Online blog. He has been providing Christian search engine optimization services including church marketing solutions and private school marketing. Find this article at http://churchmarketingonline.com.

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Facebook has become the most popular social networking website on the Internet. Millions of people have a profile and most people have lots of friends. Their friends may range from family members, to people they work with, to friends from college or high school. Most of your church

In the last article, I wrote about how Facebook provides a great opportunity for the church to market itself through their members

There was a time that whether you lived in small town or even a large one, having a ministry of presence was usually an easy task.

Relevant Church in Tampa, FL is creative church leading the way when it comes to online church marketing. I recently had the opportunity to chat with Pastor Paul Wirth, senior pastor of Relevant Church in Tampa, FL about their online marketing strategy.

In part one of this part three part series, Pastor Wirth talked about how Relevant Church uses creative marketing ideas to cause a buzz and increase the effectiveness of the marketing. Then, in part two he discussed using multiple layers of marketing to greatly increase the effectiveness of the marketing effort. In the third part of my interview with Pastor Wirth, he talked about creativity in marketing, how it can be used, and what that means to different churches.

Part 3 – Being Creative in Your Church Marketing

Kurt: Let’s talk about some of the church marketing ideas you have used, not so much the forms of search engine marketing like SEO or Adwords, but the messages you’ve used. I know you did the 30 Day Sex Challenge.

Pastor Wirth: With our 30 Sex Challenge. Obviously, that had some buzz because it’s sex and the church is telling people to have sex for 30 days. That had some buzz to it.

And we had over a million hits to our website during that 30 Sex Challenge thing. So, that was a huge deal for us. It created a huge buzz, but all of our billboards, all of our signs, all only said 30DaySexChallenge.com. That’s it. And that drills into a website which gave them more information about our church and what the series is about and everything.

Kurt: Giving people enough information to get their attention and get them to act, but leaving them wanting more information.

Pastor Wirth: It’s a hook And some people say, “Well isn’t that bait and switch?” and I’m like, “No, it’s not bait and switch. It’s just a hook.” If people go to the site and it’s not what their looking for, they click off of the site. It’s that simple. But if we can get people to stay on the site and peruse it, they may think, “Wow! If I was going to go to church, I would definitely want to go to this church.” Hopefully, that will spark someone’s interest.

Kurt: I know I’ve seen a lot of other creative church marketing strategies. Some that come to mind are the My Lame Sex Life campaign, I saw a billboard the other day that said “Boycott such-n-such church. – Signed Satan”, and you had the 30 Day Sex Challenge. How have you found that those are effective? Do you find that those kind of “creative” marketing campaigns are more effective than the more traditional marketing ideas that churches use.

Pastor Wirth: Well, you tell me. We got over one million hits in thirty days during the 30 Day Sex Challenge. Ask any other church if by just putting my picture up on a billboard going “Come and listen to Pastor Paul Wirth on Sunday morning.” They would get that kind of response. Here’s the deal, unless you are looking for a church, why in the world would you even look at that billboard (of Pastor Wirth’s face) or website. It just doesn’t make any sense. Anyone who does a billboard, whether you promoting Mountain Dew, Google, or liposuction will tell you you’re trying to get someone’s attention. So, I think it’s foolish for the church not to try to get people’s attention when we really have the greatest message of all time to give to people. And for us to think that we are going to get their attention by the same means we did 50 years ago is foolish. I think, yes, for us it works much better.

I don’t think every church can do it. You have to make sure it fits the demographic and the people that you are trying to reach. If someone is trying to reach 60 year olds, I don’t know that putting up a flashy billboard for the 30 Day Sex Challenge would be beneficial for them. That’s not going to market to their people. You know what they should do? If they are marketing to 60 year olds, they should figure out what do 60 year olds like to do and they should market to that. If that’s giving free coffee away for all the walkers in the mall that walk every single morning at the mall. Well, that’s 60 year olds. So, why not go market to them and do something that’s going to be beneficial to that age group and that demographic. I think that’s where the creativity comes into it. How do you market to your demographic? Well, you have to know you’re demographic and know what their needs are and then shoot it that way.

Kurt: So, you don’t think the marketing message has to be crazy or outlandish, it just needs to fit the demographic that you are trying to reach.

Pastor Wirth: Absolutely. That’s the thing. You’ve got to know your demographic and then market to them. Outlandish works for us because of who we’re trying to reach. Outlandish wouldn’t work in St. Petersburg for 60 year olds because it wouldn’t reach them. Just be creative in your own environment.

I don’t try to knock people who do things more traditionally in their creativity because they are trying to reach a more traditional market. But, on the flip side of that, getting real negative feedback from lots of other churches because we are being creative in marketing to our demographic seems to be foolish as well. You know we had more negative feedback from religious people than we did from mainstream media, just because they didn’t understand what we were trying to do and didn’t think that we should try to do it even if they would understand it. They say, “That’s still wrong.” Well, ok, that’s your opinion, but we’re seeing people trust Christ and that’s what it’s about. It’s about reaching people for eternity.

Kurt: Staying on that point. You mentioned that you got over a million hits on your website during the 30 Day Sex Challenge. Have you seen that with all the attention that you got is it just attention or does it translate into reaching people for Christ”

Pastor Wirth: Well, we’ve grown by 20% through that challenge. That’s not exponential growth, but it’s manageable, sustainable growth and about 3 times what the average church is growing in America today. And during the 30 Day Sex Challenge we saw 13 people trust Christ. I’m talking about sex and their getting saved. They are beginning their relationship with Jesus Christ. So, those are the things that we look at more. Some people ask, “Man, did you double or triple is size?” And I respond, “No, we just have manageable, sustainable growth, which that is good and we consider that successful.

Kurt: As we finish up the interview, are there any lessons that you’ve learned or tips that you have that you’ve learned through either your online or offline marketing that you could share with our readers?

Pastor Wirth: I think the main thing in any kind of marketing is “know your target.” If you don’t know your target, if you don’t know who you’re trying to reach…and quite frankly I think too many times people in church work try to shoot with a shotgun and say “We’re here to reach everyone.” Well, you can’t reach everyone because you are probably going to reach people who are most like you. So, find out who you are. Find out what you do well and do that and then market to those kinds of people who would fall into that same category. Secondarily, spend some money in actually marketing. I still consider myself a church planter. I hear too many church planters say, “Well, if I had the money that you had, I could market too.” Well, we spend a thousand dollars on a billboard and we spend a hundred dollars a month on some other stuff. We’re not spending a ton of money on marketing; we’re just trying to maximize the marketing we’re doing. So, call around, but do something. Doing nothing is not optional. If we’re trying to reach people for the Kingdom, doing nothing is not optional. We have to do something.

Kurt: Well, I think that’s it. Thank you taking the time to talk with me.

Pastor Wirth: No problem, any time.

I want to thank Pastor Wirth again for taking the time to share with me and our readers. If you would like to learn more about Relevant Church or visit them, please visit their website at: http://www.relevantchurch.com

Kurt Steinbrueck is the author of the Church Marketing Online blog. He has been providing Christian search engine optimization services for church marketing solutions. You can find the original version of this article at http://churchmarketingonline.com/2008/10/creativity-is-the-key-to-successful-church-marketing/.

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In our continuing our discussion of church marketing within Social Media, we’ve started looking at social networking websites, specifically Facebook. If you haven’t already created a profile on Facebook, either for yourself or your church, now is a good a time as any. It’s quick and it’s easy, but be warned…it’s also addictive.

So How Easy Is It?
You can setup a profile in Facebook for yourself in a matter of minutes. There are about 5 or 6 steps to the setup process and Facebook will walk you through not only setting up your profile, but also starting to find friends right away. Setting up a Facebook Page for your church is just as easy, maybe even easier. So, if you haven’t setup a profile for yourself or setup page for your church, do it now.

Setting Up a Personal Profile:
If you want to setup a Facebook profile for yourself, follow these simple steps:
• Go to http://www.facebook.com/
• The signup is on the Facebook homepage. Enter your name, email, password, gender, and birthdate. (All this info is required. If you feel uncomfortable having this info in your profile, you will be able to set your profile’s privacy settings later and can have information hidden.
• Once you’ve created an account, you’ll start to find friends immediately.
• One of the especially helpful features of Facebook is that it is able to interface with most email providers and retrieve your contacts list from your email account. So, if you have a Hotmail or Gmail account, you can import your contacts list and add them as “friends”.
• Next you will be asked for your high school and graduation date. This helps you easily connect with former high school classmates.
• As you have started adding “friends” to your profile, Facebook will show you some of your friend’s friends. You may find additional friends from your friend’s friends that you can add as your friends.
• Lastly you’ll be asked for the city you live in to further help you network with people in your area. (Again, you can decide how much information is available and to whom that info is available in the privacy settings of your Facebook profile.
• Once you have setup your profile, I’d encourage you to Edit Your Profile and add additional information, especially a picture. Their may be a thousand people with your name in Facebook. A picture will help your friends identify you.
• If you are concerned about how much of your information is available, edit your privacy settings to the level of privacy you prefer.

That’s it. Once you have your Facebook profile setup you can find more friends, write posts on people’s “Wall”, send emails, post pictures, and keep your family and friends updated on what’s going on in your life.

Setting Up A Facebook Page For Your Church:
• Go to: http://www.facebook.com/business/?pages
• Click the “Create a Facebook Page” button
• Select “Local” and choose “Religious Center”. You can also select “Brand or Product” and then choose “Religious Organization. (Be sure to select the correct category as it is very difficult to change that later)
• Enter name of your org.
• Enter you email and create a Facebook account. If you want, you can use your existing Facebook account
• Update your Page’s image and info.
• Click “Publish”. (If you don’t click “publish” people won’t be able to see the page. So, if you want to work on the page a little before you go live, you can do that.)

Who that was hard. Now that you have your church’s Facebook Page setup, you an add news, post pictures, distribute your blog through the page, and more.

In the coming articles we’ll talk more about how you can use your Facebook profile and your church’s Facebook Page for church marketing. In the mean time, spend a little time in Facebook, find your old college roommate, see what your high school friends are doing, and have some fun…just don’t forget to sleep.

Kurt Steinbrueck is the author of the Church Marketing Online blog. He has been providing Christian search engine optimization services for church marketing solutions and private school marketing. You can find the original version of this article at http://churchmarketingonline.com.

In my last article I talked about creating a Facebook Page for your church. Facebook Pages are good, but there are some features in the Facebook Profiles which are not available in Facebook Pages. Unfortunately, these deficiencies have seriously weakened the effectiveness of Facebook Pages for churches. So, for your Facebook church marketing strategy, I recommend considering creating both.

Why Do I Want Both?
Simply put, Facebook Pages has some features that would be beneficial to your social church marketing and keeping your church members informed and a personal Facebook Profile has some other features which are also beneficial. The other way of putting it is that neither Facebook Pages nor Facebook Profiles are quite up to the task on their own.

Your Facebook Profile:
One of the great features of Facebook is the news stories that are created within your profile. When you add someone as a friend, every time they do something in their profile, like add pictures or post a comment, a news story is created in your profile. Similarly, whenever you do something in your profile a news story is created in your friends

If you are a person (and most of us are) you can create a Facebook profile to reconnect with old friends, stay in touch with family and friends and meet new people online. Churches, on the other hand, cannot create a profile as profiles are restricted to individuals. Churches have to create a Facebook Page which works a little differently than a profile.

Your Church’s Facebook Page:
The Facebook Page for your church is a good way to get your church into the social networking scene. With Facebook being so popular, having your church where people are and having your church involved where your members and others are involved is a great way to connect with people.

The Facebook Page allows your church, as an organization, to have an official presence in Facebook, which is great for church marketing.

• The first step is to add a good profile picture. Many churches use a photo of their church building. That’s fine, but I’d encourage you to use pictures of people. People connect better with people than with buildings and after all, the church is the people, not the building.
• Next add the church’s contact information and some descriptive information about the church. If you have a church website, be sure to include the web address for the official church website.
• From there you can add whatever information/content you want. You can list events, publish photos and pictures, create discussion topics, and add notes.

Update, Update, Update:
Even more than with your church website, it is important to update your church’s Facebook Page. Most people on Facebook check Facebook a lot. Having new content on your church’s Facebook Page gives people a reason to check the page whenever they are on Facebook and that keeps them connected.

Updating the page doesn’t mean that you have to constantly be adding event or photos, it can simply be putting a message on the wall, perhaps a Bible verse or short “message of the day”. Also, unlike your church website, the adding of new content to the Facebook Page can be done by every member of your congregation. Encourage your congregation to write messages on the wall, post their own pictures and videos, and participate in discussions. The more interaction from your members, the better.

Be Personal:
Having your members posting on the church’s Facebook Page is not only helpful because it adds new content, but also because it makes the church more personal. Facebook is all about people connecting with people. Most of the communication that goes on in Facebook is about the little, personal things in people’s lives. People on Facebook are looking for that kind of personal information and interaction. By allowing the personal side of your church to come out on your Facebook Page, it makes the church more attractive to people, especially unchurched people who think the church is all about rules and religious practices.

Sending Updates
You can also use your church’s Facebook Page to communicate with fans (members of the church) that aren’t currently on the church’s Facebook Page using the Send an Update feature. This feature sends a message to the fan’s Facebook Profile. Sending updates can help send information to church members and also bring them back to the church’s Facebook Page. You can also use the Facebook Page to distribute blog articles, but I’ll discuss that in a future article.

Publicize Events
One other neat feature of the Facebook Page (and profiles) is that events can be made public. One of the options you will have when you setup an event in your church’s Facebook Page is to “Publicize” the event. By publicizing the event, it adds the event into the Facebook event database. People who are not fans (and fans too) who search through Facebook events will be able to find your church’s events. This is especially useful for events like concerts.

So, go ahead and get started. Create a new “Face” for your church. People are social. The church should be too.

Kurt Steinbrueck is the author of the Church Marketing Online blog. He has been providing Christian search engine optimization services for church marketing solutions and private school marketing. You can find the original article at http://churchmarketingonline.com.

Over the past several weeks we’ve been looking at church marketing in social media. We’ve looked at using video sharing sites, like YouTube and GodTube, and now I’d like look at using social networking sites, specifically Facebook, currently the number one social networking website and third most popular social media site behind YouTube and Wikipedia. When looking for places to market your church, Facebook has a pretty big audience.

So what is Facebook?
Facebook is a social utility that helps people communicate more efficiently with their friends, family, and coworkers. The site provides a variety of features to facilitate communication between people as well as between organizations and people. Some of these features are news postings, chat, article distribution, photo sharing, and video sharing. With Facebook’s design, you can share information, pictures and videos quickly just by posting the info or media to your profile. That information or media can then be shared with all your “friends” or “fans” automatically.

The History:
Originally Facebook started out as an online college “facebook” at Harvard University created by then sophomore, Mark Zuckerberg, in 2004. More than half the students at Harvard had joined up within the first month. Considering that response, Facebook was opened up to all the Ivy League schools and then to pretty much every college and university in the US and Canada within a few months. In 2005 Facebook expanded to include high schools and finally in 2006 Facebook was opened for anyone over the age of 13.

Other than the fact that I find this history interesting, I wanted to share the history of Facebook to demonstrate the explosive growth and prominence of social media to demonstrate its value to church marketing.

Who’s Using Facebook?
In its first 2 years, Facebook grew from half the student population of Harvard, to a majority of all college students in the US and Canada. Since then, according to Facebook’s statistics page, Facebook has grown to more than 130 million active users. It is the 4th most trafficked website in the world, and it is the most trafficked social networking site in the world.

Here are some other interesting facts about Facebook:
• More than half the Facebook users are outside of college
• Over 85% of college students use Facebook
• The fasted growing demographic are people 25 years and older
• Facebook is also international with 35 translations currently available

So, who is using Facebook, a lot of people, probably a lot of your own congregation, and certainly a lot of people who you would like to bring into your congregation. In short just about everyone.

Facebook can be a great means of communicating with your congregation. It can also be a great way market your church and help your church members tell others about Christ and your church.

Over the next couple of articles, we’ll be looking at various ways to use Facebook for church marketing as well as church communication.

Kurt Steinbrueck is the author of the Church Marketing Online blog. He has been providing Christian search engine optimization services for church marketing solutions and private school marketing. You can find the original version of this article at http://churchmarketingonline.com.