Marketing the Gospel?

I recently came under fire for suggesting that a local church focus on their target market. I am not sure if my sin was applying business language to a spiritual concept, or the pre-supposition that I was somehow excluding people from the gospel message. Below you will find three reasons why I make no apology for a focused approach to evangelism.

1. The early church used target marketing. The gospel went first to the Jews and then to the Gentiles. Paul was called as an apostle to a specific, targeted group (the Gentiles). Even early evangelists went to the synagogues to preach (i.e. they took their message to areas where their target audience regularly attended).
2. Targeting a sector of a community (any community) is not an effort to exclude, but to practice effective ministry. We have programs in every church that target specific segments of the community. Marriage classes exclude singles, financial management classes typically appeal to those with money management issues, even in our church families we have singles programs, youth programs, classes divided by age and interest. All of this so we can practice effective ministry. Why, when we apply the same approach to the community is it anathama.
3. Finally, knowing our target audience allows us to more effectively present the gospel message. Take a few minutes and contrast the two sermons in the book of Acts. In Acts 2, the message is being preached to a Jewish audeince. The old law, prophets and writings are used to lead people to Christ. In Acts 17 Paul is preaching to a very different, pagan audience and addresses their false polytheistic view of God, quotes thier own Greek poets, but his objective is the same, to lead people to Christ.

I am not sure why people get a bee in their bonnet when you talk about marketing in a church context. We all do it at some level. I am confident that the motives of most are pure - spread the saving gospel of Christ. I would even suggest that Christian stewardship demands that we pursue the most effective, practical, biblical approaches to bringing souls to Christ.

Radical Faith

Another Sunday, the Lord's Day, our Christian day of worship. I sit watching the crowded auditorim when my focus and attention really should be on God. I sense there are a lot of carbon-copy Christians entering the room. We went through the motions of another week, and now we are about to go through the motions of worship. Maybe I am projecting my own bias, but I see a lot of people who are sitting, completely disengaged from what is going on around them (myself included).

The last few years I have had a dramatic shift in my spiritual paradigms. I haven't drifted far from my core beliefs. I am not ready to run headlong towards spiritual Bablyon, but I do long for the New Jerusalem, the shining city on a hill, a place of refuge where all can come for repentance and restoration.

I remember the day over a decade ago when a man walked into our assembly intent on intimidating those present. The years of drugs and addiction made him a hard, callous man who would just as soon cut your throat as carry on a conversation. He wasn't welcomed, greeted or offered a seat of honor (or any seat at all for that matter). Most people made a conscious effort to walk the long way around the auditorium.

A few months later that man was my brother in Christ. His hair neatly cropped, his heart completely changed. He continued to struggle with the challenges of his past. Members struggled with how to help him, but he was trying, searching and longing for something better than he had known.

For years I longed for a church without problems, now I shudder to think what that mindset means to the salvation of men. The troubled, the heartsick, addicts and outcasts need a safe harbor, a place of refuge from the storms of life. If they are not welcome in our churches, ministered to by the saints, and taught by the faithful - where will they go?

So answer that question for me - WHERE WILL THEY GO?

Finding a Balance

Preaching is hard work! There is the challenge of presenting meaningful, biblical, inspiring messages week after week and month after month. You try to tailor your message to a broad and diverse audience and you have to try to take into account the sensitivities of certain sections of the membership.

All that being said, and after spending more than 30 years in and out of the pulipt, I have my own ideas of what makes for excellent preaching.

1. Be transparent. People want to be taught, inspired and motivated, but more than anything they want you to be real. Those of us sitting in the pew want to be able to relate to our speaker in a real and meaningful way.

2. Provide practical applications. Understanding the importance of faith and learning to walk according to faith are two deeply different issues. When I leave on a Sunday morning, I want another tool to put in my toolbox of life. How can this make me live better?

3. Know your audience. Our churches are now filled with people in second marriages, single parents and step-families. I can't tell you how many "off the cuff" comments I have heard from pulpits all across the country that re-enforce negative stereotypes, bruise sensitivities, or indict whole segments of our church family.

4. Avoid Improvisation. That brilliant illustration or idea that pops into our heads while we are making a point, may not seem so brilliant when it passes our lips. I am guilty of this particular fault and it has gotten me in trouble more than once.

5. Find a faithful critic. You are not looking for someone who is going to kick you every chance they get, but a true friend who will share perceptions from audience. Whenever I speak at a conference, or workshop, I pass out evaluation forms. Honest feedback makes me a better speaker.

So, what rules would you add to these five?