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.
- 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).
- 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.
- 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.
2 comments:
Great stuff as usual. I would add in support that God calls us to use the skills with which He has blessed us. "What's in your hand?" Target marketing allows a church, group or individual to focus their skills where they will be most effective. If my skill is personal conversation why would I seek evangelistic methodology expressed through mass communication? I should look for ways to talk to people in a smalleer setting. Just one example of targeting those that match my skills. Tim
I agree with you. Some comments about segregating different target audiences, however. We separate kids into their peer groups, separate marrieds from singles, older marrieds from younger marrieds, college from older. Frequently as a dad of 4 kids I had to choose which to attend: the main service where the singing and lesson were uplifting for me; the family devotional for families of teens; or the "tweens" for Jr. high; or the "kids church" where my older boys were teaching. As a family I had a hard time finding activities that the whole family could do... my kids did not get to be involved in corporate worship with me, mingle with the elderly in the congregation. i think they missed many activities that I got to be involved in growing up in the church.
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