Just Do It

Communication Is Key in Life


As Church Planters we are all marketers. That should step on a few toes. Well In the world of Church Planting, we've seen church marketing go to a world of targeted, measurable dialogue with “customers”. We've also seen “customers” become empowered, as never before, where they expect immediate, relevant communication in real time.

So, whether communicating with consumers or congregants, our programs need to support real communication in ways that reflect the mind of Christ.

This should create an impact on our advertising. In the world of the Bornstein group marketing and other marketing techniques "real-time" relevance manifests itself in a variety of ways. For example, “customers” today are "high tech", they are using a variety of media venues to communicate with their favorite brands and their loyalties to any one medium have given way to preferences among a variety of media. So, all methods must work together, and this will create an interesting demand on us church planters. Digital media will changed our playing field in that “consumers” will research products and services on the Internet. So, planters will need to ensure a Web presence that effectively communicates our messages about the Good News and how it will offer, from a “customer” point of view, an impact on the day-to-day life they are living. All the advertising, direct mail, e-mail, telemarketing, search, direct-response print and broadcast we are doing needs both to drive them to a relationship with Christ and away from further consideration into a world of distraction.


As ministers of the Gospel, we need to do just that. We need to manifest to the “the would-be buyers’ an expectation that the Gospel is what they need to do business with life. Their history and, life experience need to understand and track a transaction of service that requires a huge commitment for a quality of life, and for a life experience to maintain integrity. In short, everywhere a “customer” is "touched" by a planter, there needs to be an integration of that love and caring that will enable a "full customer view" and dialogue.

Tactically, today's church needs to rise to the challenges for “Christ’s sake”, and answer these questions: In our communication, are we targeting on a local level? What about on a global level, are we targeting “customers” depending on whether they are in a certain class such as “churched”, Non-Churched”, high-tech, or not and is there an ability to target the individual, one-to-one? Are all our messages harmonious, or does there remain conflict? Are systems in place to account and manage a return on investment?

We need to do a much better job of reaching our “customers”. How, I am not sure. But for long-term potential, we need to understand that the end-game is a “customer” relationship that needs to leed to a lifetime of care. Some “customers” are more of a challenge than others to reach but we need to think through a more effective way to reach them.