Church Marketing?

Out there - or should I say 'in there' - in the world of the church, there is a tendency to think of marketing as...well...yucky. When you start to talk to church people about things like 'brand identity' or 'advertising' or 'managing perception', we tend to cock our heads a little, squint our eyes and wrinkle our noses. Why is that?

Maybe because we tend to equate 'marketing' with selling somebody something they don't really need - or giving someone the 'hard sell'.

It seems to me that what marketing is really about is effectively communicating, reaching out to let people know about something that they may or may not realize they need, and helping them to connect to it.

Like the Gospel, for instance. Doesn't everyone need and want a little Good News (which is the literal translation of 'gospel') ?

Where here's a little bit of good news about some reaching out that the Episcopal Church is doing:

Episcopal Cafe got recognition today by the Episcopal Life Online news service. Read their great article here.