From: RETURN TO BATTLE Volume II
CHAPTER
(CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MARKETING )
adapted to:
CORPS RELATIONSHIP MARKETING
1991-93 CRM and the Refounding of The Salvation Army in Moscow, Russia
Billy Graham once remarked, “We are selling the greatest product on earth, belief in God. Why shouldn’t we promote it as effectively as a bar of soap is promoted?"
Graham’s point is a valid one, and I’m certain most religious leaders wishing to expand their evangelistic outreach would be swift to echo their agreement. However, with more than 1,574 hand soap products being promoted, selecting and settling on just the right type of promotion would be problematic. Is the promotion with the greatest number of professional designing and coordinating the campaign(s) the most effective, offering the most efficient ROI? And can the promotional tools used in selling a product (soap) be proved useful in promoting religious programming (attending worship services)? The answer is a resounding, NO!
Throughout the twentieth century, even the strongest advocates for church promotion would reveal signs of uncertainty and discomfort in efforts to retail religion…. Most of them recognized, in some small degree, that business promotionalism, or at least its reputation, included values and principles that were incongruent with religion. Could they use commercial methods associated with lies, manipulation, and propaganda to promote a product that claimed by its nature to be pure, honest, and beyond the influence of the market. Could they use what many argued were the devil’s tool of deceit to sell God?
Religion related books of the 1940s were confident that religion was of interest to the public, and if ministers could learn how to deliver news about their church in an acceptable form to a local editor, it would make it in the papers. “Each of the experts worked with or for the press in some capacity. They spoke from experience. They believed that the people were interested in reading about religion and that the editors were proud of the churches‟ work in the community.
Two men in particular, Carl F.H. Henry and Roland Wolseley, stood out as catalysts in the growth of the field in how to write well and use existing media outlets to familiarize the public with their services. These men centered their instructional guides and their work on helping church staff, particularly ministers, harness the potential of print media in advancing marketing as an integral factor in effecting church growth.
Throughout the twentieth century, even the strongest advocates for church promotion would reveal signs of uncertainty and discomfort in efforts to retail religion…. Most of them recognized, in some small degree, that business promotionalism, or at least its reputation, included values and principles that were incongruent with religion. Could they use commercial methods associated with lies, manipulation, and propaganda to promote a product that claimed by its nature to be pure, honest, and beyond the influence of the market. Could they use what many argued were the devil’s tool of deceit to sell God?
Religion related books of the 1940s were confident that religion was of interest to the public, and if ministers could learn how to deliver news about their church in an acceptable form to a local editor, it would make it in the papers. “Each of the experts worked with or for the press in some capacity. They spoke from experience. They believed that the people were interested in reading about religion and that the editors were proud of the churches‟ work in the community.
Neglected, slighted, misrepresented—evangelical Christianity needs a clear voice, to speak with conviction and love, and to state its true position and its relevance to the world crisis. A generation has grown up unaware of the basic truths of the Christian faith taught in the Scriptures and expressed in the creeds of the historic evangelical churches.[4] Christianity Today, enjoys a weekly readership of nearly 290,000.n his influential role, he set the course for the journal and became an evangelical leader. Yet it was thirteen years prior, while teaching philosophy and religion at Wheaton College, that he first changed the world of religious journalism. He wrote his second book, Successful Church Publicity. the time, Henry was a little known figure in Christianity, but his book established him as an expert on church promotion. Though it included material on all forms of “publicity,” the bulk of it was devoted to instruction in Henry’s field, religious journalism. He believed that churches must invest in journalism. Henry wrote, “Its use is so effective that religious journalism ... is next in importance to the preaching of the Gospel.” For Henry, a journalist by trade, much of the success of Christianity depended on effective religious journalism. If churches were to grow and Christianity was to spread, then church promotion must increasingly utilize religious journalism.5 Working as an interim pastor in Christian ministry, while still a graduate student, the experiences gave him first hand knowledge of the challenges that a pastor faced in increasing church attendance. When he finished his doctorate, instead of remaining in ministry, he began pursuing a second doctorate, a doctorate in philosophy at Boston University, simultaneously teaching at Northern Baptist Theological Seminary. At Northern Baptist, he taught theology and introduced a new subject, religious journalism.6 The concept of what constitutes marketing has evolved continuously over the years. Adoption of and applying a secular position may appear crass when applied to the effective ‘marketing’ of a religious movement. However, applying marketing principles to evangelism is a proven procedure with decades of empirical evidence. Peter Drucker’s contribution to the discipline is immense.
AN INTRODUCTION
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