O Pastor, Where Art Thou?
- Details
- Published on Tuesday, 28 October 2008 20:09
- Written by Brad Abare
Over the years I've become increasingly aware of the benefit to having some sort of relationship or at least face-to-face communication with the leaders of the church I attend. In particular, the senior pastor.
Unfortunately, at my current church, this isn't the case. Over the last
year and a half I've interacted with some of the pastoral staff, but
not once have I been within 10 feet of the senior pastor. (My wife and
I aren't front-row kind of people.) I realize this is just as much my
problem as anybody else's, but I don't like it. My church is large and
it's easy to fade into the crowd. This was a blessing at first because
my wife and I had just finished helping a church plant and we needed
some breathing room before diving back into "ministry."
How does this relate to church marketing? I'm glad you asked. If I were a customer, the pastors would be the salesmen. It's their job to sell me, hook me and make me want more every week. (Excuse the harsh comparison—I'm going somewhere with this.) What would happen if you (the church pastor) made it a point to get individual face time with the people in your church? Not just visiting with those who come to you or rehashing with the same crowd. First-time visitor gatherings are nice, but not everyone goes to those. How about coming up with a way to identify the people who have attended your church for a couple months but who you have yet to personally meet?
If you want to be authentic and do marketing that works, relationship building is the No. 1 way to go. Nearly every industry in every business will tell you that. I'm not suggesting scheduling lengthy meetings or making a huge ordeal out of this. I'm simply suggesting intentional connection with people in need of it—like me. There will be plenty of people you miss in the process, but think of all the people you will reach.
SITES: Charisma | Vida Cristiana | Spiritled Woman | Ministry Today | Christian Retailing
Click here to enter our new customer service community
Comments
Pastors are always fighting the psychological war. They must schedule face time with their congregations. Yeah, it's tiring work. But the pastor is the primary connection between heaven and earth within the framework of that church, therefore the work is never complete. It is a work in progress.
Brad is in need of that face time, just like anyone else. I call it: Refueling. The general has to come down into the trenches occationally and encourage the troops. They expect it, and the war against an evil empire demands it, if it is to be successful within the community.
Churches, mega or otherwise, demand mega attention from the pastor and his staff.
You confess to being someone who recently started attending a church to hide in the crowd. Then you reveal that your pastoral model is the salesman/entertainer/Madison Ave marketer type. Then you chide the Sr. pastor for not being there for each person in the superstar church. How can he be your hero each week and still have time to drink coffee with 3,000 people individually?
This is so unbiblical and unhealthy and so American.
Sounds like you possibley burned out in a church plant experience. That's what the hero/rockstar/Madison ave marketer model will do for you. Perhaps you need to abandon the the mega church values, get out of Hollywood and get back to relationships yourself. Leave marketing to the world. Let's get back to biblical Christianity and get connected to Christ and the church and stop contributing to the pastor cult.
RSS feed for comments to this post