The Real Problem With Church Marketing

Over the past few years I've taught pastors how to use simple Facebook ads (and other marketing tools) to reach new people and invite them to church.

And most of my students have seen great results and been really happy! But there's definitely been a group of skeptics and even critics (not among my students of course) on the Internet, which of course comes with the territory.

If you try to lead (in any area) you're gonna have some haters come out of the woodwork! Which I'm sure you've found out for yourself.

But when it comes to church marketing it does make sense to me that people would have an issue if they don't understand the heart behind it. So allow me a minute to explain the big idea and the big results that are possible.

Do you want to see people come to Christ?

Yes you do!

Of course you do.

And we're commanded to go and make disciples. From the time of Jesus, through Paul and the Apostles spreading the gospel around the Roman world, and up to the present day there's been an evangelistic focus. To reach people with the gospel and see them saved.

I believe that's your goal as well.

So let me ask you a few questions:

Do you have a...

• Building with A/C?

• Sign in front with your church name on it?

• How bout a website...?

• Facebook page or Instagram or both?

• Can people find you on google?

• Ever been in the phonebook?

• A phone number?

• Ever printed invite cards or flyers?

• Done a VBS or youth camp?

Why all the random questions...

Easy.

All of these things are directly or indirectly tied to marketing.

Which is simply presenting a relevant message to someone in order to get them to take a desired action.

So, when I talk about church marketing I'm only talking about reaching people with the gospel using the best tools available. You can throw the word "marketing" away and use evangelism, outreach, or whatever suits your fancy. Doesn't bother me...as long as you get the underlying idea.

Because bottom line...every church is already doing marketing. (do you have a sign?)

The main issue is whether you're doing a good job or not.

And that's where the stewardship issue comes into play. Remember the parable of the talents? The master expects a return on his investment. And I apply that to our modern day context to say, "Hey, I gave you Facebook and Twitter and Youtube to use for my glory. To make my name famous in all the earth! Why didn't you use them?"

I understand that tech can be intimidating. That's why I've created numerous resources like this one to help pastors and churches effectively use Facebook and other tools for the gospel.

I run simple Facebook invite ads that takes me about 2 minutes to create on my cellphone and about 10 minutes to launch, that can reach our entire city of 150,000+ people by the end of the day. Pretty cool!

That's what I teach in the Facebook Invitation System - available here on sale.

Best,

Pastor Jake