Church Marketing 101 book notes. 10 free copies available

I mentioned a while ago that I was reading a book called Church Marketing 101 by Richard L Reising – well, finally, I have sat down to write a review on the book. (In my last post on this – I asked why Americans insisted on using their middle initial all the time – Richard kindly wrote to me and told me – thanks Richard!)

Should you buy and read this book?

Absolutely. It is a great book for any Christian to read, and especially those who are in leadership of some kind. I loved it and got a lot out of it – you should too. I believe that people should read this so much, that I am giving away 10 copies of the book (see below on how to get one).

OK – that said, why?

Honestly, I am sat in Starbucks at the moment drinking a cup of tea (don’t like coffee) and using their WiFi. Right outside is a group of lovely and well meaning Christians with an amplifier playing “You are my rock in times of trouble”. Oh, and I am sat in Slough which has a large Asian community. People are walking past either ignoring or laughing and joking at the Christians as they pass by. No one is taking a tract and no one is stopping to talk to them, yet, at least.

They have obviously not read this book.

I don’t know what it is about Christians that means they have to take their brains out and put them in a little box when it comes to church related activities. We stop thinking. Yet these same Christians will complain when a double-glazing salesman knocks on their door or yet another phone company calls them at home. When it comes to God, however, this type of approach will be OK because “God will bless what we do”. We stop thinking and stop being creative. Do we, in reality, become lazy?

Don’t get me wrong – I am not against open-air evangelism. I love the passion and drive of people that will make them do these things to reach a suffering world. My hat is off to them. But, being an entrepreneur, I can’t help but think of these guys outside Starbucks with my business hat on. What is the return on investment here? If open air evangelism was a business – we would do it differently, very very differently. But it isn’t – it is a mission. And so it is easier to keep in the same patterns. Christians have the passion and call to do something. They just aren’t very good at figuring out how they should do something.

(This is a video created by the author which highlights his points brilliantly!)

The Bible and real, practical solutions (not flighty theology)

Reising does something that I love – he takes his experience and knowledge of corporate marketing and mixes that with Biblical wisdom and asks so really important and probing questions. It is right up my street, and is the same approach that I have with en-thuse and my business – how do you blend the Bible and business today to create something that is absolutely outstanding?

Defining Marketing

Richard defines marketing as the management of perception. “That’s it. Plain and simple. Marketing. Managing people’s perceptions towards the hopeful end that they will respond to Christ and His church.” He tells us that perception “is how people feel about a thing. It is how they see a thing in relationship to themselves and to other things from their mindshare.” I would simply say it is how people think and feel about something.

Developing a marketing strategy

Developing a marketing strategy then, is done the same way you develop any strategy: understand where you want to go (vision), thoroughly understand where you at and plan how to bridge the gap between the two. Critical to this then, is understanding how people perceive your church right now, and you can’t do this by making the same old assumptions that we have all been making for the last 30 years – the world, communication and technology have all changed way too much (even in the last 2 years) for this.

Reising tells us that “there are over 30 references in the New Testament to Jesus perceiving people’s perception and changing His ministry direction, re-communicating, or deciding to halt communications altogether. Wow, Jesus perceived (marketing word, remember?) their perception (thoughts) of Him, and He said or did specific things to change the way people perceived Him.”

Understanding the scale of the task

This has a massive scope for us then – because everything we do as church leaders will have an impact on people’s perception of us, and Reising asks a lot of great questions to help you with this. From the sermons, the powerpoint, the language you use to whether or not your toilets are effectively signed posted.

How to get a free copy of Church Marketing 101

I have thoroughly enjoyed this book, and it has really helped me. My advice for any church leader is to read this book it is worth it, so much so – that I will give away 10 copies of the book to anyone who wants to read it – just post a comment below or contact me on Twitter (@mattedmundson) and I’ll happily send a copy, anywhere in the world.

If you have read the book – why not post your comments below too.

How do you think the church should manage it’s perception?