Practicing What You Preach: A Duct Tape Marketing Lesson for Churches

This post by John at Duct Tape Marketing caught my attention and is especially relevant for churches seeking to impact their communities and the world.

In essence the article is about Practicing What You Preach marketing.

John says when businesses don’t do that – practice what they preach – they should do these things (with my commentary as it relates to church marketing beside his quotes):

• “You need to figure out who makes an ideal client for you and forget the rest” – I know this’ll get a knee-jerk reaction, especially when thinking about it in the church scenario, but having a target audience is key. Face it … you can’t and aren’t going to reach 100% of people. There are so many barriers hindering that, including geography, socio-economic barriers, race (although I hate this!), language, culture, etc. It’s not realistic. Go after the people group you can easily reach and relate to first … then expand out. But still pray for “the rest!”
• “You need to get a handle on how your firm is unique and stop copying others in your industry” - Wow, yes, yes, yes. Although I maintain we can learn from the innovators (I’ve gleaned tons from my neighbors LifeChurch and Henderson), every church is uniquely different. We have a different DNA and culture than each other. And although Rick Warren has warned ministers not to simply copy everything Saddleback does, people still do it. Saddleback is ministering to their target audience — Saddleback Sam — and Sam doesn’t live in your community! He lives in Orange County.
• “You need to make sure you are still passionate about the business you are in or go get a job” - This is a very humbling statement for me. I must continually guard my heart and pray for sustaining passion and love for people. Afterall, ministry is a “people business.”