Church marketing sucks

As I’ve been growing and learning more about the Catholic church and the liturgy, one of the biggest things I’ve learned is that every action taken and item present in the service is a direct reminder of some aspect of the Gospel. It’s as though, over time, we’ve come to realize that us humans need to be continually pounded in the brain and heart with the facts about how and why we are saved.

In contrast, the evangelical church is all about teaching. People want a message, they want it to be compelling and entertaining and they don’t want it to be something they’ve heard before. It’s no wonder evangelical churches have had to become business-savvy marketers.

And you know what’s funny? Just like marketing ploys and advertising are losing steam (or, as Seth Godin says, the “half-price sale on attention is now over”), I’m starting to see evangelical churches bottom out when it comes to our generation. They can’t keep our attention and we’re left disillusioned and unsatisfied.

Perhaps it’s because the marketing is getting in the way of the constant reminder of sacrifice and forgiveness, of the fact that going through motions is sometimes what we need to do to remember. Maybe we were trained to look for a “good church” only to find the ones we go to are never good enough — rather than taught that the Church is still a collective of imperfect humans. And rather than stick around unsatisfied, we peace out before we get tied down. And many of us will never go back.