Vol. 5, No. 4 Jan. 29, 2006

Fifth Sunday Series

Marketing Religion

An Introduction

Written By Christopher Mentzer

Over the last fifteen years or so churches have been springing up all over seemingly overnight. People who haven’t been to worship in almost thirty years are suddenly returning and filling the benches every weekend! Why the change? Is it the sudden need for spiritual fulfillment? Is it the ever present burden of sin? The answer is, it’s neither! Marketing has become the tool of the 21^st Century used to draw people back to church.

Instead of going door to door with tracts and scripture, people are conducting surveys to learn the likes and dislikes of worship services. The end results pave the way for the “New” church service and thus increasing much growth in the congregations. Gone are the sermons on sin and repentance. Replaced by motivational speeches and religious Pep Rally talks. Traditional hymns are replaced by spiritual rock anthems and added also are cafes, daycares and gifts shops!

How does all this happen? Is this something new? Actually no. Regardless of what people tell you today, Jesus had the same problem. In John 2, Jesus went up to Jerusalem: “14. And he found in the temple those that sold oxen and sheep and doves, and the changers of money sitting: 15. and he made a scourge of cords, and cast all out of the temple, both the sheep and the oxen; and he poured out the changers' money, and overthrew their tables; 16. and to them that sold the doves he said, Take these things hence; make not my Father's house a house of merchandise.” (Jn. 2: 14-16) How did these moneychangers get inside the temple walls? The chief priests invited them in! Grant it scripture does not say so, but these people could not just walk in and set up shop without some sort of permission.

I’ve read that some churches even toss out Bibles from their worship. If this is true, then how do they explain what Paul wrote in Rom. 1: 16, “For I am not ashamed of the gospel: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek.” And again in Rom. 10: 17, “So belief `cometh' of hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.” How is this accomplished if Bibles are excluded?

I’ve also read that a preacher, during one of his sermons, encouraged wives to shop more often at Victoria’s Secret. Where does that fit in what Paul wrote to Timothy, “I charge `thee' in the sight of God, and of Christ Jesus, who shall judge the living and the dead, and by his appearing and his kingdom: 2. preach the word; be urgent in season, out of season; reprove, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching.” (2 Tim. 4: 1-2)

Something is seriously wrong! It seems to me the more churches that are built, the further away from God we, as a nation, are heading. In the days of Amos, the prophet wrote of a famine, “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord Jehovah, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of Jehovah. 12. And they shall wander from sea to sea, and from the north even to the east; they shall run to and fro to seek the word of Jehovah, and shall not find it.” (Amos 8: 11-12). It’s not surprising to know that that famine still exists today. People still hunger and thirst for righteousness (Matt. 5: 6) but they fill their physical bodies instead of their spiritual ones (Rom. 16: 18).