What if Starbucks Marketed Like a Church?

November 13, 2008 at 10:31 pm | In church | 2 Comments

Want a quick laugh? Have a look at this YouTube video – a self-named modern parable:

I like it. It’s pretty funny, don’t you think? Well read on…

What disturbed me more than a little though was that if you visit the blog that it’s advertising www.beyondrelevance.com you see that the guy who has made this video isn’t necessarily trying to spark a debate about more relevant forms of church. No no, rather he is advocating that we need to be smarter at marketing the church brand! And he’s your man. Yes, he’s a church marketing guru, advertising his own services to churches, and is proud to boast that he has loads of clients, and more frequent flyer miles than he knows what to do with.

Man, why do so many evangelical Americans still make my skin crawl?

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Please don’t judge all evangelical Americans by the clowns at BeyondRelevance. Granted, a frighteningly large segment of the church in America looks like this, but there is a remnant of true believers who find this stuff, not only patently ridiculous, but dangerous as well.

Comment by biblicalchristian — November 22, 2008 #

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Dear biblicalchristian,

Thanks for your post! Thankfully, I do know some amazing North American Christians who are not at all cringey. Indeed, one good friend who is a missionary here in Holland has just started a cafe church here in my city.

It was for this very reason that I carefully included the word ’some’ in my post. I would hate to think that all US evangelicals were like the guys either portrayed in the video or behind the cameras.

Actually the video reminded me of a book by a super British theologian, John Drane, called “The McDonaldization of the Church” – a recommended read.

Simon

Comment by Simon — November 22, 2008 #

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