Mainline Protestant denominations continue their free-fall, as highlighted in a US News & World Report piece that explores their adventures in advertising.
“The under-35 generation thinks church is a judgmental, hypocritical, insular place,” says Jamie Dunham, chief planning officer for Bohan Advertising & Marketing, the firm that designed the United Methodist campaign.
The idea of trying to advertise your way out of that problem was promptly savaged by Kevin Hendricks at the popular Church Marketing Sucks blog, who noted:
If that’s the case, I’m not sure an advertising campaign is the answer…. The problems in the church today can’t be fixed with an ad campaign. Marketing (not an ad campaign, but marketing in the big picture sense) can help to address those problems, but you can’t re-brand your way out of trouble.
Probably not.
With their spread of hatred and intolerance, and inflammatory rhetoric, churches have become their own worst enemies.
The Catholic hierarchy is especially out of touch with 21st century values. The recent Papal trip to Africa certainly didnt help.
That’s certainly one viewpoint, Mr. Yoda. Obviously people can be turned off by the misdeeds of churches of all denominations.
On the other hand, many people are turned off because of the moral pronouncements of Christianity itself, which I view as a different matter. The phrase 21st-century values can mean a number of things depending on who’s using it, but Jesus said the world hated him because he testified about it that its works were evil. (John 7:7) The Bible has an unchanging moral message which does not agree with the fashions of this century – nor the fashions of the 3rd, 7th, 12th, or 18th for that matter.