We continue our two-part interview with Kent Shaffer co-owner of Bombay Creative and founder of the Church Relevance Blog. We asked Kent to weigh-in on some of the issues faced by ministry communication leaders.
MinistryCom: What do you say to people who object to using a “secular” tactic like marketing in ministry?
Kent Shaffer: I ignore them. It is an uneducated mindset. It is like saying that all apples are red or that they all taste bad because you once bit into a rotten one. Likewise, some people think that marketing only refers to advertising or that all marketing is full of deception. Reality is that marketing covers a wide spectrum of activities. To simplify Webster’s definition of marketing, it is “the process or technique of distributing a product or service.” Ministry is about distributing the gospel and making disciples. To me, that means that marketing is a big part of ministry. Of course, ministries should never use deceptive or manipulative marketing tactics, but there are plenty of marketing principles that can help ministers.
MinistryCom: Do you see any examples of abuse of marketing (without naming names) that cause you concern? And more positively, do you see any best practices you’d really like to highlight? Read the rest of the interview on MinistryCom
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