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You Don’t Need to Compromise on Theology to Reach People!
By chris | November 16, 2006
As a ministry marketing coach you don’t need to make apologies for using marketing in ministry. Marketing is a management discipline—like time management or budgeting—that can help ministers be more effective communicators of the Gospel.
Some see marketing as a “secular” activity which leaves no room for God. On the contrary, I firmly believe that God has chosen and empowers us to bring His plan of salvation to the world. And marketing is a way for us to more effectively organize our resources so we can carry out Christ’s Great Commission.
We have seen that Paul had a firm reliance on God as he approached people with the gospel. At the same time we also see he was not passive. There was an active role Paul had to play to be a part of the harvest. We see a second principle at work that informed the way Paul engaged the people he wanted to reach. I refer to this as Paul’s missionary mindset. Much of what we will study from this point forward relates to this mentality. It is what you will try to instill in others as you work as a ministry marketing coach.
Paul’s Missionary Mindset
- Tailor your approach to the target audience you want to reach
- Contextualize the message for the audience
Paul tailored his approach to the needs of his audience.
Paul knew the benefits of audience segmentation. You can see that Paul didn’t have the same approach to the Hellenistic Jews as he had with the Athenian Gentiles. In the case of the Jews the Bible says he, “reasoned in the synagogue” (Acts 17:17). With the Jewish people he had a significant vocabulary of common understandings he shared with them. He could preach about Jesus by starting at Abraham and working his way through the storyline if the Bible on a straight path to Jesus. In this way you could say he had a strong bridge he could use to tell the gospel message. Jewish history is THE redemptive analogy for how God brings salvation to mankind.
For the Gentile Athenians, Paul didn’t have the same background. He didn’t have the bridge he needed to get the message to them. They were not Bible readers, so starting with Abraham and working through the storyline to tell about Jesus would have taken a significant amount of time and energy. But his approach with them was different. The Bible says Paul still reasoned with the Gentiles, but he took a different approach. He used a different starting point,
“For as I walked around and looked carefully at your objects of worship, I even found an altar with this inscription: TO AN UNKNOWN GOD. Now what you worship as something unknown I am going to proclaim to you” (Acts 17:23).
When Paul explained the gospel to the Athenian Gentiles, he used another starting point. Instead of starting with Abraham and working his way to Jesus, he started at the Altar to the Unknown God and worked his way to Jesus. He used the common point of contact to reach them. We will look at this later more in depth. One principle of good ministry communication is that ministry leaders understand their target audience. Much of what is new in church today is an attempt to contextualize the message. As a coach, you have the goal to help ministry leaders do it properly while remaining faithful to the Word of God.
Paul Contextualized the Message For the Audience
Another part of Paul’s approach, his mindset was to take an uncompromising stand for the gospel. You didn’t see Paul watering down the message to get people’s attention. The Bible says the people understood Paul was talking about something new, “He seems to be advocating foreign gods.” They said this because Paul was preaching the good news about Jesus and the resurrection.” (Acts 17:18) I fear in some ways our current attempts at contextualization are based on poor missiology. We need to strike a balance between what is relevant to the audience and what is compromise with their non-biblical worldview.
We need our churches delivering a message that has more in common with the Bible than with the TV guide! As a coach, you can help ministry leaders stay on track with proclaiming the message. There is no reason to pander to people’s whims or soft-sell the message in ministry marketing. Instead, you can help ministry leaders develop ministry communication that is sound biblically.
When Paul adapted his presentation he was not changing it, he was contextualizing it for the target audience. Missionaries all over the world are familiar with contextualization. It is a standard part of adapting the message to the context. You have to see and hear the message through the eyes and ears of the people you want to reach.
Further reading Breaking the Missional Code: Your Church Can Become a Missionary in Your Community by Ed Stetzer
Tomorrow we will look more at contextualiztion…
Topics: Theology & Marketing |