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« Sea-Monkeys and Other Monkey Business: Ethics in Christian Marketing | Home | Is it Propaganda or Buzz Marketing? »
Lay Off the Bait and Switch Tactics in Church Marketing
By chris | April 23, 2007
We continue the theme of ethics reflecting on the ways churches put their message out in to the community in Ten Ethical Considerations for Ministry Marketers.
The doorbell rings.
You open the door to your home and there stand two clean-cut people holding colorful bundles of magazines and smiling intensely at you.
You smile in return and say, “May I help you?”
One of the two speaks up, “We are talking to people in your neighborhood asking a few questions about their opinions concerning the environment. May we have a moment of your time?”
“The environment? Sure. What’s your question?” you reply.
The speaker on your porch raises her clipboard and pen, “What are your thoughts about the current crisis of global warming in the world today?”
Now is your moment, you have been formulating your own ideas about how to save planet earth from the effects of global warming, you are ready with your response!
“Well, I think we need to look more deeply into the facts. I happen to have been thinking a lot about this topic lately. In fact, I was reading the other day an article by a professor on that topic.“
As you reach for your copy of this month’s Tree Hugger Gazette, the other of the two pipes up.
“Would it interest you to know that the Bible actually predicts the events that are now taking place? May we come in and show you some passages in the Bible that prove that fact?”
Okay, now you get it. This isn’t a survey about global warming at all. This is a ruse used by a couple of cult members to get their foot in your door to talk with you about their special brand of Bible roulette doctrine.
You feel violated. Don’t you?
Is the Baiting and Switching ever on the other foot?
Is your church up front enough about what you are up to promoting when you do outreach in the community? Are the tactics you use misleading in any way? Are you a bait and switcher?
You don’t need to spell out every single detail of who you are and what your motives are in all of your advertising. Most promotions don’t have enough room or time for details like this. But, if you are trying to masque who you really are to get people’s attention and participation, aren’t you really baiting and switching? If not, then, what’s up with all the vagueness?
Baiting and Switching is misleading people by promoting one thing, in order to switch them to another. If you want to study the topic further, try to go to a car dealer and find a specific low-priced advertised car. You will learn first hand.
I have already talked about how I object to churches doing “Bogus Surveys” and “Sugging”as an evangelism technique. Your church may make some evangelistic contacts using this tactic, but I still don’t feel the end justifies the means.
If your church promotion tactic is attracting people with an unrelated theme (program, or event in the public square) and then suddenly pouncing on them with your planned biblical attack, are you doing anything less than what the cultists do when they come to your door with their canned flip chart spiel?
Churches that do bait and switch…
- Believe the end justifies the means (AKA: “If only one person comes to Christ, it will be worth it” That’s also Christian lingo for, “We really haven’t planned this very well, have we?”)
- Are more focused on getting numbers of people making prescribed “decisions” than they are at making personal connections with individuals
- Offer inferior services and programs that attract people in need and don’t really care about the meeting the person’s need
- Treat unchurched people as foolish, or even enemies instead of people who need love
- Trap people in situations that make them feel uncomfortable or evoke response when they are not ready to make a choice
- Love to justify their ways with crass phrases like, “If we scare them, where are we going to scare them? Hell number two?”
- Are not compassionate toward the lost, instead almost revel in complicating their confusion about eternity
- Create interest by building a crowd with some spectacular display and then hit people with an insensitive pushy presentation. (See also Hell House)
- Not making it clear to participants of an event, program or activity that the sponsors of the program have religiously inspired motivations
- And more…
The silliest example of this I have seen was in Europe, where I saw a group of “missionaries” (who didn’t speak the local language) on the ground walking and quacking like ducks in the city square handing out slips of paper. When people took the flyers, they found it was a tract about Hell.
I wanted to call them quacks, but they waddled off before I could get a word with them!
Ethical Consideration: Ministry marketing tactics that glorify God are deception-free.
“Simply let your ‘Yes’ be ‘Yes,’ and your ‘No,’ ‘No’; anything beyond this comes from the evil one.” (Matthew 5:37)
Topics: Deliver the Message |
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