I was working on a project for a client at my office the other day when a friend stopped by and asked me what I am doing. “Well, I’m designing some slammin’ graphics for a new church that wants to reach people who have tattoos and body piercings – and the kind of people not normally found in a typical church”, I replied. And then it hit me like a speeding Mack truck that my buddy is the EXACT person this church wants to reach. I decided to engage him on his thoughts and feedback (and since he was a little curious why a church wanted to use a pic of tattooed people).

First I have to give a little background info on my friend. He has been burned by the hypocritical Christians. He sees through the facades and is leery of most Christian’s agendas. He doesn’t necessarily believe in God but he doesn’t disbelieve either. Yet he knows more Scripture than a lot of believers and understands Christianity – sort of. He would be a tough nut to crack so to speak but under the shell I believe (and know) that there is a guy, who if was on fire for the Lord, would change the world.

Some of the questions I asked were: what do you think of church marketing and what would engage/offend you, what pisses or turns you off about church, would you visit a church by seeing a postcard, and other stuff relating to church life, branding, and marketing. The following are his thoughts written as best as I can remember and they may be a little rough in thought. They are also very straightforward so please don’t get offended at some of the way the points are presented. Here’s his feedback.

• Be careful of what you say and how you say it. Don’t come across that you are better than him, cleaner than him, or perfect. If you do you can kiss his butt (I cleaned this one up).

• Don’t assume his life is screwed up and that you can fix it or make it better. He knows that he has problems but he also knows there are closet Christians who are gay, looking at porn, alcoholics, spouse abusers, and chronic liars. It is OK to say that we all have problems and are in this together – and lets deal with it together – but don’t act like you have a magical pill to make him “right.”

• Don’t try and impress him with a Disney World approach. I showed him some print samples of some very well known and popular churches in town. His thoughts were:

1. Quit trying to be like Disney World
2. Stop promising or communicating that you will have an “experience” and call it what it is…worship or church
3. What are you trying to sell him on? Are you after his money? Is this what his money would go to?
4. If you are going to tape or provide video feeds of your band and preacher, don’t bother asking him to visit. He’ll feel duped and cheated. He can watch the entertainment experience on TV at home.

• Marketing your church is fine. It’s OK to brand you church and send out marketing – you need to! But don’t send a postcard saying his kind of people are in your church and then not have those people there. He’ll tell you off.

• Pictures and graphics. You don’t necessarily have to show a punker or biker in order for him to look at it and relate. But like the point above – if you are portraying that kind of church and he visits and there are no bikers – he’s gonna tell you off. My friend suggested using pictures of real people; the fat, ugly, crooked teeth, crazy hair, not all together people. He gets turned off by propaganda that promotes just the pretty people that “have it all together”.

• Live it! If you are going to preach it, communicate it, talk about it – you need to live it.

All in all he is not offended if people tell him about Christ, their church, or their beliefs. Just don’t try and cram it down his throat and walk away with a salvation number under your belt. He doesn’t get angry about churches marketing themselves. Just try and be real and don’t sell him on your product like the rest of the world.

I could go on about our conversation but it would be a book. I definitely learned from one person’s angle and perspective – and how to improve what I can do as a branding dude as well as a church planter.

I hope that this post will spark conversation and to help us think through our church marketing and church branding efforts to reach people like my friend more effectively. I also encourage you to engage the people in your community on their thoughts and input as well. It’s one thing to read a study provided by George Barna but it’s another thing to get in the ring and find out some of the answers for ourselves.

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This post was originally written over at ‘The Shed’ but felt that it might may be more beneficial to repost here. – James