Church Copycats

Church Marketing Sucks is a ministry which seeks to frustrate, educate and motivate the church to do marketing better and further God’s cause with clarity and purpose.  I love following their blog and learning from it.

Their post Church Copycats (notice I’ve copied the title for emphasis!) explains a few current Christian mistakes that continue to mimic the world’s successes.  For example GodTube and now Godwitter.  I’m not even going to link you to them because the concept is so ridiculous!!!

Why do we feel it necessary to create Christian versions of secular successes?  Even when I was a teenager I thought it was cool to wear a ripoff Guns ‘N’ Roses T-shirt that said, ‘God N Moses, Appetite for Devotion’. Sad I know… but what is the point?!

Some questions to ask:  Does this further the cause of Christ?  Is it relevant to the world?  Will people move closer to a real relationship with God and eternal salvation because of it?

The other thing is stealing.  Stealing is bad.  We need our own ideas, websites crafted around our values, culture and vision, marketing that is unique and clever.

And we (the Church, each local church, every ministry, parachurch ministry etc) MUST respect copyright.  No stealing pictures, websites, logos, code, advertising etc unless you have the express permission of the owner.  I’ve used stuff from deviantart before but gotten permission to use it.  If you can’t afford it, raise money for it or start budgetting for it.  No stealing!

Let’s contribute to the world with real creativity, bright, colourful, ultra-relevant advertising, websites, ideas and marketing.  Lets infuse it with a love so powerful people will be attracted to whatever we’re doing.  Let’s honour the civil law (Rom 13) and copyright too.  Let’s be creative!  God’s first words created.  We’re in His image, lets create too.