Church Advertising

NPH spends a good deal of time writing about media matters and a great deal of time writing about church matters; he gets absolutely delirious when the two intersect.

The church in which NPH is an ordained minister, the PC (USA) is set to unveil a coordinated media campaign  consisting of print ads, radio spots and television ads. NPH has some thoughts:

First, apart from any of the advertising content, a question must be raised about the medium of media advertising and its suitability for Christian proclamation. If Marshall McLuhan is right (and NPH thinks he is) in saying that the medium is the message, then what does it say about the good news of the gospel that the church proclaims  if it can fit into a 30 second TV spot or a half-page newspaper ad?

The PC (USA) seems to be following the lead of the UCC, which created a lot of attention last year with its national tv ad campaign, which played directly on issues of homosexuality and racism.

As to the ads themselves, NPH has only seen one of them (a tv one), and he is unimpressed. Using standard advertising techniques of the day, the spot has as its subject not some product (say, the church) but the viewer himself. Its "you believe . . ." refrain makes that clear. The message says, in essense, "You're a good person. When you feel like it, you can to a Presbyterian church, because we're good people too."

Now, that's not a bad message. But it's not evangelism either. It will be  a big mistake for churches to depend on nationally distributed advertising to do their work of sharing the good news for them.

NPH will look at the other ads later.