The Dilemma of Christian Marketing
I was sitting in the middle of marketing training when I read the tweet: “Can Donald Miller and Henri Nouwen speak in the same language, or are they fundamentally opposed?”
Conor Sweetman, founder of Ekstasis Magazine, was genuinely curious about his query—and so was I. As a writer and editor in a marketing department, I think about the topic quite often.
I work for Prison Fellowship, the largest Christian nonprofit in the United States serving prisoners and their families, and a leading advocate for criminal justice reform. As part of my duties, I draft and edit everything from emails and donor newsletters to marketing materials and op-eds.
Is my work a sham? I’ve sometimes wondered. Am I no better than the manipulative algorithms behind your Twitter stream and Facebook newsfeed? Or is it possible that there’s some middle ground—you know, somewhere between Donald Miller and Henri Nouwen?
Miller, CEO of StoryBrand, has made a career out of helping people and organizations tell their stories in more compelling ways so they can get more eyeballs on their content and money in their pockets. Nouwen, an internationally renowned priest, professor, and author who wrote 39 books on the spiritual life, believed the overuse and abuse of words by marketers led to a watering down of language that eventually rendered it meaningless.
The thing is, the methods prescribed my Miller, along with marketing tips from Michael Hyatt, Carey Nieuwhof, and others, work. They do lead to more followers and bigger budgets. But what Nouwen said is also true: words have, in many ways, lost their power. They have become “just words,” freeing us to choose whether we will pay them any attention—a big deal when your faith centers around the Word made flesh.
So is marketing evil, or can it be redeemed? Can you be a Christian and work in marketing?
Perhaps it’s best to think about what marketing actually is before fully answering these questions. Marketing—in its contemporary manifestation—is almost synonymous with manipulation, and for good reason. For decades, advertisers have been trying to trick us into thinking that we won’t be happy unless we buy their products.
Apple, for example, manages to convince millions of people every year that their next iPhone will revolutionize their lives. But really, they just have a slightly better camera and a couple new features or iterations.
Marketing originated out of the need to let the public know about a product or service that one truly believed in. Today, however, much of marketing has become an artform of trying to seduce the public into thinking they can’t be happy without a particular good or service.
Those are very different things.
A less cynical view, and the one I take, is that marketing is simply promoting a message. At the core of the Christian faith is a message—good news—that Jesus died for our sins and reconciled the world to God, and that by putting our faith in him we can be redeemed and restored, both now and forever. That is a message that’s worth promoting! Which is why Christians have been sharing the gospel ever since Jesus rose from the dead.
By drawing a parallel between marketing and sharing the gospel, I do not mean to say they are equal, or that they are the same thing. They are not. But the fact that God has ordained the promotion of his salvation message as the primary means for saving souls tells us something very important about marketing: that if it is essentially promoting a message, then the seed of the idea that drives marketing is not sinful in and of itself.
Now, just because the idea of marketing is not sinful, it doesn’t mean that marketing in all its forms are not sinful—some are. And this is where things get sticky.
How do we know if a particular form or use of marketing is dishonest or shameful for a Christian to be engaged in? Let me offer a few suggestions.
Marketing should not be used to encourage sin.
Marketing pornography is obviously not something a Christian can or should engage in because it encourages a cycle of sin that envelops the people involved in making the products along with the audience. That’s obvious (hopefully). But this simple principle cannot be overlooked: Christians should not be involved in marketing a product or service that engages its makers or consumers in sin. To do so would be to participate in, or facilitate the sin, of others.
Marketing should tell the whole truth.
We’ve all been victims of a “bait and switch.” We’re invited to attend an event or sign up for something that seems too good to be true. Once we’ve participated, we are delighted to find out we will be given what we desired—if we sit through a “brief, helpful information session.” Christians should not tell lies. Withholding some of the truth counts as lying. Marketing should, therefore, tell the entire truth—not just the parts we know will get people’s attention. Plus, if we overpromise and underdeliver to someone, we will make them rightfully skeptical of us and whatever else we might try to tell them about, like the gospel.
Marketing should serve its audience.
Jesus, the author and perfecter of the Christian faith, came not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life away as a ransom for many. When he washed his disciples’ feet before celebrating the first communion, Jesus established a pattern of service that should mark his people and his church in all realms of life. Marketing, then, should be about service—which means serving the audience. Practically, this means thinking through what’s best for the audience—not the marketer. Respecting one’s audience might (blessedly) result in fewer pop-up ads that make for a poor user experience, the use of dignified language that doesn’t paint people groups with broad strokes that amplify stereotypes and weaknesses, or being more up-front with the information and services people are looking for instead of burying them behind layers of pages or a dreaded sign-up form.
The marketing writing I do is aimed at promoting the message that all those affected by crime and incarceration deserve to be treated with dignity, and that they can be restored. All week, I write and edit materials to secure funding, volunteers and attention for programs and ministries that I believe are close to God’s heart. I tell stories about people’s transformation in Christ. My team talks a lot about honoring people’s stories and moving people’s hearts versus manipulating their behavior.
It’s a fine line, to be sure, but it’s one we have to walk—and walk well.
Christians are called to die to ourselves so that we can live to Christ. We believe that life is best lived not when we’re promoting ourselves but when we’re dying to ourselves, so others can be saved. We believe that the chief end of every man and woman is to glorify God in all that we do and say.
So, can Donald Miller and Henri Nouwen speak in the same language? Perhaps. But it depends on whether they’re selling the self life or the crucified life.
Grayson Pope
Writer & Managing Editor
Grayson Pope’s work has been published at Gospel Centred Discipleship & Prison Fellowship.
Photography by Oliver Tomlinson