FC NOW: The Fast Company Weblog
May 19, 2005
God Is in the Details
I just finished reading Business Week's cover story on Evangelical America. I was stunned: I'd understood the political power of these new-style churches, but I never really grasped the actual economic pull of these entities. I stopped cold at a few stats, such as the difference between a traditional American church's budget of $100,000 vs. $4.8 million for a "megachurch" (and that's a 1999 number). Then there was the $100 million, 140 acre campus of the Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, Texas. Donald Trump, move on over!
The piece discusses how these churches have taken a page from business books in developing their sales and marketing. But with that kind of explosive growth , I wonder if the reverse should true--that the Targets and Motel 6s of the world might start benchmarking the churches for ideas. Does anyone know of this happening? Or is this the kind of thing that somehow feels inappropriate? What do you think?
Posted by Jennifer Reingold at May 19, 2005 12:18 PM | Category: sales + marketing |
18 Comments
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When I lived in the Dallas area, we referred to Prestonwood Baptist as "the Church Mary Kay built." Interestingly enough, my nephew's high school (which is about 40 miles away from Prestonwood) is having it's graduation there.
Personally, I think an individual church that is worth that much needs to be above reproach in terms of what they are doing with all that value. I wouldn't be a member there. I want my Pastor to know who I am.
Why is this a problem?
Can any institution really survive on $100K/year? I mean you are supposed to be paying a pastor, and some support staff, plus expenses (electricity, water, maintenence).
These mega-churches also have congregations of 5K, 10K, even more. They make far better use of space, by having several services per weekend, and various meetings through the week.
Then there are the ministries they're involved with: the disabled, addiciton recovery, ESL, job-training, abuse victims, food pantries, clothing distribution, singles, divorced...
All in addition to the "traditional" ministries of Bible studies and Sunday School for children and families.
This isn't a matter of extravagance...just the opposite! It's evidence of growth coming to efficient "corporations" (groups or bodies, from the latin)
They have sought out new "markets" (ministries) and found passionate and talented people to address them.
Meanwhile, attendance grows from loyal "clients" (the congregation) who are willing to pay for the outstanding service.
Mega churches are exactly what FC is about!
Facinating as a company's rising market-cap is, ROI remains most important to any of us individually. Likewise a church. Show me changed lives per dollar. Eternally and even temporally. If the best things in life are free, then I'm believing there's great bang for the buck to be found in a low-cost, high-impact Gospel. Read it for yourself. Put it into practice. That, to me, is consistent with the FC way.
Here's a good place to jump-start -- with an eye-witness account by one of Jesus' gang-members who did a life-term, while sticking to his account as true. And he was one of the lucky ones.
It's just one aspect of the enormous, secret Christian economy. Well, secret to the secular population.
It would be worthy to investigate what megachurches do to draw large crowds. I believe the big reason is 'touch points' (my phrase). When I was in seminary the statistic I remember is that a church has to make contact with someone seven times before he or she makes a connection to become a regular attender. How can the business world apply the same idea? At what points can a business touch individuals so that the individuals begin to take notice and become regulars. Figure that out and you have a loyal customer.
Most 'mega-churches' have a similar mission: to bring people to know and follow the teachings of Jesus via a "personal" relationship with God. I belong to one and am always awestruck at the availability of programs and resources. The church I grew up in was always begging for $$ and had few resources or programs.
How do you make things "personal" to so many people? A LOT of ways! With a maniacal (dare I say fanatical?) focus on the mission, these churches are so successful they don't even directly ask their members for money...it just flows in to support the programs each member feels is "personal".
Wow, sounds like we have lost touch of what is the real purpose of church. It's all about the benjie's now. I could see how our world is in the condition it is in know. Thanks Bush.
While I don't begrudge any one their right to freely practice the religion of their choosing, I find it concerning that the "mega-churches" are turning their money into political capital. They then use that capital to manipulate the democratic ideal by creating lobbying groups that pressure weak-willed, and power hungry, politicians to change laws that effect all citizens, regardless of their race, creed or religious preferences. The great experiment of democracy cannot stand against a theocracy born out of fear and/or manipulation. I've always been a firm believer that the saying "be careful what you wish for" is absolutely true. When the "mega-churches" use their influence to irrevocably change the very ideal that allowed them to come into existence, the democratic framework of the American way of life will be destroyed. Then, where will they, and all of us, be? I dare say the U.S. will no longer be the beacon of freedom it could have been.
Mega churches bring people to understand a Loving God, and help them develop a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. From that new understanding, people go into the world they have influence over, and try to show that love to others. This activity should not be misunderstood as destroying a way of life, but supporting the freedom we have as Americans, in expressing our beliefs through loving action.
Fear and manipulation is not a staple in most Americans diets, at least not for long. Most Americans are not weak willed and power hungry, but have a genuine desire to know why they were placed on this earth, and what happens when they leave it.
What makes Mega churches successful thriving parts of their communities is the willingness of the members to live out the love they have been given. To allow ones actions to reflect their beliefs is integrity. That is something we need far more of in this world.
The influence of Mega Churches in America is growing. As the programs and ministries in these churches help more people, that scope will continue to expand. In knowledge there is power, so businesses need to be aware that there is a growing, thriving group of people that have a commitment to serving their communities and living for what they believe in.
Our freedom is most secure when the actions and views of politicians accurately reflects the values of those they represent. This has not happened in Washington for far too long. The special interest groups and liberal left have dominated the political scene.
Mega churches have helped right the ship by giving a political voice to conservative, moral people all across America, who don't agree with the liberal agenda that has been pushed in the media and in political representatives.
It is right that Americans demand that their elected officials act in their best interest. If policy changes are made because people have banded together to place God at the center of life instead of government, it is not manipulation, but rather it is the very thing that brought our forefathers here to begin with. It's called democracy.
Brian, what rock have you been living under? If the liberals are in control, then why do the conservatives have the White House, Congress, and the Judiciary? If the liberals control the media, then why did the media white-wash, oh, everything: Abu Graib, the fact that there were no WMD in Iraq, the Halliburton money scandals, the Energy Task Force/Industry collusion, etc.
The truth is, the US was built by the founding fathers to be a secular country. Secular, not Christian. Anyone who says this is a Christian country should please point me to all the places in our founding documents that say so. In fact, quite the opposite, our founding documents make it very clear that we are and should always be secular.
I do understand that a minority of Puritan descendants would like to make this a fundamentalist country, and these people are fantastic at gathering money, but all of their money and all of their noise does not suddenly make the US a Christian country, nor does it suddenly make the majority of Americans interested in being fundamentalist.
I still don't understand how people can decry Islamic fundamentalism in one breath and then embrace Christian fundamentalism in the other. They seem pretty similar to me.
Believer or not, wouldn't it be amazing to have businesses or governments that command the trust, respect and goodwill of their shareholders and customers that these organizations do? But then, again, look at who they have for a CEO.
"It is right that Americans demand that their elected officials act in their best interest."
Institutionalized discrimination, continued destruction of the environment, under-nourished and under-educated children, medical care that costs too much and is inaccessible to the most desperate of U.S. citizens, undertaking a war under false pretenses, allowing corporate raiders to linger in their multi-million dollar homes while employees and stockholders suffer the consequences...if all of that's in our best interest, I wouldn't want to see what would be in our worst interest.
To the original question, mega-churches have become adept at brand marketing and recruitment, I'm sure there's a lesson in there for the Targets etc. somewhere. I think the argument then becomes much like "who came first - chicken or egg?" I believe that there are incredibly intelligent people leading the churches who saw a void that needed to be filled. They then took the tools from the business world and applied them to the ultimate product. In the end, that's what capitalism and democracy are really all about.
There's something else I feel should be clarified - I'm liberal and I'm moral. I don't think the two are mutually exclusive as others would have us believe.
Interesting thought, that megachurches have latched onto some sort of new, marketing strategy that could be applied at other corporations. Is it really new? I think it boils down to the fact that these churches have a product (internal peace) that is meeting a big need right now in America.
I have heard several statistics recently (although can't find them now) regarding the increasing depression rate among Americans. This is evident in the tremendous success of books like "Chicken Soup...", "A Purpose Driven Life" and "The Why Are You Here Cafe".
People are searching and these churches are delivering. Is there any surprise that they are so successful?
Sidebar:
Required reading on this topic is "The End of Faith: Religion, Terror, and the Future of Reason" by Sam Harris.
Agree or disagree with his writings, his book is undeniably though-provoking.
"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile!" - Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Marketing by fear. The churches have taken all their marketing tips from Karl Rove. Fear is the greatest motivator on earth. Fear of hell, fear of some crazy terrorist blowing up their building. It's bad business to use fear to sell and it will eventually backfire - but maybe not for years and years.
My comment on an earlier thread regarding the leftward shift of Fast Company content is reinforced by reading many of the subsequent comments on this blog. Interesting.
Ummm...I think the writer of the following commment needs to do more historical research:
"The truth is, the US was built by the founding fathers to be a secular country. Secular, not Christian. Anyone who says this is a Christian country should please point me to all the places in our founding documents that say so. In fact, quite the opposite, our founding documents make it very clear that we are and should always be secular."
It is a common misperception that the early roots of our government were "secular", if by that you mean "uninfluenced by religious beliefs".
All of the key members of the American Revolution, signers of the Declaration and Consititution, and early members of the government (correct me if I'm off here - some may have been Jewish) were men who grew up an a culture bathed in the Judeo-Christian worldview, with the corresponding ethics, morality and value system.
Even though not all were considered devout Christians (Jefferson was clearly not a Christian as we would define the term "believer in the divinity of Christ") they were men whose character and resolve were forged through the roots of that worldview.
Since most of them had direct or indirect connections to Europe, they had plenty of experience with monarchy and oppression - including the established state religions (which many European countries still have today, i.e. Norway and Lutheranism. It's those state churches that are dying or dead.).
It was the establishment of state-sponsored or directed religious practices they were wary of - and wrote the Constituiton to prohibit the creation of a state-sponsored church or religious belief system.
Democracy has its very roots in Christianity - the dignity and worth of the individual human is a basic Christian belief (which has its roots in Judiasm and its then-radical monotheistic beliefs).
God creates and values every individual human - leads to the belief that that individual human then has worth and value politically.
Hence, individuals have rights (and responsibilities) which may be expressed politically - through the democratic process. Those individual and political rights currently finds their strongest expression in Western civilization - of which the United States is a standardbearer. The imperfect, flawed, human, United States of America.
It's also a Judeo_Christianity belief that "work" is valuable and important to both the individual and to society. An individual is not "fated" to do one job or follow one path, but is free to express his or her gifts through work and service.
Capitalism and its emphasis on individual choice (I chose that which best serves my self-interests) drives our economy - which is good. The greed and selfishness which is capitalism's potential outcome, is balanced by the notion of self-sacrifice and sense of community promoulgated by Christianity. A lack of Christian values in the marketplace leads naturally to the excesses we found in the Enron, Tyco scandals, etc.
If we want a glimpse of life under an aggresively secular culture, we have only to look at western Europe. Their state churches are dying, yet the popular culture has for the most part rejected Christianity and its attendant values and beliefs. Individual responsibility and freedom are slowly being suffocated by secular, statist, centralized goverments.
Eastern Europe, after decades of oppression under secular, communistic govt's is experiencing more of a boom in Christian belief.
Look at China - again, rising economic prosperity and an explosive growth in Christianity, despite the centralized govt's attempt to control.
How many people from America are emigrating to Europe, versus migration the other way?
Why is America still a beacon of freedom and prosperity? You have to give Christianity its due credit.
I think America was doing fine before the Christians came and slaughtered the pagan Indians.