Marketing the Church

I was speaking to a woman, a bright, attractive marketing director for a fortune 500 company about the church.  She visited a few times.  We began to talk about what she was looking for in a parish.

She grew up in a rigidly Catholic family, and has a mild interest in Christianity.  But she was at a point where she was considering all other faiths.  It's unlikely she will move far from Jesus, but she recognizes that it is because of the accident of her birth and inculturation.

It seems to me that, although I think of the Episcopal Church as Christian, there is a group of seekers for which ECUSA's competitors are not other mainline protestants or evangelicals.  The people who visit my church are just as likely to choose yoga, buddhism, unitarianism or quakerism.  I'm not sure why they visit, but it might have to do with our reputation as being open and safe for the intellect.  It's a "come as you are" philosophy regarding theological orientation. 

If you come and visit my parish, there is nothing I say that would seem unorthodox in the very least.  I don't, however, spend a lot of time on why other religions are wrong, or if they are wrong.   My sermons stick to the scripture, as is; I do little historical "education" and rarely do I refer to great thinkers.  I use metaphors that are ripped from contemporary culture.  Regardless of my intellectual stance, I preach more like a Barthian who has interpreted Schleiermacher correctly. 

Perhaps when reasserters critique reappraisers, maybe they are aware that a good portion of the people who seek the Episcopal Church do not compare themselves to other Christians.  After all, if you think that Most Christians are just American versions of the Taliban, would you want to be one?  If you think that conservative evangelicals are taking over the military and the government, would you want to be one?   They think of the Catholic church as abusive and corrupt; and the evangelicals as corrupt and militant.  With choices like these, I'm surprise people don't give up on Jesus altogether.  Granted - these are incorrect perceptions.  But they are perceptions.

I still think that I'm in the business of forming Christians.  But the questions guests in my parish are asking aren't the same as the ones conservative evangelicals are.  And perhaps, because they are asking different questions, they need a place that will offer better answers.  And that place would be the Episcopal Church. 

Comments

[Caelius Spinator]

I'm glad that you say you're in a business of forming Christians. Too often I fear that Episcopal parishes are forming people who want to use the church to shape society (as they see the evangelicals and the Roman Catholic Church doing) but do not take seriously the otherworldly elements of the faith.

[Tim]

I suggest that the perception that "conservative evangelicals are taking over the military and the government . . . [and] the Catholic church . . . [is] abusive and corrupt; and the evangelicals . . . [are] corrupt and militant" are nuaunces accurately perceived in the tapestry of our current relgious environment. Is your comment about forming Christians similar to the idea that Maya Angelou expresses about people who self identify as Christian:, "Already. I thought it was a lifelong process?"

[nathan]

"They think of the Catholic church as abusive and corrupt; and the evangelicals as corrupt and militant."

I think you make some good points here Jake.

I know I come from a non-episcopalian perspective on this, but I can tell you that, far from being ignored, this is a matter of great concern and debate for many Christians hailing from orthodox, evangelical and pentecostal positions. I know many individuals (some who have accepted Christ and others who haven't) who struggle with the negative image evangelical churches have (this stereotype is particularly linked to the US, but it is still present, to a lesser extent, in Australia and NZ). Many times I have got together with a good friend of mine, a member of the Greens party with whom I once marched proudly down the street carrying a banner that said, "Jesus loves refugees", and we have talked eachother's heads off about how to reach people with a more "left-wing" social/political perspective, who assume that being passionate about Jesus must go hand-in-hand with being "right-wing" and obsessed over wedge issues.

He believes, and I agree to a large extent, that those who are pursuing alternative spiritualities are, in many ways, closer to coming to a faith in Christ than those who have gone to sleep, firmly embedded in the work/sleep/eat/shop hyperreal consumer world.

I have attended large conferences organised by Baptists and Pentecostals, Christians frustrated at their denominations for allowing themselves to become so culturally isolated and irrelevant to so many in our society, calling evangelicals to be more incarnational and relational, to walk the walk, to not distain social justice, to move beyond the 4 walls. I believe the emerging church, for all its worrying aspects, will have a big part to play in the future of Christianity in the West. It is often more naturally relational than a typical Sunday church can be.

[John Wilkins]

"Jake?"

[Elliot]

Right on!

Well, I know why I became an Anglican: I was coming from a fundamentalist background and I read a lot of graceful, open-minded books by Anglican authors who were devout but generous in their orthodoxy.

[Jake]

Consider it a compliment, John. Heh.

[nathan]

Pardon me, John! My excuse is that they are both 4-letter words starting with J. :D

[John wilkins]

I do consider it a compliment. You do get a LOT more comments.

[J. C. Fisher]

He believes, and I agree to a large extent, that those who are pursuing alternative spiritualities are, in many ways, closer to coming to a faith in Christ than those who have gone to sleep, firmly embedded in the work/sleep/eat/shop hyperreal consumer world.

But, regrettably, they're closer to coming to faith in Christ than many Christians do, too!

That's the problem I always have w/ dividing the world into "Christian" and "Non-Christian" (w/ only the latter seen as "ripe for the harvest").

In the U.S. in particular, Christians (e.g. Conservative Evangelical, and Conservative Papist) are LESS LIKELY to know Christ (as opposed to that impostor I call "GeezUs") than those hearing The Story afresh (which I think is why Marcus Borg entitled his wonderful book Meeting Jesus Again For the First Time)

I appreciate this entry very much, John. In the West, the Christian Church has a hard time to convince thoughtful and conscientious persons, that it is a faith wherein they can find a home. In TEC, they find a place to know---feed on!---the Saving Christ: not condemn other paths, and other seekers...

[Phil Snyder]

J.C.
I take offense at this statement: "In the U.S. in particular, Christians (e.g. Conservative Evangelical, and Conservative Papist) are LESS LIKELY to know Christ (as opposed to that impostor I call "GeezUs") than those hearing The Story afresh"

I could easily say that in the US, Christians (e.g. liberal protestant, and progressive Roman Catholics) are LESS LIKELY to know Jesus as opposed to that imposter some call "Christ."

The problem is how do you know with whom you are dealing? I know Jesus through prayer, through the study of Scripture and through the Church. If the Jesus you worship is radically different from the entire picture of Jesus given through the icon of Holy Scripture and through the witness of the whole Church, then I submit that you are worshipping an imposter.
This is true of conservatives and liberals. Please don't single out conservatives for idol worship. Liberals are known to bend the knee to their own Baals as well.

YBIC,
Phil Snyder

[Friendly Editor]

There is no "e" in Mahoony,