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Editor's Note

Ministry of the future: Marketing

Nick Wagner Depending on which poll you read, 50 to 60 percent of your parishioners will be sleeping in this Sunday. Or watching the game. Or going to the mall. They will not be in church. When I was a kid, I wouldn’t dare miss Sunday Mass. Besides all that “pain of mortal sin” motivation, I didn’t want to risk the “wrath of Mom.” Those motivations, however, are no longer compelling for the majority of Catholics. So what will we do to get them to choose Mass over the mall next Sunday?

A key ministry of the future will have to be marketing. Just mentioning “marketing” and “Mass” in the same paragraph seems distasteful and maybe even sacrilegious. Should we be trying to package the paschal mystery like they do shampoo and beer? Well, yes and no.

Like all professions, marketing has its share of scoundrels. But lots of marketers are trying to sell quality products that they believe in and make our lives better. Master marketer Seth Godin writes:


Marketing is beautiful when it persuades people to get a polio vaccine or wash their hands before doing surgery. Marketing is powerful when it sells a product to someone who discovers more joy or more productivity because he bought it. Marketing is magic when it elects someone who changes the community for the better. (tinyurl.com/SGmarketing)

Marketing isn’t necessarily the same as huckstering. Good marketing is simply good storytelling. We have a terrific story to tell, but we’re losing ground to all the other stories that compete for people’s attention. Are those other stories better than the story of Jesus? I don’t think so. Are they better told? Oftentimes they are.

Twenty steps to a better story
Here’s a simple way to improve the way you tell your story. First list 20 reasons parishioners would rather come to church than do something else on Sunday. Not 20 reasons they should come to church, but rather, reasons they themselves might find compelling. Don’t stop until you have 20. Then, of those, pick the three most powerful reasons.

Now make another list: 20 ways you can communicate those top three reasons. Make a list of venues in which you can tell your story. Then deliver those three reasons consistently and frequently through each of the venues you’ve identified. Set a goal of telling your story at least once a day for the next 20 days. After that, evaluate and see if you’ve made any difference. You probably won’t have increased Mass attendance in so short a time, but if you practiced daily, you will have noticeably strengthened your ability to tell a compelling story.

In the meantime, here are some helpful Web sites to explore:

Nick Wagner
nwagner@bayard-us.com