Making thoughts count - Generous Mind

Ministry Campaigns

Every era in the American church has its tools for proclamation. In our time the tools of choice are pervasive and powerful. They reach out to us through media, relationships and experiences and it is critical that we consider what can be called “Ministry Campaigns.”

We can retrace the steps of those who possessed the God’s passion for communicating truth – John Wesley, Jonathan Edwards, D. L. Moody, Billy Sunday, Billy Graham, and countless others – and we see amazing creativity in their proclamation. They forged ahead using the pulpit, the radio waves, the tent meeting, the stadium, the television, and any other method that would provide a suitable container for God’s message of love.

So what is a ministry campaign? It is a targeted proclamation effort that utilizes mass impact over a variety of media. It is very similar to the large marketing campaign by McDonald’s “I’m lovin’ it.”(One of the first times in recent history that McDonalds has used one tag line globally for their marketing efforts.) But the message is much different than that of a young person waiting anxiously for his morning egg McMuffin.

The ministry campaigns that are freshest in our minds include Rick Warren’s “Purpose Driven Life, Mel Gibson’s The Passion of the Christ, and Big Idea’s Jonah: A Veggie Tales Movie.

Each of these examples has three things in common:
1. They took a blockbuster, global, high impact approach.
2. They used every media available to them to present a complete set of resources that would position the message of their campaign in the public eye.
3. They used the churches of America as the core marketing, distribution and follow-up engines.

The concept of a Ministry Campaign and its attributes should not be surprising. If Home Depot, Bank One, Mazda and Mountain Dew make this work, why wouldn’t Christians use the same strategies? Besides the secular track record, these three examples are producing amazing results in this media-saturated, marketing-driven culture.

Now the understanding that Ministry Campaigns are being used all around us is important, but the foundational question is, “How does the local church handle and even capitalize on these ministry marketing efforts?” It is a vital discussion to have within our churches and denominations. Some churches may ignore these ideas. Others will get so caught up in the hype that they will see these ministry marketing efforts as “cure-alls” and quick fixes for deeper issues.

With something so pervasive and fast-moving, it is easy to react strongly. But what is a healthy way to take these movements and use them while not allowing your church to get swept away?

I thought that the best way to think through this question would be to interview a pastor who has walked this line between local effectiveness and these mega-marketing efforts. Here is an honest and direct interview with Pastor Dale Hummel – Senior Pastor at Naperville Evangelical Free Church in the suburbs of Chicago.

Name: Dr. Dale Hummel
Family: 3 children ages 21, 20, 14
I grew up: Born in the West Indies – Roseau, Dominica
I graduated from: Ashland Theological Seminary

Question:
What most excited you about becoming a pastor? How long have you been a pastor?

DH:
I have been a pastor since 1982 and I had never not known being called to the ministry. When I was on the mission field with my parents, I remember one specific instance when my father was speaking with some of the nationals. This is when we were in New Guinea. I have a passion to proclaim God’s Word and see people’s lives change. I enjoy communicating God’s word creatively.

Question:
What has been the biggest change you have noticed in the American church since you started your ministry?

DH:
There are a lot of changes. We are now going back to being a storied culture and I think we are moving away from prepositional preaching. The modern audience is used to hearing everything in a story. In the old days when you watched a ball game on television, they simply called it play by play. You watch any kind of ball game and there is a story to it. I think that is because it is the media that we are surrounded by constantly. Everything is in narrative form and it is the best way that people remember things.

What is exciting to me is not new. It is going back to the oral culture. I love stories because that is how I learn and I remember by stories. And I guess that anyone you talk to, any memory that they have does not come out as a bunch of facts. It comes out in story. Even senior citizens, you sit down and talk to them and they tell you stories. Their live is summed up in stories. You see stories and you feel stories. We are into another change – marrying media and stories together.

Question:
The impact of marketing and media has been well documented in our culture as a whole, but has not been given as much attention in the church. How have these two forces impacted the church in America?

DH:
I think to a certain degree the church is somewhat afraid of the media. When we look at a secular media we see a lot of negativity involved. In terms of pornography or profanity, but I think it is dangerous to throw the whole thing out. We have to look for the redeeming aspects that media brings to us. What can we use, what can we borrow – in cases like Veggie Tales where they have used it in a very positive way and created their own niche. I think that The Passion of the Christ is an exciting new venue for us to consider major motion pictures to emphasize Christian themes.

I look at my youngest son, the messages he remembers are the ones with stories and the ones that use media. So I can either boycott his world or I can be like the missionary in Africa who looks at how do I take the gospel message and use it in the framework of this world.

Question:
How have marketing and media impacted the way the congregation responds to you?

DH:
I think it has and I think it does in a negative and positive way. If you go back to the old days before television, people went to church because that’s where you met each other and saw each other, and if you had a great orator it was a form of media and entertainment. Entertainment is not a bad word – it means to hold someone’s attention.

Then the media comes along and how can a guy standing up for a half-hour compete with media who uses image sound and where the images are changing every second. So what we have to do as communicators is try to create the same effect. The story has movement. The one thing about media that shapes today’s audience is that they look for and appreciate a good plot and how that is going to end. Good communicators learn how to weave plot into their sermon. If you and I were to watch a regular TV show – lets say Colombo – I know that is kind of dated. You always know Colombo is going to solve the mystery, you just don’t know how. It is the same with the Bible, the general Christian audience may know many of the Bible stories, but how we apply it and approach it can be new and enlightening and hold them and bring them to the gospel conclusion and application.

Question:
Have you seen any practical examples of how marketing and media have changed your church?

DH:
Well, my sense is that this church up until the last few years, didn’t make good use of media. I am not faulting this church. I think it is true of most churches. Some things you happen on by strategy and some you happen on by accident – I think it has been a little of both. Henry Blackaby said in Experiencing God – We need to join God where he is already at work. And as I have been looking at what has been happening with Purpose Driven Life and The Passion of the Christ, it has really been our church joining where God is working.

I think we have forgotten to ask ourselves and look for where God is working in the culture. And I think that is the new “ah-ha” that I hope our church and many churches will grab onto.

JH:
The overall thought in the church is that God is working here, and so whatever we are doing IS what God is doing – because God uses the church and He does. But the idea of God using the culture is not an idea that most churches or Christians will admit or take seriously. This is a personal opinion, but I wonder sometimes if God doesn’t just get frustrated with the church and say “You know what, I am going to do something outside of the context.”

Question:
On average, how much mail or E-mail come across your desk each month inviting your church to be a part of a program or ministry strategy? Do you really read it all? How do you pick one of these programs?

DH:
There are many opportunities that come across my desk in terms of what I would call Bible-based media opportunities. So and so has come up with a four part video series on the home or on Israel. But all that is geared to the church and the discipleship concept. I am not saying that that is bad, but I don’t see a lot yet coming out that I would call cross-culture – I mean going from our subculture as a church and reaching our world.

I think Purpose Driven Life in many ways was one of the first ones and I think it was unique because it touched a nerve in our society because people are feeling like they don’t have a purpose in their life. I think what made Purpose Driven Life popular was because the media picked it up. Whether we like it or not, the media can be our friend.

You look at The Passion of the Christ, even though the media was mostly negative about it. Here is how God works. The question I am asking my staff is, “This has been a great ride since October 2003 with Purpose Driven Life and The Passion of the Christ, what are we going to do this fall? What is out there? Who is going to start creating good media that connects with the church and people outside.”

Question:
What are you going to do for the fall?

DH:
I honestly think it goes back to the Blackaby question “What is God doing around us?” How do we join this? I think the challenge is that we have a tendency to plan our year out and a lot of what happens around us that are newsworthy and gets attention isn’t necessarily planned out.

You know The Passion of the Christ caught everyone by surprise. Even though Gibson said I have been working on this for 10 years, in December and January it became a big issue and you have to run around that thing and try to catch up. So the question is, “What is going on around us? We can’t always predict what is going to happen. But the thing I want to be careful of is that I don’t necessarily want to let the media dictate what I preach and what we communicate. So we can’t set the agenda of our sermons or the church to every whim or every book or every movie coming out. You have to ask “What is God doing?

Question:
How important is it to you that a specific ministry campaign has a well-known personality or brand/organization attached with it? Does it make a difference in your ability to make it work with your congregation?

DH:
I think that there are two answers. One is “Its huge!” There is nothing like great name recognition. That is what advertising is all about. If you get someone like Rick Warren who now has good notoriety – if he comes out with another book or opportunity, there is instant name recognition and people will be attracted to it. The same is true if Mel Gibson does another film.

The other end of it is being able to pick up a need that strikes the general population. We are thinking of playing off a thing that Rick Warren did in his church called “50 Days of Love” It had a great response in his church. I think it is important to hit an issue that everyone is wrestling with. This fall the issue is going to be the election. How do you translate that into a six part series or how do you capture the feelings around that or the issue that are related to it. That is a challenge.

JH:
What you are trying to do is take the felt needs that arrive out of those situations and connect them to Jesus.

DH:
I’ll give you an example of something we did at our church – The DaVinci Code. Right now it is in book form and it is everywhere so I preempted it with a series. But when the movie comes out, depending on how it is hyped, that may afford a great opportunity for the church to not ignore it but say, “Hey, we have an answer!” Maybe that is something new. We used to boycott and now we may be we are brave enough to think about how we can take advantage of this for the sake of the Gospel.

JH:
The whole idea of “being set apart” is being reexamined by the church. Are we set apart to the extent that we can’t jump in and apply this, or does set apart mean something a bit different?

Question:
Describe in some detail how you plan the integration of a ministry campaign into your everyday church activities and events.

DH:
I think the first thing is that you have to get buy in from all your staff and the leaders. If they are not involved it will not work. You have to alter the schedule of the church so that it becomes the overriding theme that nothing else is competing with. And to me the third thing is that it has to have Biblical value. You have to respond to it from the Word. Otherwise it is a dangerous thing. Now we are using hype for hype’s sake. We encourage people to see The Passion of the Christ, “So what!” So do your series out of the Bible to respond to The Passion of the Christ and to help make it apply to people’s lives. That is what people are hungry for. They want the answer to the so what question.

Question:
When you were planning the integration of Purpose Driven Life, what were the factors that in your mind made it most appealing?

DH:
National campaign – we were joining many other churches. The sense of comradery and resourcing is critical. Also the material was available. We didn’t have to invent all this. Small group was huge. Rick Warren integrated small group into the package. The backbone is the small groups. They provided a great resource kit. They gave us a manual. We could buy it and bring our own culture into it. It allowed us to focus on doing it rather than inventing it.

JH: It seems like in the life of a busy church today “doing rather than inventing” is very attractive.

DH:
The other compelling thing, is that you have people reading this book and asking you about the program.

JH:
One of the greatest values about the Purpose Driven Life book was that it gave the entire church a common vocabulary for things. I noticed that a lot of the people were using a similar set of terms that they had never had before. That similar set of terms allowed for unity. Vocabulary is huge!

DH:
Everyone is on the same page and there is something very powerful about that.

Question:
What were the results from the “Purpose Driven Life” campaign?

DH:
There was an increase in small groups – from 25 to 150. There was also a good rate of retention. Also there were conversions. What was unique about the conversion was that it was happening one to one amongst people. It wasn’t an alter call. I think a third result was that people were more committed to living out the purposes. They had something they could tangibly say “Wow, these are the 5 things I can focus on this year.”

JH:
What you were able to do is take this “how to” strategy, build in compelling narrative and combine those two things which is pretty significant.

Question:
Was the momentum that a ministry campaign brought to your church sustainable beyond the program’s lifecycle? If so what factors were key to the sustainability?

DH:
I think it is sustainable and a way you achieve that is by building off of it. In other words, we did 40 Days of Purpose and then we went into a series talking about how do I take my life and live as a good steward. Then The Passion of the Christ came around the corner. You have to plan ahead. For us the importance of the momentum is getting it down to a group level, so whatever we build off has to make its way to the small group.

JH:
So if it doesn’t go down to that small group relationship level, then it probably isn’t sustainable.

Question:
Did you ever feel any temptation to look at a ministry campaign as a “quick fix” to a deeper problem? Explain.

DH:
No, I guess because of my nature being so skeptical, it took a bit of prodding for me to embrace 40 Days of Purpose. When we went and previewed The Passion of the Christ it was critical eyes – not wanting to get on a band wagon with something and then be disappointed latter on. So I think for us, it involved a lot of questions and prayer. Is this really who we are? Is this going to work with our program? What God is calling us to do?

JH:
So prayer and consideration helped keep you from being carried into thinking that if I do this I will get this.

DH:
I think that is a dangerous thing if we do things just to get a bang out of it – because you end up falling flat again.

Question:
Do some of these things intimidate you a bit?

DH:
I have gotten past that. I wouldn’t be honest with you if I said I haven’t had those feelings from time to time – I think we all do. But he (Rick Warren) is a brother in the Lord and God has blessed him and skilled him, I have no problem letting him into my church and ministering and helping us to move forward. I want to grow as well and I respect him. I think the guys who are intimidated by it are the ones that end up missing out. Because they do one of two things: they either don’t use it or criticize it to try and justify themselves or they kind of put it off in a corner someplace in the churches ministry.

Question:
If you could say something to pastors who do feel a bit intimidated by the size of the ministry campaign and what that will do to their ability to be an effective minister. What would you say to them about what you have learned through this process?

DH:
I guess what I would say is to use Rick Warren or Bill Hybles or whoever as a resource and a help to your ministry rather than a hindrance or an intimidation or I have to be like them.” Because what I know of them is that their desire is not to make us be like them and like their church. “But here are some principles that worked for us. Take it and use it however it will help you.” I think we have to take that attitude. We have to be willing to learn from each other.

JH:
It is a hard attitude. Everything today in American culture is hyper-competitive. So it is no different for the church. A lot of churches struggle because much of what goes on today is really “Church shopping.” And so they feel that they have to keep them in the seats and this is where some of these struggles come in.

DH:
I think that knowing your purpose and your vision and having that ingrained in your heart and in the heart and life of your church will help protect you from getting off the road. You do have to ask yourself constantly, doe sit fit our vision and mission and purpose values where we think God is taking us. IF so lets use it for our vision but do not let it become an end in itself.

Question:
How was “The Passion of the Christ” campaign different from “Purpose Driven Life?”

DH:
I think Purpose Driven Life is different in that it was tried and tested and there was a format and a way to use it. It was very church-friendly and Bible-friendly. The Passion of the Christ was a totally different animal. It was not tried and tested. There was some risk. You had to invent how to use it and we were late in the game. Willow Creek came up with a bible study series. It was on the quick

Question:
What dynamic did a “theatre-based” event bring to your implementation?

DH:
I think one of the dynamics was getting off campus. We went to the theatre, so the church was able to do an event in front of the culture rather than keeping it in house and trying to get the culture to come to us.

Question:
What were the advantages of the controversy and national conversation? What were the disadvantages?

DH:
The advantages were that everyone knew about it, we were able to ride the momentum created. Believers felt at ease to talk about it because the subject was always being brought up rather than having to find some awkward way to bring it up. The disadvantage was that the culture can confuse the real message and you have to be careful that you don't attach or align yourself to that.

Question:
What were the results of “The Passion” campaign?

DH:
There were three main results: Greater awareness of Christ in the culture, a spring board to answer the questions raised, and people seem to have a more tangible understanding of Christ.

Question:
You used the book “The Davinci Code” in your Easter series. How does using a negative campaign like that add value and help your congregation?

DH:
A lot of people have read it and are confused. Is it fact or fiction? Our own people are not sure how to answer the hard questions, so this gives me a chance to talk about subject which otherwise people might ignore or find to "boring." I had a new guest come up to me during the series and say, "You know that Da Vinci code is very misleading....I'm going to bring a whole bunch of my friends to hear this because they too wonder if the Bible is made up."

Question:
What is your advice for pastors trying to capitalize on these ministry campaigns and at the same time not get lost in the sea of media and marketing opportunities?

DH:
You have to move with the current, don't get behind it but try and stay ahead so you maximize the free publicity, curiosity and questions that it raises in people's minds. Make sure you answer the questions that are being asked. Be positive in terms of "Here's what God says about...." Make sure to mobilize the whole church to be involved and finally center the event in your worship services thematically and in terms of the messages. Don't be afraid to get creative!

It is important to remember everything has a shelf life, so you have to know when to start and when you're going to finish or people begin to get turned off. Make sure you budget for such opportunities or you can miss out on fully taking advantage of the event.