“Marketing” is a bad word in church circles. It implies manipulation, impure intentions and other chicanery. This is not without reason; corporate marketing has become a science, with companies spending millions of dollars to understand the psychological and sociological impact of advertising. Many Christians, understandably, believe it would be unseemly — if not sinful — to employ modern marketing techniques on behalf of the Church.

Phil Cooke‘s 2008 book, Branding Faith: Why Some Churches and Nonprofits Impact Culture and Others Don’t, seeks to change some of these perceptions. Cooke specializes in the intersection of faith and media and acts as a consultant helping religious organizations to better tell their story.

Branding, according to Cooke, is all about the story that surrounds a business or organization. It’s what immediately comes to people’s minds when they think of the organization. With this in mind, he challenges Christian organizations to think carefully about what makes them unique in the world so as to better share their story and help people understand who they are and what they stand for.

Cooke does an admirable job of pointing out the potential dangers in “over-thinking” marketing efforts. He devotes an entire chapter to how churches and non-profits risk losing their identity to marketing “gimmicks” and trying to chase relevancy – and how potential parishioners are turned off by such efforts. I was especially relieved to see Cooke emphasizing the personal relationship between the organization and the individual:

In a world in which few people have  close friends, expand your community and get to know people. Enlarge your network of really close friends. Perhaps it’s becuase I was raised before the digital age that I still value face-to-face communication far more than phone conversations or email.

That having been said, the book should read with some discernment. Cooke, understandably, speaks almost exclusively from a Protestant point of view. Emphasis is placed on the importance of preaching (an emphasis which is complementary to, but different from, the sacramental view of liturgy in the Catholic Church) and, as a result, puts a heavy emphasis on the importance of the leader’s communication skills.

Nevertheless I think there are some good insights for any Christian organization trying to understand how to share its passion and invite others to work with them. It will certainly challenge those who think that marketing has no place in the life of the Church to reconsider their position.

This month’s episode of the Catechetical Leader podcast has just been posted. It features an interview with Dr. Kevin Vost, author of Memorize the Faith! (and Most Anything Else): Using the Methods of the Great Catholic Medieval Memory Masters. You can also give your thoughts on our poll question: Is memorization important in catechesis?

This weekend I listened to an interview with Roy Spence, author of It’s Not What You Sell, It’s What You Stand For. Spence is a marketing and communications expert and was part of the team that came up with the slogan “Don’t Mess with Texas.”

The slogan came about when Bob Linear, who was the chairmen of the Texas Highway Commission, asked why they were increasing the budget for litter removal instead of working to reduce litter. Spence’s company pitched the slogan (which, due to its macho tone, was somewhat controversial) to the Highway Commission as part of a broad marketing strategy; litter rates have since gone down in Texas and the slogan has become a culture icon.

According to Spence, the reason the slogan struck such a chord (beyond stereotypical Texas elitism) is that it shifted the conversation. As Spence put it in the interview, instead of trying to sell Texans on changing their behavior the slogan gave them something positive to focus on: “We got out of the litter business and got into the pride business.”

I think one of the reasons some church initiatives fail is because we aren’t clear what business we’re in. Are we sponsoring a program for our own ends, or because we believe we have something worthwhile to offer people? Are we giving them “a positive option?” For instance, if we’re engaging in evangelization just to put people in the pews, we’re going to fail because we aren’t giving people a reason to come, we’re just trying to increase attendance (either for the prestige of our parish or to increase the weekly offering). Why would people want to join an organization that only wants them to fulfill a quota?

Next: What is the business of catechesis?

Photo by Kaleb Fulgham / flickrCC

When Our Lord was starting the Church, so to speak, at the Last Supper, He took care to give to it the Four Marks He wished it to have. In His discourse afterwards in the Upper Room, He told the apostles He was offering eternal life to all flesh (read John xvii, 1-3) ; that the apostles themselves were His appointed witnesses and workers (John xv, 16; xv, 27); and He prayed that His disciples should be all one (John xvii, ii ; Xvii, 20-21); and that they should be made holy in the truth (John xvii, 17-19), getting their holy life from His as the branches from the Vine (John xv, 4-5).

If there is a true Church of Christ still on earth, we must expect it to show those four marks still.

- Rev. F.H. Drinkwater, Catechism Stories Part I: the Creed (1939)

Last year I had the opportunity to listen to Fr. Martin Pable, OFM Cap, talk about how Catholics can reach out to their family, friends and others in order to share their faith. His approach, which he calls “relational evangelism,” consists of three parts:

1. Listen with respect to the stories that other people share with you. This could be your cousin who has fallen away from the Church, a co-worker with a broken relationship, or even a stranger in the doctor’s waiting room. By listening you enter into a relationship with the person and demonstrate your concern and love for them.
2. Share your own story. In particular, share a time that you had a similar problem and talk about how your faith helped you. Fr. Pable suggests three phrases to use in sharing your story: “Once I was…”; “Then God did…”; “Now I am…” For instance, if you are talking to someone who has lost their job, you might say something like: “Once I lost my job during a series of layoffs. I was really scared and wondered how I would make ends meet. I asked my friends and family to pray for me, and although I didn’t find a job for a few months, knowing that I was being supported and prayed for by so many people made that tough time much easier. God really helped me make the best of a bad situation.”
3. Extend an invitation to the person. You might invite them to pray with you, to attend a parish mission or just over to your house for dinner and further conversation! The point is to encourage them to take a step towards a deeper relationship with Christ, no matter how small.

If you’d like to learn more about how to share your faith with others, Fr. Pable’s complete presentation can be viewed online courtesy of the Paulist National Catholic Evangelization Association (free registration required).

It’s been a while since I took “Spirituality and Human Development,” but one of the themes I recall from the class is that our spirituality and prayer life change as we age. The accumulation of experience allows us to gain new insights into the divine and opens us to new ways of communicating with God; this, of course, has an affect on our relationship to God.

This has hit home for me a few times in my life. A year after completing my graduate studies I found myself engaging in new types of prayer — particularly an increased use of the Rosary and a greater sense of efficacy in my silent prayer. At first I was uncertain why I was being drawn in this direction (beyond my generation’s general reappropriation of older faith practices). Eventually it dawned on me: while in college and graduate school I had used my studies as the foundation for my prayer life. Indeed, there is a long history in the Church of study as prayer (to such an extent that Dominican friars are excused from communal prayer if engaged in study). Following my master’s degree and subsequent exit from higher education, my prayer life dried up for about a year as I “re-learned” how to pray. Since I was no longer spending significant time immersed in the study of scripture, Church history, morality, and the like, my normal avenue for prayer had been cut off.

While this was undoubtedly painful, it also proved to be a great blessing as it opened me to new ways of prayer that I did not have the time or energy to devote to before.

Lately, after nearly a decade of fits and starts, I’ve gotten into a general rhythm of using the Liturgy of the Hours. I’m not as consistent as I would like, but most morning and many evenings I take 10-15 minutes to pray Lauds and Vespers. I’ve not yet gotten into the habit of adding Compline, but I am working towards it.

Nevertheless, and in spite of the inconsistent nature of its application, the effect has been profound: I’ve notice a real change in my temperament and attitude when I begin the day with Morning Prayer, and a stronger resistance to temptation when I’m consistent for several days in a row. In particular I find myself dealing with my children in a more patient manner — something, my wife likes to remind me, that I need to work on.

As before, I’m not sure why it is that, at this particular moment in my life, this type of prayer has suddenly “clicked.” But unlike before I haven’t lost the types of prayer that I relied on previously. I still pray the Rosary and still find comfort in silent prayer. What I am experiencing now is a wider embrace of prayer types, not a replacing of the old.

The Second Vatican Council teaches that “the laity, too, are encouraged to recite the divine office,” for “all who render this service are not only fulfilling a duty of the Church, but also are sharing in the greatest honor of Christ’s spouse, for by offering these praises to God they are standing before God’s throne in the name of the Church their Mother.” (Sacrosanctum concilium, n. 100, 85) I am still discovering just what this mean, but I am thankful that, at this time in my life, the Liturgy of the Hours has been such a source of strength and a means of increasing virtue in my life. I pray, too, that it will continue to do so as I continue to grow in love and knowledge of God.

As anyone who’s read this site for any length of time has probably figured out, I have a passion for using new technologies to pass on the faith. Digital communication is still in its infancy and I believe we have only begun to see the effects it will have on the Church, evangelization and catechesis.

Which is one of the reasons why, when my wife told me that the Catholic moms who run her favorite blog were looking for someone to help them design a web site with fuller capabilities than their free blogging site, I agreed to help out.

The other reason is that I enjoy reading the site, too. While I may skip over the posts on car seats and baby food, there is some real theological meat to many of their discussions.

There’s still a few loose ends to tie up on the site, but the (nearly) finished result was launched today at www.BuildingCathedrals.com.

This past weekend I uploaded the latest episode of the Catechetical Leader podcast. Episode 3: The Future Soon features an interview I did with John Roberto of LifelongFaith Associates on his Faith Formation 2020 initiative.

You can check out the whole interview at the new Catechetical Leader web site. The podcast is also now available on iTunes.

This past Saturday our diocese ordained two men to the sacred priesthood. More specifically, His Eminence Francis Cardinal George of Chicago ordained the men as our diocese awaits the installation of Bishop Paprocki on June 22.

Rev. Msgr. Carl Kemme, our diocesan administrator, delivered the homily and I have to say: it probably ranks in the top five homilies I have ever heard and is the most moving reflection on the priesthood I can remember. Here’s a short sound bite:

To my brother priests in this presbyterate I want and need to invite something very important from us. These men to be ordained are a gift to us, gifts not to be taken for granted, but cherished and honored. It behooves us to offer them and those who come after them, in union with our bishop and his successors, a presbyterate that is healthy, supportive and joyful. To that end, I would humbly submit that we have work to do. We cannot afford to allow them or any of us, to be subject to the destructive forces strong in our world today, which have gripped far too many priests in our church, the evil that is isolation, the inclination to cynicism, or the abandonment of the hopes and dreams of the Church for us, in exchange for spiritual apathy and moral indifference. Rather, with courage and love we must invite them and ourselves to stand firm in the faith, to unite in a stronger bond of prayerful and priestly fraternity and to together become saints for nothing less is expected of us as priests after the mind and heart of the Good Shepherd.

My estimable friend Fr. Daren Zehnle has the complete homily posted on his blog. It is definitely worth the read.

The second issue of the Office for Catechesis‘ newsletter, COREnotes, has been released!

You can sign up to receive COREnotes in your inbox at www.dio.org.