What “The Blindside” Taught Me About Church Marketing
I seldom recommend movies – mainly because everyone has different tastes and rarely is there a movie produced in Hollywood that I think is for “everyone”. Today however, I confidently recommend The Blindside. My wife and I watched it this past weekend…it is indeed excellent on many levels. For those of you who are disinterested in “football movies” – don’t rule this one out. The setting is built around a football player, but the actual football content is only about 10% of the movie.
This post is not a movie review – rather, I think there are some interesting principles that we can take from it that apply to church marketing…
Unconventional
In the inspirational featurette below, Ray McKinnon who plays coach Burt Cotton in the movie says in an interview:
“Anytime somebody does something unconventional, you have to think about the realities of that . It usually starts with a person who’s able to look at things differently. What if…”
What if Christian Churches started to look at their communities differently? What if they looked at families, men, women, teens, and children differently? What are their real needs? What are they really feeling? How can we “the church” do something for them that is relevant?
Churches, (and this is a generalization) tend to keep doing things the way they have always been done. But what if? What if how we tell our ministry story actually has something of relevance in it? What if we were real, caring people who actually showed God’s love in practical ways rather than just preaching it with words? My guess is that if we could be more intentional in our demonstration of Jesus love then we would have greater opportunity to tell the story of Jesus…and why it is the most important story (and reality) of all time!
Stand Up!
When a church does something unconventional, there will be people (inside that church) and from other churches, that will question your mission and methods. In The Blindside, Leigh Anne Tuohy’s friends questioned, and even judged her motivation. Her response:
“I don’t need y’all to approve my choices”.
If our perceived “unconventional methods” are indeed founded on Biblical principles we must stand up for our church’s mission. We don’t need the approval of others. After-all, Christians were commissioned by Jesus to:
… go and make disciples of all peoples, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit. (Matthew 28:19 NLT)
Disciples are students. We are called to introduce all people to Jesus, teach them about him, and help them become good students of his life-giving principles. So, we (all churches) must do this. This involves being creative, remarkable, unconventional, and strategic. We must tell our story effectively. As in the movie, we must utilize good teachers to help our students learn. Not all people learn the same way. We must teach with flexible methods to help people grow into all that they were created to be!
Get Real
Churches must find ways to reach people by doing whatever it takes to get their attention. This does not mean being “sensational”. It means being real. Find ways to tell the story like a real person to real people. Show you care. Show you love them. Get out of your comfort zone. Meet their real needs. Then and only then will you have life-changing impact. And, as in The Blindside, the change does not only come to the person being ministered to, the person (and the church) doing the ministering are changed as well in this process.
So, what do you think? Did you see the movie? Can churches learn to change their ways and reach people with unconventional methods? Share your thoughts by leaving a comment.
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