The title of this post is the impression that I get as I browse a few larger churches’ websites.
This topic actually came up at lunch today as I was sharing about my church with a friend of mine — and they were talking about a megachurch they had attended, that they felt had catered to the more affluent among them.
I don’t want to cite any examples of my research, but I browsed a certain church’s website today (again, not citing examples, don’t want anyone to fuss at me) and wondered one thing:
Where are all the normal, next-doorish looking people? Isn’t that who comprises most of our churches anyway?
Sadly it appears that many of these churches have missed the mark when it comes to marketing themselves to the community. Jesus came and died for the larger woman with wire-rimmed glasses sitting in your pew with just as much love as he had for the slender, attractive girl singing on stage — and the fact that is not reflected by these congregations is as much a sin as judging somebody based on human criteria.
Let’s remember that the very Jesus we worship was by historical accounts a very unattractive man who didn’t even have a home for his entire adult life. Never forget that Paul was never married and was a short little turd. And Peter was a dirty fisherman with a potty mouth.
I guess what I am trying to say is that God finds the people we tend to overlook and use them to do great things. That being said, I pose two questions here: Why do these churches seem to market to only the attractive and privileged, and why do the normal among us continue to feed the beast by their support of these congregations?
Why? Because they’re interested in driving their numbers and revenue to do bigger buildings and outreach events. If people actually come to Christ, well…that’s great.
Too many churches are just country clubs for the beautiful people to have membership.
I’m not trying to go out of my way to play devil’s advocate, but… maybe all the people (or the majority of them) just happen to be beautiful?
I tend to think that most all women are attractive in some way. I may not be attracted to them, and the word “beautiful” is generally too strong for my tastes, but it is rare that I see an unattractive woman. Looking around the churches I visit and the campus I work at, I just don’t see that many homely or unattractive women.
There’s also the possibility that the church has more attractive members because such people tend to group together, but who knows.
All that being said, I’ve known ministries that have hired models for their web site images, so I don’t think you’re incorrect. But I do like to give a place the benefit of the doubt until proven wrong.
Well, we live in the Mid-west. This is the Bible belt, and the land of beautiful women. And we live in a MAJOR college town. Babes abound. Put the two together and you could have a beautiful church…. lol
They’re just doing what every night club, TV commercial, news network, sports bar, restaurant, car show, catalog and newspaper ad does: dress it up.
Matthew–
If that’s your target demographic, that’s what your church will be made up of primarily and automatically cater to that. I’ll hit more on that further on in the comment.
Jason–
Good one.
Ian–
That’s exactly my point, and I’ll also use this to reply to Matthew’s comment: that’s not what the church should be doing. The church’s mission as per the Bible itself is to go and preach the Gospel to all people as outlined in Matthew 28:20, and if a church can’t do that without using marketing gimmicks, it’s severely misguided.
Of course, put the good looking girls on the poster for the church so that guys will come thinking its their lucky day…the irony.
I'm not trying to go out of my way to play devil's advocate, but… maybe all the people (or the majority of them) just happen to be beautiful?
I tend to think that most all women are attractive in some way. I may not be attracted to them, and the word “beautiful” is generally too strong for my tastes, but it is rare that I see an unattractive woman. Looking around the churches I visit and the campus I work at, I just don't see that many homely or unattractive women.
There's also the possibility that the church has more attractive members because such people tend to group together, but who knows.
All that being said, I've known ministries that have hired models for their web site images, so I don't think you're incorrect. But I do like to give a place the benefit of the doubt until proven wrong.