Jesus Is Not a Brand
By: John Thomas
Tags: Spirituality, Christianity, Culture, Religion, Social Media

Should churches use social media ad campaigns to “convert and recruit?”

Photo by Kon Karampelas on Unsplash

Last week writer Josh Wilbur, in an article at Slate, described the recent trend of churches using targeted advertising on social media platforms to “convert and recruit” people to Christianity.” As Wilbur explains,

“Churches of all denominations are using Facebook and Instagram ads to reach pinpointed audiences in their communities, transforming the Great Commission’s “nations” into living, breathing (scrolling) individuals. Now, it’s, “Go and make disciples of all 18- to 34-year-olds within a 10-mile radius who prefer Chick-fil-A to Popeyes.”

Wilbur’s tone is critical and rightfully so. Churches and their social media “teams” have uncritically adopted yet another aspect of consumer culture and are operating as if they are corporations and Jesus is the brand on offer. Jesus is many things, but he is most certainly not a brand.

Is it possible that using social media to advertise him as a brand, in order to create more traffic on Sunday mornings, denigrates who he is and what he did, and brings churches down to the level of common hucksters, hawking their swag in an attempt to make a buck? Has anyone stopped to ask that question? Maybe the answer is no, using social media to meet people and invite them to church isn’t inherently bad. But it is worth exploring in more detail before implementing targeted ad campaigns outright.

To be sure, targeted advertising on social media might be an effective way to meet people, to get 400 people to show up to an easter egg hunt (as Wilbur reports one Ohio pastor was able to do with $20 ad campaign on Facebook). But is getting people to show up to an easter egg hunt the ultimate goal of the church? I would argue it isn’t—worship and discipleship are.

Of course underneath the social media issue is the question of whether the church should be more like a corporation, where the pastor is the vision-casting CEO, churchgoers are consumers, and Jesus is the product, or more like a family with all the relational implications such a model brings with it. As one author notes, the tendency towards bigger churches, run like corporations, is merely a reflection of the consumer culture we live in, and it really does turn Christianity into a brand rather than a “counter cultural calling.”

Many have already come to a conclusion on this issue. Obviously, churches like those Wilbur refers to, for example Elevation church in North Carolina with its young, hip pastor and online presence (Elevation sermons had 80 million views online last year) have made their choice clear.

But others have written persuasively in the opposite direction. For one, Karl Vaters definitively states, “Churches cannot and should not be run like businesses.” Vaters sees this as a conflict of interest or a disordering of authority. He explains that in businesses, the owner casts the vision and makes the decisions. But in the church, Jesus is the owner. He has already cast his vision. Furthermore, the church is to be relational, where brothers and sisters in Christ bear one another’s burdens. Note the familial terms “brothers” and “sisters.”

The problem is that American Christians, growing up in the quintessential consumer culture, like the slick, megachurch style where the pastor is the CEO and worship is entertainment. The 60–75 minute church service, in stadium-sized venues with thousands of strangers is eminently marketable, consumable, and requires little commitment or devotion. Unfortunately, even as younger Americans are leaving the church, or never showing up in the first place, it is the smaller, relational-driven churches that are bearing the brunt of that exodus. In general, those who remain prefer the polished and no-strings-attached feel of the megachurch.

There are serious consequences to this trend beyond silly social media ad campaigns. As Joe Carter explains, “when churches become larger, it is harder for pastors to know how individual parishioners are doing spiritually.” This can lead to an increased risk of online radicalization and make it harder for those in authority to become aware of abuse in the church and be available to deal with it appropriately.

There are of course other aspects of the Christian life that are more difficult to live out in a big church than in a small church. Much of Christianity is meant to be relational. There is a reason the New Testament contains dozens of calls to “love one another” or “serve one another,” which, in order to do well, means people actually have to know one another. And Jesus’ own ministry was lived out in the context of deep relationship with his twelve followers.

The pastor of my church once said in a sermon, “What you win them with, is what you win them to.” If megachurches continue to use social media ad campaigns to reach people, they won’t be making disciples, but attracting people to an ineffectual brand of feel-good, American churchianity.

The early church looks very different from the church in America today. Part of this is because of the consumer culture we live in and the technological innovations that have been introduced to foster that consumerism. Instead of co-opting it, Christians should weigh and consider if following the culture when it comes to social media ad campaigns and big, corporate church structures, is really what Jesus is calling us to.

John Thomas is a freelance writer. His writing has appeared at Christianity Today, The American Conservative, and Desiring God. He writes regularly at medium.com/soli-deo-gloria.